Decoy.

This week we will be reflecting on the sermon from this past Sunday, in which Pastor Benji continued the topic of salvation for the entire household.

A key point of the sermon was that the message of salvation must be preached: in other words, it is not something that people acquire by osmosis. Proximity to Christians is not sufficient to bring a person to conversion. God has given us preaching and teaching as the means by which we present our risen Christ to a dying world.

This is illustrated in Acts 10, where we find Simon Peter sharing the gospel with Cornelius, his family, and his friends. Those of you who remember my blog "The Open Show: Cornelius Caught In The Act" (January 3, 2009) will recall that I commended Cornelius for being a devout man with a clear influence on his family. But, as we learned Sunday, the devout nature of Cornelius was not sufficient to save him.

We perhaps should take some time today to reflect on this for ourselves. Often when Christians are described, the following items are mentioned: they pray; they give; they treat others with dignity and respect; they are honest in business and at home; they demonstrate a heart of compassion toward the needy. Well, that was the same description of Cornelius in Acts 10, and Scripture makes it clear that he was doing these things before having received Jesus Christ as His Savior.

Let's be honest. The Cornelius of Acts 10:31, if he were alive today, would certainly look like a Christian in terms of his consistent prayer life, his generous giving, and his impeccable character... perhaps he would appear more Christian than us. But, for all his apparent goodness, he was destined for hell until God sent Peter with the word that could save him.

Perhaps a re-read of Acts 10 and 11 might be helpful, as we consider our own standing before God. Have we truly encountered Christ? Have we received the gift of the Holy Spirit? Or are we just nice church-attending, giving, praying, loving people with no measure of the Spirit of Jesus in us?

Are you authentic, or just a decoy? And how do you know what you are? We'll pick up on this thought tomorrow.