December 05, 2006
Reflections
During my years as a youth sponsor we traveled to Lincoln Christian College in Illinois. One of the requirements for staying in the dorms was to have a sponsor in each room. The room I shared with two students was sparse. It had two single beds and a mattress on the floor, a desk and chair, and a huge 4’ by 4’ mirror on the wall (a girl’s dorm needs big mirrors after all). Coming from Colorado, the girls had never seen fireflies before and they set out with paper cups to capture as many as they could. Having no glass container to keep the fireflies in, the girl release them in our room. In the dark there was a sparkle here and a sparkle there…until the fireflies sparkled in front of the mirror. The reflection in the mirror magnified their twinkle and lit up the whole room. Eventually the girls drifted off to sleep while I stayed awake watching Star Wars played out in the mirror. Similar to fireflies, Paul tells me that I too will be a reflection. “And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.” (2 Cor 3:18 NIV)
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Gail;
----I wish this thought of yours would be given more attention by the leaders in today's churches. I always believed that the ordering of the letter to the Church at Philedelphia was the sixth before the final letter to the Church at Laodicea because it signified the great harvest before the final drying up of earth's field in preparation for the fires of the tribulation. But following the events of many churches in the last decade or so, I see an additional perspective upon that order. As greatly important as evangelism and the mission drive are, they are not the imperative of the church.
----I am certain I have just shocked 99.9% of your readers, including you, and maybe me. But think about it. The beatitudes Jesus gave in the Sermon on the Mount were all about internalizing the laws of God. The essence of Jesus' teaching was the heart of flesh - the life of sincerity before God. Paul presented the idea of the church to the Ephesians as being a holy temple. To the Corinthians he told that the Spirit of God lives in this temple. And in this passage that you quote from II Corinthians, Paul tells us that we all reflect the glory of the Lord.
----We are bid to put on His righteousness and walk in the good deeds in which God determined we should walk before the foundation of the world. With such reflection of glory in the principle of honoring, serving, and pleasing one another, our unity in Him would produce in the observing world the knowledge that Jesus was indeed sent by the Father. Jesus acknowledged that this would come as a result of our unity.(John 17:20) The gospel message is nothing without the sincerity of the heart producing the reflection of Christ.
----Yet the number one imperative to the church has been reaching the lost with such a focus that unity in love was itself lost many, many centuries ago. The reflection was not given serious consideration. The mirror was not kept polished. And now the world no longer desires to look into it since so little still shines in it. Be careful to remember, "...I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing..." is not a good condition for church to fall into. We surely stand at the threshhold of Laodicea.
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