Dear Guts is Key Reader. As you know, I come out with lots of fresh material. But sometimes I like to review materials I have already written. I find that I can often learn more the second time around and hopefully find more about it to share with you.  Good truths are often like enjoyed leftovers. Reheating them can make them a real treat and even more enjoyable the second time around.

      One of my pet peeves in life is people who say one thing and do another. It is no secret that I passionately a follower of Christ. Yet sometimes others who claim to follow Him are the very ones I have the most difficult time with. I will never forget when it seemed that Jimmy Swaggart had the eye of the entire American public. His messages were everywhere and his audiences were overflowing. And then it was discovered that he was doing the very things that he preached against. And not just that he made a slip. But his behavior was so disgusting that it made a mockery of the very things he was supposed to be advocating.  I am not writing this BEAM to bash him but what he did is a perfect example of the concern that leads me to write this article.

     Walk and Talk.  Wow! It is so easy to say good things. But as the old saying goes; the proof is in the pudding. The real key is to live the things you say. That is the real meaning of the gospel to me. That God wants our spoken & written witness and to supernaturally empower us to live a life of vital clean, honest service. A life so clearly honest, true and inspiring that its light draws others to God. God wants pure hearts. If the message of Jesus says one thing above others; it is this. That God wants the truth in us. And we don’t have the truth in us, without His help. At this point, is where that marvelous word “Grace” figures in. 

     Because the solid fact is that our hearts are quite corrupt without God’s help. Jimmy Swaggart was not the first and he will not be the last religious sounding guy; who proves himself to be a blow-hard serving his own interest’s and not God’s. The biggest religious goody two shoes in Jesus day were the Pharisees and the Sadducees. They were the religious leader’s of Jesus day. They thought they were so righteous. But this appearance was a hoax. Jesus called them white washed graves & a vipers den. They looked so full of religious looking sanctimonious piety. But they were plain out garbage inside and had no real kinship to God. 

     So back to this  grace thing. It is God’s tool to take the crummy and make it holy. I sure am glad that He has this power. Because everywhere I look I see the phony. Religious people still today are often the worst. They are really hokey liars, sometimes. I see it all around me and so do you. But that is what attracts me all the more to my Savior. When I look at Him, I see always see the real and holy, the genuine and worthy. It is only His amazing, available supernatural power manifested through His love and grace that gives any one of us; hope to live clean lives..

     Yet, that is the awesome wonder of a real relationship with this God I serve. He can deliver us from the phony and make us honestly servants of God and mankind. He can help us walk the talk. 

     I often say that I am “rough around the edges.” It’s true. I am called “Slam,” because I am a rough and tumble guy who likes to live with dynamism and power. Yet, this guy knows for sure, that without God’s grace; my energy would be destructive and not constructive. God helps me not to fall prey to my own weaknesses. Somehow knowing that I need Him and that I am incomplete without Him, strengthens me. It is this realization of need that keeps me far away from a Swaggart syndrome.

     I hope as the years unfold in my life that I can continue in increasing measure, to bear witness to the One to whom I owe all of my life. But more than that I hope my talk is backed up by my walk.  I want my life to be surely rested in the hollow of God’s hands. That is what I want for my friends as well.

     Here are some questions for you to work through, as you examine your own life to see, if you walk your talk.

• Are there area’s of your life that are inconsistent with what you believe?

• Do you seek to back up your words with your actions?

• Are you able to admit need, which is the core of honesty and humility?

• Are you more concerned about the appearance of your life or the reality of it?

• Are you willing to let your Higher Power help you in the areas of your limitations and weaknesses?

• Can ask yourself daily inventory questions, to become accountable to your own conscience?