Samuel Kee - Soul Tattoo: A Life and Spirit Bearing the Marks of God

AFTER CARE

If you get a skin tattoo, your artist will provide you with crucial after-care instructions. The competent and caring artist will let you know how vital it is to adhere to these important guidelines, for even a beautiful tattoo can turn disastrous if it isnt taken care of properly. For instance, right after you get a tattoo, you must leave the bandage on it for two hours. Dont submerge it in water for two weeks. And for the rest of your life, put at least SPF 30 sunscreen on it before exposing it to sunlight so that the colors do not fade.

If taking care of our bodies is this important, how much more important is it to take care of our souls? Im not saying that our soul tattoos will fade and become infected like a skin tattoo might, but Im underscoring the importance of taking care of our souls. God wont erase the tattoos he has engraved on the souls of those who trust in him. They will remain for eternity. However, there are guidelines we can follow in order to maintain the vitality of our souls. Here are five ways to care for your soul tattoos, followed by six typical ways in which Satan attacks us.

BIBLE

You must read the Bible, both for information and for nourishment. Your soul depends on the truths found in the Bible. Theres no way around this. You and I need to have a daily diet of Bible reading. On one level, reading the Bible is like exercising: While you cant always feel its positive effects, you can trust that its changing you. Even if you dont feel like going for a jog or lifting weights, doing so will still benefit your body. The Bible isnt like other books, for when you use it as exercise for your soul, your soul is strengthened. Its more like ink than water, leaving its mark on those who come into contact with it.

Some might say, But I read the Bible, and I know its stories. I think its boring! In response, we might ask, Did you eat breakfast this morning? Didnt you have breakfast yesterday? Why did you have to eat it again today? Isnt breakfast boring? We dont eat breakfast because its particularly thrilling, but because it keeps us alive and nourished. Some of the most vital things in our lives are also the most boring. Theres nothing much more boring than breathing! Yet, without it, well die. The same is true of the Bible: without it, our souls will die.

Thankfully, its not boring! To read the Bible with an open heart is to encounter an extraordinary portrait of Jesus Christ. From beginning to end, the Bible is a display of Jesus, in all his beauty, wisdom, power, and steadfast love. All the stories in the Bible point to Jesus. If youre ever uncertain about the meaning of a passage of Scripture, filter it through this grid: our problem, Gods solution, and our response. Ask yourself what human problem is presented in the story, discover Gods solution to that problem, and search for an appropriate response to Gods solution. Heres a hint: Gods ultimate solution to every human problem is Jesus Christ. Heres one more practical tip: Dont skip a day of Bible reading (just as you normally wouldnt skip a day of eating), and dont skim through the stories. Read through one book of the Bible at a time, from start to finish.

PRAYER

Prayer goes hand in hand with Bible reading. The Bible teaches us what to pray about. Try to keep these two together as much as possible. My motto is Bible reading isnt complete without prayer; prayer cant begin without Bible reading. During prayer, the Holy Spirit works in at least three ways. First, the Spirit teaches us more about God and what we learned from his Word while reading. Second, the Spirit carries our prayers before the throne and intercedes on our behalf. Third, the Spirit is sent from the throne to grant certain requests on earth, according to Gods sovereign plan.

When we pray, we visit our true home in heaven for a few thrilling moments while were still on earth. God uses prayer as a way to comfort us, remind us of the truth, and give us divine wisdom. Prayer is a way of experiencing your relationship with God. Prayer draws our attention to our soul tattoos: You are mine, I will be with you, I love you, and I created you for my glory.

We must be careful that we dont try to manipulate God with our prayers, either by making ourselves look good, bargaining, or commanding. God is our loving and faithful heavenly Father; he knows us inside and out, and he knows what we need. Finally, talk to him with this in mind: that you will one day see Jesus Christ and you will one day be like him (1 John 3:2). By keeping these truths in mind, you will filter out hopelessness on the one hand and pride on the other. Pray for big things and for small things, because God loves it when his children depend on him!

WORSHIP

Your soul also needs to worship God in order to be healthy. Remember the gravitational pull? The more mass an object has, the more gravitational pull it will exert. Our souls will orbit around the things in our lives that have the greatest weight or mass. If God is the biggest thing in your life, your heart will orbit around him. Think about the things you struggle with, such as pride, lust, or doubt. Why is this the case? Because weve put something else at our center; weve allowed something else to be bigger than God, so it has more pull on our souls.

When we read the Bible and pray, we learn more about our Creator. He gets heavier in our lives. In response, we worship. To worship is to put God at the center of our lives and make him bigger than any other thing. We arent called to forget about our problems during worship, but we are to place them next to God (though not at the center) and discover how much greater he is than our problems.

While worship can come in many forms, such as singing, serving, giving, working, creating, or learning, the outcome of worship is the same. To worship is to seek him intentionally with every part of you.

COMMUNITY

Your soul needs other Christians in order to be healthy. The church might be flawed, but its the body of Christ (Rom. 12:38). Just as the body contains many members, so does your soul. Its not just you and Jesus. Its the church and Jesus, for he is the head of the church. When were in community, we best reflect God and experience God, who exists as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Were also stronger when were together. While its easy to break a single arrow, its virtually impossible to break a bundle of arrows. Our faith is made stronger when bundled together in the body of Christ. Community is where we learn about covenant relationship and what it means to commit to others out of a heart of service.

Find a local church that faithfully teaches the Bible and is full of grace, and walk boldly into community. Look for ways you can serve in the church, be mentored by others in the church, and be served by the church. Community is a wonderful place to be reminded of our soul tattoos.

OUTREACH

Outreach must be a part of our daily lives in order for our souls to be healthy. What is outreach? It is serving those around us. We serve by caring for the physical, emotional, social, and spiritual needs of others. Dont miss the implications here. Though physical needs surely are the most obvious, we fail in outreach if we dont also care for spiritual needs. It would make little sense to give someone a glass of water one minute if you knew that his whole ship would sink in five. If the physical needs of this world are manyand they arehow much greater are its spiritual needs? To do outreach work is to join Jesus Christ in his mission to establish the kingdom of heaven on earth.

GUARD AGAINST THESE ATTACKS FROM SATAN

There is a spiritual being who has placed a target on you. He is the adversary of those who follow Jesus Christ, and he aims his poisonous darts at you. Did you struggle through any of the previous chapters, wrestling with doubt or unbelief? Thats Satans work. He loves to keep us from living out the reality of our soul tattoos. Though he has many strategies for attacking us, I would like to share six of them. Just as bacteria seek to infect our bodies, so does Satan seek to infect and take over our souls.