Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Mirror, mirror on the wall!

The Mirror of Truth

[by F. B. Meyer]

James 1:23-24 For if anyone is a hearer of the Word and not a doer, he is like a man studying his natural face in a mirror. For he studied himself and went his way, and immediately he forgot what he was like.

Interesting as James writes about a person who is exposed to the Word of God, then does not act on it. I also love the Message translation of Matthew 5:16 14-16 "Here's another way to put it: You're here to be light, bringing out the God-colors in the world. God is not a secret to be kept. We're going public with this, as public as a city on a hill. If I make you light-bearers, you don't think I'm going to hide you under a bucket, do you? I'm putting you on a light stand. Now that I've put you there on a hilltop, on a light stand—shine! Keep open house; be generous with your lives. By opening up to others, you'll prompt people to open up with God, this generous Father in heaven. This my friends explains the God's Love Outreach Ministry. A few months back in a program we presented a song that most adults remember from their childhood, "This Little Light of Mine." One of the lyrics states, "Hide it under a bushel, no, I'm going to let it shine!" I had a gentleman yesterday after a program say, "I love how you tied everything together and point it to God!" Yes, it is His light shining through me. We cannot, nor should not, or want not to tell someone about Christ when the Holy Spirit dwells within us.

I found this devotional by F. B. Meyer yesterday.

[THERE IS an old fable of a palace, in which one room was remarkable above all others because it was lined with glass of a special quality. Whenever a person entered whose life was inconsistent with truth, a mist blurred the surface of the mirrors so that he was unable to see himself clearly. It was when the Apostle Paul compared" his own self-centered goodness with the love and purity of Christ, he lost all hope of justifying himself, and confessed that the things which he had counted gain were only loss.

Truth and Love are indissolubly connected. Love is of God, and so is Truth. If you have the one, the other must follow. If the soul, looking into the mirror of God's Word, perceiving that there is a blur, and sets itself to remove all that has caused it; and if it continues in this attitude, not being a hearer who forgets, but a doer that works, he shall be "blessed in his doing."

The blessedness of doing and becoming. It is only as we do, that we become. Even to behold Christ will not make us Christ-like in character, unless we translate into action what we have discovered in Him. The impressions made on the hearer through the ear are very vagrant, like the breeze on the water. We look at ourselves in the mirror held up before us, and straightway go off and forget what manner of persons we were. It is only as we cease to be hearers who forget, and become doers that work, that we can make any progress in the Christian life and walk.

Listen attentively to the Word of Truth, written or spoken. Be quick to notice the smallest symptom of inconsistency between your life and the perfect beauty of Jesus, and set yourself immediately to correct it. Be merciful to the failings of everyone else, but be merciless to your own. Let no fault remain uncorrected, and no call to duty unanswered. For you to live, let it be Christ. Your blessedness and happiness will come in choosing the Christ-life, in doing, and continuing to do what He would have you do.

PRAYER
Help us to cast out all those things which are contrary to Thy peace, or that are not according to Thy will, so that ours may be the quiet life of trust, and faith, and obedience, longing for Thy truth, and walking in the light thereof. AMEN.]

I will always remember about a year ago we had a guest Pastor speaking at our church, because our Pastor was on vacation. The guest Pastor came up to me and said, "I know you are good speaking in front of people, (because of my involvement with the God's Love Outreach Ministry), would lead the service up to my sermon?" Well, even though we were in a house of God, my mind went off of God to myself. Very shortly God let me know it doesn't work that way. I had trouble just getting words to come out of my mouth. Remember what the Message translation stated above, We are to be lights, bringing out Gods-colors. When you look in the mirror I pray that the reflection you see is Jesus!

From God's heart, to mine, to yours,
Ed Shagott

No comments:

Post a Comment