Keys to the Kingdom By Carolyn Tucker
As I backed the Chrysler out of the garage, I looked to my left and saw a piece of trash in the pasture that had blown across the fence. When I returned home, I spotted it again but didn’t bother to take the time to retrieve it. After a couple more days of repeating this scenario, it finally dawned on me what I was actually seeing. As I walked toward the “trash” with my tape measure, I squatted down and measured an amazing 11”-diameter toadstool. Judging only by looks, things are not always what we think they are.
The next day, I had an entertaining conversation with my mother-in-law. It was Sunday and I had gone to the 9:30 a.m. service, returned home, ate lunch, and changed into work clothes because I wanted to pick up the sticks in my yard. But first, I grabbed my mother-in-law’s mail and headed to her house across the lane. When I entered the back door around noon, she looked at me and asked, “Didn’t you go to church today?“ I grinned and responded, “I went to the early service.” I don’t blame her for assuming I hadn’t gone to church because I looked like the grapes of wrath from the top of my head to my dirty tennis shoes. I was a Christian incognito — just like the disguised toadstool.
I’ve always been fond of the Old Testament account where the prophet Samuel is at Jesse’s place trying to find the right son to anoint as the next king of Israel. Like the rest of us, Samuel thought a king should have a certain “look” about him. “…Samuel took one look at Eliab and thought, ’Surely this is the Lord’s anointed!’ But the Lord said to Samuel, ’Don’t judge by his appearance or height, for I have rejected him. The Lord doesn’t see things the way you see them. People judge by outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart’” (1 Samuel 16:6,7 NLT). (The heart is the center of our inner life, the place of thinking, feeling, and choosing.)
The outward appearance of a believer is all anyone can literally see. So we need to remember that our everyday born-again lifestyle needs to correspond with our born-again heart that obeys God and loves others. It’s good protocol to do a self-checkup on our heart quite often. What kind of facial expressions do we carry around? Have you ever had someone ask, “Why are you looking at me like that?” I have, and it wasn‘t a compliment either. The Bible describes our facial expressions as our countenance. What’s in the heart will show up on the face. “A merry heart makes a cheerful countenance…” (Proverbs 15:13 NKJV). And after Cain murdered his brother, “So the Lord said to Cain, ’Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen?’” (Genesis 4:6 NKJV). Either way, your face will surely show it.
Just as Jesus taught His followers 2,000 years ago, we find that it’s still all about the heart. “A good person produces good things from the treasury of a good heart, and an evil person produces evil things from the treasury of an evil heart. What you say flows from what is in your heart” (Luke 6:45 NLT). At that time, the religious leaders were only concerned with outward appearances and were completely neglecting inward purity, which was/is a big “No No” to Jesus. He spoke to them bluntly, “…You are so careful to clean the outside of the cup and the dish, but inside you are filthy — full of greed and self-indulgence! …First wash the inside of the cup and the dish, and then the outside will become clean, too” (Matthew 23:25 NLT).
The Key: Next time you wash the dishes, do your part and examine your heart.