The IMAGE we offer

 

The Image we offer

 

^NKJ 2 Corinthians 3:18 But 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 by the Spirit of the Lord.

            I have noticed along with this new way of communicating in meetings on the computer screen, that we have to deal with how we look in a new way. 

    I have been in some meetings where the person on the other end does not want anyone to see them due to their hairstyle or the fact that they do not have on makeup.  I wonder with this way of thinking, do we consider our image as that of the image of God upon us. 

Our opening verse offers an amazing idea that we are being transformed into the image of the Son of God.  Before Paul mentions the fact that we are bearing and becoming more like Christ he offers that we are also being freed by the power of the Holy Ghost.  This freedom being effected by God, the Holy Ghost and is happening on the inside, shaping our inner person to be more like God. 

Think of your relationship with God today…

Describe a point of your relationship with God that helps you to know that you are His child, a skill you have noticed or behavioral type that has come over you, or even a sense of His presence that you have been aware of like the fruit of the Spirit when you did not even know it was happening but realized after a situation that happened….

God, The Holy Ghost is shaping you into the image of Jesus Christ as you walk with him daily.  Notice other places in your life that The Holy Ghost could shape and change you because He is successfully working on your being to shape you into the express image of Christ.  God works on his children in many ways and this is one of them.       

      Look at what that familiar passage in James 1 says:

James 1(ESV)

²³ 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. ²⁴ For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. ²⁵ But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.

            James is informing us that we are changed by looking into the divine mirror of the Lord which is the scripture. In the Word we learn, practice, and change more and more into the likeness of Christ as we continue to depend upon the powerful Word of God to guide, confront, comfort and complete our training in our personal Christian experience.  But he also says that we have the responsibility of putting into practice what scripture teaches in order for the special purposes of God to become a reality in our lives.

          The Bible is a powerful mirror helping us to see ourselves and giving us some context for our relationship with God.  God shapes and molds us each day, even on the dull days when nothing seems to happen.  He molds us into the amazing image of Christ little by little.  Remember that God is the One and Only Creator who made the World as we know it with no material. Why would He not be able to shape and mold His children into an image of His choosing pleasing those you know well. 

          Looking into the mirror of God’s Word makes changes in us for advancement of His glory and our good.  Look into the mirror of God's Word today. 

Chaplain Horace Cutter