Devotionals

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Living Up To Being A Christian
©
by

Stephen A. Peterson

Read: Matthew 5: 14-19 (NIV)

Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify Your Father who is in heaven.

On the last day of June, 2004, I stopped at a stoplight at an Oklahoma City intersection behind a silver Volkswagen Beetle on my way to work. It was one of those mornings when the air was heavy with humidity, threatening rain and God was in His heaven. As I sat there waiting for the light to change, I noticed the car had a bumper sticker plastered across the back window. It had, “Honk If You Love Jesus.” Generally, I do not honk my horn even if another car is about to switch lanes and hit me. But on this day, I felt wonderful even though the day seemed gloomy. The idea of loving Jesus gave me such a lift that I thought, “Oh, why not?”

I tapped the horn and smiled through the windshield. I expected a happy honk back. Instead a man with a dark scowl jerked his head out the window and yelled, “Hey, hold your horn man!” Suddenly the day seemed to turn miserable and sour. I thought, “If he’s going to wear the label, he ought to live up to it.”

We all have labels, like invisible bumper stickers plastered across our lives. Christian—I’ve stamped that on my life. This day and every day for the remainder of my life someone is bound to pull up behind me and notice. He or she might even reach out to me because they notice something different about me. That is, how I talk or don’t talk, how I carry myself, my level of kindness towards others, my forgiving spirit, my examples of unconditional love for friends and enemies alike. I must work daily never to disappoint those I meet. I must exude the spirit of Jesus Christ wherever I am whomever I come in contact with.

Prayer: Almighty Father help me daily to live up to my label as Christian as well as wear the symbols.

Thought for the Day: Show your Christianity in thought, word and deed.

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