Our final song on Sunday was this prayer:
May the mind of Christ my Saviour live in me from day to day,
by His love and power controlling all I do and say.
May his beauty rest upon me as I seek to make him known,
So that all may look to Jesus seeing him alone
Kate Barclay Wilkinson (1859-1928)
Scripture tells us that Jesus is the visible image of our unseen God (Colossians 1: 15), and throughout the New Testament we are encouraged to live lives that reflect the qualities we see in Jesus’ life – for our minds to react in the same way we see Jesus’ mind working so that through our lives people may see the beauty of Jesus.
Who do you look to as an example of what it means to live a life which reflects the character and nature of Jesus? I’d like you to think of three answers to that question using these three categories.
The first Category is: 1] Who, in the bible shows you the what is means to live a life that glorifies God? On Sunday Anthony drew our attention to someone whose circumstances should have made her think only of herself, but instead she thought about others. I am referring to the girl who told Naaman’s wife that God could heal her husband of Leprosy. The scriptures simply tell us “Now bands of raiders from Aram had gone out and had taken captive a young girl from Israel, and she served Naaman’s wife” (2 kings 5: 2). Think for a moment of the trauma this girl must have experienced as she was taken away from family and home. She is now in a foreign land, being made to serve those who destroyed her previous life, yet this nameless girl shows the love and compassion of God as she tells her mistress how her husband can be healed and in doing this causes God be glorified. From the vast array of people mentioned in the bible (excluding Jesus) who do you think most clearly lives a life which glorifies God?
The second category is: 2] someone who has lived after bible times, whose life clearly displays the nature of Jesus and glorifies God? In recent months I have mentioned such people as Corrie ten Boon, Joni Erikson Tada, Marilyn Baker and ‘brother Andrew’ founder of Open Doors), but there are many others who I have brought to your attention over the years: Catherine and William Booth, John Newton, William Carey and there are those who have lived more recently: Billy Graham, Mother Teresa, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Cliff Richard, Lauren Daigle and many, many more (google the names you don’t recognise). Who can you think of who has lived since bible times, whose life reflects the nature of Jesus and glorifies God?
The third category is: 3] Those you have personally met whose life shows you what it means to live ‘a Christian life’. That might be the person who introduced you to the Good News of Jesus Christ, or someone who you have encountered who has caused you to see something of Jesus through the way in which they live their lives. It may even be someone whose life shone out to you many years before you started to come to church and now with hindsight you see it was the light of Jesus shining through them. Who can you think of who you have met, whose life reflects the nature of Jesus and glorifies God?
Perhaps you would like to write a Friday ‘Guest writer’ article telling us about your answers to the first two categories. Whether you do that or not, consider contacting the person who you chose as the answer to third category and tell them that this article prompted you to think of them. They will probably be embarrassed, you may be embarrassed, but through doing it we will be fulfilling what we read about in Ephesians chapter 4 and be building up the body of Christ.
In preparation for Sunday’s message you might like to read in the New Testament, the letter to the Hebrews chapter 11. In this chapter the writer lists his Old Testament heroes – once more you may need to google some of the names to find out why he considered them to be men and women of great faith - Stephen