October 28, 2022 -- Luke 11:33-36 -- Shine out the Light of Life

People loved by the Father, in the Spirit's power: Sh'ma ~ hear and obey Jesus!

“No one after lighting a lamp puts it in a cellar or under a basket, but on a stand, so that those who enter may see the light. 34 Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eye is healthy, your whole body is full of light, but when it is bad, your body is full of darkness. 35 Therefore be careful lest the light in you be darkness. 36 If then your whole body is full of light, having no part dark, it will be wholly bright, as when a lamp with its rays gives you light.”
Luke 11:33-36 ESV

Of course, you’d put a lamp or a candle in a prominent place. You want the light. You need the light so that you can go about your work or reading. So, hiding the newly lit candle makes no sense at all! Now, consider the fact that Your Father in heaven has given you the Light of Jesus Christ. The fire in you is the Spirit of God so that you shine brightly with the life of Christ. Do not hide yourself from others. Do not keep your faith to yourself—in the same way that you light a lamp to display its light, so the Father in heaven has brought the light of Christ into your life so that you may give His light to others.

There is a warning attached to this as well. As one who is alight for Christ and is in Christ, what is it you are looking at? What movies? What videos? What things—are they clean or unclean? If you are bright for Christ, then let that light of life hate all that is dark with evil. Evil infects and pollutes. Even a Christian can be tormented and affected when he seeks out evil. So, look to all that is excellent, pure with the glory of Christ and the radiance of the Father’s love. Keep yourself in the Word so that you will always have fresh fuel for the light of life within you. Spend time with Christians whose walk you admire so that you will together shine brightly and be prepared for the times when the LORD will set you as a light in a room-full of sin-darkened people who need the light of Christ.

What happens when someone’s eyes are used to darkness and suddenly someone switches on the light? He pulls back. Shields his eyes against the shock of the light until they can adjust to the purity of it because they’d been dilated in order to peer into the darkness. So too, many who are appointed for life, will at first recoil at the light of Christ which pours out from you. Do not lose heart. Do not hide the light, but declare Jesus, Who is the evidence of the Father’s love, and do so until the Spirit ignites this other person with the Light of Life—Jesus Christ. Be prepared for the fact that many who are confronted with the beauty of Jesus Christ will not accept Him. Even so, shine! It is what you are created to do.

Our Father in heaven, thank You for lighting up my life with the brilliance of Jesus Christ. Thank You for banishing the darkness. Forgive me for the times I still peer at the darkness or longingly and inappropriately remember dark deeds. Spirit of the Living God, focus my thoughts and my attention, my eyes and my heart to the many-times-more blazingly incandescent beauty of Jesus Christ. He is the Light of the World. He is the joy of the believer's heart. Father of all good gifts, Jesus is Your greatest gift of love, He perfectly dispels the darkness and fills the believer with the illuminating warmth of Your great love. Triune God, let my life radiate the light of Christ wherever I am so that those appointed to eternal life will be drawn to Christ and set ablaze for Him by the powerful work of the Holy Spirit.

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