Sometime back I was at a grocery store here in my hometown that allowed many young men and women to earn their rite of passage by working for them. The chain that the store belonged to has been sold and dissolved.
I was at one of the stores as I previously stated and while talking to the manager of the store, (who I had worked with when we were both teenagers), reminiscing over old times, a lady came up to me and said “Oh, Pastor Jim, (in a very loud voice) it was so good to see you down at the ‘Boats’ the other day. Now the ‘Boats’ is what we call the gambling casinos in Biloxi Mississippi; because they are in effect barges set up in the Mississippi Sound, next to the shore.
If you have any understanding of the Christian Life you would know that to say that to a church leader is to have derived one of two affects. The first would be to embarrass the person. The second would be to lift some of the guilt they might feel for being there themselves.
But as people of God, Ministers, Church leaders or not, we need to be aware how tenuous our lives and testimonies are. We all know how quickly our lives can be snuffed out. But many of us do not even consider how our testimonies can be wrecked or totally destroyed.
As we regularly attend our churches, we feel that covers our testimonies. It’s the preacher and his staff that are out front. Many of the even weekly congregations are oblivious to the fact there are many watching them. They slip and let their mouths go into the gutter. Some can be seen entering adult stores and adult movies. But they say that’s okay; I don’t wear my religion on my sleeve.
That exactly is the problem. Go ahead and wear your religion on your sleeve. That is the only place your religion will do you any good. In fact the only garment that will do you any good is the ‘cloak of righteousness.’ Is that perfection? No! Absolutely it is not. However, it is the fact that Christians that have been ‘born again’, ‘saved’ and walking daily with the Lord are also in the limelight turned on by the world.
The world does not understand that just because one attends church, even works in church, it does not indicate a biblical relationship with God. But those that do not flaunt their religion are usually those that are the ones with a distinct biblical relationship with God.
These are the ones that are in the world loving those that need love; feeding those that need feeding and building lives that need a little support. These are the Christians that have the love of Christ in their hearts to overflowing and they must share it with others.
But now, when either of these groups slip up it brings derision on the true Church. We cannot do anything about those that merely wear their religion on their sleeves, but we can encourage those among us that attempt to wear the cloak of righteousness.
I placed myself in an untenable situation of being in the Casino, even though I did not gamble but only ate an inexpensive delicious meal. But in this case the good was outweighed by the attack on my testimony.
A situation developed recently that made me again see that I was in the right and doing good, but in doing so I was not at the Casino nor recently, ‘avoiding the presence of evil’. This is so important in the life of a Christian.
All must weigh all of our actions by which they will be judged. Sin is an attitude that separates from God. Such attitudes result in acts that we call sin. These acts are what are judged by the world. For this reason, we must always be in prayer, instant in season and out of season and ready to give account of the grace that has been given to us, as Paul so definitely challenged us.
Do you consider your testimony as you live your life? Or do you simply think of yourself and not how your actions will affect others. If you take a drink and you do not have a problem with your relationship to God over it; what about the alcoholic that sees you and decides he can take one too. But when he does, he cannot stop. YES WE ARE OUR BROTHER’S KEEPER.
