Is There Light in You?

Is there Light in You?

Matthew 5:14-16 says: “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden; nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.”

We live in the small valley across from the 2700’ tall Camelback Mountain, and occasionally at night someone with a flashlight overstays the park closing hour and stands on top of the mountain, and the light from that flashlight shines brightly across the dark distance, perhaps 2 miles from us.   The lesson: “light penetrates darkness.”

The word “light” makes its first Bible appearance in Genesis, verse 1:3, as God commands light to appear, separating light from the darkness.  As we read on we learn that light is revealed in later passages as Christ, “Light of the world”, and here in the Gospels, Jesus tells us that we are now His Light in and to the world.

Many other passages remind us that light is from God and not meant to be hidden, but revealed, just as the small flashlight atop Camelback at night shines so far.  All four Gospels, like Matthew 5:16 above tell us to let our light shine that all may see our good works, and glorify our heavenly father.   Take the time to do a study on the word LIGHT in the Old and New Testaments and discover for yourself why it is used 200+ times.

Jesus reminded his followers in John 8 that He is the Light, and that those who follow Him will not walk in darkness, but have in them the Light of Life.  If His Light in us does not change our actions and what our spouse sees is selfish and sinful, 1 John29:9 tells us that we are still in darkness.   I believe these reminders might quickly draw us back to Psalm 26:2, where David cries out to God to examine his heart, and to test his mind and heart.  That may well take us to the whole of Psalm 139 – 24 short verses that peel our lives to the core before a God who knows everything about us and is with us as we grow a desire to live as His Light, instead of remaining in our selfishness and sin.  The lesson:  Christ is THE light, and t is given to us so that we might reveal Him to the world and that we might open ourselves to the vast void in our souls that can only be filled by our deepening relationship with Christ.

I’ve written before that Louie Giglio encourages his congregation to live to make Jesus famous, Francis Chan tells us to live with a focus on Eternity not life here on earth, and Dallas Willard said that that doing right things is good, but becoming the kind of person who would choose those things is best.  Recently Larry Crabb and Jamie suggested that the Kindness of God in us, puts Jesus on display for others.  Eph 5:32 sums it up saying that Marriage is designed by God to be a reflection of the relationship Christ has with His Church — becoming a display case for the Kingdom.  It is only His Light in us that is the Kingdom display case.

I don’t know about you, but being a consistently kind and fruit bearing display case is difficult, nay impossible for me.  If you know me, you know I’m selfish, but as my heart hungers more for Christ to be “in me”, my hope and desire is that my consistency grows over time and that it’s observable by others.   Jamie posed questions for us that we might ask our spouse – the one person we probably most demonstrate our selfishness before.    “What is it like to live with me?” and “Do I display Christ before you?”   Are you courageous enough to ask them?  The lesson: How might God grow me and our marriage by examining His light in our lives?

God’s design is that His Light is seen by all  As Christ-followers change their selfish and sinful actions to those that reveal Christ and become more and more attractive to other Christians,  they may in fact open themselves to ridicule and worldly scorn. Does the Light that God commanded at Creation penetrate the darkness and shine through me?  The lesson: What is Christ to you?