How Do You Look When You Hold Yourself Up To The Bible?
Good Morning Friends,
Today before I shaved I opened the local paper and read about an award winning $6 wine, increased gun sales following the mass shooting in Orlando, and the disparity between the incomes of the wealthiest 1% and the rest of the wage earners being most dramatic in the very communities in which I live and work. But even before that I was reading scripture and homilies and sermons about another mirror…that of the Bible. James comes right out and calls God’s Word a mirror. This mirror helps us evaluate ourselves in a spiritual way. Once you look at a mirror, you can decide if you need to make any changes. The Bible helps us do that better than any sound bite of news. You can glance at the mirror or gaze into it. You can skim the headlines or learn more. You can catch a quick word for the day or dive into God’s Word. How Do You Look When You Hold Yourself Up To The Bible?
Scripture: Since, then, we have such a hope, we act with great boldness, not like Moses, who put a veil over his face to keep the people of Israel from gazing at the end of the glory that was being set aside. But their minds were hardened. Indeed, to this very day, when they hear the reading of the old covenant, that same veil is still there, since only in Christ is it set aside. Indeed, to this very day whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their minds; but when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And all of us, with unveiled faces, seeing the glory of the Lord as though reflected in a mirror, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord, the Spirit.
2 Corinthians 3.12-18 (NRSV)
For if any are hearers of the word and not doers, they are like those who look at themselves in a mirror; for they look at themselves and, on going away, immediately forget what they were like. But those who look into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and persevere, being not hearers who forget but doers who act—they will be blessed in their doing.
James 1:23-25 (NRSV)
Just as water reflects the face, so one human heart reflects another.
Proverbs 27:19 (NRSV)
For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known.
1 Corinthians 13:12 (NRSV)
Do not judge, so that you may not be judged. For with the judgment you make you will be judged, and the measure you give will be the measure you get. Why do you see the speck in your neighbor’s eye, but do not notice the log in your own eye?
Matthew 7:1-3 (NRSV)
Message: When we recognize our life mirroring scripture, it is as a marker demonstrating the direction that we are going in our life. Here we not only reflect upon scripture but it can be reflected in us as a blessing for others. Here we seek and find fellowship with others who follow Christ… We rediscover Jesus each day in every plain act of faithfulness… in our obedience. Here we realize that before judging others we should look first in the mirror to see how we, ourselves, appear. Here we discover that our judging should be with mercy that stems from God’s love. Here we discover that our judgement is often poor judgement. Friends, we are to look in the mirror to look at ourselves as we are and here realize that we can never take the place of God nor should we desire this. So too we are not to just glance at the Word of God in a rushed, hurried manner and then leave. We must meditate on it. Glancing at God’s Word won’t change your life. A careful look in the mirror shows that we lack love. We are filled with pride. We lack unity. Our reflection is blurred. We are part of a changing culture that desperately needs a changeless God. We live in a divided world with all the symptoms of failing to reflect Christ. Here we look in the rearview mirror of history to learn about what the future might bring. Then we each have to face our self in the mirror and decide if we are going to choose our own will over God’s will for us. Here we learn that judgment begins when we look in the mirror in the morning and realize that we have so many short comings that we really do not have much time to dwell on the faults of others. Point the finger in the person in the mirror and be humble and thankful for God’s mercy and love.
Pray we are not blinded by false gods. Pray the light of the glory of the Gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, shine on in and through us. Pray that Christ illuminate our life so that we might clearly see our spiritual condition. Pray we rejoice that God’s Word is a lamp to our feet and a light for our paths. Pray we read the Bible, review the Bible, remember the Bible and respond to the Bible as if we were looking in a mirror reflecting our lives. Pray we gaze into the Bible and not just glace at its pages. Pray God look on us with kindness and mercy. Pray we not be hypocrites. Pray we take the log out of our own eye before we take the speck out of another’s eye. Pray we not just be hearers of the Word but doers. Pray we reflect God’s love.
Blessings,
John Lawson
Daily Devotionals 