Word of God Online Daily Scripture Reading
Walking Like Christ
God has instructed us and wants us to walk beyond what the Mirror of This World Reflects.
No sooner are we told by Paul that we must act as mirrors of Christ than we recognize that nature has made us to be mirrors, that we cannot but reflect what is passing before us.
You are walking along the street, and, a little child runs before a car; you shrink back as if you were in danger. You see a man fall from a scaffolding, crushed; your face takes on an expression of pain, reflecting what is passing in him. You go and spend an evening with a man much stronger, much purer, much saner, than yourself, and you come away knowing yourself a stronger and a better man.
Why?
Because you are a mirror, because in your inmost nature you have responded to and reflected the good that was in him.
Look into any family, and what do you see? You see the boy, not imitating consciously, but taking on, his father’s looks and attitudes and ways; and as the boy grows up these become his own looks and attitudes and ways. He has reflected his father from one degree of proficiency unto another, from one intimacy, from one day’s observation of his father to another, until he is the image of the old man over again.
“Similarly,” says Paul, “live with Christ; learn to carry His image with you, learn to adore Him, learn to love Him, and infallibly, whether you will or not, by this simple method you will become, Christ over again; you will become conformed, as God means you to become conformed, to the image of His Son.”
This has been tested by the experience of thousands; and it has been found to be a true method. Every one who spends but two minutes in the morning in the observation of Christ, every one who will be at the pains to let the image of Christ rise before him and to remember the purity, the unworldliness, the heavenliness, the godliness of Jesus Christ, that man is the better for this exercise. And how utterly useless is it to offer any other method of sanctification to thousands of our fellow-citizens. How can many of our fellow-citizens soak themselves for prayer? If you ask them to go and pray as you pray in your comfortable home, if you ask them to read the Bible before they go out at five or six o’clock in the morning, do you expect that your word will be followed?
Why, the thing is impossible.
But ask a man to carry Christ with him in his mind, that is a thing he can do; and if he does it once, if only once the man sees Christ before him, realizes that this living Person is with him, and remembers the character of Christ as it is written for us in the Gospels, that man knows that he has made a step in advance, knows that he is the better for it, knows that he does reflect, for a little, even though it be but for a little, the very image of the Lord Jesus Christ; and other people know it also.
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I was reflecting on what you have written and what you say makes perfect sense. If we have to renewed in the mind then it makes sense that where we set our focus everyday will greatly affect our daily experience. Paul gave us his take on this very thing when he said, and I paraphrase I made up my mind to know nothing other than Christ and Him crucified. Before I would only look at this from the aspect of suffering but your posting has made me see it from the love side the integrity side the selfless side of Jesus. The strength of the Spirit and the sheer power of the Love of God which is shed abroad in hearts. All things have truly become new because we are now to able to see things in relation to the cross and it’s victory. For without the cross their is no shedding of the blood. No resurrection and no remission of sins. We gain strength from reflecting on the cross because our struggle against sin barely involves bloodshed. Yet: if it did we could still reflect onthe cross and draw strength from the fact that Jesus did not shrink from it’s shame and suffering but kept His hope set on the promise of Our Father and the glory He would receive. Thank you so much in Jesus’ name for listening to the Spirit and writing this enlightening piece.