The last time I talked to my good
friend, Brad Pitt (it’s awesome knowing someone like Brad, or as I like to call
him, B), was about two weeks ago via Skype.
We were chatting up a storm over, believe it or not, fishing. Many people don’t know this but Brad loves to
fish, and I don’t mind it myself! In
fact, the two of us are planning an offshore fishing adventure early next
summer. It’s going to be a blast.
Fishing wasn’t the only thing we
talked about. Throughout the conversation, we talked about various subjects
such as, the Hollywood life, Midtown, and weight lifting. One interesting topic that came up was facial
hair (I told you it was interesting). I
told B that I’ve always envied how he can seemingly grow a beard over night and
it was always full. My facial hair tends
to come out in patches, what’s up with that?
Well, he said he had to run and
get to some hair swinging, eye stunning Hollywood scene, but we plan to talk
again, real soon.
YEAH RIGHT! That only happened in my head. I couldn’t even begin to tell you the names
of the movies he’s in, let alone the color of his hair. The only reason I know anything about “B” is
because he is constantly plastered on my television set and on the
tabloids. I do not have a friendship
with him. It doesn’t matter how much I
know of him, how much I have read about him on E! or Wikipedia, we do not have
a relationship since he doesn’t know me.
I can make believe that we have a friendship, and play it out in my
head, but that doesn’t mean that we actually do.
Unfortunately, some people have
this relationship with Christ. They have
learned about Him through church, and possibly even through media or snippets
of verses littered on billboards, yet they do not have a relationship with Him
because Christ doesn’t know them in return.
We see a vivid picture of this in Matthew 7:21-23 ,
“21 “Not everyone who says to me,
‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will
of my Father who is in heaven. 22 On
that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name,
and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ 23 And then will I
declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of
lawlessness.’”
These individuals duped themselves into believing that they
had an intimate relationship with Christ.
Their proof was, “everything we did was in your name.” Basically they told God that because they
talked about him, did acts of kindness and accredited them to Jesus, and even
told demons to scram by Jesus’ name that they must have had a relationship with
Him. They are also implying that these
were things Jesus would do, and they were emulating him, therefore they must have
known each other.
Clearly, Jesus is saying that it
is possible to have a make believe relationship with him. We can be deceived in believing that we have
a relationship with him because we say the right things or do the right things
in his name. But our mental knowledge of
Jesus can deceive us into believing we have a real relationship with him.
The fact is, Jesus must know you
also, that salvation does not take place because you know what to say or what
to do, or because you can rattle off Jesus facts better than the average
Christian.
God doesn’t leave us hanging to
wonder if we truly have a relationship with Christ or not. Here are a few ways to examine yourself and
to test your relationship with Christ.
1 Corinthians 13:1-3 Do I
love? If I speak in the tongues of
men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have
prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have
all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all I
have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain
nothing.
John 8:31 Do I hold to the teaching of Christ? “So Jesus said to the Jews who had
believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples,”
2 John 9 Everyone who goes on ahead and does not
abide in the teaching of Christ, does not have God. Whoever abides in the
teaching has both the Father and the Son.
1 John 15:8 Do I bear fruits of a Christian life? By this my Father is glorified, that you bear
much fruit and so prove to be my disciples.
2 Corinthians 13:8 Does it bother me when I am
disobedient? “For we cannot do
anything against the truth, but only for the truth.”
Test yourself today; examine
yourself to see if you are in the faith.
If you truly can ask yourself the hard questions, then I believe God
will show you if your relationship with him is make-believe or if it is
real. The great news is this, if it is
make-believe, then that can change today, right now by confessing that he is
Lord and believing in your heart that God raised him from the dead!
