We often wonder why someone “acts” a certain way. We either mean to express why someone’s actions are what they are or why they put on a certain character or face.
The truth is that many times it is no act at all. And that in either case mentioned above.
Sure, sometimes, under pressure or in crisis, we do things not normally typical of ourselves. Weakness and brokenness often come through; our personal reserve breaks down momentarily or inhibitions get interrupted.
However, there are those whose actions are no act. On the one hand, people’s actions are based in the reality of their character. On the other hand, the essence of the character is revealed with thoughts, speech, and values. It’s no act. They are that way!
Fact is, none of us are as we should be. We don’t sin and become sinners; we are sinners, so we sin. We are born dead, live broken, and are separated from the Living God. None of that is an act. We are that way.
It takes an encounter with God and it takes new life to become something other than what we are. We are Humpty Dumptys, and we all need miracles bigger than all this world’s men and horses can provide.
That’s what God promises in Christ. He promises peace through Christ and a literal new life. He promises a change in our relationship with Him, and through Him a new nature and way of living.
God longs to move out of our way of being into His way of being. No acting. No multiple faces. No shame. No fear. God calls us to genuine, shameless, purposeful pursuit. He calls us to a whole new life.
1 So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander.
2 Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation-
3 if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good. - 1 Peter 2:1-3
2 Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation-
3 if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good. - 1 Peter 2:1-3
22 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.
23 For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror.
24 For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like.
25 But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer. -- James 1:22-25
23 For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror.
24 For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like.
25 But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer. -- James 1:22-25
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