Our Daily Bread – Sep 10
Making His Music / By: Patricia Raybon We all . . . are being transformed into his image.
2 Corinthians 3:18
Today's Scripture & Insight:
2 Corinthians 3:12–18 (NIV):
12 Therefore, since we have such a hope, we are very bold. 13 We are not like Moses, who would put a veil over his face to prevent the Israelites from seeing the end of what was passing away. 14 But their minds were made dull, for to this day the same veil remains when the old covenant is read. It has not been removed, because only in Christ is it taken away. 15 Even to this day when Moses is read, a veil covers their hearts. 16 But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. 17 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 18 And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.
Choir director Arianne Abela spent her childhood sitting on her hands—to hide them. Born with fingers missing or fused together on both hands, she also had no left leg and was missing toes on her right foot. A music lover and lyric soprano, she’d planned to major in government at Smith College. But one day her choir teacher asked her to conduct the choir, which made her hands quite visible. From that moment, she found her career, going on to conduct church choirs and serving now as director of choirs at another university. “My teachers saw something in me,” Abela explains.
Her inspiring story invites believers to ask, What does God, our holy Teacher, see in us, regardless of our “limits”? More than anything, He sees Himself. “So God created human beings in his own image. In the image of God he created them; male and female he created them” (Genesis 1:27 nlt).
As His glorious “image bearers,” when others see us, we should reflect Him. For Abela, that means Jesus, not her hands—or her lack of fingers—matters most. The same is true for all believers. “And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image,” says 2 Corinthians 3:18.
Similar to Abela, we can conduct our lives by Christ’s transforming power (v. 18), offering a life song that rings out to the honor of God.
Today’s Hymns:
In The Image of God
Take my Life and Let it be
Scripture to Respond:
Genesis 1:26 (NIV)
26 Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals,[a] and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”
2 Corinthians 2:14-15 (NIV)
14 But thanks be to God, who always leads us as captives in Christ’s triumphal procession and uses us to spread the aroma of the knowledge of him everywhere. 15 For we are to God the pleasing aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing.
Reflection:
Even though our life has weaknesses or disability, when we trust Christ, He will give us new life so that we can glorify God.
Do you want others see His glory in you?
Prayer:
God, thank You for creating me in Your image. Please help me to reflect this in various facets of my life.
Wong Wai Tung (Chief executive officer of The Great Wall Education Foundation) & Sam Chow (Administrative officer of The Great Wall Education Foundation) Translated by Esther Leung
