When i was growing up, my mother made almost all of our clothes for the entire family. i saw with my own eyes, that there were times when what she made didn’t work out … i remember walking into her little sewing area and seeing her unstitching things which didn’t measure up to the pattern. One year all of us kids agreed to do something extra special … we mowed lawns, picked beans and corn, cut tobacco, baled hay, and helped neighbors with projects, all so we could buy her a new sewing machine … a really nice one for the time period. In all of her time of putting together pieces of carefully cut cloth, mending shirts, and making new clothes, what i remember more than anything was the boxes and boxes and stacks of patterns, and on those patterns, somewhere there was always a reference point so the sewer would know how to orient the pattern on the cloth.
How important is a reference point and a pattern? Some very talented people can make clothes or create tailored things, it would appear, without much of a pattern, but we can rest assured, somewhere in their past, they followed a pattern so often, that the reference point and pattern was memorized, and burned into their mind.
The universe was framed from the reference point and pattern of God’s wisdom and character, Proverbs 3:19-20, “By wisdom the LORD laid the earth’s foundations, by understanding he set the heavens in place; by his knowledge the deeps were divided, and the clouds let drop the dew.” The Lord gave the universe a gridwork of divinity and holiness to lean against and to brace upon. He, Jesus, IS the reference point and pattern. He IS Torah.
Without a reference point and pattern to build by, a house could easily turn out to be as crooked as the crooked man who walked a crooked mile, who built a crooked house and had a crooked smile. Jesus is the universal point of definition and the straight line of orientation, by which all things are set straight and the deeds of men and angels are judged.
So, here we go … if you’re on your way somewhere, then steady on my friend, lend me your ears, tap your fingers, and let these words sink down into your heart.
All through scripture, God has made sure we have a reference point and pattern to fashion ourselves, our conduct, character, and conversation. From cover to cover, our Bible is a pattern of how to pray, what to pray about, and how things go when we don’t pray. In Luke 11 Jesus gave us a pattern of how to pray; the Bible has patterns of how to take action and what happens when we take no action; there are patterns of devotion and deceit, fruitfulness and fruitlessness; patterns of what life should and should not look like. A pattern is more than a one-time event, like saying it isn’t the one cookie which makes you fat, it’s the lifestyle, or pattern of cookies that does us in. Our God IS a God of contrasts.
In God’s wisdom, He knew we would need someone and something as a reference point and pattern so we would know when we were going in the right direction and doing the right thing. He gave us many reference points and patterns for us to gauge against for us to be oriented.
Not only did the Lord, who lives forever, give us reference points and patterns in His word for us to live by, but He designed and handed us references in all the heavens and the earth. God is the inventor and perfecter of the concept of a map and compass. An example would be the North Star. For thousands of years, it has been a standard reference point for navigation. The pattern of the rest of the stars in relation to that all important star are all there in order for us to get and keep our bearings. The yellow and white lines on the roads we drive are there as a reference point, indicating what is our side and what is not. Road signs are a pattern and reference point so we know where we are, how fast to go, or not to go. Buoy markers are a reference point and strike a pattern to follow for boats and ships. Here’s one, light houses – now there’s a huge reference point for sea faring folks to know there is danger, or as a shining light in the dark showing the way home. Are we any different than those light houses? Didn’t the Lord give it to us be like a lamp set in a dark place?
Patterns are described as a relationship between objects in which one object acts as a means by which to connect to another object. The first object in this relationship is said to refer to the second object. i figure when it’s just one point, it is a reference point, but when there are two or more reference points in relationship with each other, there is a pattern. That is why i refer to Jesus as the reference point and standard of the universe, and His character, motivations, and actions are the pattern we are to follow.
Recently, my wife ordered a jeweler’s scale which is accurate out to two decimal places. When we put a battery in it and tried to use it, it was wrong, obviously and glaringly incorrect. Sometimes when things don’t go well, it is wise to read the directions you know … so … after we read the directions, we realized we needed to calibrate the little electronic scale, and to do that, we needed a reference point. In our case, we needed to calibrate the scale with a 500g standard, not 502, not 488, but exactly 500g. In this little exercise, i realized, again, the value of an accurate reference point and the impact of that reference point on all that follows. The quality of our pattern is no better than the quality of our reference point, and if we’ve got a skewed reference point, the patterns are skewed also. Similarly, if your reference point is exact, then your pattern is going to reflect the rightness of your reference point.
With the rise of individualism in America today, it is popular to say that truth is subjective, in other words, it’s the truth according to me and whatever i decide, meaning my opinion (the subjective truth) becomes my reality (my objective truth). From God’s perspective, if we are our own reference point then we are still slaves to sin and death … in that case all our thinking and living will be no better than our reference point of sin and death.
i don’t know about you, but i need a righteous reference point of someone besides myself. i can not be my own reference point and pattern. That would be like saying “i am my own mother and father, my own beginning and end, and i will pray to myself and answer myself.” That’s absolute madness, but yet the more ungodly our nation gets, the more prevalent that kind of stinking thinking becomes. That lifestyle and thinking is destined to die because of the origins of its birth, meaning it is born of ourselves. If we are our focus and do the Burger King-thing, living out the idea of “Have it your way”, we will die without Christ.
Our nation’s judicial system was founded on the Lord and the Bible as the reference point and pattern for right and wrong and how to righteously divide the two amongst the people. In the end, our God will still be the reference point and pattern, whether anyone likes it or not. Philippians 2:9-11 “Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” We can choose the Lord as our reference point and pattern and live, or we can choose ourselves and die. What’s it gonna be?
Within the Hebrew word used for “pattern”, as seen in Exodus 25:9 there is a reference to inside and outside of the house. Interestingly, it is a word the Lord uses which He has built in the reflection of the family unit, not a reflection of rule keeping, or a reflection of punishment, or judgment, but of the family, and you know, God is allllll about the family, from the beginning. Interestingly, the word also points to the effort of arm and hand in worship. So there it is, God’s primary idea when He uses the word pattern is a picture of three things, the family, the house where the family lives, and worship of God as a lifestyle of the family in the house. Jesus, the Mighty One who first breathed is our living example, our model of how to choose and live.
What or Who is the reference point and pattern in your decision-making machine concerning how to choose and live? What or who governs your appetites? Whoever stands at the helm of your boat has incredible influence concerning where that boat goes, so i must ask, “Who is in your wheelhouse?” We need a reference point and righteous pattern if we are to weigh things properly and come to Godly conclusions. So i’ll ask again, and hopefully, you’ll take it seriously and ask yourself, “Who is in your wheelhouse”.
The reference point for the entire universe and all the living and dead, is the Lord Himself, and He is sufficient and enough. If our best standard by which all standards are calibrated with finite accuracy, how much more the Lord is infinitely more exact. He is the very definition of the definition of the standard of the standard of the reference point, world without end.
We need … the world needs the reference point and pattern of Jesus Christ. We are to reflect Christ for He is our reference point. He is the reference point of first mention when the Lord spoke of the pattern of the Tabernacle in Exodus 25; Jesus is the reference point in the example of the Menorah. The Lord was David’s point of reference, and He gave David the plans, or patterns for how things were supposed to go. 1 Chronicles 28:11-12, “Then David gave his son Solomon the plans for the porch of the temple, its buildings, its storerooms, its upper parts, its inner rooms and the place of atonement. He gave him the plans of all that the Spirit had put in his mind for the courts of the temple of the LORD and all the surrounding rooms, for the treasuries of the temple of God and for the treasuries for the dedicated things.” i mean, the pattern of things listed in 1 Chronicles 28 which the Lord laid out for David is incredible, and i believe all those patterns, with God as our reference point, is for us to build on, not to abandon.
This is amazing. Look at what it says at 1Chron28:19, “All this,” David said, “I have in writing from the hand of the LORD upon me, and he gave me understanding in all the details of the plan.” The Lord not only gave David a vision of it, but David was motivated by the Spirit of the Lord to write it down so the work could be accomplished … not to mention he also understood it.
The same applies today. The Lord is our reference point, pattern and understanding so the work of the Lord can be accomplished.
A business model is a pattern to build after, and there are many business models to create from in this world. A business model, or pattern of doing business, determines the way a company “does business” with its customers, partners and vendors. For us as believers, having Jesus as our reference point and pattern gives us a system of righteous guidelines to build life by which are focused on and directed toward each other and then outwardly toward the world, defining the way we “conduct ourselves” with family, friends, acquaintances, and the world. Without Jesus as our reference point, we have no choice but to accept something or someone else as our standard, or worse, to accept ourselves as our standard, and that is sure death in the end … a total dead end. No man or thing can be a good reference point for us because everything without Christ is under the penalty of death due to sin. When Jesus is NOT our reference point and pattern, it’s like having death as your point of reference … yea, isn’t that attractive?
Jesus is like the north star for us to navigate with … as long as we can see Jesus we’ll never lose our way home. In astronomy, His name is written in the stars. He is our beacon and light house, and all through scripture, from Genesis to Revelation, everything points to Jesus, the Messiah, Savior, Lord and God. Jesus IS Torah. In the O.T. the name of Jesus, “Yeshua”, occurs 78 times as salvation, help, deliverance, health, save, saving, and welfare.
Everything points to Jesus.
One of God’s attributes which He shares with us is the pattern of Himself, and by that pattern we have life, direction, reconciliation, and a justified position.
In Christ and through Christ, we have been supplied the means to satisfy all our needs. Philippians 4:19 “And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.”
Having Jesus as our universal reference point and using the pattern as the Lord has described for us through out the Bible, suddenly we find ourselves rich in social, economic, moral, ethical, and cultural value … God-value, and He is more precious than gold and rubies. Revelation 3:18, the Lord says, “I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see.”
John 8:12 “When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.””
Without Jesus as our reference point and pattern, we are no better than a boat untethered to a secure place, going where ever the wind and sea will carry us. Without Jesus as our reference point and pattern, we have no anchor, no direction, and no definition.
i’m Social Porter and this has been Outposts, a semi-live broadcast from the deck area overlooking the Ockluhwahhah River, where the trees gently lean over the rivers edge, and every evening is pleasant.
Letters, words, and definitions of all languages were God’s idea. i believe they were given to mankind firstly, in order that we would communicate with God and secondly, so we would communicate with each other. It seems to me if Jesus is our point of reference and pattern, we would want to know Him more intimately. after all, i’m speaking of someone who is so important that we, as people, have divided time according to His birth, B.C. being an abbreviation for “Before Christ,” and A.D. an abbreviation for “anno Domini,” which is Latin for “in the year of our Lord.”
What or Who is the reference point and pattern in your decision making machine concerning how to choose and live? What or Who governs your appetites? We need a reference point and righteous pattern if we are to weigh things properly and come to Godly conclusions. Let Jesus be your north star, your all encompassing reference point and pattern.
Be strong and courageous this week, visit someone in need and let them know they aren’t forgotten. Drive carefully and put into action the compassion of God. Amen!