Burning Images
“But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord” (2 Corinthians 3:18 NKJV).
Don’t you just love computers and digital cameras? I have given several sets of pictures to people the past few days. In previous years that always involved developing film, making copies from negatives and getting them back to the people who wanted them.
For a long time I did not trust the photo shops of under-developed countries to process my film, so that meant taking the film back to the U.S., developing and copying there, then mailing or bringing the copies back some time later. It was always a lengthy, somewhat expensive, and laborious process.
Now I can take a picture, download it to a computer, burn a CD, and give it to the recipient within a few minutes time. Or if I am going into town anyway, I can take the CD in and have prints made myself, within an hour or so, very economically.
Times have changed.
Long before CD’s and digital cameras, the Lord perfected the process of burning images. Paul described the process beautifully. If we behold the glory of Jesus continuously we will be transformed (burned) into the same image, by the power of his Spirit.
To behold his glory is far more than an occasional glance. It is to fix our attention completely upon him with the desire to be like him.
A similar idea is expressed in Hebrews 12:1-2:
“Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”
We can reach Christ by fixing our sights upon him and pursuing our goal. Though this obviously relates to the setting of goals and purposes, there is a simple physical fact that is also in view. We tend to follow where our eyes lead.
When I was a teenager my father taught me to drive a car. One day early in the process we were on a street in our town. As we met a car I let our vehicle drift over towards the one oncoming.
After safely past, Dad told me my mistake. “Don’t look at the car that is coming. Keep your eyes on the road in front of you, where you want to go. You will automatically steer towards whatever you are looking at.”
If we want to be like Jesus we must look at Jesus. There is transforming power in that act. If we want to go to Jesus, again we must look at him. We head in the direction of our eyes.
This is also the principle of laying up treasure. “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matthew 6:21). We look towards that which is of importance and value to us. What we look at is what we desire. If we look to Jesus, if we continually behold his glory, we will follow him. We will be like him.
–by Michael E. Brooks @ www.forthright.net