Take a Look & Act
December 28It was a mirror stare down. Moses sat and looked at himself in the mirror...he was mesmerized by his own beauty or had entered a "don't blink" contest with the bulldog in the mirror. Shooting photo after photo did not phase him. Were the vet's words concerning a needed diet troubling him...he'd only gained 3 pounds!!!! We'd discussed the eyelid surgery years ago and thought he was content to fore go the procedure. Maybe he had New Year's resolutions and needed to confide in another canine. Or maybe he and God were getting real and he was struck by the reality that God was calling him to action.
Nancy Leigh DeMoss had an excellent message today on God's tender mercies. The Greek word for tender she explained is called splanchnon. It means spleen or deep inner part of the body. The message went on to say that when we experience splanchnon towards another...we are to be filled with such compassion that we are motivated to do something about the situation. God's mercy was so deep towards our sinful state that he sent Christ as the redemption for those sins.
When we get face to face with Jesus and allow him to inspect our current state do we take what He reveals and move into action. James' book, thought to be the oldest of the New Testament book, starts off with excellent insight and instruction for us.
James 1:19-25
Post this at all the intersections, dear friends: Lead with your ears, follow up with your tongue, and let anger straggle along in the rear. God's righteousness doesn't grow from human anger. So throw all spoiled virtue and cancerous evil in the garbage. In simple humility, let our gardener, God, landscape you with the Word, making a salvation-garden of your life.
Don't fool yourself into thinking that you are a listener when you are anything but, letting the Word go in one ear and out the other. Act on what you hear! Those who hear and don't act are like those who glance in the mirror, walk away, and two minutes later have no idea who they are, what they look like.
But whoever catches a glimpse of the revealed counsel of God—the free life!—even out of the corner of his eye, and sticks with it, is no distracted scatterbrain but a man or woman of action. That person will find delight and affirmation in the action.
Let's take time to escape today and allow God into the inner most parts of our hearts. What new Kingdom impacting action awaits us in 2012? After we take a look let's step away into action...not oblivion!
