Abolish pretense…

First off…..

Happy Friday!

Second…fair warning, the following is based on the fact that I am not just a Word nerd…but a nerd about words sooooo…..if you yawn off…sorry…but at least you will be rested up for the weekend….

and there are a few fun photos just to keep you plugging away….cause my mama didn’t raise no fool….

Our church started a new weekend prayer team to pray through the services each weekend at the end of 2015.

But prayer is nothing new at FCC.

Whether called for by leaders or just done by lay people, we pray.

In 2006, a friend asked me to join her in a covenant to pray four times each day and write down any thoughts or impressions that came during those times of prayer. It was to be a time of repentance and confession before God as intercession for the church.

I am so thankful for this journal because one of the entries is something I think is even more relevant ten years later.

The entry was made on a Sunday and I wrote this…

These words came to me in prayer time today….

Remove  Abolish all pretense.

Make us to be Authentic.

Make us to be Genuine.

I still remember this word so clearly as my first thought literally was “remove” and then it was like I felt the Spirit lead me to mark that out and be firmer…ABOLISH.

Please know…I do not talk to myself like this.

I am far more wordy and use a lot more pictures to make my point.

So when I get a succinct message like this, I know it’s a God nudge.

Pretense is not in my daily vernacular, so I decided to look it up and found two passages:

Jeremiah 3:10  “And yet for all this her treacherous sister Judah has not turned to Me with her whole heart but in pretense,” says the Lord

and

Matthew 23:14 Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you devour widow’s houses, and for a pretense make long prayers. Therefore you will receive greater condemnation.

It would seem the Lord is serious about this idea of His people not being pretentious.

With these as the only verses referencing the word PRETENSE…I knew I was on to something…

so I did what I do when God gives me specific words…I go look them up in the dictionary….

Pretense:

1. a claim made or implied especially not supported by fact…

2. excessive display….

3. an inadequate or insincere attempt to attain a certain condition or quality

4. professed rather than real intention or purpose

5. the offering of something false as real or true

Ouch. Ouch. OUCH…

“Lord, have mercy on us,” I wrote.

Would you say that more than ever the people of the Cross need to be abolishing PRETENSE!!!

And then, YES! We must be on our knees praying for God to…

Make us authentic….

which means we would be worthy of acceptance or belief…because we conform to FACT…trustworthy….being precisely and actually what is claimed to be.

conforming to an ORIGINAL so as to produce the essential features.

Which is confirmed again in the word Genuine…

actually produced by or proceeding from the alleged SOURCE ….

or…

AUTHOR…

as in…

I believe it is time for all of us who truly follow Christ to abolish…obliterate…destroy…every shred of pretense that we discover in ourselves regarding our faith…and ask God to make us …

faithfully, honestly, sincerely conformed to the essential features of the One who is the author and source and finisher of our faith…

Now, more than ever, we must be authentic and genuine followers of our Lord Jesus Christ.

And we can only do this by knowing Him.

His “essential features” are revealed in His Word…let’s be diligent to get into it daily…

And by getting into I mean….

Read it

Study it

Think about it

Pray about it

And APPLY it to your daily living here on planet earth

God bless you all this weekend…can’t believe it is Palm Sunday in two days…oh I hope and pray you all have some little kids waving palm branches this Sunday but if not…enter in to Holy Week fully and with hearts bowed!

See you Monday <3