I remember, when I was a very young Christian, a member of my family saying, “You know what I can’t stand about Christians? They are all hypocrites! They act all goody, goody on Sunday and then the rest of the week they act completely different”.

Those words have never left me.

Have you ever felt like you like you wear a mask in certain areas of your life? I don’t mean a literal mask, because we all know we need to do that. I am talking about how we live our lives. How, perhaps sometimes we carve out a portion of our lives and choose to live it differently than the rest. For instance behaving a certain way with certain people or certain circumstances.

We are called to live honestly in every part of our lives.

“Since we are living by the Spirit, let us follow the Spirit’s leading in every part of our lives.” Galatians 5:25

After Jesus’ death, Joseph of Arimathea , the lesser known Joseph, went public with his faith. He is remembered for stepping out in faith to claim the body of Jesus. For three years of Jesus ministry, Joseph was a secret disciple. As one of Israel’s wealthy religious elite, it was dangerous for Joseph to associate with Jesus. It was not until Jesus’ crucifixion that Joseph was willing to risk a public association.

And I wonder what he might have missed out on had fear and hesitation not taken over? What opportunities had he missed? What miracles and life change did he not experience out of fear of being found out that he was in fact a follower of Jesus?

I suppose the same question could be asked of each of us. What might we be missing out on?

What opportunities are we missing out on because we are afraid to commit fully to our faith?

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“My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.” (John 10:27)

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Don’t be afraid, for I am with you. Don’t be discouraged, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you. I will hold you up with my victorious right hand. (Isaiah 41:10)

Join us this Sunday, March 28th (Palm Sunday) for a very special service with our children!