Your Life in Pictures

Scripture Reading: Mt 5:16 "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven."

Did you ever want to be a movie star? Lots of kids after seeing their first movie, aspire to be one. They will get out in the backyard and act out some story they make up. Sometimes the stories are good, but most times they make no sense. I remember trying to make a short movie when video first came about, it didn't make sense. Actually I am older than video and remember loading and 8mm camera, to give it a go, to no avail. However that attention people give to actors/actresses does something for the human ego. Being in front of the camera makes some folks feel important, while others it makes nervous.

Making movies is what I studied in school. I can tell you to professionally make a film involves a lot of hard work. One of the more time consuming job is the editing process. You spend long hours going over and over footage to get it trimmed to the right length. When you think you have it right, it needs more! You see a lot of pictures this way. In fact, for every second the camera is on, it takes either 24 or 30 pictures per second! Each one of these pictures is called a frame. Frames added together make movies, after all, a movie is only a whole lot of still pictures hurriedly shown together one after another. Its nice to have a smooth running film with none of the frames damaged or have any marks on them. Yet, with so many frames there are bound to be a few that are undesirable. Such as it is in our lives. Every moment of every day we present a picture or frame to someone, hopefully those frames are good ones, sometimes we would rather edit out the bad ones.

Our lives compose of stuff and events that all compacts together to make us who we are and who others see us to be. In the old days of film editing, we would have a rack of small reels, which would contain clips of different stuff. You would label that clip and then run it through a viewer to see how it fit with whatever subject or story you would show in your film. It is true that most of a film's footage never gets seen for either it was shot wrong or just didn't help support the topic. How many times in our lives have we said of done something that does not really support who we are in Christ? Wouldn't it be nice to pull off the shelf that bad statement, thought, action, etc and toss it? This is what Christ does when He forgives us. Our bad parts are taken out completely never to be reviewed by anyone.

Physical cutting of film is something necessary to produce a good film. Likewise there are things in life we must physically cut out of our lives or abstain from altogether. Things that seem to fit or seem to be okay, just not our best, are just the things that can be the most harmful. We all would agree that drugs and alcohol is bad for us and certainly hurts our bodies as well as our testimony, it is the seemingly Innocent things that do more damage. The innocent matters of life when compiled stifle our spiritual walk. So many times we get caught up in the temporal that we forget the eternal. This is when we know its time to cut out certain habits, favorites, etc. When God gets lost in the stuff of our lives then the picture we present to others isn't very clear. Its hard to tell a story when you go off on rabbit trails from the main subject. Its hard to show a film that has a lot of extraneous content and tell a story with it. Such it is with your life and showing Christ.

Handling a film with gloves is necessary to prevent scratching and other marring influences. In life we need to handle ourselves carefully according to God's Word. The "Gloves" of the Word protect us from all sorts of failure, fears, doubts, ideas, bad habits, etc. Gloves also clean off dirt that lays on the surface of the film. The Word of God likewise helps us identify and clean areas of our lives that become soiled with sin. The problem is we don't always like to wear gloves. We like to think we can do things pretty well on our own. Some Christians believe themselves to be so spiritually strong that they can look out for themselves. Tragically, when we don't wear the gloves of the Word we end up in bad shape and bring others down with us. Without the correction and protection of the Word, our lives become so dirty that they become unusable, just like film that is not cleaned. A dirty film does not project well. It misses and jumps in the projector and does not show a clear image. Dirt builds up and shows in the projected image as well. So it is with our lives. We don't take the time to clean spiritual selves, we present a poor quality picture to the world around us.

Did you ever think yourself to be in "pictures?" Whether you want to be or not, we are. The good news is that it is God who is doing the editing, if we let Him. He alone makes a finished picture of our lives a masterpiece and a great story of His redemption. It is so important we take aim not to present anything to the all watching world as a deterrent from them seeing Christ projected.

When people see a compelling and clear projected film, it changes some part of them. When people see us, how do they visualize Christ? How clear is our life and example of what others should desire for themselves?

Lord, how guilty we often are of not showing our best of what You have done in us for others to see. Help us Lord to examine our lives and project the best example and testimony we can to win others to you and for others to be an encouragement. Thank You for taking an interest in us to be involved with our lives. We praise You and love You Lord. In Your Name, Amen.

Reunion Grounds

Scripture Reading: Acts 16:26-28a
And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation; That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us: For in him we live, and move, and have our being;

Mid to late summer in America, particularly in the South, is usually the time for family reunions. Family reunions as well as community or church reunions are always well populated if the interest is kept alive. I can remember going to reunions at the "reunion grounds" usually out in the country. Reunion grounds was sort of a privately owned place that a family owned but let other families gather to get together and renew acquaintances.

I can remember several reunions as a small boy. I can remember lots of folks coming down the dusty roads. Kids pulling out bikes to ride around. Men would gather to throw horseshoes. People would surround themselves with too much food. Of course the familiar scene would be old folks who were the "patriarchs" of the family. You would hear them tell of their lives and describe their past and get a connection with places and faces long gone.

The eeriest part though is when everyone packed up to go home and the reunion grounds became desolate and silent. No more was there the joyous noises of folks together or the clanging of horseshoes or laughter. If the reunion grounds were near a churchyard all the remainders was the loved ones buried in the ground. Its too bad reunions aren't more frequent.

That being said we turn our attention to the real matter at hand, our relationship with Jesus Christ. How often do we meet with Him? How often do we find ourselves reuniting our hearts and spirit with Him?

Christians today often treat the Master as they treat earthly family, they see each other or talk to each other seldom. They of course desire to get together more often, but it doesn't happen as planned. A person who has little or no relationship with Christ is the same way. We desire to be close to Him, but our desires vs. our actions don't align. We forget how much that He wants us to draw near to Him, and in turn we forget how much we need to draw near to Him, that is, until something bad happens to us.

Walking and reuniting with Christ is the following things:

1. A daily desire and action put into practice
2. A time set aside to shut out all else and draw near in prayer and reading the Word
3. A time of introspect and desire to change our lives in line with His
4. A time of praise and worship in song and in meditation of how great God is and how smallwe are.
5. A time when we bring our needs before Him and depend on Him
6. A time spent just talking as we would to an earthly parent of friend

In summary, walking with Christ really isn't a annual or weekly thing, but a daily exercise, and not one out of obligation but of desire.

Unfortunately, some have it in mind that the reunion with ourselves and Christ occur in the walls of the church on Sunday. While this is certainly the highlight of our week it is not meant to be the total time we spend with Him. Daily walk is key. Some Christians treat church as a reunion ground cemetery. They come to visit with God, but as soon as the Amen is said, they "leave" Him in the pew, on the wall, or anywhere on the church site while we go our own way. "Oh we will be back!" Yet many don't even come to the evening service they full well know their church is having because it interferes with their plans.

You're not going to like this.... If we do not attend on a regular basis, our church services both morning and evening, plus midweek because of whatever reason except for work hours or ill-health, or the few times we need to be away, what we are really saying is that Christ is getting in the way of our lives and our plans, taking more time than He should. Such is the case when God is left at the Reunion Grounds.

Are any of us perfected in our time spent with God? No. Should I personally be spending more time with God? Yes. He spends every minute with us. Of course we cannot read our Bibles all the time, but we can always talk to Him and include Him in our plans, our purchases, our decisions, our future goals, etc. After all, He is in charge of all the previous matters of life, so we should spend time with Him, for these reasons, but moreover out of love and appreciation for His Love to us.

Make sure this week that you take on spending more time with God. Don't leave God at the Reunion Grounds while you spiritually "drive off" to come again one of these days.

The old hymn says, "Take the Name of Jesus with you, child of sorrow and of woe. It will joy and comfort give you, take it then where e'er you go."

Lord, help us to make a regular desiring practice of spending time with You. Amidst our busy life and schedules help us to remember that You need to be in the center and before all things. Forgive us as we fail to do this so often. May this week be one of change towards devotion to You this week we pray, Amen.