Daily Jewel

by Pastor J.T. Carnell, McAlester, OK “Do You Know the Real Thing?” “The Fear-of-God means hating Evil, whose ways I hate with a passion…” — Proverbs 8:13 (MSG) I’m not certain exactly when it was but if memory serves me right it was in the early 1980’s and the “cola” wars were at their peak. The Coca-Cola® Corporation was losing ground to Pepsi. Serious ground! In an attempt win back customers or increase sales they tried to change their product by offering a new Coke. One that was more like their competitor. They even hired Bill Cosby to be their spokesman. They spent millions of dollars on advertising only to discover that instead of winning new converts to their product, they lost those who were deeply loyal to the original product. After the failed attempt their new slogan was simply this: “Coke! It’s the Real Thing.” You might say it was a loyal fan base whose passion for the product saved the company from possible failure. The word “passion” means a great deal to me. It is a word that I have learned to associate with excellence—superiority—greatness…and the list goes on. If you love someone or something with a passion I would think you would do everything within your power to make that relationship the very best. Maybe that is why we have the words: “Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.” – Deuteronomy 6:5 Solomon says to “hate evil” with a passion. That does not mean we should always think about hating evil but instead to love God so much that anything that attempts to compete with Him automatically loses out! When I was living in Denver I worked for a bank in the middle of downtown. I worked in several areas, all of which dealt with working directly with currency. One day the bank brought in a man who worked for FBI, specifically with counterfeit money. He brought in a number of examples of currency that counterfeiter’s had tried to pass through as legitimate. From our perspective each of them were so close to the real thing on initial glance none of us would have known the difference. Near the end of the session one of my co-worker’s asked this man a question that to this day stays with me. She asked, “How is it that you can detect counterfeit money so well? By studying it?” “No,” he said. “It’s because I know the real thing. I know what real money looks like so well that I can spot a counterfeit bill in a second.” There are those who say they cannot tell the difference between coke and pepsi. I can, which is why when coke tried to change I was one of those who balked. I wanted the product that I had learned to love growing up. There are those who have difficulty distinguishing between good and evil because the devil is good at disguising himself. But when people experience God and His love for themselves then they know what is real and what is counterfeit. I have come to hate evil because I have experienced real love! I have experienced real grace…real hope and real peace. I learned to experience the “real thing!”