Years ago, website developers had to style the appearance of each of their webpages. Today they use CSS which stands for Cascading Style Sheet. A Cascading Style Sheet is an electronic text document used by webpages to give them their distinctive appearance, i.e. style. If you want all the pages of your website to have the same general appearance, then you link them to a style sheet and presto-chango instant uniformity.
God’s word is similar to a style sheet. On this style sheet God has written the code that should shape our attitudes and behavior. If we link our life to God’s word, our attitudes and behavior should reflect that relationship. Unfortunately, the link between our life and God’s word doesn’t have automatic or instantaneous results. Since you and I are not computer software, we won’t automatically look the way we should. This nonconformance is similar to the problem website developers have when trying to code a website. The problem for website developers is that different internet browsers like Chrome, Internet Explorer, and Safari will render webpages differently. Internet browsers allow us to view webpages over the internet, but the same webpage may look different depending on which browser you’re using. Chrome may look slightly different than Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, or if you’re using a Mac, Safari may look a little different.
Just as a website doesn’t always appear the way a programmer expected, so too you and I don’t always match God’s expectations. Programmers sometimes have to write “workarounds” to make a website look the right way. They may have to write a different workaround in Internet Explorer, and Safari because these browsers are different.
So too, the Holy Spirit works in our lives differently because each one of us is different. God does not change his word to fit our personalities, but the Holy Spirit does find the best way to help us according to our personalities and our strengths and weaknesses.
God is a great God. Unlike sloppy computer programmers who write sloppy code that results in programming flaws, security vulnerabilities, and other bugs, God’s word doesn’t have these flaws. The Bible says,
The law of the Lord is perfect, refreshing the soul.
The statutes of the Lord are trustworthy, making wise the simple.
The precepts of the Lord are right, giving joy to the heart.
The commands of the Lord are radiant, giving light to the eyes.
The fear of the Lord is pure, enduring forever.
The decrees of the Lord are firm, and all of them are righteous.
They are more precious than gold, than much pure gold.
Now it’s up to us to download God’s word into the browser of our heart and mind where the Holy Spirit does his work to help us live according to the code God has written. We must link our lives to God’s word so that we’ll look the way God intended us to look—in the image of his son Jesus.
Trying to stay connected,
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