11.30.07
“GOD’S PICTURE!”
Philippians 1:3-6
“I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine making request for you all with joy, for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.”
A small girl was down on the floor, working with great concentration on a drawing of some sort. Her mother was amused at her intensity. She watched for a few moments and then asked her, “What are you drawing, honey?” Her daughter did not look up from her work as she replied: “I am drawing a picture of God!”
Her mother knelt down on the floor beside the little girl and placed her hand tenderly on her shoulder. “Honey, no one knows what God looks like.” Her daughter seemed unmoved by this comment. She looked up at her mother with an excited look and said, “They will when I am finished!”
I heard that illustration years ago, and have used it many times in sermons or classes. It strikes me that we are all drawing a picture of God by the lives that we live. As I have said so many times before, it is not so much what we say, as how we live, that demonstrates the reality of Christ in us. Sometimes it is easy to be overcome by the ugliness of life and fail to comprhend the beauty of the Lord.
Let me share a beautiful picture of God as painted by the life of one of our subscribers and dear brother in the Lord, named Kenny McClinton. In the 1970’s, Kenny was one of the most feared loyalist killers, but now sees himself as a servant of the most High God. He led from the front; he trained many others in the use of weapons, machine guns and explosives. He would send lethal book bombs to key I.R.A. terrorists, and attempted to murder many of the I.R.A. Brigade Staff and their families!
Again his voice drops as he says, “It was at this time, I am ashamed to say, that I shot and killed two men and attempted to murder a number of others.” Within the prison itself terrorist activities did not stop. In fact, there developed a very strong core of militants who were almost as much a threat to the authorities inside the prison, as they had been outside! Kenny was one of the original instigators of the ‘Loyalist Blanket Brigade’ who refused to wear prison clothes nor follow prison rules.
Within one nine month period he was placed in the punishment cell fifteen times. He was referred to by Prison Staff as ‘that Maniac McClinton’! Looking back on this period of his life Kenny likens himself to the maniac of Gadara in Mark’s Gospel whom nobody could tame.
During his times in solitary confinement in the punishment cells - the floor was black, the walls stark white; the cell bare; and a neon light burned continuously - there was absolutely no means of mental stimulation, so to relieve his utter boredom, Kenny decided to start reading the rather decrepit looking prison issue of the King James Version of the Bible.
As the months passed in solitary confinement on the Loyalist Blanket Protest, Kenny reached the New Testament in his Bible readings and there in those priceless pages of God’s Word, he experienced the great love of the Lord Jesus Christ, and “…things were never quite the same after that…” Describing his experience he said: “What could not be achieved by prison bars, batons, concrete and solitary confinement, was quickly achieved by the matchless love of the Lord Jesus Christ. There was nobody to talk at length with me about God; nobody to fully explain the way to become a Christian - no books, no tracts, no strains of ‘Oh Lamb of God I come’ during a Gospel Mission. There was only my black burden of sin and guilt and shame - and that old black book of books, the Bible.”
Today, the former “maniac McClinton” stands before us, fully clothed, in his right mind, a completely ‘new creature in Christ.’ Behold him and give praise and all glory to the Living Lord God. Amen. (2 Corinthians 5:17)
With dark black colors and a smudged canvas, Kenny McClinton has allowed the beauty of Jesus to come forth with a new picture to show us what God looks like. We all too often place people in prisons of suspicion and doubt. We doubt that they have the ability to ever change. By our judgmental attitude we paint a picture of God that is distorted. I count Kenny McClinton as my dear friend!
We are all drawing our own picture of God. People around us will have a picture of God that is based upon what they see in us — that is if we live our life looking at the Lord and trying to live as He wants us to live. What picture of God will they see by your life? I hope it is a lovely picture.
Blessings dear hearts. Walk with God today, trust Him completely and be a blessing.
- - - Pastor Cecil