Tuesday, May 1, 2012

Portray Him Well


You are the only Bible some unbelievers will ever read, and your life is under scrutiny every day. What do others learn from you? Do they see an accurate picture of your God?     via John MacArthur

 I don’t know about other people but in my library at home I have several different translations of the Bible. Currently as my Bible study group begins to journey thru the Bible from the beginning to the end chronologically we are looking for good examples and bad samples. To take advantage of the situation and how slow we plan to go I decided to read it each week from three of my translations.  My NKJV, Amplified, and Chronological study Bible. I’m using it as an excuse to read thru three Bibles cover to cover. By the end I should have a good picture of the characters we are reading about don’t you think?

In our study one of the questions we ask ourselves weekly is “What can we learn from our Bible Buddies?” Talk about being under scrutiny! Their lives were written down for millions of people to read over the centuries. I’m sure some of them if they were given a choice would have asked to have some of the details of their lives left out but they didn’t get that option. All they did and shouldn’t have done is there for all to see and read.

The stories of our lives will never make the Bible but don’t ever doubt that how we live our lives may turn out to be the only form of a “Bible” some unbelievers will ever read.  When we make the decision to follow in Jesus’ footsteps it is our job to work daily on painting that accurate picture of Christ in our lives. It’s our task to live in such a manner that when people see us and how we behave they see Jesus.

Even Jesus said, “If you have seen me you have seen the Father.” Is that true with our own lives? How our picture of God turns out depends on us. It’s our task to work at it constantly until we get it where it needs to be. It may take some backtracking, changes, touch ups here and there but it’s something we can’t give up on.

Back in the 80’s when I was learning to oil paint one of the assignments in class was to paint a picture of the ocean. It was the hardest assignment I ever had to do. No matter how hard I tried it just didn’t seem like it was working out right. It looked nothing like the other students and definitely was never close to what the teacher painted.  Finally after seeing me struggle to get it right the teacher finally came over to where I was. From there she took over my paintbrush and brought to life the canvas of assorted colors I was working on.

Someday Jesus will do the same for us as our Teacher but until then class is still in. As we attend class and struggle with getting the picture of Christ right we need to be willing to hand over our paintbrush. Hand it over to Christ in order for Him to bring to life the canvas of our lives. In our journey there will be times of good examples and bad samples but in the end we need to all be telling the same story.                                                                        

In the different translations of the Bible the difference between them can be changing a “thee” to a “thou” or “maketh” to “make” but they still all should come out with the same accurate picture of Christ for us to portray.  Same with living as an example of Christ the only difference between one Christian to another should be the way they talk, the depth of their relationship with the Lord, what their best spiritual fruit is, or the extent of their gift from God.

In the end when the painting is completed we should all be painting the same picture. A picture that others can learn from on what Christ is like. If asked, “what can I learn from the Bible buddy in my life?” we need to make sure there is something there others can learn from. We had the privilege of learning from others and our lives should be no different. The picture of Christ has been passed down through many generations, the portrait is now in our hands let us pass it on the best way we can in good examples set forth that leads others to Christ.

It’s our turn to pass the baton, let’s do it well. Let's portray Him well.



© 2012 Karen Gillett @ Pencil Marks and Recipes

2 comments:

Marsha Young said...

Indeed, Karen, may we portray Him well. blessings to you - Marsha

Sunflower Faith said...

Wow....the imagery you shared through your post was powerful and mindful!

It's true...what are we painting of Him?