One of my former members shared a quote from one of her friends that basically said most people believe what they see on the outside makes them look like a great person, but those that know them intimately know the truth about their real identity. What a powerful statement but so very, very true. So many people only see the outside and never really discover the true nature of a person. Some people can be so convincing that they fool everybody but God. I must admit I've been fooled by some of the best of them and I thought I was a discerner of spirits. Innocent people get hurt along the way because they experience the true nature of that person and cannot convince others that they are not what they seem outwardly. Good people get ruined, reputations are destroyed, and the person that is a wolf in sheep's clothing seems to get away with their deception.
When you have experienced it yourself you realize the futility of the situation. People are easily swayed by the outward appearance of an individual, but all it takes is one snake in the grass to cause you great difficulty. The problem comes when you reveal what really happened in a situation and nobody will believe you because of the way the person who did the damage appears to the public. The answer you get back is often "I just can't believe that THEY would do you like that!" Again, I think it's because people don't want to rock the boat and be the one to identify a flaw in that person's character (who is not what they appear to be) that everyone seems to admire.
I have often said that I am not perfect and I have been quoted out of context several times, but I have never intentionally tried to besmirch some one's character. Personally, I've had a retired minister that I pastored church go to the bank where we did church business and tell the head banker I was destroying the church I was pastoring. I have had more than one pastor lie about a church to me and when I got there found something entirely different than I or my AB was told. I have had members tell others I never visited them when they were sick only to discover my business cards that I had left when I went by to see them lying on the mantle of their fireplace. I had one individual that said I wasn't holy enough, but he himself to could lie and use my name in an ungodly method. I could go on and on about this. The one common denominator in it all is that these individuals appeared to others as godly and know matter what I said in my defense it didn't register with their admirers that these people were not as holy as they appeared.
I apologize for including ministry in that category, but I have found out, as well as some of you that read this blog, that fruit can look good outwardly, but be rotten on the inside. If God had looked only on the outside of David the shepherd boy then a king would never have been crowned. But He saw David for who he was, which was a man after God's own heart. We are not privileged like God to see an individual's heart or secret activities. It is in those times that we have no authority over the wrong-doing done in secret. Some people get by with it so long, as I heard my Pastor say Sunday, that it becomes normal to live a double lifestyle. Instead of trying to see the dedication of a person and know their true nature we are often dazzled by their charismatic ways and reputation and then we end up suffering the consequence when they let us down. We need examples, but we also need a restoration of integrity in the pulpit and the pew. We need open heart surgery among the ministry and laity of the church.
There is a day of reckoning coming. People, preachers, and pretenders may get by with their stuff in this world, but not on that day. Let our prayer be that we do not become the person that appears one way and then lives another. Lord, don't let their junk infect us. Those kinds of people almost swallowed me whole, but by the grace of God I now pity them. I don't won't to be a pretender but a contender for the faith. How about you?
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