I was sitting at a red light looking in my rearview mirror as a careless driver hit me from behind. The jolt seemed hard, and I was sure my trunk was buckled. When the police separated the cars, there seem to be no damage. I took it to the body shop and was told no estimate was needed because no matter what I thought at the time of the impact, there was no damage. No one could detect that an impact had occurred. I’ve since wondered if this were not true of our relationship with Christ. Should there not be some evidence of an impact from him?
In reply to his critics, Jesus asked for a coin and requested those around him to say whose image was on it. Even in those days there were impressions made on coins. Likewise, Christ’s image should be impressed upon us. There was an old book titledIn His Steps. As part of the story, the book asks the question how I would live differently if we literally tried to live like Christ. Each character of the book began to ask in their circumstances, “What would Christ do?”
In these situations, there is a reflection about a man in Joshua14:12. Per the Scripture, Caleb seems to be such a man that he reflected God out of his life. He seemed to be someone that had an obvious impact from God. Even though it was in the Old Testament, he was someone who bore the image of Christ. He was someone who lived like Christ on a daily routine basis. Here are some observations I make about his story.
Caleb was a soldier of the Lord. He fought seven years to conquer Canaan. Afterwards, he was granted a mountain for himself, but he had a giant to kill. Even though Christ has impressed himself upon us, there will always be some giant to kill. In battle or in claiming his mountain Caleb was the kind of man who would not be distracted, and he would not be delayed.
The example that he set for us is beautiful. He kept God in the forefront of his thinking and his actions. His example puts the responsibility on us today where it belongs. Take in consideration this question, “IF… God is wise, loving, kind, strong….THEN how does that impress itself upon us? God calls us to show his nature through our lives to other people.
Caleb had children. The lesson in that is when tempted, uncertain, hurting, how do we allow God as his children to impress himself on us? We claim to be Christians. We claim to be good moral upright citizens, as part of our daily living we must make all of this real. We must be consistent between our words and our actions. We must follow through from our profession. We must have an experience that encourages other people to also have an experience with God.
Christian Writer 