Daily Encounter: A Week-day Devotional by a staff of ACTS International.

Monday, March 5, 2018

"Instead, we will hold to the truth in love, becoming more and more in every way like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church."¹

Dr. William Barker tells about the actor, Ben Kingsley who "starred as the main character in the motion picture GANDHI. He spent months preparing for the role, visiting the various Indian locales Gandhi had frequented. He even learned to spin cotton thread on a wooden wheel while holding conversations as Gandhi did. The physical resemblance between Gandhi and Kingsley was almost startling. After filming a scene in a village south of Delhi, Kingsley stepped out of a car, and an elderly peasant knelt to touch his feet. Embarrassed, Kingsley explained that he was merely an actor playing Gandhi. 'We know,' replied the villager, 'but through you he will surely live again.'"²

As Christians, if we truly follow and serve the Lord, we will become more and more in every way like Christ. May God help us to so live that others will see the likeness of Jesus in usâ€"as this is by far the most powerful and effective witness of our Christian faith that any one of us could ever have.

Suggested prayer: "Dear God, in the words of the song writer, 'I have one deep supreme desire / that I might be like Jesus / to this I fervently aspire / that I might be like Jesus / I want my heart His throne to be / So that a watching world may see / His likeness shining forth in me / I want to be like Jesus.'³ Please help me to so live that people will always see Jesus in me and thus be drawn to you. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus' name, amen."

1. Ephesians 4:15 (NLT).
2. Dr. William P. Barker, Tarbell's Teacher's Manual, (Elgin, Illinois: David C. Cook Church Ministries, 1994). Quoted in a sermon by Rev. Billy D. Strayhorn, "One in Christ" http://www.epulpit.net/billy112.htm
3. Thomas O. Chisholm.

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