The REAL Thing

I have shared the following devo over at LACED WITH GRACE today...

I don't know if Coca-Cola still uses this as their slogan or not, but when I was growing up I remember their advertisement always said, "Coca-Cola - the REAL thing!" Have you ever considered what the "real" thing is?

Today our society is saturated with "artificial" things. We have silk flowers instead of fresh. We have artificial sugar instead of pure from the cane. We have false eyelashes instead of the God-given kind. Fake, artificial and false. No wonder we can't recognize the real thing when we see it!

One of the reasons that Coca-Cola for years was the #1 beverage was because their slogan was not just words, but it was proven fact. Coca-Cola conducted many beverage tasting tests, where they would taste test their drink against a competitors beverage. With unmarked cups, people would be asked to drink from one cup and then another and try to decide which one was the REAL Coca-Cola. It was really easy to select the real thing, if you were familiar with what the real drink tasted like. When matched next to a generic brand of Cola, Coca-Cola would win everytime I tried this taste testing experiment.

We are living in a society now that it is very difficult to recognize the REAL thing anymore. I wonder what happened to the "Coca-Cola" Christians? You know ... the ones that walked the walk and talked the talk. Over the past few years, I have noticed that the label "Christian" has become just that ... a label! When I look around my world, I see alot of people who consider themselves a Christian but yet they do not live like a follower of Christ. They have taken on the name, but they haven't changed their game.

EPHESIANS 5:15 "Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men, but as wise."

It isn't enough to just call ourselves a Christian, our walk and our talk must reflect that Jesus Christ resides within our being. I wonder how we would measure up if God decided to do a taste test with our spiritual walk with Him? If He lined us up against a non-believer, with all of the labels removed ... would there be a difference found? Would we be found to be the REAL thing or just someone going thru the motions?

Dear Lord ... Let it be real! Help me to be ALL that I can be in You. May my words, my actions, my thoughts and my passion lead others straight to You! Empower me today to shake my world for You by showing them that following You is definetly the REAL thing! - AMEN.