Bumper Sticker Faith

I heard a story (Don’t all preachers?) about a woman having a bad hair day. A guy in front of her stopped short at a red light and she blew a gasket. She honked, screamed and gestured with a certain finger, when suddenly a rap at the door startled her. She saw a police officer. He had her step out of the car and accused her of stealing the car. She asked why he would think she had stolen the car, and he said it obviously belonged to a Christian. There was a Christian fish symbol and Right to life bumper sticker on the car., Her gestures and foul language surely suggested that she was not the owner of the car!
That got me thinking, do we have a Bumper Sticker Faith? Are our beliefs boiled down to a bunch or pithy sayings and churchese. Sure, we speak of our faith. We can talk about being washed in the blood and giving the right-hand-of-Christian-fellowship. (I’ve always wondered where all that blood came from. I guess the guy missing his right hand!) Anyway, we speak of counting our many blessings, and praying through. But are they more than just words?
Peter told us that we are to be Holy, just as God is Holy. Can we ever truly achieve the same Holiness of God? Not here, obviously. One day, surely. But in the meantime, we are to strive to be more Christ-like. Don’t have a bumper sticker faith. Strive to be more like Him. Strive to have a holiness like Christ! Don’t just know about Jesus, don’t just know about your faith. Know Him. Paul said, “That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, if by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me.” What does that mean? Paul said I have put everything in this world on hold. I have made them secondary so that I might be able to reach out to Him, the way He reached out to me.

God Bless