Every morning as I look through the Easton Express-Times, one stop I make is on the editorial page. In addition to the syndicated columnists, I read the letters to the editor sent by local people. There I find some fascinating glimpses into the minds of other people- open letters that reveal both brilliance and stupidity, insight and ignorance! Some are angry diatribes, others laud some person or program. Some rail on religion. Some are written just to make a point that somebody feels isn't being made in the press. Perhaps I read them with such interest because, for years, I was a regular 'letter to the editor' writer!
The Bible says that our lives, Believer, are an open letter to the world! The Living God writes His message on our hearts and sends us out before an unbelieving world where His message can be read. Isn't that just amazing? God, the Omnipotent Creator, chooses to make Himself known through the lives of common folk, ordinary flawed people.
Here's the way it reads: "Clearly, you are a letter from Christ prepared by us. It is written not with pen and ink, but with the Spirit of the living God. It is carved not on stone, but on human hearts. We are confident of all this because of our great trust in God through Christ. It is not that we think we can do anything of lasting value by ourselves. Our only power and success come from God. He is the one who has enabled us to represent his new covenant. This is a covenant, not of written laws, but of the Spirit. The old way ends in death; in the new way, the Holy Spirit gives life." [2 Cor. 3:3-6 NLT] Paul weaves several thoughts into that paragraph but the one on which I am focused today is the one about the Spirit's writing the Message on our hearts!
What does this really mean? It means that as the Holy Spirit of God works a transformational process in us, the results are visible.
By way of example, we see the Spirit changes a selfish man into a loving one, a greedy person into a generous one, a fearful woman into a faith-filled one. In my work as a Pastor, there is nothing that gives me more joy than seeing a person begin to respond to God's work in their mind and heart. Last week, a woman who has just been through a divorce wrote to me about her fear as the breakup developed. At the time she was just beginning to open her life to God's work in new ways. (I have her permission to share this!) She said, "So, I did all I could do - I prayed. I told God that I didn't understand why this was happening but to please give me the strength to do all the right things. I told Him that I am just lying in His arms. Soon thereafter I had the overwhelming feeling that I should just forgive F. (her former husband) and let it go. I understood that he was a lost soul with nothing that really mattered. My anger and resentment just went away. With that came a peace and comfort that I never experienced before." Later in that note, she relates the way that he saw God's work in her. "He told me that he really sees how Jesus has effected my life, how peaceful I seem."
There it is! An open letter read clearly and proclaiming to all who read her life that God is a Living God, active in this world. I know some would argue that if God were really present, there would be no divorce, no suffering. Ah, that ignores the very real fact that He allows us to choose our own way! Even those of us in whom the Spirit is living and active have a responsibility to cooperate with His work. Sometimes God's letter gets garbled by our willful disobedience! That is why we read this entreaty - {Eph 4:1 NLT} "I beg you to lead a life worthy of your calling, for you have been called by God."
Our high calling is to live as an open letter, written by Christ by the transformational power of the Spirit. We cannot live this way by sheer will, by high aspiration, by training, or self-discipline. Those things certainly play a part, but the 'writing' is done by the finger of God in our heart! Let Him write large, bold letters on you today, won't you? Let the Message be read by everyone who looks at you, so that they say - God lives!
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