Bumper Stickers
Author: Chrissy S.
26 July 2003

     Bumper stickers…some cars have too many, some have a few, others have none. Just a quick quiz: which of the following logos or slogans can you think of when I mention the name- Nike, DQ, Chevy, Kraft, Volkswagen, McDonalds, Starbucks, Burger King, Citgo, Target, Wal-Mart, Blockbuster, Subway, Hallmark, Macintosh, Microsoft and Gateway. (I could go on.) So, how did you do? Was it easy? With the use of symbol or picture, the sound of a catchy phrase or jingle, we can easily remember the name of a company or its product. My next question is a bit rougher, what would remind people of you? Do people relate you and Christ in the same sentence and see an easy comparison?

     We ride around with bumper stickers to advertise things we like and things that in a way define who we are. In life, do we ride around with a proper image of Christ showing for all to see? I’m not calling for you to go for all the Christian cliché bumper stickers (though I don’t mean to rip on them either); rather, I’m challenging you to examine the image you send out through your words, intentions and actions.

     Matthew 5:13-16 (NASB) “You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt has become tasteless, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled under foot by men. You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden; nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.”

     How to stay salty? If we want to be professing to others that our God is a living God, then we need to have God actively living in our lives. I John I:5-7 (NASB) “If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice truth; but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another.” We need to open the doors to let in His Spirit and take time to grow in Him, otherwise we will have no taste to add to a bland world. We need to let the light of God flood into our lives and drown out the darkness. And when we do have a taste or a bright light burning in us, we must not be ashamed to share that.

     In Acts, shortly after the early church of Christ-believing Jews were given threats for proclaiming Christ as Lord, they lifted their voices as a fellowship of believers and prayed that God would give them boldness. In Acts 4:23-31, we read that they prayed and then the Holy Spirit came into the place where they had gathered and filled them all with boldness. It even said that the grounds shook when the Holy Spirit came in. My challenge for you today is to go and pray that the Holy Spirit would fill you with boldness and confidence. I pray that we (as fellow believers in Christ) may be a proper image of the living God and that the witnesses around us may forget everything that may hinder a proper image of our Lord.

   - Chrissy S. <ChrissyS@teenz4theLord.com>

"Bumper Stickers", Copyright © 2003 Chrissy S., All Rights Reserved.