Guest post by Dylan Tucker from I AM A MESSAGE.
We are all messages
You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by everybody. You show that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts. (2 Cor 3: 2-3)
My name is Dylan Tucker and I, together with my wife Megan, run I AM A MESSAGE. We sell inspirational scripture-based prints to put around your home and wherever else you want (and shortly t-shirts and other goodies!) We believe it’s important to not only read and know God’s word and it’s teachings, but to live it out, display it, and generally be that word to people. We’d like to share with you what the verses above mean to us.
I still remember vividly when this scripture first gripped me. I had just moved from Australia to the UK and was in a small church in South Wales. I had heard it many times before, but when I heard the preacher say it this time, it really stood out to me. Little did I know it would come back around in my life in the way that it has. In 2 Corinthians, Paul is writing to the early church in Corinth and his point is simple – we as Christians are a testimony of the work of Jesus. However, although this point is simple, the meaning is much bigger – everything we do is a message to other people; whether it’s good or bad.
How can we be good messages?
Living transformed lives is a testimony of God’s power and grace. Many of us would have heard people share their amazing life stories of how they met Jesus, and some of us may in turn have come to know Jesus ourselves through hearing that story.
For Paul, there is no doubt that he and the other early workers in the church had hard times which would have caused discouragement. To hear about and also see the work of Jesus in the people in the church at Corinth was a message of hope for Paul, as it displayed the evidence of God working in their lives. We can also make sure we are ready to tell people about Jesus, and part of that can include displaying what we believe. For us this is where I AM A MESSAGE comes in.
Getting your message right
There is an old saying and it goes something like this: you are the only Bible unbelievers read.
Just as our lives can display a good message about our faith, they can also display a negative message.
As Christians, it’s important that we take time to reflect on our words, attitudes and actions regularly and ask ourselves what kind of message we send out to our unsaved friends and families.
We all know of people who live hypocritical lives, full of double standards. Or maybe we are living well, yet haven’t told people we are Christians, all the while telling ourselves we don’t need to, because our actions alone are enough. It’s important we at least let people know we are Christians and tell them our message – then we can go on living that message out. Otherwise, how will others know that our good actions are because of Jesus?
Paul goes on in Chapter 5, to put it like this:
We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us.
It’s up to us to think about what kind of message we are 'writing' to others with our lives.
For Meg and I, our hope for I AM A MESSAGE is that it becomes not just a small business, but a ministry. We generally found there was a lack of Scriptural Christian design that wasn’t out-dated or cheesy and we hope that our modern and Bible-based work can inspire people like you.
We hope our designs can be to you much more than just ink, just like Paul says.
Helping others spread the message
Fortunately for most of us, God’s word is freely available, and we are blessed to be able to show it on our bedroom walls and school books without the fear of being arrested. This isn’t the case in China, where despite there being an explosion of new Christians, their oppressive government means that few Christians even have access to a Bible.
For this reason we are currently running the ‘PRINT4PRINT’ scheme, which sees a portion of funds from every print sold go to donating a Bible in China through the charity Asia Harvest. So for example, if you purchase 3 prints, 3 extra Bibles are printed in China.
If you would like to view or purchase our prints, or would like to give us your thoughts, please visit www.iamamessage.com. We’d love to hear from you.