Have you closely examined one of
the new twenty dollar bills in circulation? The Treasury has gone to
great lengths to resist the assault of counterfeiters. Turn it so that
it’s Jackson side up, and if you catch it in the right light you can see much
that you might otherwise miss:
· Over
to the left side, in a ghostly silver is a dramatic American eagle, clutching
the traditional arrows and olive branch.
· On
the right side, in the same light, you’ll see two wavy lines of text:
“Twenty USA” and underneath that “USA Twenty.”
· A
little further to the right—if you hold it up so that the light is behind the
bill—you will see a second picture of Andrew Jackson.
If you look at the back side, you
will find what appears to be a random scattering of the number 20, in yellow,
over the blank areas. There are other devices; but this is a communion
meditation, not a class for counterfeiters. Indeed, the new design is
intended to deter counterfeiters as much as possible. Even as difficult
as these things would appear to make counterfeiting, it still happens—in large
amounts. One thing does remain the same: no one attempts to
counterfeit a twenty-five dollar bill. All twenty-five dollar bills are
counterfeit.
No one counterfeits that which is worthless. So when someone tells you
that all Christians are hypocrites, remind him of this. If we’re all
counterfeit Christians, then Christianity must be like the twenty-five dollar
bill. No, real Christianity is so precious that the temptation to
counterfeiting is very great. But just how would someone counterfeit a
Christian at communion? One way would be to take it very casually, as if
it had no significance at all. Or contemptuously, as if you were God’s
judge. But the most common way is to act very dignified and humble at the
same time—pious pretension—so that you’ll look like the real thing.
If this is you, please—take this
warning seriously. Paul tells us that sickness and even death can be the
result:
For he who eats and drinks, eats
and drinks judgment to himself if he does not judge the body rightly. For this
reason many among you are weak and sick, and a number sleep.
(1Co
11:29-30 NASB)
Can it be that God would react
this way? Hear again the apostle:
You cannot drink the cup of the
Lord and the cup of demons; you cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the
table of demons. Or do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? We are not stronger
than He, are we?
(1Co
10:21-22 NASB)
Ultimately, however, the
rejection is not in this world—but at Christ’s return.
"Then
you will begin to say, 'We ate and drank in Your presence, and You taught in
our streets'; and
He will say, 'I tell you, I do not know where you are from; DEPART FROM ME, ALL
YOU EVILDOERS.'
(Luk
13:26-27 NASB)
Consider well; God’s wallet
contains no counterfeits.