Patterns

Patterns

In the years before she worked full-time, my wife Nancy did quite a bit of sewing, making everything from beautiful dresses for the girls to curtains for the house. And she did most of it using patterns she would find at the store. I still remember her laying out the patterns on the dining room table, cutting the material, and being impressed, time and time again, with the final product.

Using patterns isn't just for sewing though; it's found in the Bible, for example when Moses was given instructions about building the tabernacle:

"See that you make all things according to the pattern
shown to you on the mountain." Hebrews 8:5

What a blessing that Moses didn't have to try and figure out what God wanted him to do, with all the worrying and wonder that goes with not being sure if what we are doing is right. He just had to follow the pattern that God showed him. And in our everyday life, we have to do the same thing to be successful - follow the pattern that the Lord set for us. One part of the pattern (like the sleeves my wife used to cut out) says "When they hurled insults at him, he did not retaliate." (I Peter 2:23). Another piece of the pattern, found in Philippians 2:7, say "......he took on himself the nature of a servant." If we took the time, we could put together a complete pattern of the
Christian life, of the life God blesses.

No doubt it would have been a lot harder for Nancy to sew those dresses for the girls if she didn't have a pattern to follow. And, in the same way, the Christian life would be much more difficult without the pattern that Jesus left us to follow. Our job is ".....to walk as He walked". The pattern is revealed in the Word, waiting for us to discover it and follow it.

But then there is one further step - becoming "a pattern believer", a person whose life others can imitate. Children already do it, following the pattern that their parents set for them. Newborn Christians do it, following the lifestyle of other believers in their local church. In fact, your life is probably a pattern that someone else is following.

Our lesson for today is simple, follow the pattern Christ left us and then be a pattern believer whose life others can safely follow.


God Bless,
Pastor Joe
Gateway Church