Devotions with Pastor Jared

Halloween can be a fun time for families. Kids (and some parents, myself included) like to dress up and go door to door (or car to car, like at last weekend’s trunk-or-treat) and get candy and other snacks. Even if a person doesn’t dress up themselves, it can be fun to see all the little kids dressed up in their costumes, expressing their creativity and interests.

However, despite all the fun that can come along with it, Halloween is a sober reminder of the façades that we wear from time to time. If I don’t want my wife to worry about something, I don’t show worry. If I’m trying to discipline my daughter, I force myself to not laugh, even though her attitudes can sometimes strike me as funny. These are some seemingly positive examples of a façade, but I think they’re a slippery slope. How many times have we heard the story of a Christian leader that would speak about the sanctity of marriage, and then get caught in an affair, or speak against the evils of substance abuse while hiding their own addiction to alcohol?

In Matthew 5:36-37, as a part of the “Sermon on the Mount”, we hear Jesus say: “And do not take an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. Let what you say be simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything more than this comes from evil.” Here, Jesus is talking about having an honest character. Don’t be the kind of person that is not believable unless you have to verify your word through something external, like an oath. Christians are to be the kind of people that when we say something, those around us know that we mean it! This is something I’m still working on myself, believe me.

Cast off your mask, your façade, and be a person of Christ-centered integrity!
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Blessings,
Pastor Jared