Tuesday, January 13, 2009
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Not long after I got up this morning, I looked in the bathroom mirror - it wasn't very pretty. My hair had exploded during the night! (What I have!) There were whiskers that needed shaving; there were several repairs that need to be made. Maybe you have the same kind of experience when you look in the mirror in the morning. You ask yourself, "How in the world could six hours do so much damage?" Usually, what you see in the mirror involves more than just information (Oh man! Look at that skin! Look at that hair!) No, no, no, it calls for transformation! You see what you really look like and you got to work on it!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Mirror Difference."
When God talks about His Word, He uses some interesting analogies: it's a lamp, it's a washing, it's a hammer, and it's a mirror! And it's supposed to have the same effect on our lives that a mirror has on our appearance!
Here's how God describes it in James 1:22 and the verses that follow in our word for today from the Word of God: "Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, not forgetting what he has heard but doing it, he will be blessed in what he does."
That's a great picture. One man looks in the mirror, sees the work that needs to be done, and says, "Oh, what do you know!" and walks away looking the same. The other man sees what needs to be done and goes to work on it! And so it is with each of us as we open our Bible and we read what God has to say there. We're supposed to read, not just for information, but for transformation.
It isn't just about you reading the Bible; it's about you letting the Bible read you! Until you've done that each day, you've missed the point of reading the Bible in the first place. It's not just doing your Christian duty. Why look in the mirror if you're not going to change anything? Why look in the Bible if you're not going to change anything? Some people are working on a "Read Through the Bible" program and that can be a great exercise. But remember, it's not about how much you read. It's about how much you obey!
There is nothing more vital to your following Christ than getting personal direction from Him each day through His words. You may be reading the Bible, but are you letting the Bible read you? Before you read, ask God, the Author of what you're about to read, to take His words and help you apply them to something specific that you're going to face this very day. Those verses in James talk about "not forgetting" what you discovered. So in order to do that, why don't you begin to keep a Jesus-journal where you write two things each day: what God said to you, and you put it in your own words - not in Bible words, and what you're going to do differently today because of what you read!
Many years ago, I began the discipline of keeping that Jesus-journal; probably one of the greatest single things that happened in my life in Christ. To be able to go back and see what He said to you; be able to look at it tonight and see how you did that day on acting on what you saw in the Bible mirror. It's a great way to process and permanetize what God is saying in your life. Remember, He said do what it says, otherwise you are deceiving yourselves.
That's the road to spiritual consistency, to steady growth, and to experiencing the reality of Jesus every day; not just the belief about Him. Look in God's spiritual mirror every morning and do something about what God shows you in that mirror. If you do, I'll guarantee you, you are going to be looking better all the time!