Sunday, July 14, 2002
|
Sunday, July 14, 2002 |
|
Your colors By DR. KNOX HERNDON
A dear friend, Jeff Green, serving as a Department of the Army civil servant, sent this to me. It is worth reading. "Sometimes we are privileged to get a real glimpse of ourselves, usually through the unobstructed vision others have of us. What we see can help us to redirect the way we live. "If we're fortunate enough to see this portrait painted by our past choices and decisions, we might choose to repaint the canvas of our lives in brush strokes that highlight the divine colors of charity, hope and faith. "The following story illustrates this: An obituary had mistakenly confused the inventor of dynamite with his deceased brother, Ludwig, who had just died while in France. It read, the 'Merchant of Death is DEAD' and the man had a glimpse of the way history would remember him, a man painted in the blackened hues of selfish, uncaring ambition, the person who invented and exported dynamite to the armies of the world while profiting through the violence of battle and death. "The Bible tells us that life is brief, that a 'man knows not the time of his death' and instructs us to pray that God 'teach us to number our days' and 'establish the work of our hands.' We are all afforded the grace, and sometimes painful, mercy of God, who sees us as we really are while telling us what we could really become. "Through faith in God, we can look on the canvas of our own lives and sketch a picture of what we desire to become while allowing the Lord to fill in the colors. With God's help we can paint ourselves in the bright colors of love, hope, truth, mercy and kindness to reflect heaven's image to a blind and dying world." That's what the "Merchant of Death" did. Alfred Nobel invented dynamite, a powerful technology which could be used for good or evil. Nobel realized dynamite's potential for good or evil and consciously chose to paint a colorful picture of hope we now call the Nobel Peace Prize. What are the colors of your life? What picture of you will be painted in your obituary? A good summer reading book with this theme is "The Picture of Dorian Grey." The Rev. Dr. Knox Herndon is pastor of His House Community Church (SBC). The Rev. Greg Mausz is senior associate pastor. The Rev. Dr. Lydia Herndon is the Sunday School superintendent, Bible study coordinator and teacher. The church is just below Fayetteville, on Ga. Highway 85, a mile south of Ga. Highway 16, just below the fire station. Visitors welcome. Church office and prayer line 770-719-2365; e-mail KHERN2365@aol.com.
|
||