Last week I posted about the need to be clean.  Today I am going to talk about something that is just as important.

To be the kind of servant and instrument that God would have me to be requires that I practice holiness.  I must be set apart for His service and keep myself clean and deal with sin seriously and immediately.  Only then can I be used in the way that God would have me to be used; an instrument to bring glory to Him.

I also need to be open.  I need to be real.  I need to be humble and realistic about who and what I am before my God and before others.

I am a human being.  I am a man.  I am a sinner.  I am also a child of the most high God who has been called out of darkness and into His light.  What a contrast!

Looking around the internet at other Christian blogs and even at my own blog I sometimes get the feeling that we write as if we have all of the answers and as if we have already “arrived”.  Nothing could be further from the truth.

I am just as flawed and just as prone to failure as any other person.  Although I strive to live a life that is pleasing to God and to love Him with all of my heart, all of my soul and all of my mind I often fall well short of my goal.

We all fall short of the glory of God.  Because we are human and because we have a sinful nature and because God allows us to choose between His way and our way we fail and we fail often.

I believe I need to be open about my failures and honest about my weakness.  I think anyone who professes to speak God’s truth and to speak from a position of authority needs to be genuine and needs to acknowledge their limitations.  I must be humble and I must be willing to share my failures and shortcomings as readily as I share my victories and successes.

Right now is a perfect example.  Although I know the message that I am trying to convey is a good one the actual flow of this post is proving to be very difficult.  This paragraph has changed 3 or 4 times in the last 10 minutes and I finally had to stop, close my eyes and pray that God would direct my hand and my words and help me to say what is on my heart.

I told the Lord that my thoughts were rambling around like an old, rusty truck with just as much noise and clatter and that I needed to be settled and assured of His presence and His power.  God heard and answered my prayer and impressed upon me to write down exactly what was happening and to be the open and genuine person that I am writing about today.  I am weak;  He is strong and faithful.

As I continue with matthew515 I am going to strive to show more of myself, both the good and the bad.  I truly think that being open and genuine is the only way that a site like this can work.

It is no value to anyone who reads this site if I pretend to be something that I am not and I think that there is a world out there that is desperate to see real people living a life of genuine faith in God.  That is the kind of light I want to be and I hope and pray that it is the kind of light that you want to be as well.

I welcome your comments and suggestions and would love to hear what God is doing in your life.  Let us encourage one another!