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And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked: and I hid myself Gen3:10 For there is nothing hid that shall not be manifested: neither was anything kept secret, but that it should come abroad Mk4:22 Why don't people keep it real? Why is it that people lack faith and trust? Why can't people speak the truth and mean what they say and say what they mean? Why do people fear the opinion of others? Why does our ego cause us to try and manipulate and control? Why do so few people cross the finish line? Well to live in the realm of the real means we have overcome the fall. It means our lives become the script by which we glean the truth of scripture and live the gospel. To live in the realm of the real means our ego has to die, neither looking for praise or trying to avoid blame when we sin. To live in the realm of the real is to take very seriously the words of Christ that nothing that is hidden will remain hidden, that all our secrets will be made manifest: and that my friends is a hard pill to swallow. Because of the fall we live in fear. Because we are not clothed in righteousness, we do not want others to see our nakedness, our faults and our sin, and we hide from others and we hide from God. That is why a minister can be filled with the Spirit on Sunday, preach a wonderful sermon, have many people give their lives to Christ and sin on Monday, committing adultery and fornication, living with lust and greed, wanting to be esteemed great in the eyes of man though inwardly full of sin. It takes a long time to work out our salvation through fear and trembling (Ph2:12) and many do not have a holy fear of God. What they fear is having the truth revealed and acknowledging the struggles that we all face. The tests and the trials of life are the means God uses to help us grow and keep it real. The temptations we face whereby the devil tries to get us to lose our righteousness becomes the ground for humility and sympathetic understanding of the human condition. Only through the struggle does the butterfly emerge from the cocoon and only by keeping it real do we ultimately cross the finish line. We are born wounded, enmeshed with a sin nature and it is nothing different for any one of us. When we come to know the truth, we recognize by sharing our life experience and how we have gained victories in our life, how we have overcome temptations and sin, how we sometimes fall short of the glory of God, as we reveal what we would rather keep a secret, that the Truth, the truth that is Jesus Christ, will make us free. To live in the realm of the real is to have nothing folded up. It is to know who we are and what we are capable of doing. It is to have experienced the plague of our own heart and not let our ego and pride fool us to think we are any better than anyone else, that God saved us because we are good and others aren't so good as us. Our religion can not save us. Our works cannot save us. Our false perception of our self-righteousness cannot save us. Only Jesus. Only the cross. Only the sinner saved by grace through faith crosses the finish line. So don't be surprised at the trials you face even if you have known the Lord for many years. Don't be surprised at the temptations you experience even though born again and Spirit filled. Keep it real. If you keep it real, if you live in the realm of the real, you will ultimately cross the finish line. There is nothing hid that will not become manifest and that goes for all of us! Keep it real! amen |