by David Brenneman
"Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, as some, letters of commendation to you or from you? You are our letter, written in our hearts, known and read by all men; being manifested that you are a letter of Christ, cared for by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts. Such confidence we have through Christ toward God. Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God, who also made us adequate as servants of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life." 2 Corinthians 3:1-6.
You probably don't think of yourself as a writer, but as we read here, everyone is. Either by way of paper, walls, memorials, verbally or other means, memories are made and all are recorded.
For those who are saved Jesus has forgiven their sins and remembers them no more. For us it's a different matter with our sin cursed bodies. We remember most things we have done in our lives. We mostly remember our daily life.
But have you considered the phrase "You never get a second chance to make a first impression". Even the suggested words in this app that I am using knew of it.
You write on the hearts of those you interact with. You do even if you don't realize it. We are either planting seeds, discovering seeds, cultivating or harvesting. We are doing this in our everyday life with ourselves and others.
In Christ we are to be in the Word of God to feed on it and to grow in it. We should record what we learned to both remember and to share with others. We write when we do this.
We interact with people and be it in small ways or big we write something upon their hearts and minds.
There's nobody who's inconsequential in this world. All life begins with Jesus Christ. He is the Creator of all that lives and breathes. There are no accidents in life coming into this world. If God permitted it there's a valid reason for it. Regardless of the circumstances behind it.
Look at the people of the Old Testament. Abraham for one. Samuel's mother is another.
We write all the time. Think of this...ever have words you wish you could take back? It's because you wrote something that you wish you hadn't.
King Solomon wrote of many things in Proverbs as well as a few other books. We read those and try to write them on our own hearts.
It's not easy but measuring your words is what you are to be doing.
Atypically we get embarrassed or we say even more than should be said.
Then we try to figure out what to say to fix what had happened.
I often am struggling with not thinking before talking. There's times when I am asked something "spiritual" and what comes out of me is certainly only from God. The Spirit takes over and even I am in awe.
The Bible says that Pastors are held to a higher level of accountability that these men of God should consider well what they preach because of this. It's partly because they are writing on the hearts and minds of their listeners.
At the end of things, we all will give an account of our lives before Jesus. That is everything we have done and said and thought.
What will your story say of you?
Are you thinking about the things that are going to grow you in Christ or do you spend more time with things that don't?
Even in this moment of reading you are writing.
What we do with what God's given us is on us.
The Spirit teaches us. That teaching isn't for us to hold onto. But to share with others.
Think about the impressions you make today. As someone said you either are listening or talking, you're not doing both.
You will probably have the opportunity today to write in yourself and others...choose wisely what you are writing.
We're on the right track when we are seeking first His kingdom and His righteousness.
Write with "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul and spirit. Love your neighbor as yourself" in mind.
Set your mind on the things that are above and not on the things that are of this world.
All NASB 1995 and NASB Scripture Excerpts used by permission. (C) Lockman Foundation.
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