Are You Bad Advertising?

The other day an obviously disgruntled driver flipped me the bird.

I was changing lanes and he didn’t like that.  So instead if being gracious and letting me in, he sped up to my bumper and then flipped me off for several minutes.  He honked and was spewing obscenities.

Really?

For the record, I didn’t cut this guy off.   He didn’t have to apply the brakes to let me in.  This man wasn’t affected one bit with the addition of my car in his lane.

It just ticked him off.

Well after his performance of frustration, he sped around me and I noticed he had two inspirational bumper stickers on his car.  The one on his bumper said “Thank You God” and on his back windshield was a Christian fish.

Know what that was… bad advertising.

It made me think about how sometimes, we’re not the best advertising for God either.

• We wear crosses around our necks and then take God’s name in vain for others to hear
• We sit in church and gossip about so-and-so while the person in the row ahead of us gets an earful.
• We are dressed in our Sunday best and act rude to the waitress when our food is late or cold.
• We see a new woman at Bible Study and do nothing to make her feel comfortable.
• We distribute tasteless emails.
• We are careless with our words on Facebook and Twitter.
• We volunteer our time and then complain about it.
• We act one way at church, and another way the rest of the time.
• We refuse to forgive and make sure they know it.

Friends, are we taking our faith seriously?  Do we understand that our actions speak louder than our words?  Do we act any differently than those who don’t know Jesus?  Based on how we live our lives, are we directing people to Him?  Do we realize that people are watching us?

One would wonder.

It’s important for us to live out our faith… walk our walk, and talk our talk.  Why?

Because it points them to God.  “Be careful to live properly among your unbelieving neighbors. Then even if they accuse you of doing wrong, they will see your honorable behavior, and they will give honor to God when he judges the world.” (1 Peter 2:12)

I’m not suggesting perfection.  Nor is He expecting it.  But we do know that what comes out of us is a bi-product of what goes in.  Fair comment?

When we listen to negative, hateful, impure, self-seeking things… we become exactly that.  The opposite is also true.

So then, how do we stand firm in our faith in a world where darkness prevails and sin is rampant?

We find the answer in Philippians 4:8.  “Finally, brothers and sisters, keep your thoughts on whatever is right or deserves praise: things that are true, honorable, fair, pure, acceptable, or commendable.”

In other words, be intentional in your thought-life and in your actions.

So the question is… what kind of advertising will you be for God?

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