Wednesday's Word - Personal Portraits

Hello All,
Okay, this should be fun. Take out a blank piece of drawing paper. Well, you may not be in an appropriate situation at the moment to do that so let’s try it a different way. Imagine a clear area. Now in that clear area, mentally draw a picture of Jesus. What picture you got? Is it Jesus with the sheep saddled over His shoulders? Is He smiling? Praying? Is He the King mounted on an elaborately dressed horse in Glorious Splendor? Now answer me this, What did you use for your picture? Pure imagination? Something that stuck in your mind from TV, or from the walls of a church or Christian book store you’ve visited? Well, your personal portrait of Jesus and the Inspiration behind it is the topic of the day.

Here’s The Word:

Colossians 3:10 And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him:

Romans 8:14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.

2 Corinthians 3:18 But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.

It really would’ve been a great experiment to have everyone take paper and a pencil and draw Jesus. You know why? Because every portrait would’ve been singularly unique. That’s the wonderful thing about our personality. Many people have a hard time reconciling our distinct personality with the idea that we’re all being transformed into the image of Christ. Do we lose our personality? I believe that the distinctness of our personality is a gift from God and being so, it’s preserved in the transformation. As C.S. Lewis puts it in The Screwtape Letters (once we get rid of our selfishness) “He really gives them back all their personality, and boasts (I am afraid, sincerely) that when they are wholly His they will be more themselves than ever.”

As Christians living for Christ, our very lives are the development of a portrait of Jesus Christ. It’s a portrait that is expressed with our own flair or creativity or personality. The Holy Spirit is the Inspiration that keeps us on the right track to producing a picture pleasing to The Father. He reveals Jesus directly to our hearts. So how’s your picture turning out? If you’re motivated by self, don’t be surprised by your end result; a Self Portrait. If you’re picture is missing a certain something, make sure you’re using the Right Inspiration. Because of your personality, something about it will be uniquely beautiful. It will be Jesus, but it will be your own Personal Portrait of Him.

In Him,
Cros