{"id":689,"date":"2011-10-19T00:13:26","date_gmt":"2011-10-19T05:13:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wordsfromthehomefront.com\/?p=689"},"modified":"2016-11-03T00:14:24","modified_gmt":"2016-11-03T05:14:24","slug":"what-reflection-do-i-see","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordsfromthehomefront.com\/index.php\/2011\/10\/19\/what-reflection-do-i-see\/","title":{"rendered":"What Reflection do I see?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;\">\n<p style=\"margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 15px;\"><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;\">I&#8217;ve been thinking recently, dangerous I know&#8230; Bear with me on this because what I&#8217;ve been thinking about may leave you as bemused as I have been. When I was younger, I wore slogan t-shirts-the ultimate personal statement and walking adverts for whatever or whoever you like.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;\">\n<p style=\"margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 15px;\"><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;\">Now, there&#8217;s Jewelry, coffee mugs, notebooks; you name it, it has a slogan. Most of this is innocuous and just what it says it is: advertising. As a believer, I&#8217;m not sure just how this fits into what I understand and believe about God and His Word.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;\">\n<p style=\"margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 15px;\"><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;\">Does God want, need, or approve of our blazoning announcements claiming &#8220;God is my co-pilot&#8221;, &#8220;WWJD&#8221;, &#8220;Peter&#8217;s bait and tackle shop-we are fishers of men&#8221;, etc. ? Or has our focus become trivialized? And, if so, has that trivialized our faith? Watered it down so to speak; given us a crutch to excuse the lack of a verbal witness?<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;\">\n<p style=\"margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 15px;\"><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;\">The more I read in Scripture, the more I begin to think about how we represent Him to others; and the more I begin to think, the more I wonder about how our culture fits into His design for us. I&#8217;ve worn the t-shirts that proclaimed my belief. I thought at the time that I was making a statement of who I am and what I believe.\u00a0 Not once did those shirts spark up an interest from the public to ask me about them &#8211; an interaction involving a verbal witness to another person did not occur. I was a &#8220;silent&#8221; witness, but a walking advert.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;\">\n<p style=\"margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 15px;\"><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;\">BUT, being myself and being the best reflection of Christ to a fallen world that I can be is easier said than done. Putting on those shirts, carrying a mug or notebook, sticker on the car- we all can do those things. However, being an intentional, walking, talking reflection of Jesus&#8230;.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;\">\n<p style=\"margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 15px;\"><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;\">News flash, Nancy- if I claim to be a Christian, I am already reflecting Jesus to the world whether I realize it or not.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<div style=\"color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;\">\n<p style=\"margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 15px;\"><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;\">OUCH<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<div style=\"color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;\">\n<p style=\"margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 15px;\"><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;\">Paul, in his letter to the Philippians said this:\u00a0<span style=\"color: #000080;\"><em>Whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. Philippians 1:27a<\/em><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;\">\n<p style=\"margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 15px;\"><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;\">Earlier in chapter one, he also said the following in reference to the news that there were people out there pretending to be Christians, I suppose, to get attention:<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;\">\n<p style=\"margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 15px;\"><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt; color: #000080;\"><em>But what does it matter? The important thing is that in every way, whether from false motives or true, Christ is preached. And because of this I rejoice. Philippians 1:18\u00a0<\/em>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;\">\n<p style=\"margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 15px;\"><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;\">There&#8217;s the answer to my original question, one that I was not actively looking for, but God supplied. Regardless of how or why Jesus is presented to the world He will take care of how it&#8217;s received. In other words, MYOB, God will protect His Name. So there it is, course correction required. Stop with the critical thinking already, Nancy, and start living!\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;\">\n<p style=\"margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 15px;\"><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;\">Reflect Jesus to the world and He will be glorified!<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;\">\n<p style=\"margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 15px;\"><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva; font-size: 12pt;\">more to come on this&#8230;<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;ve been thinking recently, dangerous I know&#8230; Bear with me on this because what I&#8217;ve been thinking about may leave you as bemused as I have been. When I was younger, I wore slogan t-shirts-the ultimate personal statement and walking adverts for whatever or whoever you like.\u00a0 Now, there&#8217;s Jewelry, coffee mugs, notebooks; you name &#8230; <a title=\"What Reflection do I see?\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/wordsfromthehomefront.com\/index.php\/2011\/10\/19\/what-reflection-do-i-see\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about What Reflection do I see?\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-689","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordsfromthehomefront.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/689","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordsfromthehomefront.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordsfromthehomefront.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordsfromthehomefront.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordsfromthehomefront.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=689"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wordsfromthehomefront.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/689\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":690,"href":"https:\/\/wordsfromthehomefront.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/689\/revisions\/690"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordsfromthehomefront.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=689"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordsfromthehomefront.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=689"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordsfromthehomefront.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=689"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}