Reflecting the Character of Jesus

Next Sunday I will begin teaching an adult Sunday School class. I am scheduled to teach two Sundays per month, and the pastor will teach the other two (when there is a five-Sunday month we'll figure it out!). This congregation discontinued Sunday School over a year ago. I am so pleased that the new pastor sees the importance of Bible studies for every age, and is working on building things up again.

The over-all theme for this quarter for all ages is "Character." For the adult class the base Scripture is Galatians 5:22, 23:
     But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

Each lesson takes one "fruit" and uses a Scripture portion that illustrates that quality through an event, a person, or a teaching.

In beginning my preparation for the first lesson, a visual came to me of a group of people holding mirrors. Each mirror is tilted in such a way that it picks up a reflection from another mirror. The first mirror is turned toward Jesus. Therefore, back and forth, from mirror to mirror, the reflection of Jesus moves through the group.

To me, this is what our lives become--as we absorb these character qualities, we are reflecting Jesus to others.

Nothing is less lovely than a person who claims to be a follower of Christ but lives in an attitude of criticism, hatred, self-importance,self-righteousness, and anger. We will never draw others to Jesus if we treat them with an attitude of scorn.

So, this week I am thinking about Love. How do I reflect that quality to others?

Body Parts

Jerry

I woke up quite early this morning. Lying in bed in the dark, my thoughts turned to my husband, Jerry, and some of the things he used to do. I remembered how good he was at connecting with and helping people. He never sought attention for the things he did; he just did them. He spent many hours visiting with people who were too ill or infirm to get out and go to church. He sat with families in the hospital waiting room while they kept vigil for a very ill loved one. He helped people get home from the hospital when they had no transportation, then kept in touch. He listened. He shoveled their walks when it snowed. He mowed grass in the summer. He served them because he was a servant of Christ.

Jerry also could sing or preach or teach or pray in church. He was good at developing group participation. But I think he touched hearts the most by his quiet help, his friendly visits, and his undemanding presence with those most people forgot about.

I do not have these particular people skills, which came from his heart. I feel very awkward with people I don't know well. I get involved in my own little world. Sometimes I feel very guilty because I do not have the kind of outreach Jerry did. I have heard many sermons in my lifetime of church-going in which congregations are encouraged, urged, or scolded in an effort to get them busy winning people to Christ. The congregation may come away feeling they are expected to be out knocking on doors, pursuing people with Bible in hand. Some people may be drawn to Christ through outreach evangelism, some may be drawn through a sermon or lesson they hear in church, but how many are drawn to Christ by the simple loving-kindness of people living out the spirit of Jesus?

When I start getting the guilts over the things I'm just not good at in serving Christ, I remember that this very thing is dealt with in the Scriptures:

For in fact the body is not one member but many. If the foot should say, "Because I am not a hand, I am not of the body," is it therefore not of the body? And if the ear should say, "Because I am not an eye, I am not of the body," is it therefore not of the body? If the whole body were an eye, where would be the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where would be the smelling? But now God has set the members, each one of them, in the body just as He pleased. (I Corinthians 12:14-18 NKJV)

I do need to be more aware of the needs and hurts of people around me. But I also have the abilities and opportunities God gave me, and those are what He expects me to be using. I can't be Jerry, but I must be Michelle.