Message: Looking Glass Lessons

LOOKING-GLASS LESSONS
Compiled by Bro. Duane

|

       Here are a few Scriptures and Thoughts about Looking-Glasses, or Mirrors.  Perhaps they will help inspire further development in the mind of some Preachers or Christian Teachers. -- Bro. Duane

*     *     *

       1 Cor. 13:12 -- "Now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known."

       "A believer should remember that it is dangerous dressing himself for another world by the looking-glass of this world. —Secker.

*     *     *

       Jas. 1:23-24 -- "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.

       The apostle James was concerned about believers who heard the Word but did not let it touch their lives. The person who reads and studies the Bible needs to put it into practice. Otherwise he is like an executive who looks into a mirror on the morning of a crucial meeting, sees a big stain on his tie, then forgets that it's there and goes to the meeting.

*     *     *

       2 Cor. 3:18 -- "But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord."

       From L. M. Campbell:

       "The glory of the Lord, the whole glory of the exalted Christ, in a mirror, for THE GOSPEL IS A MIRROR, in which the glory of Christ gives itself to be seen and shines its very image to the eye of faith. We become transformed into the same image, i.e., become so transformed that the same image which we see in the mirror, the image of the glory of Christ, presents itself on us. We are so transformed that we get thereby the same image" (Meyer).

       From Adam Clarke:

       Verse 18. But we all, with open face]  The Jews were not able to look on the face of Moses, the mediator of the old covenant, and therefore he was obliged to veil it; but all we Christians, with face uncovered, behold, as clearly as we can see our own natural face in a mirror, the glorious promises and privileges of the Gospel of Christ; and while we contemplate, we anticipate them by desire and hope, and apprehend them by faith, and are changed from the glory there represented to the enjoyment of the thing which is represented, even the glorious image-righteousness and true holiness-of the God of glory. [Such Transformation, of course, demands our Complete Repentance and Commitment to Christ! -- DVM]

*     *     *

THE MAN IN THE GLASS

(This Jingle, "For What It's Worth" -- DVM)

When you get what you want in your struggle for self
And the world makes you king for a day,
Just go to a mirror and look at yourself
And see what that man has to say.

For it isn't your father or mother or wife
Whose judgment upon you must pass,
The fellow whose verdict counts most in your life
Is the one staring back from the glass.

Some people might think you're a straight-shootin' chum
And call you a wonderful guy.
But the man in the glass says you're only a bum
If you can't look him straight in the eye.

He's the fellow to please, never mind all the rest
For he's with you clear to the end
And you've passed your most dangerous test
If the guy in the glass is your friend.

You may fool the whole world down the pathway of years
And get pats on the back as you pass
But your final reward will be heartache and tears
If you've cheated the man in the glass.

*     *     *

WHILE THE ROBBER LISTENED

       The evangelist Charles Inglis records the following story told by a lady in a prayer meeting: "Some years ago my husband was traveling in Europe, and I was left alone with my maids in a large, lonely house in a Western State. One evening, after our usual reading and prayer, we retired to our several rooms. As I entered my room, I happened to look into a mirror at the opposite side of the room, and was horrified to see the reflection of a man crouching behind my wardrobe. I was tempted to cry aloud for help, but knew it would be useless, and determined to put the faith in God about which we had been reading to the test.

       I walked as courageously as possible, though trembling in every limb, across the floor, took my Bible from the table, and sank into a chair. I began reading aloud the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah. I then kneeled and prayed aloud, telling God how we were unprotected women, and imploring Him to protect us from thieves and robbers and all evil persons. I had barely risen and sunk once more into the seat, when a hand was laid on my shoulder and a voice said: 'Do not cry out or be frightened, for you are perfectly safe. I came here to rob this house, but that chapter is one I used to hear my mother read, and your prayer reminded me of the prayers she offered. I am going now. You need fear nothing.'" -- The Dawn

*     *     *

       Frederick Treves, the distinguished author and surgeon, in whose kindly care the Elephant Man spent the last years of his life, had an iron rule that no mirror of any kind ever be allowed in the Elephant Man's room. In that grotesque body there dwelt, as Treves discovered, a shy and sensitive soul. "At all costs," said Frederick, "he must not see himself."

       However, there is no counterpart to this in the spiritual world, for There is no one of us whom God will shield from the truth. He holds the mirror of Jesus before us, and, when we see ourselves in Him it is absurd to turn in anger or cowardice away from him. He  reflects to us what is our TRUE, SPIRITUAL LIKENESS -- the likeness which we must face at the Judgment.

       [Shielding "Elephant Man" from viewing "His Pitiful Ugliness" was prompted by kindness. In contrast, but also in kindness, God's Word reveals to sinful Man his awful spiritual ugliness, AND, the Remedy for his transformation into the Loveliness of Christ. -- DVM]