So what do you see when you look into the mirror?
Do you see yourself? Do you see someone else? Or do you see something you don't like? Sometimes we might see the inadequacies, the weaknesses, other things in us that we don't like when we look into the mirror. Well, there are some who when they look into the mirror, they see just something perfect. They enjoy seeing themselves in the mirror. They like what they see, of course, until they look into another mirror. And that's where we're going to delve into in this topic.
Now, what happens when you look into a different type of mirror? And now some of you are asking me, what type of mirror am I talking about? What is this mirror? Is it a mirror in the sky? Or is it some type of strange mirror on your phone? No, this goes a bit deeper. And I'm going to discuss that. I have a mirror in the house. And whenever I look into it, sometimes I like what I see. And sometimes I say, oh, time to get a haircut. I found that whenever I look into certain books or pieces of art, I can see myself. I can see almost a picture of who I am. And sometimes that can be quite unnerving. I'm sure I'm not the only one who's read a book or watched a movie or had a conversation or met someone who, whenever we looked at them, there was a sense that this person was somehow reflecting ourselves. This person was showing a part of us that was missing or showing a part of us that we liked or showing a part of us that we need to improve. All these things are very normal. But do you know that the biggest mirror, the mirror that reflects the most in you and I. We are a mirror. Like the song, Man is the Mirror. We are mirrors. We reflect the inner self to the world, whether we like it or not. It's something that we can't change. Who we are on the inside always reflects outwardly. Now, on this blog, you know what we usually do is we go through historical, contemporary, personal and biblical examples in order to perfectly dissect the topic of the mirror.
History
Now, I'm going to focus more on persecution in Pyongyang, which is the capital city of North Korea or was.
And Pyongyang was actually called the Jerusalem of the East in the early 20th century. Many people were confessing their sins and turning to Christ. And now we know that today, North Korea, you're not even allowed the Bible. And speaking about Christ would lead you into prison and for your whole family to mostly be executed if you force yourself away against the laws. Now, how can a country like North Korea somehow turn away from Jesus and suddenly start hating everything to do with the Bible? What happened? Well, historically, we know that in the early 1900s and before then, North Korea and South Korea once split up. It was just called Korea. And at the time, it was actually owned by Japan. Of course, before World War Two, Korea was mostly known as a Christian nation. There were many Christians, although they were into Confucianism and whatnot. They actually let that go, confessed their sins and came to Jesus. And it was through the Protestant faith that they were able to create a revival. The Holy Spirit was able to move it perfectly in that nation and bring many people to him to the point that people would travel miles in order to hear the gospel.
After World War Two, when Japan loses its empire, the United States gives off North Korea or the North to the Soviet Union and the South is retained by the U.S. And today, of course, we know the Soviet Union were communist and North Korea is pretty much a communist nation. And in communist nation, anything to do with Jesus or the Bible is not ever to be spoken in public. Now, why did I use that example? I emphasize it more when I speak about Nagasaki in Japan. We know that Hiroshima and Nagasaki were the two cities bombed during World War Two that literally led to Japan surrendering. However, in Nagasaki, there was actually the largest Christian population. There was a church called the Citadel there and they actually had so many Christians come into that church. And Nagasaki was well known as the epicentre of Christianity in Japan. But sadly, we know it was bombed and it took decades and decades for them to rebuild another church there.
They had a temporary church and then later on, they rebuilt the Citadel.
Now, you can see there the persecution that happened to Christians. How can a Christian nation like Korea or Pyongyang, that city which was called the East, the Jerusalem of the East, could suddenly now be a place where Christianity can never be discussed? And how can a place like Nagasaki, where the largest Christian population in Japan seated, could somehow now be destroyed, totally obliterated by atomic bomb?
Contemporary
Contemporary wise, we see that the Western world today definitely does not like anything to do with Jesus or Christ. And even if they do, they give us a watered down version of a Jesus that's just a teacher, a self-improvement guru, somebody who was pretty much just a nice person. But the very fact of Jesus Christ being perfect, people don't really like to see. Or even if they're fine with his perfection, they don't like his divinity. If you look online today, we'll see that many of us can easily point to another person for their sins and for their weaknesses. But we cannot do that with Jesus. I feel like just that very sense makes him very, very hard to ever demonize. So instead of demonizing him, they'd rather destroy his nature, who he is, and give us a watered down version that doesn't really reflect who he is to the world. And of course, Christians nowadays, or those who give this other types of Christians, who do not really represent Christ that much with their character and their behaviour, who have not really been renewed in the mind, can also give us the wrong impression of who Jesus is.
Bible
Now, if the Christian is a mirror, as it says in the Bible, in 2 Corinthians 3, verse 18, That verse right there speaks of a mirror, or a glass, that the believer is the glass. Now, what makes us this glass? Well, we know that during Pentecost, Jesus mentioned that the Holy Spirit, which is his spirit, as it says in Romans chapter 8, And as the Holy Spirit dwells within us, we then reflect Jesus on this world through inward parts of us, reflecting outwardly. I'll go deeper into it. In Proverbs chapter 27, verse 19, it says, "As in water face answereth to face, so the heart of man to man." Now, this is another picture of a reflection. When you look into the water, you generally do see a face. That's how people, back in the days before the mirror was invented, that was how they were able to know what they looked like. It was like a mirror for them.
But here, the Bible is saying that as water answers to face, so does the heart of man. Now, when the Bible speaks of the heart, it speaks of the spirit. The spirit that we all have is a mirror to each other. That's why sometimes when you meet somebody, you know, nowadays they'll say, you just picked up a vibe. There was a vibe about them. There was just something about them, a vibe. You could pick up that there was something maybe strange or good or whatever. And that vibe that you picked up is the heart of yours reflecting to the heart of the other person in your presence. And that's why whenever a believer comes into anywhere, into our workplace, into any space, we face some type of pushback or curiosity. Now, the reason why we face these type of things is because deep down, many, many people of the world are seeing the reflection in the believer. That is why, though they may not say it, the world, when they see a Christian, is seeing Jesus. When they look into your eyes, who they see is Christ himself. Even though you're not aware of it, the Bible says, behold him like in a glass. The people who behold you are seeing the reflection.
That's why in the beginning of the blog, I said that when you look into the mirror, what do you see? Many times in scripture, God, whenever he wanted to exercise or allow the people he's speaking to to exercise their faith, he would always ask them, what do you see? Because what you see is a reflection. It's a reflection of the inward man. But before somebody is able to accurately describe what they see, they must first understand their human weakness. Whenever we see somebody who is perfect, or we see something that reflects our weaknesses, especially if we cannot blame that person or see any fault in them, the tendency for us is to persecute them. What we do is we bring up past sins, we accuse, we look for a problem, or we might even make up a problem. Because it isn't possible that somebody could be perfect, right? Which is not true. Through Christ, we are more than conquerors.
Personal
Personally, I remember when I was working at this job and I wanted to go for a Bible service. It was a midweek service and my shift was over and I let the people know 10 minutes before that it was time for me, it was getting to time for me to leave because I was in a tight position that I had to leave and somebody had to take over for me. And what I noticed was that they didn't give me the space to leave and I knew I was going to be late. So I made my leave because I already let them know and I communicated to them that I was going. And as I was leaving, the manager chased me up and said that you can't leave and things like that. And I said to her or to the person that I would rather lose this job than to be late for church. And when I said that, I could see that her eyes changed. She couldn't believe that someone could say such a thing, especially in the West. The next day, I obviously speak to my manager and of course, as she's my manager, I had to be respectful. And I spoke to her explaining the issue yesterday and she then started to speak to me about the times she would go to church and whatnot. And the time when she left the church because of how busy work was and how work took over our life on Sundays especially. And I believe that at that moment of going to church the day before, I became a mirror.
And that is why the believer, wherever we go, we should never shy away from who we are or wear a mask, you know, where you go to work and we pretend like somebody we're not just to keep the job. As a believer, we can't really change that because within us, the Holy Spirit dwells within us. And due to that, we can't hide who we are if we are a believer. It will show. We don't even need to do Christian things or try to be Christians as they would say. Just our very presence, the glory that follows us will show forth and we become a mirror to wherever we go, to the people who look at us. Do you notice that whenever you read the Bible, it's almost like it's speaking to you, like it's a mirror because the Holy Spirit is the one that translates the Bible to us. The Bible is just a book of lines and black marks, but until the Holy Spirit opens our eyes to these truths, we will not really be able to know or understand what Jesus is trying to tell us.
And that's the same thing that happened to me before I became a believer, that when I read the Bible, I'll see that it was almost speaking to me. No, it was speaking to me. And as I read it, I'll sometimes be offended like, why is this thing attacking me? But it wasn't that it was attacking me, it was reflecting my own sin nature, leading me to repent. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. All you need to do is believe and confess our sins, your sins. Say this prayer with me:
Lord Jesus, I come to you as a sinner and I humbly repent for my sins. I believe that Jesus Christ died and raised up on the third day. I humbly come to you that you forgive my sins. You wash me with your precious blood and bring me into your family, the church. Thank you, Lord Jesus Christ, for saving me. In Jesus' mighty name, I pray. Amen.
And as you said that, you're now a part of this wonderful family called the church and now the angels are rejoicing. The topic was the Christian as a mirror. Like, comment, and I'll see you on the next one!
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