No two Faces about it

It is as old as the game itself, if not older considering Cain tried it first. The 'Poker Face'.  Being able to not show your emotions in a given set of circumstances.

Do Christians do this?  It's essential to evaluate ourselves, to see if we have let ourselves become something Christ doesn't want us to be.

Many do it. Ok pretty much everyone does it.   They put on different faces for different people.  But what does it have to do with being a Christian?

Bluntly put, Jesus was the same to everyone.  He wasn't going to be any less who He was in front of the Disciples than those He healed. Even to those who were the religious leaders of Jesus's day.

We, on the other hand, tend to compartmentalize our interactions with each other.  Rather than show Christ on the street, we keep Him at a distance. Rather than show Christ at work, we leave Him in the car.  Rather that take Him with us to the movies we make Him sit in the lobby. 

I think that is what Jesus meant by being ashamed of Him.

We struggle often because of ourselves.  If we can't unsave ourselves, then we have Christ with us at all times.  Yet many struggle with life because we think Jesus is a coat we put on to go out into public.

I am no less guilty than others in this.

It took several things to change my views, and God is still showing me things to change in that regard.

It's taken a long time to this point in my life to really begin to see that I need to think differently.  It's not what am I going to do, it's what are we going to do. It's not where am I going to go, but where are we going to go.  It's not just me, it's Christ and I together.

He is both in me and next to me. 
Not just next to me.

If I try to do things on my own I will fail.
If I try to handle people on my own I will fail.  If I try to handle any part of life on my own I will fail.  "Apart from Me you can do nothing".

But oh we try.

My personally rough life after moving out on my own began by thinking I saw God's Plan for me and how I could contribute to its success! Wrong. Oh so very wrong.

It is His Plan. I am His workmanship.

I am to be the pottery, He is the hands that are shaping me into His masterpiece.
It's not my hands not my vision of me.

The vision of what we will be in Christ is known only to the Master.  The clay has no idea what it will look like or be until the Master is finished.

We cannot live two lives.  We cannot be one kind of person in front of others and another when around believers.

There's no way to live like that.  It will catch up with you.  You will be frustrated. Angry. Won't trust others. You will fail so often that you will withdraw from others.
You will get to the point of being numbed.
Just doing what seems to work with no feelings behind it.

There is no separation between God and the life of a Believer.  No living one way at one time and another at other times.

What was interesting as this whole thing stirred into writing this morning was where I was reading in Corinthians. 
Paul told them that things like factions would happen in the Church.  Differing opinions. It would be through examination that the will of God would be seen.

We need to look at our lives to examine whether or not we have been trying to keep Jesus separate from the things going on in our lives.

The world will try to convince everyone of what they deserve.  How you deserve a car, a hotel stay. A elaborate vacation. Altering your body. Money. 

If you aren't including Christ in everything in your life ask yourself why.

If we are to take up our cross and follow Christ.
If we are to be Disciples. And as I have said on other occasions, the Jewish blessing of a new Disciple.  "May you be covered in the dust of your Master".

Our lives, all of our lives, is to mirror Christ.

I had a lot to think on this morning about this message, and still do. Maybe you will too.

We live in a world of entanglements. Yet Paul tells of the life of a soldier does not get entangled in such affairs. His job is to wholeheartedly serve the one he is in service to.