The Word of God

I have been considering of late what it is that we (servants of Jehovah) are. We call ourselves Christians, literally "of Christ", as He spoke of us in John 6:56. We are children of God. We are the body of Christ. We are the Word of God to man.

You may wonder a bit at this last description, as it is how John described Jesus; but I believe it to be accurate of us as well. Consider that we are in Christ and He in us (John 6), in the same way that Jesus is in the Father and the Father in Him (John 10:28). We have the mind of Christ (1 Corinthians 2:16) and we have the Spirit to guide us and "inspire" us. If Christ is the Word of God to man, made flesh, then does not the Word fill us? When we speak, do we not speak the Word of God? When we act, do we not act out the Word that is written on our hearts (Jeremiah 31:33, 2 Corinthians 3:3)? This is what we too often forget: our lives are not separated into religious and secular times, actions, and events but all is entwined as we continuously speak and live out the Word.

We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God.
2 Corinthians 5:20 (NIV)

We are His ambassadors to the world, a full time calling, even as we work and live in the professions to which God has also called us. There are those who use the blessings of God to bless others, both spiritually and physically. I recently came across a recent story (here) about the daughter of an old family friend, Ellen Little. Ellen is a perfect example of using her blessings to bless; led by God to become a doctor, she also heard His call to spread the gospel. She lives in Uganda, providing medical and spiritual aid to all who need. The story I read about her relates how she helped a 1-year old Sudanese girl travel to the U.S.A. to receive multiple heart operations, which saved her life. In this, the girl's family also saw the wonder of Jehovah at work.

What Ellen does is what Sara Groves has called "adding to the beauty". Her latest album, Add to the Beauty, revolves around this theme and a quote from Mother Theresa - "You can do no great things, just small things with great love." This theme of living as beautiful before God has been resonating in my heart, even before I heard Sara Groves' album. In the title song from the album, she proclaims "This is grace, an invitation to be beautiful." We readily seek grace, but are we responding to that grace, adding to the beauty that God works around us?

Are we being His ambassadors, as Paul wrote? Are we living as the Word made flesh, or have we made this worship of Jehovah a part-time job? These questions fill me as I struggle to answer them honestly in my own life.

What about you - where do you find your answer to this struggle?

Tags: Jehovah, Mother Theresa, Sara Groves, Ambassador, Christian Living, Word of God