Like sunshine on a cold day …

Having spent the first part of this winter in northern California, it’s feeling extra cold now that I’m back in Texas.

Weather conditions the past few days have been a contradiction. There have been a few sunny days, but the breeze had a cold bite to it. The sunshine lured you out, then the cold pinched you; what was on display (sunshine) didn’t match what was experienced.

That experience from the weather is what we often experience from people. It is possible for a person to actually speak the truth, and yet the content of their life be a deception. Jesus vigorously denounced such behavior:

Jesus replied, “You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you, for he wrote, ‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me’,” Mark 7:6.

What do people experience from you: the warmth of the Son, or the cold bite of the world? What does Jesus receive from you: genuine praise from a surrendered heart, or lips that profess something the heart doesn’t prove?

“May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing to you, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer,” Psalm 19:14.

Scotty