To Look My Very Best Everyday of this New Year!

At first glance, this may seem like a rather odd title for an article on a New Year's Resolution for a Christian! However, we are actually talking of the spiritual dimension here. Now, most people have no objection to wanting to look their very best (outwardly) at all times. Especially for the brand New Year! A lot of people do spend a lot of time, energy and effort in getting their hair done just right, acquiring the most fashionable or latest clothing, doing their beauty treatments etc. They want to start the year out looking their very best! Maybe it's for their spouse or other loved ones. Well, within reason , there is nothing wrong with, “taking care” of yourself with what God has given you to enjoy in this life. It's ok to look your best outwardly. However, wouldn't it be the tragedy of tragedies to look and feel good physically and, yet end up looking sloppy spiritually and unprepared for the Lord's Second Coming ?

God has given us some, “beauty parlour” equipment to help us look our best for His Return! Just as a bride would spend a lot of effort in getting herself prepared for the grand wedding ceremony, so the Bride of Christ should be in front of the mirror also.

The mirror we are talking of is a heavenly glass. It is the Word of God. Christians need to consult it often in order to, “fix-up” any blemishes and beautify themselves for the Bridegroom's sudden appearing! The idea is to look carefully into the Spiritual Mirror so as to take an inventory of (as well as remember) our true inward state before God. This would in turn facilitate taking some proper course of action in order to correct what needs to be corrected.

We are changed or transformed into His image, by the Word of God. As we read the Bible, we can find out what God's Will is for us to be like.

And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what [is] that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.
(Romans 12:2)

James gives us the following warning by the Holy Spirit:

“But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.

For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass:

For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was.

But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.” (James 1:22-25)

We need to believe the Heavenly Mirror and obey according to what you see!

Now, among the most popular New Year's Resolutions made by Christians each year, the commitment to begin and maintain a consistent Bible Reading schedule still remains at or near the top. And so it should! It would be good for all of us to rededicate ourselves to this most noble, profitable and absolutely essential endeavour. Let us look then, at some of the great reasons as to why we should make time for a daily habit of spending some quality time in front of the Spiritual Mirror. We will also look at how to, most effectively read God's Holy Word. Here are just 4 of many great reasons to make the Word #1 in our lives:

1. The Divine Nature of God's Word
   
   “In the Beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.” (John 1:1) The Word is God Himself and in the Bible He is marvellously manifested in written form! This is the most precious and exciting book of all!
   
   
2. The Desperate Need we have for God's Word .
   
   “Thy Word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against Thee.” (Psalms 119:11) Without it we don't even know how we're doing spiritually. We can be easily self-deceived and powerless against sinful temptations without a daily look into God's, “ True to Life ” Mirror.
   
   
3. The Destructive Effects of neglecting God's Word
   
   “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge : because thou hast rejected knowledge , I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children.” (Hosea 4:6)
   
   It is pretty dreadfully, clear that those who reject God's word will ultimately be rejected by God! Consequently, the devil will be able to deceive, ensnare and defeat those people who are ignorant of (or have forgotten) the mighty promises and careful warnings of Almighty God.
   
   
4. The Definite Blessings of “internalising” God's Word
   
   “This Book of the Law shall not depart out of thy mouth but thou shalt meditate therein day and night that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous and then thou shalt have good success.” (Joshua 1:8)
   
   This fourth reason states that Prosperity and Good Success will follow us when we pay attention to and heed God's Word! Need we say more?
   
   That ought to be plenty of good motivation for you to make up your mind and will to seek God in His Word this New Year like never before!

Now, let's look at how to get on a good Bible reading plan as well as how to profit the most from the reading and study of the Holy Bible.

The Lord ultimately is concerned about making us mature in Him and that means even if today happens to be the day that we begin to do what we should have done a long time ago, we can still know that God stands ready to help us. He can and will help us to become, “fully formed in Christ” at His Appearing. By cooperating with Him, we can all reach what we'll call the, “Advanced Christian” Level (coined just for the sake of motivating some of us!)

So, here are the three stages: A. Beginner , B. Intermediate and C. Advanced

A. Consistent - a beginner should concentrate on maintaining a habitual reading pattern (daily at morning and evening). This is quite basic. You will want to get to know the Savior Who is coming back for those who read and keep His Holy Word. You should read the Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. And you can continue reading the New Testament. See what God has for you to “take home with you” as you prayerfully read. Take a verse or two and commit it to memory. You'll be conditioning your mind and heart and body to make certain that you get your daily, “spiritual food and vitamins.” As you get used to seeking God daily like this, the day you miss it or almost miss it will send a feeling of deficiency or malnourishment to your whole system; which is a good thing! You will never regret starting a Bible reading schedule and maintaining it!

B. Consecutive – at the intermediate stage, one starts to read the whole Bible through from cover to cover, book by book from Genesis to Revelation to get a good overview of God's Word and His Divine Plan. Now, at this stage we are beginning to move up closer to where we should be in our Bible reading when Jesus comes back. We are no longer just satisfied with reading here and there for a little bit of milk. We want some of the meat now to make us stronger Christians. Our plan will be to, “gear down” and “get a grip” on the whole thing!

Tell yourself that you want to be informed about God's Ultimate Purposes and that you want to make sure you're in His Righteous Path. You simply start with Genesis and read it like a story first to get, well, the story! You want to get the facts straight. You will also read consecutively from the Gospel of Matthew so as to get a handle on the New Testament story and read through the entire Bible in one year or however long it takes. The main thing is you set a goal of reading the whole Bible through. Don't forget to pause and ask yourself, “What is God saying to me in this chapter or verse?” Take more verses at this stage and commit them to memory. This is a great way to ensure that you won't be in the dark or confused about what exactly went on in Bible times and how it should affect the way you live before a wonderful and Holy Heavenly Father.

C. Comprehensive – finally at what we'll call the advanced level will concentrate on, “ internalizing ” God's Word. We want all of the meat now! We aren't going to settle for just a little bit of strength, we want to be as powerful and spiritual as a Child of God can be. That calls for some exercise of our spiritual senses right about here.

We come to recognize now that we can never be all that God wants us to be unless we get this Word into our system as much as possible like taking in fresh air in a polluted environment. Like having a precise compass and a light in a jungle of deception and darkness. In order to accomplish this and be spiritually looking our very best at the Rapture, we need to look more, “intently” into the “Spiritual Mirror.” Just as we read in the book of James, chapter 1:22-25 . We must take the steps necessary so as not to forget what the Mirror has told us. That is, the mirror will tell us how we really look today. If I begin to look at it in a more detailed fashion, then chances are that I won't be caught off guard with my hair all a mess and my socks mismatched! The chances are greater that I will not be ashamed at His Coming but rather face the Lord with the confidence that He Himself gives those who abide in Him.

“And now, little children, abide in him; that, when he shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before him at his coming.” (1 John 2:28)

Here's how we use this Mirror at the, Advanced stage:

Memorize!

Meditate!

More!

Mix!

1. Memorize - Start to write in your Bible! Underline, highlight and make notes on anything and everything that stands out in your reading. This may be a promise, a warning, an interesting fact etc. Now, get a bunch of 3 by 5 index cards and either write them or type them. Throughout the day consult them until you can recite them from memory. Start slow and then get more verses committed to your memory, as the Lord will surely increase your memory power as reward for seeking His Word! People who have started to memorize one verse a week, have found that they can do 5 or ten verses a week. Pretty soon, they had a thousand or more of God's verses hidden in their heart for a life of godliness that is pleasing to Him. You can begin to group the verses by topic and keep thanking God for making you grow healthy and looking good, longing for Jesus to take you to Himself!

2. Meditate – The verses that you memorize must be further, “internalized” in order for true prosperity and good success to begin to follow us. We have got to use our minds to think about what God is really saying in His Word. We certainly don't want to be like parrots who just repeat what they memorize without understanding. Take a verse or two for the day and keep rolling it over and over in your mind as you ask God to impart His Wisdom from that verse so that you can know what he wants you to do exactly in relation to that particular verse of commandment, exhortation, warning, promise etc. A good time to do this is when you have free time or at night before you go to sleep.

3. More! – A third ingredient to looking your very best daily is to gaze more often into the Spiritual Mirror of Eternity. Go from reading maybe two chapters a day, one from the Old Testament and one from the New Testament to reading like this:

One chapter from Genesis to Malachi (not including the Psalms, Proverbs and Ecclesiastes.)

One chapter from Psalms

One chapter from Proverbs

One chapter from Matthew to John

One chapter from the rest of the New Testament (Acts to Revelation)

Reading from the lives of biblical characters and of God's dealings with them will help to unveil our own nature to ourselves. It will also present the perfect image God is preparing us to take on for His Glory!

Furthermore, the above reading pattern is arranged in such a way as to give the most comprehensive reading of the entire Bible. If you follow the above plan you will be automatically reading from the 5 vital areas of Biblical Revelation:

Historical/Prophetical Praise

Wisdom

Jesus' Life

New Testament Spirit-Led, Living and Future Glory with God

Now that may look like a lot, but it really isn't!

That's only five chapters a day if you do this once a day (2.5 chapters in the morning and 2.5 chapters at night.)

The servant of God and China's greatest evangelist, John Sung used to practice and exhort his followers to read four chapters a day and 11 or so on Sunday. Whatever you believe God would have you do is fine, though. The main thing is to do it and start today!

Another way to excel in gaining skill in the Word of God is to do topical studies like looking up all the instances in the Bible where the word Faith occurs or Love and so on. The depth of spiritual insight to be gained in this manner will astound you! God's looking for just a little bit of diligence on our part in wanting to really know Him intimately and to imitate Him so we can look like Him when He comes back for His own.

4. Mix! – Mix everything you read with more faith than you ever did before! You will find yourself growing by leaps and bounds spiritually and looking fit for our Lord Jesus' Presence when you believe everything you read in His Word.

Note the failure of the (older, unbelieving) evil generation of the Israelites and be careful not to emulate them:

For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it. (Hebrews 4:2)