Copy

On the corner of North Hamilton Road and Tech Center Drive (in Gahanna) is a billboard in a field for MT Business and Technology, Incorporated, that jokingly comments on a common office issue that many workers have experienced. “When the copier goes down bad things happen.”

Let me restate that comical slogan in a more intimate manner. “When the image of Christ, is no longer being duplicated in your life, bad things happen.” Have you found that to be true?

In Mark 12:13-17, a group of Pharisees (and Herodians) had hoped to incriminate Jesus with His own words. (Please note that Jesus knows everything, and cannot be fooled from what is the real truth. Our fancy religious phraseology and good deeds can be pointless if they are done with the wrong heart motive.)

Jesus perfect reply in Mark 12:17 (MSG) succinctly got to the crux of the matter. Jesus said, “Give Ceaser what is his, and give God what is His.”  In your life, do you know the difference? Is God receiving from you what is rightfully His? (After all, isn’t it all His? If it weren’t for His grace, you wouldn’t have any of the blessings you are in possession of.)

Romans 6:23 (MSG) states “Work hard for sin your whole life, and your pension is death.  But God’s gift is real life, eternal life, delivered by Jesus, our Master.”  There have been many episodes in my life where I have forcefully demanded to receive what is fairly mine.  Where it relates to my eternal home, I am begging for the Almighty’s mercy, and not His justice as to where my eternal home is. What about you?

Paul boldly makes this known in Romans 6:19 (MSG). “I’m using this freedom language because it’s easy to picture. You can readily recall, can’t you, how at one time the more you did just what you felt like doing – not caring about others, and not caring about God – the worse your life became and the less freedom you had? And how much different is it now as you live in God’s freedom, your lives healed and expansive in holiness?”


If you can relate to any of that, maybe it’s time to make a change in what’s being copied in your life. The more you spiritually mature are you becoming a reflection of something you’re extremely proud of, or a picture of person you are fed up with. You know Who to cry out to 24/7 when you’re in need. (Psalm 88:1-2) God is the waiting from you so the change in your life can begin today.