reflections in a mirror
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 from the Lord, the Spirit.
WARNING: Objects in the mirror are closer than they appear!
The truth is, God's transforming power isn’t this distant existence that we won’t discover until we are 6 feet underground and our spirits are in heaven. Anything that has separated us from God, has been removed through the power of Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross. There are people today that have an opportunity to follow THE LIVING GOD for the first time and their lives will never be the same. I believe many of you reading are already Christians that will decide to become true FOLLOWERS of Jesus. Too many of us feel stuck. What we are doing isn’t working and yet we feel this burning desire that there must be more. The truth is, Jesus didn’t come for you to live half alive. There is a secret to living the life that you were created for, to living fully alive. What would it look like to be filled with the power of God, access a life of miracles, and walk in your God given destiny and calling?
I grew up going to church every Sunday. As a little girl, I would stand next to my mom and lift my hands in worship. I experienced the presence of God, witnessed his miraculous provision for our family and loved singing about His transforming love and power. When my mom was saved she immediately began an “ALL-IN” relationship with Jesus. She had been through too much shame and brokenness to just simply adopt a new set of rules through religious practices. She needed something that worked, and only a resurrected savior can actually help you thrive in the world we live in today. Approximately 73% of America is considered evangelical Christian. Yet, when we watch the news, walk down the street, enter our schools - it seems as though 50% have gone missing.
We read in Matthew an interesting story of Jesus “on His way” being interrupted by a problem. An influential Jewish leader had approached Jesus because his daughter had just died. The streets were filled with rumors of Jesus’ miraculous power and the Jewish leader was desperate. We read:
Matthew 9:23-26
When Jesus finally entered the home of the Jewish leader, he saw a noisy crowd of mourners, wailing and playing a funeral dirge on their flutes. 24 He told them, “You must leave, for the little girl is not dead; she’s only asleep.” Then everyone began to ridicule him.
25 After he made the crowd go outside, he went into the girl’s room and gently took hold of her hand. She immediately stood to her feet! 26 And the news of this incredible miracle spread everywhere.
I see two powerful things represented in this story. I believe for many of us, our dreams, passions, “gifts”, and callings have become dormant in our lives. In my mom’s case, she was always told that she was a “loser”, and would never accomplish any kind of greatness. When she encountered the love of Jesus, she came alive.
How often do we dread Mondays, waiting for the weekend to experience some glimmer of relief from the 9 to 5 jobs that are bogging us down? We surround ourselves with the hopeless elite. They have huge homes, designer watches, new cars and are the noisy crowd of slaves that scream from the rooftops “HUSTLE, HUSTLE, MAKE IT HAPPEN.” Our souls are desperate for life, so we file into church on Sunday and lift our hands in worship for a glimpse of hope. Then we sit quietly, in our rows, in the same seat we sit in week after week, hoping that a 45 minute message will drown out the week of gossip, complaining and negativity from our co-workers, media and the world around us. The question is, is it working?
I believe the young girl in the story not only represents you and I, but the American Church at large. The newspaper headlines proclaim “The Church in America is Dead” and from appearances, that can seem accurate. Don’t get me wrong, the venues on Sunday remain full, but on Monday at the office we seem to have forgotten all that inspired us just 24 hours earlier.
The time is NOW that Jesus is waking up HIS Church. When he held the hand of the little girl, it says she immediately “stood to her feet”. It is time for the Church, the body of believers to be ALIVE, AWAKE and ACTIVE in their God given calling and identity.
