No Imitations- No substitutes for the Real Thing!

The Real Thing was Coca Cola’s slogan, plastered across bill boards for many years. The meaning was clear- everyone wants the authentic article, there’s no substitute for quality (to use another slogan), don’t waste your time and money on second best. Well some of those myths have been exposed lately. So what is the real thing today?

Remember the Christian slogan presenting Jesus as the Real Thing – that may be our experience. But for many knowing Jesus as the real thing is an illusive myth.

Many people don’t believe they have a choice, settling for second best, rather than the real thing. Lack of money, the dregs all their life, hand me downs, left over or no time, poor food, little affection and attention, even betrayal and abuse.

So the hope of finding the real thing in life becomes a lifelong search, looking here, there, anywhere for something, someone to rely on, to meet the longings for relationship…

Nevertheless God has planted in every human being the need for relationship, with God and with others, the need for deep connection, belonging in community, genuine and real relationships.

Relationships with others may become the way to discovering the real Jesus. A friend described to me the support and encouragement of an elderly woman who eventually invited her to her Church. She hesitantly thought she would give it a go, and was delighted on the first Sunday being surrounded by caring elderly people who are “like grandparents”. The authentic love and care, genuine interest and support are helping her discover God’s love and care.

There are no imitations for love-it either is or isn’t. People know when it’s the real thing, genuine quality, accepting and understanding, expressing dignity and respect. Real love is God with skin on. That’s the reason Jesus came to be the real thing!

Connect with a new person in your life. You may well discover Jesus in the other person, and they may well discover Jesus in you!

Grace and peace,
Julie Simpson,
Executive Officer, CareWorks

No Imitations - RRT

With our overall theme being Diamonds and gems for 2009, this month’s theme is “No Imitations”. This started me thinking about the differences there are between real and imitation.

Take for instance a real diamond and a manufactured diamond. With advances in manufacture it is often difficult to detect them with the naked eye, but once under the microscope the flaws in the imitation are clearly seen.

Recently while listening to the radio, a gem collector spoke about the number of fake rubies that are being sold to the unwary in markets in Asia, they are being sold as being real and are almost worthless as they are merely a type of coloured glass.

For a diamond to shine it must be able to refract light through it and come out the other side, bright and clear.

Think about the difference when cooking between vanilla essence and using imitation vanilla essence. When compared with each other, the flavour is quite different.

When we take a closer look at what the Bible says we find in Ephesians the command to be imtors of Christ Himself.

It is stated many times that He came as an example and, over 30 times the New Testament uses some tense of the phrase "follow me", "follow Him" or "followers of Christ." The word "followers" can be traced back to the Greek word "mimos" which means "to imitate." From the word "mimos", we can easily see origins of the English words "mime" and "mimic."

Scripture is loaded with examples revealing how and what one must do in order to be an imitator of Christ: Love your enemies; Forgive those who have sinned against you; Heal the sick; Cast out devils; Set captives free; Make disciples; Visit the imprisoned, the infirmed and feed the hungry. All are actions that we can usually find something else to do when we are approached to help.

So do we have a conflict between our theme and what Christ calls us to be? In a world where we have imitation this and imitation that, we are called to imitate Christ only. It has been said that if someone imitates you, it should be taken as a compliment, so we need to choose carefully who we start trying to imitate.

Therefore, if we are called to be imitators of Christ and Him only, but God wants “No Imitations,” what does this mean? He wants people who are committed to walk the Christian walk and follow the example that Christ has set, being the best reproduction of Christ we can be—God helping us.

WISELink July 2009

The July 2009 issue of WISELink is now available