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Flavored With a Little Bit of Jesus

"In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness."  Matt. 23:28

There are some things in this world that can never be faked.  One of them is peanut butter!  Peanut butter is almost sacred and should never be tampered with! 

On a quest to eat fewer calories, I made a spontaneous purchase while grocery shopping and bought a "Peanut Spread" that has zero calories, zero fat, and zero sugar.  Yep, you guessed it -- it had zero taste!  It tasted absolutely nothing like the real thing.  I couldn't even find a hint of what could have been mistaken as a peanutty taste.  It was probably the worst thing I've ever put in my mouth.

From the outside, it looked like peanut butter.  It's label claimed to have an unbelievable likeness in taste and consistency to the real thing.  It claimed all kinds of benefits of choosing to eat this product.

Unfortunately, this product couldn't taste like the real thing because it wasn't composed of the ingredients that make up the real thing.  After reading the fine print, there were no actual peanuts used in the making of  this "peanut spread."   It only claimed to use peanut flavoring in its production.

I'm scared that a lot of "Christians" are only flavored with a little bit of Christ, but are missing the main ingredient in their life that truly makes them a Christian, and that is Christ Himself.

We faithfully attend worship services and even Bible study classes.  We give financially when there is a need in our midst.  We offer up prayers for sick friends or loved ones.  We might even raise our hands in praise to the Lord. 

Jesus quoted the prophet Isaiah in Mark 7:6-7 when He said:
 
"These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.  They worship me in vain; their teachings are but rules taught by men."

It scares me to think of how many people sit in the midst of church services week in and week out and honor God with their lips, but their hearts are detached from His.  You want to know why this scares me so badly?  It scares me because I have to look deep inside and ask,

"When has this been me, Lord?"

I know for certain that there have been many times when I have offered a prayer, or taught a Bible Study, or sang praises to God when my heart was far from Him.  I was a lot like that fake peanut spread.  I made it look like everything was alright, but on the inside, my heart wasn't where it needed to be.  I was just like Jesus said in our focal verse:  I appeared righteous, but I was full of hypocrisy and wickedness.

Can I plead with you right now? 

Search your heart.  Look deep inside and ask yourself if your heart is far from God's.  Ask yourself if you've been worshipping in vain by offering praises with your mouth and not your soul.  Ask if your prayers are sincere, or if they are merely a ritual.

Then do like David did in Psalm 139:23 when he asked God to search his heart.  He desired for God to examine the integrity of his devotion and see if it was honest and true.   Ask Him to show you if your heart is filled with Him, or if it is merely flavored with Him.

My prayer is that when you and I professes the name of the Lord with our mouths, that it will be a sincere reflection of what is in our hearts.

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