Driving down the road, I look up and see a billboard for a certain fast-food establishment and on this billboard is a picture of a cheeseburger that, with just a quick glance, sends your mind to thinking “mmm boy I could sure go for one of those right now.
This cheeseburger has lettuce so green and fresh looking it looks as if it just came out of the garden and the tomato is a thick slab of perfect red and ripeness. The other items such as the onions, pickles and cheese are piled high and they all rest on a bun that is golden brown and appears that it just came right out of “mama’s” oven. I know you might be thinking that if Pastor Ken is seeing all this on a billboard at 65 miles per hour, he needs to be watching the road a little more. However the picture does its job and I whip off at the next exit and pull into a parking spot and march myself into the restaurant to get myself one of those magnificent creations.
I place my order and then I sit down at the table and eagerly await. Not too much time passes and my order arrives. As I unwrap my burger I began to notice a few things. The paper which it is wrapped in has been soaked through with grease, the top bun is hard and tough from staleness and the bottom bun is soggy with grease. The fresh dark green lettuce I had pictured has been replaced with wilted, faded out lime-green colored lettuce. The tomato is a pale pink and thin enough to read a newpaper through. Half of the cheese is on the wrapper. I am thinking “this is not the burger that I crossed 3 lanes of traffic at 65 miles per hour for. Nonetheless, it is what I ended up with.
Has this ever happened to you. Doesn’t that just chap your hide in the worst way. False advertising really gets my “goat”. If you advertise a “sumptuous” cheeseburger then sell one!
It is kind of the same way when we call ourselves Christians. We shout from the roof tops to the world that we are a christian and everyone looks our way. We dress a certain way, we have the Jesus fish on our car, we listen to Christian radio and at first glance the world says “Wow, now there goes a Christian”. Until someone happens to accidently pull out in front of the car with the “Jesus fish” and the “Christian” driver makes obscene gestures and yells profanity out his window.
To call ourselves Christians is to say that we are trying to emulate Christ. All too often we find ourselves looking like the old soggy, greasy cheeseburger instead of the fresh and tasty one. If we are advertising that we are Christian then we need to deliver what we are selling. The world has enough hypocrits without Christians adding to the numbers.
Let us ask ourselves today where we stand. Are our actions Christ-like? Are we leading people to the Truth or are we just “mis-leading” them.
“If you say you “IS” a Christian, then act like you “IS”!
In Christ
Pastor Ken
