Happy Labor Day

Mirror Images

Michael Caine is one of the most accomplished actors of my lifetime. When he was asked to describe what acting really is, he said, “Some actors hold up a picture and say look at me. I hold up a mirror and say look at you.”

Those teachers in my life who most influenced me were not always the brightest or the ones with the most wit. My life has been molded by those gifted people who taught me to look at myself. They didn't berate me with rules I couldn't follow, or demands which I might learn to despise. What they did was hold up the Word of God as a mirror to show me my life as God saw it, and allow me to see the desperate need I had to become more than I was.

As a Jew, Jesus was taught that Samaritans were defiled due to their religion and culture. But when he came upon an immoral woman of Samaria, who was even despised by her own people, our Lord looked beyond their differences of race, religion, gender and culture and invited her to drink deeply of Living Water. He saw her for who she was and taught her to see herself for what she could become (John 4).

Your greatest hour will come when, by simply teaching what the Bible says, you enable someone to grow by using a mirror instead of a rod of criticism. This takes superior grace and wisdom. It is precisely the method of teaching Jesus used in the parables, helping his audience to SEE and FEEL who they really were.

GospeLines Prayer: Heavenly Father, make me less apt to lecture and more prone to love my neighbor as myself; less critical and more Christ-like; less haughty about my elevated spiritual stature and more humble in my witness.' Amen and amen.

Tommy Harrison

Daily Smile:

Baptism

A father is in church with three of his young children, including his five year old daughter.

As was customary, he sat in the very front row so that the children could properly witness the service.

During this particular service, the minister was performing the baptism of a tiny infant. The little five year old girl was taken by this, observing that he was saying something and pouring water over the infant's head.

With a quizzical look on her face, the little girl turned to her father and asked: "Daddy, why is he brainwashing that baby??"

NOTICE:
     A huge slowdown with Hurricane Isaac, but I finally got the September '12 Edition posted to The StarLight News Blog... Below is front page... 
Happy Reading...
Richard