Devo 19
3/27/00
"In His Image"
I hope you all have had a great last couple of weeks. Mine went pretty great especially in that I got to spend a few days in Chicago eating pizza, visiting friends, and looking at monkeys (not always at the zoo!) The next weekend (3/25--Christmas in March!) I went to Kansas City for the day with a friend of mine to see a Waterdeep concert live at the New Earth coffee house--it was AWESOME! Waterdeep probably has the best live show I've seen--Newsboys put on a good show and all, but Waterdeep's improvisational style, and the close atmosphere of the New Earth made the concert an awesome experience. And while I'm talking about favorites in the musical genre...
One of my favorite songs currently on the radio (Christian radio that is) is called "Make Me An Instrument" by the Ragamuffin Band. Musically it is great; it starts quietly with Rick Elias (the lead singer) singing softly this ancient prayer "...it's in dying that I will be born, In giving that I will receive, In loving that I will be loved, This is my faith, it is what I believe." The intensity picks up steadily as he moves on through the verses, with the bass drum kicking in after the first verse to accompany the steady beat on the high hat. And while the music is picking up, you can still feel a little restraint, as if the music is building up to something...and then the voice is back to quiet and the accompaniment backs off a little also. "Christ within me, Christ before me, Christ behind me, Christ above me, Christ beneath me, To left and my right, Christ where I lie, and where I rise..." At this point, moving into my favorite portion of the song, the voice picks up, the music seems to quicken, and the passion is nearly overwhelming..."Christ in the hearts of all who think of me, Christ on the lips of all who speak of me, Christ in the eyes of all who see me, Make me Your instrument Lord, Make me Your instrument Lord, Make me Your instrument Lord, Make me Your instrument Lord!"
To me, the words of this song pretty much sum up everything I think a Christian's life should be. Perhaps a better place to see this (but don't forget about the song, I'm not done with it yet!) is in the Bible; Genesis 1:26,27 to be exact. "Then God said, 'Let us make man in our image, in our likeness'...So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them." This is the Bible's very first description of human beings, and to be honest, it is a very flattering one. God made us in His image! I don't know exactly all the implications of this; are we physically like God? only intellectually like God? both? neither? Whatever the case, it seems likely to assume that when God looked on Adam and Eve, He was reminded of Himself. To me, that's what it means to be made in the image of God. To be made in such a way so that anyone looking at me would be reminded of God. It's kind of similar to what is known as the "artist's voice". The "artist's voice" is essentially a style that uniquely sets apart an artist's work from all others. It's what distinguishes a Mozart concerto from one of Beethoven's, or a Max Lucado book from one by C.S. Lewis. In fact, if the artist's voice is distinct enough, the astute observer could determine the artist based on an examination of the work alone. This is how I believe humans were created, as God's distinguishing mark--His voice--on creation. And this in what I believe the Ragamuffin song to be encouraging as well.
Look again at the climatic portion of the song; "Christ in the hearts of all who think of me, Christ on the lips of all who speak of me, Christ in the eyes of all who see me." Our lives are to be so like Christ's, that whenever people think, talk, or see us, Christ should be the focus. At the very least, non-believers should be able to see a distinction in our lives that sets us apart from other non-believers. In this culture where the Bible is under constant attacked as nothing more than a collection of archaic morals and legends, it is especially important that our lives are such that would compel these people to investigate Christianity themselves. As unfair as it sounds, people out there are actually basing their ideas of Christianity and of God on their observations of Christians. I see it a lot in the newspapers, where a columnist would argue against 'close-minded' Christianity based on the hypocrisy they have observed in Christians. And a lot of times, their observations are accurate. Do you see, then, why it was so important that God commanded 'Be Holy, for I am Holy'? Michael W. Smith answered this in his song 'Live the Life'; "For the world to know the truth, there can be no greater proof, than to live the life."
This is a huge responsibility, and one that I'm afraid I can't always live up to--and to be very honest, one that I don't always WANT to live up to. It can be easy at times to slip into the 'what about me' mentality. But I pray that as I learn more about God, and spend more time with Him that I would be 'transformed by the renewing of my mind'. Sometimes this takes a conscious effort on my part to swallow whatever pride I'm choking on and do what I know is right. It is my prayer that God would hide me from the eyes of unbelievers in my moments of self-indulgence. I don't say this to justify further sinful actions on my part, but rather as an acknowledgment of my imperfection. I believe that as a Christian, Christ can take my imperfections and turn them into weapons for Himself--but only if I am willing to use them for His sake.
Becoming Christ-like, image bearers of God can't happen overnight. It takes a daily effort and constant evaluation of desires and motives. But if I can bring a person closer to God just through my actions, then I think it is worth it.
I had planned on talking of my all-time favorite song while on the subject of music, but I think that would make this devo longer than need be, and also prove too great a shift in subject--so maybe next week.
Until then...