Letters

2 Cor. 3:3 "Clearly, you are an epistle of Christ, ministered by us, written not with ink but by the Spirit of God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of flesh, that is, of the heart."

Letters. Anymore they are kind of old fashioned. I mean, with e-mail and text messaging and IMing and blogging, actual letters written by hand on a piece of paper sent by snail mail are kind of out of date...but, let's admit it, they are something special to receive. I still like to go to the mailbox and pull out a hand written letter by someone. There is something different about it that shows me that this person cares. (I have to apologize to my girls...they did not get many letters from me while they were in college...sorry.)

Look at what Paul says: "You are a visible letter of Jesus that we serve, not written with ink but written by the Spirit of the living God of the universe, not written on the flat surface of a piece of paper, but written in your physical body, that is on the surface of the character of all that you are inside." (My translation.)

I am a visible letter of Jesus. I am someone that the Spirit of the living God is writing. He is writing the letter of Jesus in my inner person, in the very center of who I am, the character in me that makes me live and move and think. The question that I ask is: "What is He writing?" "What are people reading when they see me, when they hear me talk, when they see the decisions that I make?" Are my words and actions a hand written letter by the Spirit of God that they really want to receive or is there a contradition there? Are they instead reading a quick, emotionless e-mail from Glen that is written in my flesh?

I want to be a visible letter of Jesus to others. I want them to see His heart through my heart. I want the Spirit of God to be the Author. Lord, help me to be your letter to others...expressing your words, engaging in your actions, communicating your heart.