Lately, I have been reading some biographies of politicians. I am intrigued with what goes on behind closed doors of fame and influence. The more power and influence people have been entrusted with the more temptations for moral compromises. Therefore some people live in compromise that nobody really knows about it. Sadly, hypocrisy is a reality of life.

A Christian is known by God in a very personal way. A believer in Jesus Christ can live a hypocritical life in the sight of men, but not in the eyes of God.  Since God knows the heart of men and since a believer, one time or another, has had a specific moment when he/she faced God without anything to hide there is nothing that God already knows. Both God and that person have acknowledged our human failings.

 Just think of it! Isn't it true that before the moment of salvation, when I fall down on my knees before God in utter despair and call out for God’s mercy and forgiveness that I have, in some way, been emptied of myself? I realized I am a sinner and in desperate need of a Savior. I don’t just trust Jesus as Savior with my head, but with my very heart. I can’t fool my heart, since God is the only One  who knows what’s in there and He reveals it to me.

So, a Christian is a person who, at least one point in life has been face to face with God. As believers we have all been completely been disrobed before the Holiness of God. In utter need for salvation our souls have cried out; “please save me!”

The question to be asked then is: Since we have already been totally uncovered before the Mighty God, who sees and hears everything, why is it so hard to live out our Christian walk in that same attitude day out and day in life? Shouldn't our Christian lives be a continual desperate pleading for God’ help and shouldn’t we walk purely before God’s face?

Doesn't it seem strange that, after this very personal and specific encounter with God’s goodness and forgiveness, we have a tendency to, again and again put on our past and sinful lives and persist to walk on as nothing ever happened? Shouldn't the characteristic of our Christian lives be known as a continual spirit of desperation before God?

Friend! You call yourself a Christian! Then has your lifestyle been changed after you came to Christ for forgiveness? Have you, at all changed? Are people around you aware of a different way of life or are do they see you as different? Are there evidences of the spiritual birth that has taken place in your life? Can others clearly detect the fruit of God’s Holy Spirit in you, according to Galatians chapter 5 and verse 17?

The name of the game in the Christian faith is changed lives. Changed behaviors, changed words and changed lifestyles! People out in the community yearn to see the new you. They desperately look for signs of changed lives among Christians. They look for it in local churches and in your and my life. It is only when non-believers see changed lives in us Christian that people out there will find God and have peace.

Friend, people who have not met God personally through faith in Jesus Christ as Savior are allowed to live hypocritical lives. They don’t know better. But, those of us who call ourselves Christians should know better.