This is not Philly

By Rodney Tilley, Pastor Van Horn Community Church —

A while back, my wife and I took a trip through the eastern half of
the United States, and noticed an interesting fact. We found that many
states have cities with city names just like the last state we visited.

There was a Philadelphia, Mississippi and there was a Philadelphia,
Tennessee. But they in no way looked like the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
that we knew and had lived in.

The Philadelphia in Mississippi was a hot small town with people with
accents not related at all to the Philadelphia in Pennsylvania with
people with their East coast guttural inflection that makes them always
sound angry.

All three cities have the same name, but they are all were so
different. If you say you are from “Philly” you had better say which
“Philly.” Needless to say, I could not find a Philly cheesesteak in any
of the other Phillys outside of Pennsylvania, and for some reason the
“Liberty Bell” was no where to be found.

The towns all had the same names, but the only thing that they all had in common was the name.

It is the same with those that talk of God. We use the same name and think it is the same since we use the name God.

God is not what you define him to be, for there is only one God, and
even though you use the name God to describe a rock in your garden does
not make that rock God, just like calling the Philly in Mississippi the
birthplace of democracy.

You can label God as nature, but is that God? You can label your
dog and his friends as your God, but that is surely not the God and
creator of the universe. You can call a lot of things God, but it does
not become God just because you choose it to be.

The Bible says, “For there is only one God and one mediator
between God and men, Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as a ransom for all
men…” (I Tim. 2:5).

There may be four or more “Phillys” in the United States but there
is only one Philadelphia, Pa., just like there is only one God.

And since that is a God that is known, then a response is needed. You
can know God for He came to earth in the form of Jesus, and as they
say, “to know him is to love him,” and it matters not which town you
live in.

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