THE REAL THING

While writing my book, "Williwaw Winds", people asked if the story happened exactly as I wrote it. Some believed the main character, Jake, was really my son, about whom I wrote the story. I explained—and still do when necessary—that the characters were made up but the story really did happen as portrayed.

I believe fiction is often written as a deliberate counterfeit of a real happening so the reader will be able to identify with the characters. As my column below suggests, not all counterfeits are bad. Some have a positive effect on the receiver. My prayer for you this week is that, in all areas of life, God will give you the discernment to distinguish between good counterfeits and bad.


ETERNAL PERSPECTIVES by Sally Bair

Counterfeet
Christian comedian Ken Davis once told about his young daughter preparing for a ballet recital. She pulled on a pair of leg warmers as part of her costume. Her dad called them “sox with the feet cut off.” He told her she should have cut the feet out of a pair of much cheaper sox. He called her expensive leg warmers “counterfeet.”

Though Davis made a joke of his daughter’s “counterfeit” sox, his point was that sometimes we are led to believe a false version of the real thing.

Some natural counterfeits can trick us, like poison mushrooms, poison oak, and poison ivy. Man-made fakes such as counterfeit twenty-dollar bills are also meant to deceive us. But some man-made counterfeits are beneficial, like false teeth and prosthetic limbs, and wigs. Others are created for aesthetic or vanity reasons, such as silk flowers that beautifully mimic the real thing. If we look around, we can find many counterfeits both in nature and in the world of human creativity and science.

The devil holds a sack full of counterfeits. He entices us to believe a part of, but not all, biblical truth. For instance, many are led to think that doing good works will provide them with a ticket to heaven. Others believe they must be more obedient to God’s rules before He will have anything to do with them. Satan also tries to persuade us wrongly that we’re all children of God so we don’t have to follow any rules because we live under “grace.” There is no hell, no consequence for sin, he also says. In fact, he will try any way possible to take the focus off of the truth of Jesus’ death and bodily resurrection as being the only way to salvation.

God’s Word clearly tells us to beware of false teachings. The only way to avoid them is to go to the Word of God and search the truth. “But there were false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them … many will follow their destructive ways, because of whom the way of truth will be blasphemed.” (2 Peter 2:1)

Lord, we want to follow You according to Your truth, not with “counterfeet.” Give us wisdom from your Word so we can discern what is Your truth and what is counterfeit. Help us also to responsibly share Your truth with others. In Jesus’ name, amen.