2 Corinthians 3:2-3 “You yourselves are our letter of recommendation, written on your hearts, to be known and read by all men; and you show that you are a letter from Christ delivered by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.” This episode talks about our call to be examples of Christ with the way we live our lives. Music:"Adding the Sun" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Let Your Life Be A Witness of Jesus
2 Corinthians 3:2-3 “You yourselves are our letter of recommendation, written on your hearts, to be known and read by all men; and you show that you are a letter from Christ delivered by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.”
Verses like the one above always make we feel a little uncomfortable. I hate to admit that but it is true. I feel as though there is extra pressure put on us to live our lives a certain way. Do you know why I feel this way? Because we are called to live our lives a certain way. We are called to a higher standard. This can make us feel uncomfortable because we are afraid we are not living up to this standard. We want to fit in and just do what everyone else is doing. We don’t want to be different because if we are different then we might stand out and if we stand out we might be vulnerable. God didn’t make us to fit in with others. God made us to be set apart.
This is not a new problem. Ever since the beginning of time God has been trying to keep us set apart so that we would not be corrupted by the ways of the world. This has been a constant struggle. Every time the Israelites would conquer a new land they would inevitably start to adopt the practices and the culture of the land they conquered. This is often why God would order them to kill everyone living it that land. He knew how weak our hearts were and He knew we wouldn’t be able to stay set apart from them. The other people worshiped many Gods at this time and some of them even required human sacrifice. They were not good customs that they were adopting.
We are called to be examples of God’s love, light, peace, forgiveness and kindness. We are called to higher standards. When people look at us, they should be able to tell, just by how we are living that we are Christians and what that means. I had a friend on a few weeks ago that gave her witness about going back to church after being away for a long time. One of the things that drover her away in the first place is the hypocrisy that is found in churches. The hypocrisy of many people that go to church on Sunday and then do whatever they want the rest of the week. The Christian faith is not one that is meant to be lived on Sunday and then forgotten about the rest of the week. It is not ok to be one person at church on Sunday and a completely different person everywhere else. This is not only important for the community, it’s even more important in your home.
What do you think you are teaching your children if you are going to church each week, volunteering and being so helpful there and then when you are at home you are yelling and swearing and not helping out around the house? Do you think you children will grow up loving God and Jesus if they see you acting two different ways, one way at church and one way at home? Consistency is the key. We need to decide our values and then hold these values in every circumstance. We need to start at home and show all of our love and kindness there before we can branch off to others. Did you ever notice how sometimes we are kinder to those at work than we are at home? We are really nice at work because it is work and we need to be professional and we need to keep our job. However, we are tired and cranky when we get home from work so we take that frustration out on our family. We probably don’t even notice it a lot of the time. We just slip into the habit because we know our family will love us no matter what. It’s kind of like when our kids are little and they act out for their parents, but are really well behaved at school. They say it is because they feel safe, they know their parents will always love them no matter what.
We must strive to be better than this. We must strive to be Christ like in all circumstances. God is calling us to an amazing life of blessings and grace and all we have to do is strive to be more Christ like. He is calling us to share Him with the world and he is equipping us with all we need to do this, we just have to say yes. One way to live more Christ like across all setting in our lives is to live more intentionally. When we just come home and slip into our comfortable routine, this is where we can start to live inconsistently. It can be really helpful to set intentions before you walk through your door at night. If you drive to work, sit in your car for and extra minute or two when you get home and set your intentions for who you want to be when you walk through that door. Do you want to be calm and confident? Do you want to be patient and loving? Do you want to be helpful? Who do you want your spouse and/or kids to see when you walk through that door. If you have a lot of stress from work still maybe take a few minutes and just breathe and try to release that stress. You can do the same before you walk into work in the morning too. Decide before walking through the doors of your office who you want to be at work. How can you be your best self in each circumstance?
Living more intentionally will help us be more Christlike. If we have this as a goal and we remind ourselves of this goal every day, multiple times a day, then this goal can become a standard we hold all of our decisions up against. For instance, if I wanted to watch a movie that was inappropriate, I can ask myself if watching that movie fits in alignment with my goal to be more Christlike, and also if it fits with my values. I can look at how much I am giving to the church or other charities and see if that is in line with my values and my goal to be more Christlike. You can ask yourself this question for all that you do and then you will be living more intentionally. God will give you all you need to imitate Christ if you ask for it, if you strive for it. God is calling us to be His image in the world. He is calling us to be His hands and feet in the world. He is calling us to witness to His love and mercy, not just with our words, but with our actions too! Will we answer this call? Will we say yes to the Lord and then do our best to live intentionally and try and share His love, light, peace, forgiveness and kindness with the world? Our world really needs more Jesus right now, can we try to reflect His goodness in our lives?
Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless everyone listening to this episode this morning. Lord, we want to live a good Christian life. We want to live a life set apart from the things of this world. Help to break our attachment to the things of this world. Help give us the strength to live the life you want us to live. Help us spread Jesus to one and all. Help us to reflect His goodness in our day to day lives. Help us live more consistently throughout our days and weeks. We love you Lord, you are amazing. We want to answer your call. We want people to know we are Christians just by looking at us and how we are living. We want to be your ambassadors Lord. Please give us the strength to do that. You are so good to us Lord and we are so very grateful. We ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen.
Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. Tomorrow’s witness is given by Catherine C. She talks about her struggle with faith, her struggle with alcoholism, and struggle with family life. Catherine is an amazing woman who decided to open up, be vulnerable and share her story with hopes that her story will help others. If you know anyone that is struggling with any addiction, or anyone parenting teens, please share tomorrow’s witness with them. It is a beautiful witness of how God can save you when you least expect it. It is a beautiful witness of someone yearning and searching for something and yet not knowing what they are searching for. It is also shows how God is there for you, helping you and guiding you, even before you have found Him, even if you didn’t know it was Him. I know you are going to love the witness tomorrow and I am so grateful I get to share it with you. I look forward to spending time with you tomorrow. Have a blessed day!