There is some difference between a person's persona and his personality. His persona is what he wishes other people will think he is. His personality is what he really is. We all have a persona. It may be mild or wild but it is not real. It may be innocent imagination or it could be hypocrisy. The question is: “Are we more concerned about what people think of us or what God knows about us?” Do we get upset when people at church find out how we act at home. Are we more upset about how we act or that people know how we act? If there is a difference, fix it.
As you read through the book of Acts, look at every conversion, and see what happened right before it: what was said, who said it. The situations are the same today. A long time ago, my duty in the Officer’s Christian Fellowship was the east coast of the United States. I went to an officer’s office at Fort Lee, VA, and stayed overnight, then I went on to Norfolk and Fort Bragg. Forty years later, I was no longer on the staff of OCF, but I had to go to Denver. While I was in Denver, I checked in at the OCF offices. There was the same Air Force officer I had met in Fort Lee, retired now, a colonel. I had stayed in his house when he was a first lieutenant. He asked me, “Do you know what happened when you stayed overnight?” I said, “No, I just remember staying in your home.” He said, “You led the next-door neighbor to Christ.” I had no memory of it. Ten years after that, I was speaking at a banquet at the Hotel Salisbury, and who was th...
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