15 Jan Nuggets to Change Your World! 2 Timothy 2:5

The Bible says in II Corinthians 4:2-3, “But have renounced (a strong Greek word which connotes disowned) the hidden things (secret or concealed) of dishonesty (hidden things of shame), not walking in craftiness (trickery or subtlety), nor handling the word of God deceitfully (comes from the Greek root that means decoy or bait); but by manifestation (means expression which connotes an outward shining forth) of the truth commending (Greek means to stand near) ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God.  But if our gospel be hid (veiled), it is hid to them that are lost:”.

Let me share with you what these scriptures mean in essence.  Unless you and I as Christians handle ourselves with integrity and outwardly exhibit to the world the inward experience of the new birth, it’s as if we veil the Word of God to the sinner.  Remember this…you and I are the only Bible a sinner will ever read. 

We’ve all been to a supermarket and seen the various tabloids at the check-out counter and excerpts like this:  “90 Year Old Woman Gives Birth to Dog-Boy!”  In captions underneath this headline you find when the 90-year old woman was asked to describe this once in a lifetime experience, she exclaimed, “It was ruff!”

This is obviously extremely unbelievable!  In the same vein, when we as Christians do not live a consistent lifestyle of integrity, our Christianity becomes very “unbelievable” to the sinner.  The scripture tells us we are to be living epistles read of all men (II Cor. 3:12).  Remember this…you and I have a daily choice to be a living epistle or a living tabloid to the world!