Make Him smile.

There is a married couple. The husband absolutely adores his wife. He does everything within his power to make her comfortable and happy. He consistently tires himself for her benefit. The wife, however, does not reciprocate this. She does nothing for him and rarely thanks him because she takes everything for granted. Yet, in spite of this, the husband continues to try and please her; he works hard in the hope that she may glance a smile at him. Onlookers wonder how long he will keep it up, but he has already married her for more than fifty years.

    You might say that is a very hypothetical story, but actually, it's true. The husband is none other than the Lord Jesus Christ; the wife is his church. Jesus has continually loved us. He has saved us and died for us. He provides for us, makes promises to us, protects us, helps us and much more besides. He has faithfully done this for years. His church, however, for the most part does her own thing, forgets to thank Him, takes all her benefits for granted and rarely spends time with Him.

    Now suppose the wife begins to smile at her husband and greets him and begins to do little somethings for him. Would not his heart be filled with joy? Do you not suppose he would rejoice and would hardly sleep for happiness?

    Church, you are the bride. Seek to fill your husband with joy. You can look at the Bible as a boring list of rules and regulations if you want. But why not look at it as a book containing hints as to what your husband likes and would be overjoyed to see in His beloved bride. As His wife, surely you should desire to make His heart glad, and will long to read His Word to find "little somethings" you can do for Him.

Of the race of Christ!

    What do I mean when I call myself a Christian? Well, I like to think of it this way. A European is somebody from Europe, an Asian is a person from Asia, an African is someone of the African race and a Christian is somebody of the race of Christ. God says we can become the sons of God if we receive Him and believe on Him. (John 1:12)
    Now, you can often tell where a person is from when you see them (colour of skin, type of hair, shape of the face and facial parts and by their accent), so if I am a Christian I should look like Christ. Now, this will not be a change physically. When a became a Christian I didn't develop a Christian nose. No, these Christlike features are internal, but, they should shine through me so that others should notice and say, "Look at him, there is something different about him. He must have God living inside of Him." That is how I want to be. Nothing less of that, I hope, should ever satisfy me.
    But how does this happen? Well, because it is internal and deals with my character, no amount of make-up or surgery will do this. This requires the Holy Spirit and me to work together to shape my character to that of Jesus Christ. It takes the Holy Spirit to do the shaping and me to do the yielding. God will not force me; I have to be willing. I have to be receptive to the movement of His hands over my lump of clay. I also need to seek out His Word and see what is says about being holy and how I should live as His son. Now, I could post up all the Bible verses there are about that here. But, that would require me typing out the whole Bible. So, I may go to my room, pick up that Bible and read it thoroughly and see for myself how to radiate His life and light. And I urge you too, reader, to do the same.
    Be a Christian!