Mark Sorensen Did you hear in the news this week about the 17th century painting of the Virgin Mary that was handed over by its owner to a restorer to enhance and touch up the faded piece of artwork? This is not an uncommon occurrence, of course. However, what was uncommon was who the owner of the priceless piece of art handed it over to: a furniture restorer who had little experience in touching up and enhancing priceless pieces of art. Unfortunately, what came back was not what the owner had expected.
As you could imagine, the artwork has gone viral as the owner wanted others to learn a valuable lesson: make sure you give your art over to someone skilled, someone who has expertise in restoration and especially someone who knows what they’re doing when it comes to perfecting priceless pieces of art.
This brings me back to a passage I referenced in last Sunday’s sermon from Psalms where the psalmist declares,
“Search me, God, and know my heart; Test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”
Let’s not forget that in Genesis 2, we were created in the image of God. We are created to be the reflection of our Maker and the Perfecter of our faith. However, if we’re not careful, sin – if left unchecked – can distort the good and perfect image of God at work within us all.
Remember, that’s the enemy’s plan! However, that is also the beauty of Psalm 139. The psalmist addresses sin and confesses to the Lord that it holds no place in the life of God’s creation.
Remember the two takeaways from last Sunday’s message from Acts 10: Grow Spiritually and Go Faithfully. What was true for the psalmist in Psalm 139 holds true for us today: growth and relationship with God is a daily act and it stretches us. We must continue to do the hard work of digging into God’s Word and asking the Spirit for His leading. But then, we mustn’t stop there. We must go faithfully into the places where the Lord is calling us to go.
Sunday, we have one more lesson from our series on Acts. I hope you’ll join us as we wrap up the “Contagious” series!
