Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Unmasking the Truth

Clowns. Somebody that might be hurting in the inside, whilst he is making the rest of world burst out in laughter. Have you ever thought that underneath all that facial masking, might be a different person, from the one we're seeing falling over her oversized shoes and that the face paint is just something superficial?

If I look a church (gathering) of Christian (followers of Christ), I see a lot of smiles and contentment amongst them, although there might be something lurking behind the sea of happy faces.

Like it or not, all of us sometimes put on a happy, my life-is great face, just to say to the rest of society everything is fine, and there is nothing missing in my life, that will make my life incomplete, even though my life might coming crashing down like the World Trade Centre over and over again!

I think the main reason why people put on these types of masks is that the rest of the world may see that Jack and Sarah are still in control of their different lives.

When you apply face paint, like people that is clowns, after a while, especially when it is hot outside and your facial skin starts excreting perspiration, the face paint starts to flake, causing the skin to itch, so much so much that you need to remove the facial mask of paint.

In real live, however, we as humans are stubborn beings. We want to wear the mask as long as possible, because we don’t want to let others see the flaws in our own life, because we are scared, to death even, that others might see our imperfect “face” and turn their backs on ourselves, just because the don’t like the real you.

“Incomparable, unchangeable, You see the depths of my heart and You love me the same …”

But the ironic part in it all is if you look at the previous quote from the song “Indescribable” by Chris Tomlin, is that God loves you with an everlasting love, and He knows the depths of your heart – so He sees through the “mask” you are trying to hide behind.

In Scripture, the psalm-writer says the following in Psalm 139:

“Oh Lord You have searched me and You know me. (Verse 1b)

“You are familiar with my ways.” (Verse 3b)

“For You created my inmost being” (Verse 13a)

Just reading the few verses from Psalm 139, as quoted above, myself and maybe you also, might be frightened, knowing that God knows your deepest fears, pains and sin – stuff you don’t want the rest of the world to know about. But knowing that God knows everything of you as a human can also bring freedom. You will be able to live a life, without worrying to keep your deepest secret a secret, because He knows it all.

In Psalm 139, there is also a plea from the psalm writer to God.

“Search me, O God and know my heart. Test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me and lead me in the way Everlasting.” (Verse 23-24)

In the last two verses of psalm the psalm writer sees himself in a mirror, and he is pleading to God to search him throughout, so that he with God’s help can know the way of Everlasting life.

And God did show the way. His Son, Jesus Christ became man, living amongst God’s creation, sacrificing himself, taking all the sin in the world – past, present and future on Himself, paying the wages of sin, thought His death on a cross. He rose from the grave three days later, overcoming sin and death forever.

Shortly before His death, Jesus spoke amongst other words these two quotes below:

“I am the Resurrection and the Truth” and “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life”.

The significance to these two quotes is the two words in each of them “I AM”. It is told in the Old Testament, that when God met Moses at the burning bush, Moses asked God what he must tell the Israelites, if they asked him who has sent him. And God answered Moses “Tell the people that ‘I AM’ have sent you.”

Now Jesus calls Himself “I AM” in the two quotes mentioned earlier, publicly declaring that He is God.

My prayer this Easter (I’m writing this piece in the days before the commemoration of Jesus’ death and resurrection) is that you would let go of your masks and give all to Jesus, because He wants to set you free. His intention is to set you free from eternal death, by giving you the choice to choose Eternal Life.

In the Beginning God created human beings as the splendour of creation, giving humans the ability to make choices in life. God knew that bad choices (sin) will bring a great divide between humans and him.

The effect for our sin is eternal damnation to hell. But because he created the human race in His image, he had to put a plan in place, to save the human race from eternal death, even before satan came and tempted Eve in the Garden of Eden. Satan tried various times to prevent God’s plan from succeeding. But not in his wildest dreams satan could comprehend that God will go so far as to send His Son on the ultimate rescue mission.

My friend, Jesus stepped down from His thrown in heaven, been born into a normal Jewish family. Being completely sinless, He made the choice to take the entire world’s sin – past, present and future on Himself, fully paying the wages of sin – death.

The final step in His rescue mission is that to overcome all the power of the authorities of hell, Jesus had to step down into the depths of hell, spending three days in hell, but getting the victory over all authority of hell and death through his resurrection, three days after He died.


May you fully understand the significance of Jesus’ death and resurrection this Easter. May you make the choice to accept God’s free gift of Eternal Life by just believing in His Son, Jesus. May you grow closer in your relationship with God through Jesus as your Brother, Friend and ultimately as the Lord and Saviour over your life.