"Ambassadors"

    We influence every person with whom we come in contact, either positively or negative, concerning the glory of God as revealed in the Lord Jesus Christ.

    "We are ambassadors for Christ" (II Corinthians 5:20).

    This is at once both the most blessed and the most challenging of truths.  First, nothing infuses more meaning and significance into our lives than the truth that we exist to reflect the the light of the Lord Jesus.  We must have a known and affirmed reason for being if our hearts are to know the joyful fulfillment for which they were made.  "To live is Christ" declared the Apostle Paul (Philippians 1:21).  This is the reason for our being.  First, we receive our Lord into our hearts by His grace.  Then, we realize and devote ourselves to the sublime wonder of serving as the lamps of His light by that same grace.  In attitude, demeanor, word, and deed, we seek to represent our Lord well, casting forth a ray of illumination in all that we do whereby He is honored and revealed.  No greater joy of life and being fills our heart and lives.  Indeed, no other joy of life and being can fill our heart and lives.  Again, to live is Christ.

    Such truth also offers the most daunting of challenges.  Our native tendencies flow in the direction of affirming ourselves rather than Another.  "All seek their own" (Philippians 2:21).  There will be a fight if we accept our ambassadorship, a struggle of spirit and flesh as the world, the devil, and the flesh align in an axis of aggressive challenge against our office.  Countless temptations confront us with strong inclination to represent ourselves rather than our Lord. More importantly, however, countless infusions of grace provide overcoming ability to enable our devotion to the life that is Christ.  Our Lord dwells within His trusting children by the Holy Spirit.  He is the light in essence; we are the light in expression.  "I am the Light of the world... ye are the light of the world" (John 8:12; Matthew  5:14).  Thus, we begin our days in the recognition of this singular reason for life and being...

     "Heavenly Father, thank You for delivering us from the exhausting burden of seeking to affirm and promote ourselves.  Thank You even more for the blessed peace and joy of seeking to affirm and promote Your Son and our Savior, the Lord Jesus.  We are Yours in this day and forever for such a heart-filling and thrilling purpose.  So, as the prophet of old said to You, 'Here am I, Lord.  Send me.'  In the name of the Lord Jesus we pray... Amen."

"We preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake."
(II Corinthians 4:5)