What is Inside?

I have just finished baking a beautiful pie to complement our dinner tonight.  Usually I have trouble making the crust look right, or it gets a little too brown, but this one looks just about perfect.  If I were to invite you over for dinner, and then bring my pie to the table, you would probably be licking your lips for some homemade apple pie with vanilla ice cream.  Would you be disappointed when I told you it was a zucchini pie?

When I’m working in the kitchen my mind is usually going a hundred miles an hour faster than my hands.  So this was my thought as I made that pie…

It’s important that we are on the inside what we look like on the outside.  And vice versa.  Jesus talked about this when He was rebuking the Pharisees in Matthew 23:27.  He said,

“Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness.” 

The idea is that these white-washed, exquisitely maintained “buildings” looked wonderful from the outside, but when you took a peek inside you found only rottenness and decay.  The Pharisees were the same – they kept up all the appearances, but there was no spiritual vitality within them.  They were still dead in trespasses and sins.

So…are you an apple pie or a zucchini pie?  Does your coworker shake his head when he discovers that you claim to be a Christian, because He knows how you really live?  Do you shy away from close relationships with other church members because they might find out you are bitter?  Are you a “good Christian girl” only at church on Sundays?

And let’s flip the coin over.  If you have Christ in your life then it should be showing.  But are you cultivating the inner relationship with Him, or only making it look like you have your devotions?  Are you really demonstrating Christ in your service and actions, or is it just puffed up self-righteousness to make you look good?

Now, sometime I will make you a zucchini pie.  In the case of my pie, you may be slightly disappointed if your taste buds were geared up for apple.  But chances are, you won’t tell the difference.  And even if you are a little disappointed, I’m sure you will still enjoy it.  Zucchini pie is “mock apple pie” but it’s still delicious. 

Just don’t let your Christian life be the “mock” version.
Let it be real…let it be Christ in you.