Each business displayed an impressive facade. The neat masonry, fresh paint, and sparkling glass windows all added to the neat appearance of the quiet village. As I ambled down the street enjoying the peaceful summer evening, I chose an alley to explore. Stepping from the bright summer sun into the obscurity, I paused momentarily, letting my eyes adjust to the penetrating gloom.

The dim light revealed decayed timbers, exposed sewer lines, and trash scattered helterskelter. At my approach, rats scurried into their holes.

Beyond the alley lay huge piles of trash and garbage. Beyond them, run-down shacks portrayed the dismal plight of the community poor.

Temporarily I forgot the immaculate sunlit street “back there.” But quickly I jolted back to reality. “What a contrast,” I mused, “so clean on the side visitors see, but so wretched behind that false front!”

This two-sided village made me ponder. Don’t we humans resemble this town?

Each of us has two sides. There’s the “you” that others see—the person who tries so hard to make a good impression, to do everything just right. Then there’s the “you” when you’re alone—the “you” no one else sees.

But suppose someone would see the real you behind the scenes? What would he learn about you? What kind of impression would you make?

Would you be confident of your presentability? Or would you be ashamed to be “exposed” for what you really are?

When a person buys a piece of furniture, he investigates it carefully. He opens the drawers, tests its sturdiness, examining the way it’s put together. He’s looking for quality. He can’t judge it by the shiny veneer. Looks are deceiving, you know.

What you are “underneath” reveals your true qualities—your real worth. People may never see the private “you,” yet there is One who sees it all. “For the LORD seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart” (1 Samuel 16:7).

Someday God will judge all people for what they really are. All false fronts will be stripped away. “For nothing is secret, that shall not be made manifest; neither anything hid, that shall not be known” (Luke 8:17).

In that day, all the images and good impressions that we may have tried to build up will mean nothing. What we really are “underneath” is all that will matter.

How can you get that inner quality of life that will really count?

You must begin by asking Jesus Christ to take control of your life and clean it up. In Him, you will have a new, changed life. “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new” (2 Corinthians 5:17).

Allow Christ to sweep away the corruption and debris of the old life. “And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God” (Romans 12:2). There’ll be a new you! Inside and out!

Yield both the seen and the unseen “you” to Christ. Reject the futile efforts of the majority to cover up sin.

Let Christ be the LORD of your whole life. Exchange your false front for a true character. What you do with Jesus Christ will determine the quality of your life now and in the next life.

“If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us” (1 John 1:8-10).

Roger Berry

Repeatedly, people’s hopes for peace and security have been dashed. When communism fell in Russia and Eastern Europe, aspirations for peace and security soared. Certainly the world would be a safer place with the diminishing threat of communism. After the first Persian Gulf War, people again hoped for some measure of peace in the Middle East, but it was not to be. The self-proclaimed prophetess Jean Dixon prophesied that the year 2000 would usher in an era of peace. She failed to foresee the rise of terrorism that would shake the world. Her prophesy failed as did many other of her predictions. She died in 1997 before seeing the failure of her hopes for world peace.

By the time this article (being written in January) gets to your house in April, more nations could be at war, or other unforeseen security issues may arise. We feel almost helpless to do anything to avert disasters.

Many people have taken personal steps to try to protect themselves from disasters. They have stored food and fuel somewhere on their properties so they can survive (at least for a while) in case of major disruptions of supplies. Others have stored weapons to defend themselves from those who might try to steal these things. This leaves them with some feeling of “security.” However, all these things are no guarantee of protection or survival in case of disaster.

Obviously, physical security is uncertain at best even in the countries that have the most sophisticated “homeland security” departments. So, where can we turn in our search of security?

Recently I passed a place of business selling “security” systems for homes and businesses. A huge sign (bigger than the business name) on the front of the store proclaimed, “In God We Trust.” Had I had time, I would have stopped to ask them about the intent of their sign. Were they saying that they were trusting God for business? Or that God is more trustworthy than their customers (who might not pay them)? Or were they saying that people need to trust their security devices along with trust in God? Hopefully it is not like U.S. currency which proclaims, “In God We Trust.” Obviously, far more people trust the money than trust God. Money can lose its value. Banks can fail. Governments and their programs can go bankrupt. Only God can be trusted completely. In spite of the irony of the business sign, at least it points us to the place where true security lies. It is found in trusting God, not only with our material things, but also with our lives. Material things deteriorate or pass away, but if we have our security in God, then we will have reason not to fear. The threat of terrorism may make our lives uncertain, but if our trust is in God we can have a degree of security that goes beyond this life. “We may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me” (Hebrews 13:6).

When we come to the Lord Jesus Christ in repentance and submission, we find a degree of security that can never be found elsewhere in our fragile world. “The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? the LORD is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?” (Psalm 27:1).

Certainly God would want us to take reasonable precautions, not leaving our homes and businesses wide open to thieves. He would want us to avoid things that would endanger our own lives or the lives of others. But He also wants us to depend on Him in the situations we cannot control. Most of all, He wants us to depend on Him for eternal life that can never be taken from us by the security breaches around us. With God’s help, we can face the security issues of our day.

Can we say with Paul, the Biblical writer, “I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:38, 39).

–Roger Berry

If you stayed up to watch the old year out and the new one in, you probably counted down the last minutes and seconds of the old year—the faithful clock let you know exactly when.

Clocks and other time indicators adorn our walls, and are found in cars, cell phones, computers! Banks all around inform us of the time and temperature. Most people carry timepieces to make sure they aren’t caught not knowing the exact time of day.

It was not always so. Let’s go back into the dim mists of ancient history and see the development of this “fact of life” we so often take for granted.

Man’s most ancient timepiece, of course, was the God-given sun. He knew, for example, that when the sun was “overhead” that the middle of his working day had come. On cloudy days he had to guess. Ancient Egyptians sometimes used a most unusual and beautiful timepiece, a certain species of wild rose. This variety always began to unfold its blossom at sunrise and at exactly midday it always drooped. Early in history, man devised the sundial, probably the most ancient of man-made timepieces. At night and in cloudy weather man still had to guess.

Several hundreds years before Christ, the Greeks invented the water clock. It worked on the same principle as the hourglass. It served as the most up-to-date kind of clock until well into the Middle Ages. In the water clock, water trickled at an even rate into a large bason with hour markings on the sides. A very large water clock could mark small fractions of the hour—even minutes.

Clocks using weights and pendulums were common by 1700. Wind-up clocks have existed now for several hundred years, perfected by the Swiss.

In the twentieth century electric clocks and digital clocks became popular. Electric clocks make use of the alternating current of electricity. This current vibrates at an even rate of sixty times per minute. A good electric clock keeps extremely accurate time.

Obviously man has always been on a quest for time or time telling. But only in recent years and in so-called well-developed countries has time become a mania.

We’re (and that includes me) so caught up with having to know what time it is so we don’t miss the next appointment. Even during the times I read the Bible and worship God, I find myself thinking, “Now I only have 15 minutes to meditate because I have to be off to work at seven-thirty.” Or “I have to finish Bible reading and prayer by 10:30 so I can feel like getting up by 6:00.”

And on and on it goes. I really have to wonder, “Are all these clocks my servants, helping me live for Jesus Christ? Or am I their slave, trying to squeeze in time for God?” Literally, of course, it’s not the fault of the poor timepieces—they’re only machines. Rather it’s that preoccupation with time and a hurried schedule.

We do well to apply the Bible command not to “grow weary in well doing” to our use of time. Am I so weary in the rush of doing “things” that are, in themselves, all right, that I have no time for the most important right things—seeking the Lord in the quiet of unhurried devotion?

Am I guilty of frantically running “to and fro” as Daniel predicted, a servant of time and schedule and other things that crowd God out?

No doubt 2010 is doomed to be another year of people running “to and fro” even worse than past years. What shall we do with the fleeting time God has given us this year?

The Bible declares, “A wise man’s heart discerneth both time and judgment.” This implies the wise use of time. “To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven.”

Yes, there’s a time for our work, our appointments, or whatever. But there’s also a time to be alone with God, to get right with Him, and to serve Him with our whole heart. That time must get top priority regardless of what the clock says.

–Roger Berry

A family in a small Virginia community lived through just such an experience. On a fairly warm, clear night in early spring, ice came plunging from the sky. A neighbor, who happened to be on his porch at the time, saw another hunk of ice splatter on a nearby roadway. He heard or saw no airplane from which the ice might have dropped.

You’ve seen hail in a summer thunderstorm. A hailstone large enough to smash through a tin roof would indeed be rare. But such a piece of ice from a clear sky would be even more bizarre.

An investigation took place, but nothing conclusive turned up to explain the destructive chunk of ice.

The story has been reported of a German boy who was struck by a pea-sized meteorite in June of 2009. If the story is true, this would be the first reported incident of someone being hit by a meteorite and living to tell about it since 1954 when a woman in Alabama was hit by a meteorite.

It seems that natural disasters are increasing in frequency and intensity. Some blame it on “global warming” or the more current buzzwords, “climate change.” People are becoming scared about what might happen to them. On top of those fears are the disasters brought on by mankind himself—acts of terrorism and violence and the possibility of economic collapse.

No matter how safe we think we are or how well protected we are or how healthy we are, disaster could befall us at any time. The writer of Proverbs was right when he said, “Boast not thyself of to morrow; for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth” (Proverbs 27:1).

I once heard of a man who built a reinforced house of stone to guarantee he would have a safe place in case of storms and atomic attacks. But Christ is the only guaranteed shelter in the time of storm.

Nothing we can do will prevent earthquakes, tornadoes, tidal waves, falling hunks of ice, or meteorites. We must surrender our lives to God and learn to trust His will in these situations. Here are some promises God has given the believer to claim in disaster situations—and always.

God is concerned about us. He is aware of our needs. “Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear ye not therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrows” (Matthew 10:29-31).

God will protect through dangers. Even if our lives should be taken in a disaster, God still protects us from evil and eternal death. “The Lord is faithful, who shall stablish you, and keep you from evil” (2 Thessalonians 3:3).

God won’t overtest us with trials. He never gives believers more than they can bear with His help. “There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it” (1 Corinthians 10:13).

God will preserve our souls. “The LORD shall preserve thee from all evil: he shall preserve thy soul” (Psalm 121:7).

All things work out for the good of God’s people. “All things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28). As the songwriter has said, “God hath not promised skies always blue.” Neither does He assure us “flower-strewn pathways.” “But,” continued the hymn writer, “God hath promised strength for the day.”

The chances are small that a chunk of ice will soon come crashing through your roof. But numerous other things as disastrous or worse could happen to you at any time.

Are you prepared to surrender to whatever God may choose to teach you through the experience? If we let them, hard experiences will help us turn to God for strength and power. Trials can also be our undoing—the choice is with us.

Yes, strange things keep on happening. We think disasters will come, but certainly not to us. We never know what a day may bring forth. Look to God for help.

Roger Berry

Someone writing of our own day could write the same sad epithet-people are doing what they want to, what they think is right, not what God wants them to do. The emphasis in our society and even in many Christian circles, is to “do as you feel led,” do “what you think is right,” or do what is “right for you.” The idea of accountability to anyone else or even to God has become abhorrent.

This “do your own thing” philosophy has been adopted by professing Christians, not from the Bible but straight from the ungodly philosophies of the world around them. Self and pleasing self has become a “sacred cow” of this generation. The Bible warns, “And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased; and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted” (Matthew 23:12).

Hundreds of books can be found glorifying the cult of self. These books emphasize self-esteem, feeling right about yourself, loving yourself. They twist the commandment, “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself” to say that God commands us to love ourselves. Yet this teaching flies in the face of numerous Scriptures which speak of humility and self-abasement and denying self.

Certainly we should not hate ourselves but have right attitudes about ourselves because of what Christ has done or can do for us. However, the statement quoted above states a fact-people do naturally love themselves-rather than commanding us to love ourselves. If we love God as we ought, we will automatically have right attitudes about ourselves without following a cult of self-love. Indeed, the Bible speaks of the cult of self-love in this way: “For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy” (2 Timothy 3:2).

Instead of doing what is right in our own eyes, the Bible calls us to do what is right in God’s sight. What God thinks is what matters the most. The Bible calls doing our own will when it conflicts with God’s will “sin.” We determine what is sinful, not by our own opinions but by what God teaches us in the Bible. Sin is the violation of the high standards of God. Sin is refusal to be governed by God’s laws. It is lawlessness and rebellion. “Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law” (1 John 3:4).

The philosophies of self-seeking and doing what we feel is right in our own eyes has led to a breakdown in submission and discipline in our society and even in professing Christian homes and churches. Parents fear to discipline and regiment the lives of their children for fear of ruining their self-images and harming them for life. They cannot see that consistent discipline carried out in love will strengthen and enrich their children’s lives.

The same is true in the church. As self-seeking increases, discipline and order in the church weakens. Leaders fear they will drive people away by attempting to “set in order” the things that are wanting, as Paul commanded Timothy. The carnal-minded and self-centered do sometimes leave the church-that cannot be totally avoided. How much worse it is when, through lack of discipline, each ends up doing what is right in his own eyes.

Jesus came to take away sin and lawlessness. “He was manifested to take away our sins; and in him is no sin” (1 John 3:5). Let us surrender to the control of Jesus Christ and be faithful in doing what is right in His eyes. Then self will take its rightful place. Only then will what is right in our eyes be right in His eyes.

-by Roger Berry