I'm Gonna Let My Little Light Shine

Matthew 5:14-16 (KJV) Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid. 15 Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it gives light unto all that are in the house. 16 Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.

      As we explore the pronouncement of Jesus that we are the light of the world it would be good to remember John 8:12

“Then Jesus spoke to them again and said, I am the light of the world: he that follows me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.”

     Jesus was standing in the Temple when He spoke those words but the story of why he was chose that location goes far in explaining what He meant. He was in the Temple on the morning after a night time ceremony called the Illumination of the Temple. On that night in the Temple treasury the people would gather around four massive golden candelabra that were topped with huge torches. It is said that the candelabra were as high as the temple walls and the bowls mounted on them each held sixty-five liters of oil. When night came and darkness covered the temple a priest would climb to the wicks and light them. It is reported that the light that came from these massive oil lamps would light not only the temple but all of Jerusalem. Men would dance before the candelabra with torches in their hands singing songs and praises while countless Levites would play on harps, lyres, cymbals, and trumpets. This elaborate celebration was to commemorate the great pillar of fire that led the people of Israel as they journeyed through the wilderness. Remember that the cloud and the pillar were the glorious presence of God in the midst of the camp.

      In the morning with the burned out candelabra at His back Jesus stood and proclaimed, “I am the light of the world!” This was an earth shattering announcement that could not be misunderstood. Jesus was revealing Himself as Messiah! He was the pillar of fire that came between them and the Egyptians at the Red Sea. He was the cloud by day and the pillar by night that lighted the camp and led the way. He was the cloud that filled Solomon’s Temple. He was everything that they longed for, everything they needed, everything that they had been promised. He was the Light of the World, gloriously shining in the darkness.
To know that Jesus is the Light reveals another fact. This world is in darkness. Hanging in the darkness of space there was no light until God said, “Let there be light.” The darkness of this world stifled all hope, all beauty, all life. There was not one ray, not one ember of hope that could fight back the darkness. What a vivid picture that depicts the spiritual darkness of the world that we live in today. Even worse than the spiritual darkness of this world is the fact that men intentionally live in darkness.

    John told us “And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.”
    Imagine the tragedy played out every day as people love the darkness that enslaves them so much that they reject the light sent to deliver them. This is far worse than the darkness itself. Forging through the darkness of the night just before dawn is difficult but imagine choosing to live in caves where the light cannot shine and hiding from its warmth, refusing to see. For those who seek the light we can understand the horror of Paul’s statement when he penned

“They have crucified the Lord of Glory!”

     It is beyond our wildest imagination that men would try to extinguish the light.

      It is in this context that we must try to understand what Jesus tells us when He proclaims that “You are the light of the world.” We cannot be the light unless we dwell in the light and the light dwells in us.

To Preserve or Not To Preserve

Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savor, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men. Matthew 5:13 (KJV)

It is important to place these verses in context. Jesus had just completed listing the eight qualities that must define the Christian life. Some might feel that they could live out these qualities in isolation, away from the world, but as Jesus continues the Sermon on the Mount He makes it abundantly clear with His comparison of Christians to salt and light that the beatitudes were designed for great impact on those around us. These two metaphors make it clear how we should live our lives in relation to the world.

You, and you alone are the salt of the earth! Jesus is clear in this statement that there is no other option. God has established His Church as the vehicle He will work through to hold back the forces of evil that would drag men’s souls to eternal damnation. Man when left to his own devices does not evolve as the world teaches but rather falls deeper into sin and like rotting flesh begins to putrefy. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and man cannot climb out of the slimy pit that He is in by himself but instead continues to slip deeper and deeper.

God has always had a people. He found Noah, Abraham, Moses, and David men that would listen to His voice and became those of “like precious faith” to stand against the tide of this world. When Jesus came He had a two-fold purpose. On the cross He would become the ultimate sacrifice, the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world. But His other purpose was to establish His Church. He told Peter in Matthew 16:18, “that upon this rock I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” The Church is not a building or denomination. It is you! The believer who has surrendered their life to God and been filled with His Spirit will exhibit the transformation that only Jesus can bring to our lives. We have been changed from death to life and that life is vibrant because it contains the breath of God.

It is God’s breath, His life, in you that makes you salt, holding back the decay and preserving a dying world. Jesus in you is the hope of fallen man and the power of God to Salvation. You have been sent, with a purpose, into a fallen world to carry the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Be the salt.

Each Step I Take

Psalm 27:1 (KJV) - The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? the LORD is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?

Have you ever longed to get somewhere but seemed to be stuck in a rut and just going in circles? The more your desire to arrive at the destination grows, the more frustrated you become when you can’t seem to get past the obstacles that block your way. I have often told people that they can’t graduate unless they pass every grade. When we fail the first grade we have to retake the lesson and try to pass again. There is a progression to everything in life. Seeds turn into sprouts, sprouts turn into healthy plants, plants produce the harvest, the harvest returns to the seed take out one of those steps and the garden won’t grow.
The Christian life is no exception. The Psalmist alludes to this forward progress in our verse. The Lord is first my light, then my salvation, then my strength. You may be familiar with Psalm 119:105, “The word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.” But verse 104 gives us a greater insight into this important first step, “Through thy precepts I get understanding: therefore I hate every false way.” It is God’s Word that illuminates the darkness of sin in our lives. Without seeing that sin for the destructive cancer that it is we can never truly be repentant. Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 7:9, “now I rejoice, not that you were made sorry, but that you sorrowed to repentance: for you were made sorry after a godly manner, that you might receive damage by us in nothing. For godly sorrow works repentance to salvation…” I am so thankful that when Jesus stepped into the room where I had hidden my sin His light illuminated the darkness and there was no hiding from His holiness. He did not bring condemnation but He brought conviction of sin and the sorrow that I felt was not of this world, shallow and quickly forgotten, but it was deep and abiding. I realized that it was my sin that had nailed Jesus to the cross and like the Psalmist “I hated every false way.” There is no salvation without godly repentance.
But God doesn’t leave us in our despair. His light not only reveals our sin but He reveals the cross, the cross where Jesus died for our sin. The debt of sin that I could not pay was paid in full as Jesus drank the bitter cup and satisfied the wrath of God. Salvation belongs to Christ and grace opens the door so that I might enter in to the holy presence of God. It is here that we can say with Paul, “God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.” (Galatians 6:14)
He is my light, my salvation, and my strength! So many want to walk in the power of God and live in the Spirit without experiencing the light and salvation. We must walk step by step and know that God is faithful to keep us. Preaching the power without the cross is empty. Preaching the cross without the knowledge of sin is meaningless for the law was our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ. The grace of God allows us to walk in His power and to know His victory over sin and death. But to fully embrace God’s love and grace we must fully embrace the destitute nature of sin and flesh that robs us of the glory of God. There is a path to victory. It is clear and when followed step by step all who come may enter. Is Christ your light, and salvation, and strength? If He is then you have nothing to fear, victory has already been won.

Light and Salvation

Psalm 27:1 (KJV) - The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? the LORD is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?

David Patillo wrote a song that says, “Alone and in the dark, Satan’s chains on my heart, I was oh so blind. Feeling confused, my soul being abused, sin had tortured my mind. Quicksands of sin creeping up to my chin, no way to go but down. Then a voice seemed to be, saying come unto me and I’ll lead you to higher ground.” The name of that song is “No Power on Earth”. As a Christian I find that it is easy to forget the hopelessness of being lost and enveloped by the darkness of sin. Standing in the light of God’s love and grace that darkness is but a distant memory. When I stop and think about where Jesus found me and how He saved me I can’t help but lift my heart and voice to Heaven in praise. I want to worship the Lord with everything that is me because He brought me out. Jesus delivered me from the miry clay. The Psalmist sings out “He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings. And he hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God: many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust in the LORD.” Psalm 40:2-3 (KJV)
In Israel the potter would go down to the clay pits and select his clay. The pit was dark and the clay was formless and lost in the mire. The potter would take the clay and “set” it on the “rock”. The rock is where the potter would establish the foot of the pottery, that place where the potter would put the clay to begin the process of shaping it. Then the potter would “establish the goings” by spinning the wheel and as the clay would rotate the potter would place his hands on the clay and begin to shape it. The clay was not able to remain on the rock by itself without the skillful hands of the potter it would become unbalanced and spin out of control. What a beautiful picture of how God has brought us out of the sin and mire of this world, placed us on the solid rock Christ Jesus where He can shape and mold us into a vessel of His anointing. The potter would allow the clay to form and at the right moment he would press his fingers into the center of the clay and begin to form the pot. The potter would call this “forming the heart”. Aren’t you glad that God has poured out His Holy Spirit into our hearts and is this very day making us, forming us, molding us, and establishing our “goings”. We have reason to rejoice! God is for us! Who can be against us?

Need a Light

Psalm 27:1 (KJV) - The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? the LORD is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?

      In Genesis 1:26 God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness” . Most of us think of an image as “a physical likeness or representation of a person, animal, or thing, photographed, painted, sculptured, or otherwise made visible” and that is one of the dictionaries definitions. Today I would like you to consider the dictionaries second definition, “an optical counterpart or appearance of an object, as is produced by reflection from a mirror, refraction by a lens, or the passage of luminous rays through a small aperture and their reception on a surface”. When we look at an object what we are really seeing is light. The light from that object passes through our eyes and an image is created. This definition of image serves us well when contemplating the Scripture in Genesis 1:26. We were created to reflect The Father.
      God had a plan when He created you. He was showing off. When Adam and Eve were commanded to go and fill the earth God wanted them to replicate Him. He wanted an earth filled with His glory. But sin marred the lens of our aperture and darkness covered our souls. The light of God cannot be reflected through the selfish, soulish nature of sinful man and so God sent His only begotten Son into the world that the world through Him might be saved. The blood of Jesus, the sacrificial lamb of God, takes away the sin of the world. When we place our faith in the finished work of the cross old things are passed away and behold all things become new. Instead of a reflection marred by sin we are once again restored so that we can fulfill God’s purpose for our lives. What is that purpose? To allow His light to flood our soul and reflect His glory to a world that is lost in the darkness of sin.
      The Psalmist said, “The Lord is my light.” Can you say that today? When your family, friends, neighbors, or co-workers look at you who do they see? Do they see the light of His glory shining brightly in your heart?