I found my family’s dream come true. Tonight, I went to church in the basement of a coffee shop. It was likely the closest location to heaven on Earth that I will come across. The coffee shop is called Ebenezer’s. It’s located right next to Union Station making it easily accessible. Down in the basement is the National Community Church pastured by Mark Batterson…which is where I attended tonight : )
The whole service was great, and I’m excited to go back there on future Saturdays. Rather than provide a play-by-play, I’d rather remember a specific point that was made in the sermon.
The context comes from 2 Corinthians 13:5. The verse is: “Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you—unless, of course, you fail the test?”
The course of the sermon was a dissection of this verse. The part that resonated with me most strongly was the dissection of the first section of this verse. As the Pastor was speaking of the ‘examine yourselves’ section, he made a reference to James 1:23-25, when James speaks of the Bible as being a mirror.
To be honest, at first, I had NO idea what he was talking about. He said that we should use the Bible as a mirror to ourselves, so that our reflection is that of the word of God. I was so confused. However, as he went on to explain himself, this concept of the ‘mirror’ became my favorite point in the sermon.
As we live out our daily lives, we reflect what is around us in our actions, words and mentality, whether we know it or not. It may be our hometown, our jobs, or the influence of the relationships we value. These factors will automatically influence our choices, our words and our attitudes. We will always reflect ‘something.’ The question that 2 Corinthians 13:5 prompts is, ‘What will my reflection show?’
James tells us that our reflection should show that we are learning and understanding the Bible. This should be the basis for our actions, choices, words and attitudes. As a result of this question, my goal for the next week is to keep Colossians 3:2-3 in mind. It’s a start. I’m thinking that if I can spend this next week keeping my mind of the things above, with my life hidden in the shadow of Christ, hopefully my actions can start to reflect the virtues of this passage. I can’t promise a success, and I can’t promise I won’t slip up. But I can promise that I will be proactive in trying to change my reflection so that when I look in the mirror, I see the Bible being lived out through me over any other influences.
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