Branded

As I sat down to write this blog post, I am overcome with God's peace and His presence.  I am so glad that I have a heavenly father who nurtures me, cares for me, loves me, and sent His one and only son to die the most painful death, for me. For You.  It's a goal of mine to daily share my thanksgivings with the Lord and make known just how much gratitude overflows my soul when I think of Jesus.  It brings to me so much energy to read in the word and to receive more understand and wisdom.  One particular verse I have been pondering, and am still receiving revelation from is Galatians 6: 17.  Paul is closing his letter to the church of Galatia, and he ends like this "From now on let no one cause trouble for me, for I bear on my body the brand marks of Jesus."  My first question after this verse jumped out at me was "What are the brand marks of Jesus?" and "Do I wear them?" I will be the first to tell you I am no theologian, and that I am longing for the day where I take some type of bible course, however, I want to share with you what this verse means for me, because I think it is so prevalent in how we lives as Christians in today's world.  To me, when Paul said "Let no one cause trouble for me, for I bear on my body the brand marks of Jesus." it sounded like to me that that means the brand marks of Jesus are visible to strangers.  That from a distance they could see he was with Jesus.  I was reminded of a question I was asked when I was sixteen, "Does everyone in your high school know that you are a Christian?" My answer had been, yes the ones that know me know I am a Christian, but I do not know every one in my school therefor some people do not know.  I can understand the point I was trying to make, but looking back I wish everyone did know I was a Christian, I wish I bared the brand marks of Jesus in a way that was lived out in my day to day life.  As I continued to reflect on this scripture more and more questions seemed to arise in my mind.  Like I said before, I started to think about what my brand mark for Jesus was, and from that how am I distinguished from other "good people".  I'm sure people in my high school could say I was a good person but how do you define yourself as a christian, not only a good person?  How do you portray Jesus in your everyday life?  Is it the way you treat others with kindness and compassion?  The way you respond to conflict with forgiveness and grace?  The way you lead with humility and a servant heart?

I am still reading and rereading this verse receiving more revelation, and still figuring out what is my brand mark I carry that states I am with Jesus but I think that it is not only one thing, but  it is the way that we strive to live like Christ.  All of the things we do that God calls us to, the loving our neighbor as ourselves, etc. I think that is what we show to the world, that is what speaks volumes without words.  The question is are we doing that?