Flowers are always special, but they just seem even more special in the winter. When you see a vase of beautiful flowers, especially in the colder months, it's hard not to walk up and smell them. The truth is that if there's no smell, they're fake!
Flowers can sure fool you. They can look so real, but sometimes they have no life. It's just like so many folks who look like they really belong to Jesus Christ, but there's no life there. Jesus warned us about this fatal difference in His story about God's Kingdom being like a wheat field where wheat grows right next to another grass that looks just like wheat. Jesus said no man can tell which is the real wheat until harvest time, or Judgment Day. Then the "wheat" will be gathered into heaven and the wheat lookalike will be burned.
In another place, Jesus describes people who will come before Him on Judgment Day, talking all the right Christian words and beliefs and activities, but He'll tell them, "I never knew you." That's frightening stuff. You can see why the Bible says in 2 Corinthians 13:5, "Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you - unless, of course, you fail the test?" The time to realize that you know about Jesus but you don't know Him is now, not when you're standing before Him, because then it's too late.
Just like those artificial flowers that are so beautiful but so dead, it's so easy to look like someone who belongs to Jesus but not really know Him - especially if you've been around Jesus most of your life. You know the words. You believe the beliefs. You try to do the right things. You go to the right meetings. You give to the right things. Quite possibly, everyone around you assumes you belong to Jesus except Him. He's the only one who matters though.
That "examine yourself" verse says to make sure "Christ Jesus is in you." A lot of people have Jesus around them, but not in them because there's never been a time when they consciously and personally really opened up their life to Him. He can be in your head, but not in your heart, which means you will miss heaven by 18 inches. That's how far it is from your head to your heart. God says it is with the heart man believes and is saved (Romans 10:9).
A man can go into a church not married, see the woman he wants to marry come down the aisle, stand in front of the minister with her, and walk out together, but he can still leave not married. He can if it is only the rehearsal. The next night the same man and the same woman can stand in front of the same minister, but this time walk out married. The first night he was just going through the motions, but the second night he committed his life to her.
Maybe you've been going through all the motions of knowing Jesus, but somewhere you've missed the step of saying, "Jesus, I know what you did on that cross was for me. You're my only hope. Beginning right here, beginning right now, I am Yours!" That's when you commit yourself to Him.
If you know you've done that, you really do belong to Him. If you don't know you've done that, you probably haven't. That could change this very day. What a relief, what a difference there's going to be when you are His for real. You can be sure you belong to Him today. There's no more going through the motions, because this can be your personal Jesus-day!