Tag: Reflect

Reflecting God Together

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          Some of the most difficult and yet most rewarding things we can have in life is relationship. If we narrow that down to the relationships of Christian believers with one another it creates a unique, potentially volatile, and potentially powerful environment. The passion that our Savior invokes is beautiful but sometimes misplaced when believers try and reflect their gift or ideal onto other people on the same journey with Jesus. It’s difficult to see two Christians unable to respect and love the uniqueness that each brings to the Church and potentially to each other’s lives.

         There are many times that people expect a reaction, a particular overlap of ideals or opinion, and that causes turmoil that doesn’t need to exist. The Lord put an analogy on my heart and it prompted me to write because I was also shown a few pieces of scripture that stoked a fire for this topic.

       We see in Isaiah where even God Himself realizes that anger pushes away the potential relationship that only the love of His new covenant through Christ can allow. For I will not contend forever, nor will I always be angry; for the spirit would grow faint before me, and the breath of life that I made….I struck him; I hid my face and was angry, but he went on backsliding in the way of his own heart. (Isaiah 57:16-17) This is often the case when emotion causes an angry reaction where no resolution can be reached and God’s love is absent. In turn a soft heart created through the reflected love of Jesus allows His light to be reflected in the situation and lasting growth and resolution to truly exist.

         A mistake we see, and the basis of my analogy, is when people have difficulty accepting the different views, reactions, and personalities in a church family. They want the relationship to involve a “mixing” of ideals to form a comfortable commonality. I imagine a person with a “red” personality/viewpoint trying to walk alongside a “blue” personality/viewpoint. In order for either of them to feel accepted or understood they try and create a comfortably “purple” relationship/situation. If the emotional/ideological mixture is an “oil based blue” and a “water based red” there is an unconformable tension. The boundaries that exist keep a resolution/relationship from existing. Now imagine for a moment that each of God’s children was allowed to reflect the light of God into the situation as they are loved and accepted for the beauty and uniqueness of their light. The two lights discussed above would make the beautiful purple light needed to flourish. Neither color requires mixing to be complete, but the completeness found in Christ reflects His light and allows their unique spirits to shine. Now imagine we have many lights reflecting God into the church. All of the colors in the light spectrum reflected together create a perfected white light that IS God’s love. their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God’s mystery, which is Christ, 3 in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. (Colossians 2:2-3)

         I hope that anyone reading this can not only see the uniqueness and value of others but also those same qualities in yourself. God made you in His image to reflect His light into the darkness created by sin. When you pursue the Lord and encounter other lights on your journey, reflect yours as brightly as you can. You don’t have to be understood or understand the others. You don’t have to have a commonality to love one another and grow. If there are ten different colored lights in the same fixture/situation/church, the world will only see the glorious “white” of God reflected in union through love  A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.  By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13:34-35)

Take Care Then How You Hear

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For nothing is hidden that will not be made manifest, nor is anything secret that will not be known and come to light. Take care then how you hear, for to the one who has, more will be given, and from the one who has not, even what he thinks that he has will be taken away. (Luke 8:17-18)

         The passage above is referring to God making Himself known through His children on earth. He will fill our submitted hearts and allow us to be a reflection of the light found in Jesus Christ. We are to reflect the light of Christ to this dark world. As we walk out our salvation, the ways of God will be revealed to us through His work in our hearts and in our lives. God’s purpose for us and His work in redeeming us from our sin will give us a testimony that reveals more of God’s character and sovereignty to the world. All of the testimonies combined still can’t reveal the infinite God in His entirety, but it builds up a kingdom of believers known as the church to represent Him to the lost.
        

         We should therefor take care how we hear God and how we walk with Him. We must make sure that our sinful flesh doesn’t cause us to misrepresent God to a world consumed with the darkness of sin. When we seek God with all our heart we find Him. When we ask God to lead, we receive Him. As we walk in the righteousness of the Holy Spirit our light becomes brighter because: “for the one who has, more will be given.” In turn, the people who make crooked the paths of the lost by leading with faulty revelation (the one who has not), what they think they have will be taken away. God puts to shame the wise. The wise will be put to shame; they will be dismayed and trapped. Since they have rejected the word of the LORD, what kind of wisdom do they have? (Jeremiah 8:9)

          Let God be the leader of your walk. Let the Holy Spirit guide your heart as it fills you in your submission. Let God make straight your path and be the light at your feet. Let the light given to us in our Lord Jesus Christ shine through us just as the moon lights the night using the light reflected from the sun. Take care how you hear and how you walk. Walk in His righteousness so that more will be given to you in your obedience. Be careful not to let your flesh deceive you. It is then that what you think you have will be taken away. That may sound like a punishment but that is not the case. God’s infinite love takes away the lesser version of what you think you have in order to make His fullness available to you. His mercy leads you back to the fullness of His light and the blessing of being His representation to the darkness of this world.