Mirror, Mirror

After my paternal grandmother died in 1981, my mother inherited a beautiful mirrored tray, containing a flat-backed hair brush, a comb and a hand mirror.  A couple of years ago, she gave it to me.  It now sits on my dresser, where I should be able to enjoy it.  

I like to wear jewelry, not the hugely expensive kind, but the type you buy at home jewelry parties. My friends, Kathy and Jennifer, are reps for a wonderful, Christian company that sells it, and over the years I've built quite a collection.  In conjunction with this, I've developed a bad habit.

Although I have a perfectly excellent storage box for my jewelry, it is in the bathroom.  When I return from a foray out into the wild world, I walk into the bedroom, throw off my shoes and take off all my jewelry.  Where do you think it lands?  That's right!  In the mirrored tray.  Pretty soon, the tray overflows with beautiful things, and when I want to find something with which to accessorize my look, I just "shop" from the tray.  smh...

So, yesterday, I decided that this had gone on long enough.  I began to divest my tray of its baubles, taking them to the tall chest in my bathroom.  As I got down toward the bottom, I realized ... there's a mirror down there.  It sort of shocked me, though if you'd asked me, I would have told you it was there.  All those pretty necklaces, earrings, bracelets and rings were obscuring it.

It struck me forcibly that this was a metaphor for our relationship with the Word (Greek: Logos). What do I mean by that?  Logos is used as both a name of God's Son, Jesus, and also for His revealed, written word, the Bible.  Look at these verses:

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  The same was in the beginning with God.  All things were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made, that was made."

John 1:1-3

Lots of repetition in that verse, for emphasis, it seems.  John wants us to know as we compare these verses with Genesis 1 that the "God" who spoke the universe and all created things into existence was Jesus, the Logos.

Later in John, the only gospel that records Jesus' high priestly prayer, Jesus prayed in John 17:17 - - "Sanctify them by thy truth, thy word is truth."

In Acts 12:24, 13:49 and 19:20, we see phrases pertaining to how the gospel message (God's word) was spread:
"the word of God increased and multiplied", "the word of God was spreading", "the word of God continued to increase".... In each of these cases, "word of God" is the Greek word, "logos".

God's physical revelation, God-With-Skin-On, our Savior and God's written word to us, the Bible. Same word used for both.  Wow.  Sort of elevates the Bible, doesn't it?

The Word of God is also described as a mirror, which brings me back to my little anecdote.  (You suspected I had hopeless wandered off the trail, didn't you?!)  Look at 2 Corinthians 3:16-18 ---

16but whenever a person turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. 17Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. 18But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.

and James 1:23-24 ---

23For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror; 24for once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was. 25But one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer but an effectual doer, this man will be blessed in what he does.

It is in this last passage by Jesus' half-brother, James, we see the strongest correlation between the Word of God and a mirror.

You see (pun intended), when my mirror was obscured by all those admittedly beautiful things, I could not even see the mirror.  I was so distracted by them that I even forgot the mirror was there! This can easily happen in our Christian walk as well.  We can allow our attentions to be drawn away by wonderful things that, in the final analysis, are not the best things.  Wonderful things (even people) can cause our priorities to get skewed; they can cloud our vision, even.

Daily, at the very least, we need to push aside wonderful, beautiful distractions, worthwhile distractions, to clearly look into God's Word.  Here's why:

1.  The Word of God is a light that illuminates our path.  Psalm 119:105
2.  The Word of God is like a sharp, double-edged sword that pierces our spirit so that God's truth can seep in.  Hebrews 4:12
3.  In the James passage, The Word of God is a mirror, that reveals what God next wants to do in our lives, transforming us from "forgetful hearers" into "effective doers".  James 1:23-24
4.  The Word of God washes us clean, purifies and consecrates us, as John 17:17 says.
5.  The Word of God is life and health to your body, "nourishment to your bones"! Prov. 3:8 and 4:22  (That one is for you, Dr. Moss!)
6.  Finally, in the 2 Cor. 3 passage, the Word allows us to realize and behold the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.  And, if that weren't enough, the Word through His Holy Spirit transforms us "from glory to glory"!  By feasting on the Word of God, we become more like Him.

Let's recommit ourselves to pushing those beautiful baubles aside in order to give God His pre-eminent first place in our day!  I mentioned Dr. Moss, my chiropractor in #5 above.  He was telling us in a seminar last night about the importance of starting our day with good, positive affirmations.  I can think of none better than the powerful, living written revelation, the Word of God.

Lord Jesus, that I may KNOW you!  For You are the very incarnation of God the Father!  May I daily see You, revealed in Your holy Word, seeing The Word in the Word, and be daily transported from glory TO glory, walking resplendent here until my very soul and spirit are transported to that eternal glory, where I will walk resplendent with you forever.  Make it so, Lord. In Jesus' name, amen.

Gifts, Small and Great

Good morning,

I've waded into a difficult passage this morning, 1 Corinthians 12:14-31.  Because of its length I won't reproduce it here.  If you don't go read it, however, you will be lost.  Here is a link, to make things easy:
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+Corinthians+12%3A14-31&version=NASB

The essential difficulty of this passage is the seeming contradiction contained in it.
First of all, Paul is saying that all of the spiritual gifts are as necessary as each part of the human body is necessary.  But, then, later (in verses 28-31), he seems to imply that some of the gifts are more special and important than others.

I love the analogy of the Church to the human body.  (Paul expounds on this also in Ephesians 1 and 4.)  Each believer is created by God, according to His perfect foreknowledge.  Each is a miracle. Each is designed to work beautifully together.  It is God that constructs the body in the womb of the mother.  It is God who gifts each new believer.  It is God who leads believers to the local churches, along with the gifts each received at the time of his/her conversion (salvation).  He builds churches according to the giftedness of each individual member.

And, here is a powerful truth - - -
To the extent each of those members yields to the Holy Spirit, walks in obedience to the Word of God and exercises his or her spiritual gifts, the local church grows.
(Now, there are exceptions to this.  There are, for example, churches which have unhealthy growth, based on false teaching and deception.  Satan will pervert anything that is of God, even the growth of the local church.)

Diversity of gifts is healthy.  Where there is little diversity, there is an overabundance of uniformity. Uniformity is not the same as unity. We should pray for and work for unity of purpose in our churches, while we celebrate the diversity of our spiritual gifts.

Another distortion of the devil's is to persuade us to honor some spiritual gifts more than others. Paul seems to confirm this false teaching by mentioning how the Church got started, through the work of the apostles (that gift was preeminent in spreading the gospel initially), prophets, teachers and so on.

Yet, Paul speaks of this to "call out" the false teaching and frame the truth correctly.  Some gifts are more "important" for specific times.  Some are more "showy" in that they seem more effective in leading others to a saving relationship with Jesus Christ.  Evangelism is one of those, for example. Healing is another.  Yet, all the spiritual gifts are necessary, whether they are "pretty" or "flamboyant" or "sensational".... or not.  After all, you can live without some of the more visible parts of the body (ears, eyes, hands, feet, face); but, it's hard to live without some of the "less honorable" parts (the elimination system, the heart, the brain, etc.)

What, then, does Paul mean when he says, "Earnestly desire the greater gifts, and I will still show you a more excellent way" (verse 31)?  How can we "desire" something that is not part of our individual "gift package" the Holy Spirit gives us at the time of our salvation experience?

There ARE "greater gifts", and they are the heritage of every believer, in addition to their customized "gift package" from the Holy Spirit.  They are gifts found in every Christ follower, every child of the King: faith that leads to salvation by grace alone (Ephesians 2:8), justification (Romans 5:1 - being made positionally right with God forever), sanctification (John 17:17 - the continual purifying we can have through the Holy Spirit's work in our lives, in this earthly life), glorification (Philippians 3:20-21 - when we finally are totally free from sin, see Him face-to-face and are with him eternally). Inherent in each of these stages are the gifts of righteousness, joy, peace and love, the beautiful anointing oils of the Holy Spirit onto and into our own spirits (Romans 14:17).  We should every day earnestly desire these extraordinary, available-to-all-believer gifts!

In the next chapter, Paul shows us "a more excellent way", as he describes that ultimate mark of the Christian, the spiritual gift of Christ-like love.

Lord Jesus, you know I have truly wrestled with this post today.  There were (good) distractions.  I could not find things I wanted.  I believe this post to be horribly imperfect.  But, I pray that you will anoint it with Your matchless grace and use it in my life and in the lives of those who read it, as I pray for all my "almost daily" posts.  It is not about me; it is about You, and all of this (sometimes seemingly wretched mess) is offered up for Your honor and glory alone.  All love and praise to You, my King!  Amen.