God is “spirit” (John 4:24) and as such has no physical or material form. This characteristic of God has always been difficult for me to understand. We have a spirit linked to a physical body and are closely tied to the material world. But we run into a problem when we try to measure God; we find He is immaterial and therefore immeasurable. He is infinite in every way. God resists quantification and will not submit to our attempts to scrutinize Him, classify Him, and decipher Him.
It seemed like yesterday as a freshman in college, where my first real mentor, tutor was speaking a language to me that really stood out in my cognizance, like a pipe dream. But was I listening? He said to me, you want to be different, treat your academics, your spiritual being like your athletic life; but how do we actually live up to it? On campus, I had deep bonds with people who helped me develop my athletic game. Teammates had my back. Coaches pushed me with slogans, “one heart beat” the pig got up and walked away poem”. Suddenly, you look at yourself in a mirror for a variety of reasons, all of which ... make you continue to response with,how big isGod? "What Do Others See?".
As a recruit I had heard that saying from most schools on that engaging footprint of soil. But the hullabaloo that was said, “it is not the school who creates great student athletes, but it’s you who should hold yourself to a higher standard” didn’t resonate to me; but dare to be different did.
I started taking things extremely seriously, I thought, before everything. It is an easy path to go down, but not a very enjoyable one or even challenging. Being dedicated to the little gods(sin) was the easy way out, yet the path that often many takes. The question is what about the big God? Very big guy; as the immature child in me could just as easily laugh at this truth-seeker question with confusion, in this area of perception verses reality?
More than that, the God that is transcendent; He is so “other” that we can never fully understand Him. At the same time, we are made in His image, and He loves us (genesis 1:27; John 3:16).
So here I was, getting ready with the encouragement of the Holy Spirit, being brought to a saving faith reflection saying,” Being a Christian child how do you feel in this sinful pouring rain”? Change that song to the following:
“Sing to the Lord a new song; sing to the Lord, all the earth. Sing to the Lord, praise his name; proclaim his salvation day after day. Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous deeds among all peoples.” Psalm 96:1-3
“But be doers of the Word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the Word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like”. James 1:22-24
Have you look at yourself in a mirror for a variety of reasons, all of which have something to do with your personal appearance, “You use mirrors to shave and put on make-up. You look into a mirror to be sure the image you present is the image you want others to see and finally we look into a mirror going away, forgetting what you look like, resulting into a mirror that accomplishes nothing.
James 1:22-24 says the same is true of looking into the "mirror" of God's Word. By hearing the Word of God, James says, you see what you are like. Looking into the mirror of God's Word should help you do your best, that is, present the image that you should present to other people as a Christian. If, however, you look into the mirror of God's Word and forget what you looked like, you will probably not make a good appearance to others either.
To make a good appearance to others as a child of God, James says it's not enough to just look into the mirror of God's Word—i.e. to be only a hearer of that Word. You must also remember what you looked like so that you can make a good appearance before others as a doer of God's Word. To be a doer of the Word means to put your faith into action, showing others how Jesus' life and teaching are visible in your life. When people see you as one of God's children, you will look like His Son, even as we are daily more and more conformed to the image of our Savior (see Romans 8:28-30). How do you think hearing the Word and not doing it leads to one being deceived? Plagued by sin as we are, how do we become consistent doers of the Word?
As you can see, it's important to look into God's mirror and to examine yourself in the light of God's Word regularly. This exercise is maximized, too, when we read and meditate on Scripture in a way that digs deeply into the texts themselves. Paul knew this was true for Timothy when he told him to give his all when spending time in God's Word: "Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the Word of truth" (2 Timothy 2:15).
God's Word shows us who we are. It reveals the glory of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and gives us the Person (Jesus) we should try to show others in the mirror of our lives.
God Bless You and This Ministry!
Acts 17:1-15
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