Mr Facing Both-Ways

Mr Facing Both-Ways was a character in John Bunyan's book' The Pilgrim's Progress'. He lived in a city called Fair-Speech. Many people like to be like Mr Facing Both-Ways and perhaps we are often like them too. We want to be known as a Christian and yet we want to keep one foot in the world as well. By' the world' I mean things that don't really fit in to a full-hearted commitment to the Lord Jesus Christ. Mr Facing Both-Ways and people like him 'talk the talk' but they don't 'walk the walk'. The Apostle Paul who wrote the book of Romans was anxious that those of us who say we are Christians really live a life that truly does what Jesus wants us to do to be the people that Jesus wants us to be.

Notice how the Apostle Paul shows us just how absurd it must look when a person who has been saved by the grace of God and has had his / her sins forgiven and washed away goes back to doing the same old sinful things again. The excuse they give is that it shows how gracious God is!

How can we who died to sin (through Jesus' death) still live in sin? That was Paul's question and Paul's answer is that we cannot honestly do that. We have to walk in the new life that Jesus has given us. If we are like Mr Facing Both-Ways it may well be that we have never truly given our heart to Jesus in the first place. Think about that.

Prayer

Dear Lord, Take my life, and let it be consecrated, Lord, to Thee. Amen.