“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; all who follow his precepts have good understanding. To him belongs eternal praise.” Psalm 111:10

Wearing old, nasty clothing, I was gathering gooey, sappy branches I’d trimmed from the Pitch Apple plant we use as a fence. The sap cares not what it touches, it just sticks and is hard to get off. I noticed my next door neighbor was washing his truck and that someone was helping him, I applauded the friendship. We got to talking and the friend asked me, “where do YOU live!!”

I had just placed about 3 garbage cans at the curb and had 4 more to go when I started the conversation. I guess he hadn’t noticed. When I pointed to my house to answer his question, he looked at my neighbor and said, “I thought you said you lived next door to a preacher.’ Affirming I was, he said, “well you don’t look like one!” Not knowing what to say, I mentioned Jesus!

About 20 minutes later I was in my truck with Rick, the neighbor on the other side of me. I had offered to help a couple of church folks move some old appliances and I needed help to do so. On the way, I told him the story. He asked the same question that I had thought… “well what’s a preacher supposed to LOOK like?” The answer I thought of, instantly made Rick look like a saint!

Preconceived notions have a tendency to cloud over reality. For example, MOST people think angels are female, have halos, wings and play a harp. Biblically, absolutely NONE of those things is true! The same issue clouds over Believers in Christ both outside and inside the Church. Because it isn’t how someone LOOKS that makes them Christians. It’s more about seeing what they DO!

Is Jesus AWESOME to YOU? Do you follow and DO what He leads you to do? Are you a help and a voice to those around you to show them who you belong to? If it were illegal to be a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you of being one?