{"id":3189,"date":"2026-04-10T21:49:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-10T21:49:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bwbministries.com\/?p=3189"},"modified":"2026-04-10T22:12:32","modified_gmt":"2026-04-10T22:12:32","slug":"things-in-the-mirror-are-closer-than-they-appear","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.bwbministries.com\/?p=3189","title":{"rendered":"Things in the Mirror are Closer Than They Appear"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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The other day I decided to clean out our basement. I came across a box of painting supplies. As I looked through the brushes, scrapers and rollers, I began to recall the life I had when I was a house painter.  When Karen and I were the senior pastors of a church we planted in Idaho, people in our congregation who knew I had painted in the past would tell me, \u201cYou should go around town and paint people\u2019s houses who can\u2019t do it for themselves!\u201d Their focus became more fixed on my former profession than on my new life as a pastor. They meant well, thinking that my past work would serve the community better than my new work. I did help many people paint, but one day the Lord said, \u201cNo one is getting set free by your painting. I called you to preach and to teach and to counsel people for Me!\u201d So, I gave away all my equipment and quit referring to myself as a former painter. I now focused on the new path the Lord had us on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The side mirrors on your car have the words, \u201cThings in the mirror are closer than they appear.\u201d This is so true of our past as well– following so closely behind us, just waiting for us to return to the old ways, instead of following our new ways. <\/em>Jeremiah 29:11<\/em>,<\/em> Passion Translation<\/em>: <\/em>H<\/em>ere\u2019s<\/em> what Yahweh <\/em>[the Lord] <\/em>says to you: \u201cI know all about the marvelous destiny I have in store for you, a future planned out in detail. My intention is not to harm you but to surround you with peace and prosperity and to give you a beautiful future, glistening with hope.<\/em>\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I was a younger Christian and life got hard, there was my old friend, my past life, standing with open arms, calling me back, and gladly accepted its comfort!  I drank to get drunk to forget my problems. One day, I was recounting my \u201cgood old glory days\u201d to a group of truckers, and I cussed so bad they told me I offended them! That got my attention!  I realized they weren\u2019t the good old <\/em>days, just old<\/em> days! Why was I so easily persuaded to go back? I decided then, \u201cI\u2019m not going back anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1 Kings 19:19-21\u00a0tells\u00a0the story of Elisha,\u00a0a man\u00a0called\u00a0by\u00a0God to a new life,\u00a0to be His prophet.\u00a0Elisha was a farmer with oxen and a plow.\u00a0So right there, right then,\u00a0Elisha decided,\u00a0\u201cI am going to follow the\u00a0new life<\/em>\u00a0God is giving me. There is no turning back and I am going to make sure to remove all temptation of going back to my old life.\u201d\u00a0How did he do this?\u00a0He had a BBQ!\u00a0He slaughtered the oxen,\u00a0chopped up his plow, and used the wood to have a huge BBQ with his family and friends!\u00a0He\u00a0burned everything of his past life that could tempt him back to it,\u00a0and headed down the road to his new life, plowing\u00a0hard\u00a0rocky hearts to bring a harvest for God! Never looking back!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maybe you\u2019ve been trying to return to your old life that wasn\u2019t good for you but it\u2019s not working anymore. Maybe you\u2019re like the fishermen in Matthew 5:4-7. They fished all night without any luck. Then Jesus provided a catch so huge that their boats began to sink. They couldn\u2019t deny the miracle so when Jesus said, \u201cFollow Me,\u201d they did! After three years walking with Him, what did they do as soon as Jesus was crucified? John 21:1-13: They thought, \u201cWe\u2019re no longer evangelists, healers, and deliverers! Let\u2019s go back to our old lives and fish.\u201d Again, a night without a single fish. Again, Jesus provided a huge miraculous catch! When they got to Jesus on the shore, He was already cooking fish on a fire, but He told Peter to go get a few of the fish he had just caught. Why? Jesus had Peter bring Him their \u201cold way of life\u201d and burned it up in front of them, because they were never to return to it again! <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The other day I decided to clean out our basement. I came across a box of painting supplies. As I looked through the brushes, scrapers and rollers, I began to recall the life I had when I was a house painter.  When Karen and I were the senior pastors of a church we planted in Idaho, people in our congregation who knew I had painted in the … Continue reading Things in the Mirror are Closer Than They Appear<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3189","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.bwbministries.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3189","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.bwbministries.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.bwbministries.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.bwbministries.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.bwbministries.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3189"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"http:\/\/www.bwbministries.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3189\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3201,"href":"http:\/\/www.bwbministries.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3189\/revisions\/3201"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.bwbministries.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3189"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.bwbministries.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3189"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.bwbministries.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3189"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}