A Case of Mistaken Identity

If I had a dime for every time someone said I looked familiar to them, I'd be a very rich man. I guess there is someone who looks like me in every city in America. People say I look like their uncle. They say they've seen me at a Bible conference I've never been to. People confuse me with someone they know all the time.

My family recently started serving at Timberline Baptist Church in Sherwood, OR. One of the assistant pastors is a young man by the name of Jared Rhodes. He is three months older than I am. Several people have asked me if I am his brother. We both have sons who are a little more than 2 years old. My son has walked up to Jared and tried to hold his hand thinking he was me. Just this morning, Jared's son Dillon wrapped his arms around my leg only to look up and realize I wasn't his dad. It's all a case of mistaken identity. People think I am someone I am not.

To be honest, these kind of situations are getting kind of old to me. I think I'm just going to start messing with people from now on and tell them I am the person they think I am. That should be fun.

When I think about it, every Christian should experience a kind of mistaken identity.

Acts 11:26 says, "And the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch." They were called Christians because they acted so much like Christ. People saw Christ in them.

Romans 8:29 says, "For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son..." God's desire for his children is that He could constantly be conforming us more and more into the image of His Son. Of course, as long as we're in this body of sin, we'll never be exactly like Him. 1 John 3:2 gives us that promise that "when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is."

The fact is that if we are surrendered to God and He is doing the work in our lives that He wants to do, people should be mistaking us for Somebody else all the time. That Somebody is the Lord Jesus Christ.