The Hollywood Star Who Was a “Cardboard Christian”
SEPTEMBER 1
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness. Matthew 23:27
I read an article one time about Art Linkletter. Everyone in America knew and would recognize Art Linkletter, a man who for 40 years on stage, screen and television had entertained millions. Art Linkletter said he was a professing Christian. But one day he had a great tragedy—his daughter took her life. He really needed help.
In a hotel lobby in San Francisco, he met with some young people who were on-fire Christians. There was no pretense with them, no holds barred. It came time to pray, and those young people got down on their knees in that hotel lobby. And Art Linkletter got down on his knees with them in this public place. He said,
I looked around and hoped no one would recognize me. But I was on my knees only a second when I no longer cared what anyone else thought. Until that time, I was self-sufficient. I thought I didn’t need anybody. I thought of myself as being a good person. But I was," –[listen to this phrase] -- "a cardboard Christian. I humbled myself before God, got on my knees, broke through to God, and met reality."
Our world is sick and tired of make-believe, cardboard Christians. It hungers for reality, not hypocrisy. The greatest argument for Christ—and the greatest argument against Christ—is the life of a Christian!
There have always been hypocrites. There always will be. But how wonderful to know Jesus Christ—to serve and love Him with reality in your heart. Jesus devoted the 6th chapter of Matthew to the problem of hypocrites. Examine your heart. Would you have knelt and prayed in that hotel lobby?
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