Day 11 - Heavenly Décor

We are all greatly encouraged by the apostle Paul to decorate the doctrine of the New Testament by the way we live our everyday lives. The verb 'to decorate' means to make something attractive, to beautify it, to do something to it that is eye catching.

This decorative idea of Paul's should give you a powerful impetus to living closer with God and devotedly keeping all his commandments. We would all find enormous pleasure deep inside from being used to decorate Jesus' teachings with a pure life!

In fact this is the nature of pure joy in the Christian heart. We do not particularly care for the world's material trappings but what would we give to be a small piece of decoration of God's word to the world? This should be quite enough happiness for you.

You are instructed to lead your life as it might become the gospel of Christ. The word "to become" also means to make attractive or to improve the appearance of. An item of clothing, for example, is 'becoming' to us when it improves our appearance. From an opposite perspective, we describe someone's bad behaviour as being unbecoming.

You are to become the gospel by your own righteous and holy living. When you live your life as God always intended it to be, then you become decoration to the Scriptures.

As you decorate his word, so God decorates you with the glories of his redeeming grace. He dresses you with a meek, quiet and teachable spirit which he thinks of as being very precious, so that you in your turn can suitably decorate his scriptures. In the same way that a bride adorns herself with jewels, so our Father in heaven adorns his children with the robe of righteousness.

The Christian life is God's special treasure.

"They will be mine," says the LORD Almighty, "in the day when I make up my treasured possession. I will spare them, just as in compassion a man spares his son who serves him." MAL 3:17

Those of us who fear the Lord are seen as his jewels. To fear God and keep his commandments is our whole business on this planet. It is a perfect life; a life like that is God's jewel; a life like that is recorded in heaven.

How wonderful it is that knowledge like this can encourage our hearts to live a righteous life, to live a life worth recording in heaven as a special treasure.

Some day the Lord will come and gather up these holy and treasured lives and place them in his heavenly courts, where we will shine forever like the stars.