“You’re not a Christian just because you say you are.” -Mike McKinley

Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.  Matthew 7:21 (NKJV)

Growing up in the sleepier parts of New Jersey, I knew a lot of people that wanted to be different people.  In the late 90′s, it seemed like everyone I knew wanted to be black.  Even I wanted to be black.  I began to listen to all the music I was expected to listen to, I became immersed in hip-hop, and I watched BET (Black Entertainment Television).  But no matter how much I said I was black, I was not black.

As silly as this example is, it’s the same in our faith.  We can claim that we follow Christ while not ever following Him in any sense of the word.  I remember long before I committed myself to Jesus, I would tell people I was Christian if the topic somehow came up, but I had no idea why.  If I was asked the reason I called myself a Christian, I probably would have said something like “I go to church on Sunday”.

I remember a few years ago I heard some people talking about how everyone wears a mask, especially at church.  Thinking about it now, yes, everyone seems to wear a mask.  In fact, the term persona means “mask” in ancient Latin.  What kind of personas are prevalent in today’s society, where everyone wants to appear to be someone else, someone more ideal, someone other than themselves?

Sometimes the masks we wear get us into scary situations.  Like surgery.

A few weeks ago, I was listening to a friend of mine preach.  During his sermon, he testified about the way in which God provides, and he gave the example of how someone showed up randomly at his doorstep one night and gave him an iPad, telling him that God had told him to give it to him, as it would help in his ministry.  Immediately around the room, everyone reacted in disbelief, with one listener even swearing and saying it was a lie.

Now the fact is, this was a sermon.  This was at a church.  A church is the assembly of the followers of Christ.  So why were they unable to react in anything but unbelief?

I think this is one of the masks that many so-called Christians wear; they don’t actually believe, but rather than attempting to work out this unbelief and get to the place where they can believe, they tell people around them that they are believers — they may even believe it themselves.  But if a non-believer sees this, would it not be another place where they could cry out “hypocrisy” and turn away from faith?  Even still, if they did not see this and believed that these “Christians” were truly followers of Christ, wouldn’t that cause more damage to their possible faith, as they would see and follow this example of “belief”?

Truly, if we are unable to believe that God is able to provide a $500 electronic, how can we believe that He has given us salvation and eternal life?

I’m a big fan of self-examination and I feel that it may be a good time to figure out whether or not we are who we say we are.  It could be the beginning of the greatest revelation of our lives, and it could lead to a great time of rebuilding.

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