Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men’s bones, and all uncleanness. —Matthew 23:27

There is no doubt that first impressions can last a long time. Whether you are interviewing for a job, showing up for a class, or moving into the neighborhood, first impressions are hard to live down.

Sociologists have studied the subject of first impressions. One study concluded that a first impression is solidified in the first four minutes of a conversation. They say that if those first four minutes are positive, your acquaintances will most likely view everything about you in a positive light—even things unknown to them.  Your professional skills, your morals, and even your intelligence will be held by them in high regard. Why? Simply because you made a good first impression.

Sociologists have even given a name to this phenomenon—the “halo effect.” If you can put your best foot forward and come out looking and sounding impressive, you will create a certain air about you that may last a long time, regardless of whether or not it is true.

This happens all the time in our modern culture; a culture where charisma matters more than character—where image is more important than integrity. We live in a world that is consumed with creating halos and keeping them shiny at every opportunity, while hiding the sordidness of our true identity.

This is certainly not a new development. During the days of Christ, the people who wore the brightest halos were the Pharisees. They arrived at the busiest street corners in the marketplace at exactly 9 a.m., noon, and 3 p.m., where they prayed on public display.  People thought of them as men who loved God more than other people did; men whom God loved most; but Jesus Christ was not deceived by their chicanery. He, being God, looked beyond their smiles and priestly robes and saw what was in their heart. They were hypocrites to the core and Christ was not fooled by their good impressions.

His condemnation of the Pharisees was justified when they crucified Him. How ironic! They were the supposed “Godfearers” of the day, yet at their first chance, they put Christ to death for unmasking their true identity. Though they studied the Scriptures fervently, they did not heed the words of Solomon, who wrote in Proverbs 15:33, “The fear of the Lord is the instruction of wisdom, and before honor is humility.”

Fear of man induces hypocrisy—fear of God produces humility.

Are you living a double life in order to gain the approval of others, or living a singular life that recognizes the need for God’s grace and direction each day?

Are you shining your halo or cultivating your humility?

Halos make a good first impression on mankind . . . humility makes a lasting impression on God.

David prayed in Psalm 139:23-24: “Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me and know my thoughts; and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” Pray this same prayer, knowing that God sees your heart—and ask Him to move you from hypocrisy to humility.

*Note: Scripture references have been changed to the KJV, HDS

He shall call upon Me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him and honor him. With long life will I satisfy him, and shew him My salvation.
—Psalm 91:15-16 

Are you facing an emergency today? Dial 911—Psalm 91:1, that is.(He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.) God can use adversity in the life of the Christian. None of us wants adversity in our lives, but God can be glorified through it. It might be a sickness that looks life-threatening, and then God heals you. Or it might be a sickness that He allows you to experience, but He is glorified in the midst of it.

Psalm 91 does not say you will never die. But it is saying that you won’t die before your time. It is saying that until God is done with you, His angels will keep you in all your ways . . . in your ups and downs, when you are awake and asleep, in the sunshine and the rain.

What is your part? It is to dwell in the secret place of the Most High and abide under the shadow of the Almighty. It is to live in quiet and resting and enduring and remaining, with consistency.

Your objective as a Christian should be to stay as close to the Lord as you possibly can. Because this all-powerful, all-knowing God possesses heaven and earth, has made a covenant with you, loves you, and offers to protect and provide for you, you should make it your objective to get closer to Him, asking, How can I walk so closely with Him that I will be in His very shadow?

You should periodically ask yourself whether you are meeting the criteria of this great psalm, whether you are living up to the conditions that have been set forth. If your answer is yes, then you have God’s word that these promises will be activated in your life.(From “Harvest”, by Greg Laurie)

Those who meet the conditions of God’s commandments never lack comfort –HDS

“Sorrow is better than laughter; for by the sadness of the countenance the heart is made better” (Eccles. 7:3).

When sorrow comes under the power of Divine grace, it works out a manifold ministry in our lives. Sorrow reveals unknown depths in the soul, and unknown capabilities of experience and service. Giddy, trifling people are always shallow, and never suspect the little meannesses in their nature. Sorrow is God’s plowshare that turns up and subsoils the depths of the soul, that it may yield richer harvests. If we had never fallen, or were in a glorified state, then the strong torrents of Divine joy would be the normal force to open up all our souls’ capacities; but in a fallen world, sorrow, with despair taken out of it, is the chosen power to reveal ourselves to ourselves. Hence it is sorrow that makes us think deeply, long, and soberly.

Sorrow makes us go slower and more considerately, and causes us to examine our motives and dispositions. It is sorrow that opens up within us the capacities of the heavenly life, and it is sorrow that makes us willing to launch our capacities on a boundless sea of service for God and our fellows.

Imagine a class of lazy people living at the base of a great mountain range, who had never ventured to explore the valleys and canyons back in the mountains; and some day, when a great thunderstorm goes careening through the mountains, it turns the hidden glens into echoing trumpets, and reveals the inner recesses of the valley, like the convolutions of a monster sea shell, and then the dwellers at the foot of the hills are astonished at the maze and unexplored recesses of a region so near by, and yet so little known. So it is with many souls who sit idly by living on the outer edge of their own natures until great thunderstorms of sorrow reveal hidden depths within that were never before suspected.

God never uses anybody to a large degree, until after He breaks that one all to pieces. Joseph had more sorrow than all the other sons of Jacob, and it led him out into a ministry of bread for all nations. For this reason, the Holy Spirit said of him, “Joseph is a fruitful bough…by a well, whose branches run over the wall” (Gen. 49:22). It takes sorrow to widen the soul.

(Taken from an old publication called “The Heavenly Life”. The author is unknown. I have changed a few words to express the meaning in language of our day.-HDS)