1 Samuel 19-21, Luke 11:29 – 54 • Key Verses: Luke 11:34-35
It used to be said, “There’s nothing like the real thing.” We can’t say that anymore because so
many things are like the real thing. Put a little veneer over particle board and it can look like real
wood. Creative manufacturing can make particles glued together look like solid wood, grain and
all.
The finished product looks like one thing on the outside, yet is another on the inside.
There is a word used to describe a person who is one thing on the outside and something
different on the inside- hypocrite.
Jesus was concerned that we be like lights, shining forth the truth. He also was concerned that
what we are on the outside is what we are on the inside. “When your eyes are good, your whole
body also is full of light,” He said. “See to it, then, that the light within you is not darkness” (vv.
34-35).
He desires truth to be within and to show without. Someone once said that it looks like the
Pharisees have had the last laugh. Christians can be very concerned about the external, how they
look, and give too little concern to the internal, which really is where they live.
Veneer is fine for furniture. But Christians are to be solid, not filled with darkness and a thin
layer of light glued on the outside. Are you veneer or the real thing?
“God, I want to be genuine before You, myself and others. Help me to be filled with Your light,
and may it show. ”

Woodrow Kroll & Tony Beckett
www.backtothebible.in