.

I proceeded to give her a hard time about being a big timer and drinking high dollar water. She on the other hand told me how she came across it and then offered me a bottle. Now when I was younger, much younger like about 20 years ago I used to drink Pierre. This was before everyone walked around with bottled water, so I thought I was something back then to be drinking Pierre. Of course I was wrong but that is another story. Bottom line is I accepted and took off with my Pierre.

Of course this generated a lot of conversation with people who know me, as I proudly walked around with my bottle of Pierre. The same things I had said to my co-worker, people were saying to me. They were kidding me about drinking high dollar water, but the deal was they were half right. You see I drank the original water in the bottle quickly and then after that I filled it up with water from the water fountain.

The bottle said France but the inside said city of Dallas. To everyone walking around it looked as though I was spending the extra dollars to gather some exotic water from Europe but if they were too had opened up the bottle and drank it they would have found a very familiar taste. You see the inside did not match the outside.

There is the point of the day, when we call ourselves Christians many times on the outside we put on happy faces, pretend as though everything is okay, say God bless you and praise God at just the right times and generally put on our Chrisitan look. On the outside we look like we have it all together but on the inside, well that is a different story.

Anyone can look Christian on the outside it really is not that hard to do. Just a few hours at your local church and you can pick up on the lingo and actions of what people think a Christian should say and act like. But when it really counts is when God opens up the bottle and looks at the inside, the heart.

I dare say there are a great deal of Pierre looking Christians out there on the outside with tap water hearts on the inside.

Sooner or later the bottle will be opened. We will let our guard down and what is in our heart will be revealed to those listening or watching. Then people will know who or what we really are. Are we counterfeit or are we the real thing?

Test for the day:

1. Do you harbor hate and envy of other people in your heart?
2. Do you attend church or Christian functions to be seen or to really worship? Do you care if you are seen at all?
3. Do you act one way at church and another way at the office or more importantly home?
4. If God were to open up your heart today what would he find there, a love for Him or a love for self?

Pierre or tap water, follower of Christ or counterfeit, he who will eventually open the bottle already knows. Why pretend to everyone else. Get real, start today.

Scripture: 1 Samuel 16:7, “But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”

Matthew 15:17-19, “Don’t you see that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and then out of the body? But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these make a man ‘unclean.’ For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft false testimony, slander.”

Prayer: Dear Heavenly Father, help us to lean on you so that our outside matches our inside. Deliver us from a lifestyle of hypocrisy and help us to be real, and help that realness be a reflection of your love coming from our hearts. We ask these things in Christ Name, Amen.