Lighthouse Keeper

…and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. Ephesians 4:24 

Your main job as a Christian is to be an image bearer. We are made in the image of God (Genesis 1:27) so we always need to have in front of mind “is this something that Jesus would do or say or express?”

Of course you can find this out by reading the Gospels and studying the ministry of Jesus on earth (Hebrews 1:3) and also through prayer (and reading the entire Bible which points to Jesus and the coming Messiah).

I read a good quote the other day that said “you are an image bearer with work to do, not a work-doer with an image to maintain”. 

So often in the church we see people who are outworking a character of what a good Pastor does or a preacher or a worshipper. There’s a lot of performance and not a whole lot of image bearing. As a result, people get locked onto a supposed call of God on their life and get fixed on the “doing” and forget about the “being”.

How you treat and interact with people is very, very important. How you treat and interact with your family when nobody is  looking is even more important. If you have to steam-roll other people around you for your “ministry” then you’ve missed the point. That’s just charity and general do-gooding. And if you’ve spent any amount of time working in secular or Christian not-for-profit environments you will know they are extremely difficult places to work. Because everyone is saving the world! Everyone is being useful for the cause and trying to achieve some level of self-actualisation and meaning. There’s a whole lot of vanity and “look at me, I’m a good person” going on and not a lot of washing of the feet of your fellow workers. 

• Get out of my way I am serving the poor. 
• I don’t need to answer questions about my ministry because I’m serving the widows and orphans.
• God has put me in charge so I don’t need to communicate with you about this project. 
• God told me to do XYZ. 

All of these things may be true and maybe God has told you to do the good works he has prepared in advance for you to do but how should you go about it? If you are abiding in Jesus He will be constantly pruning and renewing you into His likeness. The image bearer.  So the things we need to be always asking ourselves are:

• Am I outworking what I’ve seen Jesus doing or a character that I’ve seen in church culture?
• Am I preaching like TD Jakes because it’s cool (it is cool, I love TD Jakes) or am I being a vessel for God’s message to the church? Am I performing art Worship to be like Chris Tomlin and look spiritual or am I fixed on Jesus? (2 Timothy 2:20)
• Am I concerned with the welfare of my flock or just how many people show up on Sunday? (John 21:15-17)
• Did I respect the migrant worker at the supermarket and welcome them to my country (Exodus 23:9) or did I have a moan about a mosque being built in town? 

The new self is the Jesus self, we are imitators of God (Ephesians 5:1). Copy Him, study Him and follow Him.