Keepn It Real by Wesley Stringfellow

2 Corinthians 12:9 (New Living Translation)
9 Each time he said, “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.” So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me.

Keepin it real, how many times have we heard that or even said that phrase? Now there are certain situations that may arise where this phrase fits well, like for instance, if you know somebody who just bought himself a fur coat and his wife doesn’t even have one that would be a good time to say “hey bruh , I’m not trying to tell you that your priorities are mixed up, but you tripping…hey man I’m just keepin it real”. See how that fit perfect in that situation. How about this one…there is some crazy preacher trying to burn a stack of Holy Qurans and you say to him…”Hey fool that’s not how you reach people…you can’t teach the love of Christ by showing hate…I’m just trying to keep it real Pastor”. See another perfect opportunity to use that phrase, but that’s not what I’m talking about today, what I’m saying today is us so called Christians like to throw this phrase out whenever we are in some mess and we don’t want to get out of it just yet. We like to use it at our jobs right after we just cussed somebody out. We like to use it in our marriages when we are fighting with our spouse because then it’s ok to be stubborn and bullheaded because we’re “just keepin it real”. I have even seen Churches preach it to their teens when talking about sex. Instead of taking a stand and teaching what the word says they just caved in and said “well we know you’re gonna have sex anyway so let me show you how to do it safe”. Real stuff people I couldn’t even make that up…the name of their teen group is “Keeping it real”. It is our job as a ministry to teach the word of God as it is with no compromise, not to conform to the world and their ways. The “Keepin it real” has become a crutch to us Christians to compromise and water down the word and then we start preaching about his wonderful grace but that’s another topic we will chat about later.
Today let us remember to show the love of Christ in truth and not compromise with the world. Let’s be honest with ourselves and allow the word of God to change us completely.
2 Corinthians 5:17 (The Message)
16-20Because of this decision we don’t evaluate people by what they have or how they look. We looked at the Messiah that way once and got it all wrong, as you know. We certainly don’t look at him that way anymore. Now we look inside, and what we see is that anyone united with the Messiah gets a fresh start, is created new. The old life is gone; a new life burgeons! Look at it! All this comes from the God who settled the relationship between us and him, and then called us to settle our relationships with each other. God put the world square with himself through the Messiah, giving the world a fresh start by offering forgiveness of sins. God has given us the task of telling everyone what he is doing. We’re Christ’s representatives. God uses us to persuade men and women to drop their differences and enter into God’s work of making things right between them. We’re speaking for Christ himself now: Become friends with God; he’s already a friend with you.
God Bless
Wes