Devotion from Pastor Tim Huff of Holy Trinity for November 5, 2020:
Authentic
This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.
Matt 15:8
Early one evening as I as working in the front yard I saw a hummingbird (you will recall in an earlier devotion that we have hummingbirds buzzing around our place) fly near one of our porch plants. It was one of the plants we had strung with purple and orange lights for Halloween. I had turned them on for the evening. It hovered for a few moments until it realized the lights were not pollen filled blossoms, but an artificial deception.
As Christians, we must remember that God is not into artificial deception; fake “Christians” that just sit there and look pretty. Those in our lives, in our schools, neighborhoods and workplaces need us to reflect the love and grace of God in words AND action.
We are called to be Authentic. Hypocrisy and pretensions are not how our Creator intends us to live. But what is authenticity, really? Being authentic means living out the real identity that we have as people – a creation made in the image of God. Genesis 1:27a says:
Humankind was created as God’s reflection:
in the divine image God created them;
The Inclusive Bible
Our identity is rooted in God. It simply follows that being authentic means living according to how God designed us, how God made us to be.
So how can we live authentic lives? Here are some ways:
Christ-likeness is the goal of being a Christian, and so we must do our best to be like Christ in what we think, believe, say, or do.
This simply means living with nothing to hide. No hypocrisy, no pretensions, nothing. Our real identity is that we are children of God and we are to live like that.
We are to love God and love those around us. We do this because our God is love and God loved us.
As we all are experiencing the many emotions and feelings of these times, now more than ever, we need to reflect the love of God. We need to mirror the genuine love and grace of God to others and to our world.
Let all that you do be done in love.
1 Corin 16:14
Let’s keep it REAL!
Pastor Tim
