Truth comes when we're open to it - not when we're prepared for it

Here's just something to ponder.

Here at Real Life we've been doing a series called Carbon Copy that has kind of taken on a life of it's own, at least for me.  We just finished week 4 and I have no idea how long we're gonna hang out on this series idea, I just feel like God is using it somehow (again, maybe just for me) to grow and draw us closer to Him.  The foundation text is 1 John 2:6 Whoever claims to live in Him must live as Jesus did.  And we're talking about how we ought to be Carbon Copies of Jesus in our daily life.

Last Saturday I attended Ozark Christian College's Building Stronger Teams conference with a friend from Real Life and I heard a guy say this, often the story on the inside doesn't match the story on the outside.  Isn't this the character flaw that Jesus called out in the lives of the religious leaders?  We need to be the same person on the inside and the outside.  This is not as easy as it seems though, I get that more than others.  I'm a goofball, I often say the wrong thing at the wrong time (which would be right, right?!) so me being the same person outside I am inside sometimes gets me in trouble!  Being a Carbon Copy means we avoid the issue of hypocrisy.  Hypocrisy only exists when we say one thing and do another. But if our inside and outside match up, hypocrisy looses it's power.

While preaching this Sunday I was getting this point across and while I was rolling this stuff out there was a little boy who got so excited during the music and stuff he just couldn't get all his wiggles out.  So while he danced around right in front of me God just spoke to my heart and brought a great truth to us all through this little boy.  Remember that Matthew 18:3 says, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.  Right there in the middle of the teaching I'm doing some theological thinking... Why did Jesus say that and what does it mean?  Well, I've heard a lot of things said about this passage and I'm sure someone, a lot of "ones" probably knew this already but it meant something to us right there on Sunday morning.  


Children are the same on the outside as they are on the inside.  Take your young child shopping to check out some of the "people of Wal Mart" and listen to what they say.  "God left them in the oven too long..."  beep, beep, beep, "watch out mom, their backing up!"  


How do we get to heaven?  We become like children, being the same on the outside as we are on the inside.    Carbon Copies are children - trusting completely, being the same on the inside and outside.