Lights as People, And People as Lights*

Last week we talked about a festival of dedicated lights, Hanukkaah, with us as the light of the world. In putting up Christmas lights, we can remember in the past that when one light on the string went out, the whole string would go out. Today, if the fuse or circuit breaker flips off, the whole string of lights fails to work. What is the effect that one life can have on others? If one of us is not shining, it affects all the other lights. Like the Christmas lights, if we are not connected to the Source that gives the light, than we cannot shine. In the movie, "It's A Wonderful Life" with Jimmy Stewart, which is always shown at Christmas time, an angel gives the lead character a gift: the gift of seeing how others' lives would be affected if he was not here. Jesus told us that we were the lights of the world to be placed high on a candlestick, not hidden, so our light would give light to all in the house. The good works that we do as those lights is seen by other men, and God is glorified as a result (Mt. 5:14-16). We are to be lights, and that light is seen by others. Jesus told us what affected our light: "The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single (meaning "good fulfilling its office, sound. Root meaning: s a particle of union), thy whole body shall be full of light. But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness?" (Mt. 6:22-23). We see the spiritual darkness of the times in whih we are living. We have to be diligent in maintaining the purity of our "eye", our spiritual sight and understanding, if we are to be people as lights. In our analogy of the string of Christmas lights, we see that there is the importance of unity - one light with the others, and all lights unified with their source. The apostle Paul wrote of the spiritual unity of believers in the Body of Christ - unity with each other, and unity with our Head, Christ: "I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that you walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called, with all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love; Endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace...there is one body...one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all..." (Eph. 4:1-5). The Body of Christ has a problem in their lack of unity with each other. This affects how our lights shine. The Lord sent apostles, prophets, evangelists, prophets and teachers to perfect and equip the saints for the work of the ministry (as the light of the world, and the bringing of the Gospel to others): "Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ...no more children tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine...But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ: From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love." (Eph. 4:11-16). As all parts of the Body are needed to function together, people as lights also function together in unity, and impact each other by doing so. Most central of all is the need to be connected to, and grow into, our Source of light, Jesus, the Light of the World. Jesus told His disciples: "Abide in me and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. I am the vine, and ye are the branches: He that abideth in me and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me, ye can do nothing...Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear mush fruit; so shall ye be my disciples...If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's command, and abide in his love." (Jn. 15:1-10, excerpt). Jesus told them that this was so His joy might remain in us, and our joy, in turn, may be full. For those who do not abide in the vine, Jesus, those "branches" would bear no fruit, wither, and be cast forth and burned. The commandments of Jesus that we are called to abide in, the Word of God, keeps us connected to Him. Paul wrote that it is the Spirit of God who works in us to be like an epistle "known and read of all men". (2 Cor. 3:2-3). The Word of God is no longer on tablets of stone, but written on the tables of our hearts. Our sufficiency to be lights that impact others is not of ourselves, "but our sufficiency is of God". (v. 3-5). It is God "Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life." (v. 6). Paul wrote of the greater glory (meaning includes "splendor, brightness") that is unlike the previous glory of Moses that came from the letter written and engraved in stones. That former glory passed away, but the ministration of the spirit is a glory that excels and remains (v. 7-11). It is also interesting that v. 18 from this chapter mentions an image, specifically a mirror image: "But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord." A mirror image that we gaze upon changes us. Paul also mentions this mirror image in 1 Cor. 13:12. In Gal. 3:1, Paul referred to "evidence" (meaning in the Greek to depict or portray openly. root meaning: engrave) of the crucifixion of Christ that the Galatians had seen with their own eyes. I believe that these are references in scripture to the Shroud of Turin, which is a mirror or reversed image. Many who have gazed at it have had their lives changed. Our lives should also impact others. As we abide in Christ, and as we are joined together in the unity of the Body of Christ, the Spirit and faith, we also are the lights that are the light of the world. *Based on Dr. Kenneth E. Stevenson's 12/12/21 message to the church. To contact us, submit a prayer request, give a praise report, or to support this ministry: P.O. Box 154221, Waco, TX, 76705 OR Everlastingcovenant@ymail.com. You can also find us on Facebook, Twitter, and endtimeschool.com.

What Price Liberty?

 

As our nation enters into the July 4th holiday celebrating our independence and liberty, most Americans will center their attention and activities on cook outs, fireworks, beaches and other summer fun. Little thought or appreciation will be given to the blood that was shed to secure that liberty. Our American soldiers and many civilians died to insure it, and they continue to stand ready in an instant to fight for our continued liberty, not only ours, but for many living across the globe. Other political and economic agendas play their parts in war, but for the American soldier, there is only one reason for which he or she risks dying-for our safety and continued liberty.

President Lincoln made note of the tenuous nature of liberty, and the sacrifice of blood that is required to protect it, at the site of one of the bloodiest battles in American history: Gettysburg:

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. ... It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.    (excerpt)

Benjamin Franklin also remarked upon the fragile nature of liberty when asked what form of government he and the Continental Congress had given us: "A Republic, if you can keep it."
As tenuous as our political liberty may be, have we also considered that the same is true for our spiritual liberty? Like our political liberty, our spiritual liberty was won at a price: not with the blood of soldiers, but with the blood of Jesus Christ:
"There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.//That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit....For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God...the creature (creation) waiteth  for the manifestation of the sons of God...Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God."   Rom. 8:1-2, 4, 14, 19, 21
However, the Word also tells us that this precious liberty, this gift from God through the death and resurrection of His Son, requires something of us if we are to continue to enjoy it:
"What then? shall we sin because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid. Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?...For if we live after the flesh, we shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live."   Rom. 6:15-16, 8:13
God has ordained that He should reign and rule in us by His Holy Spirit. His laws will be written in us, because Christ is in us and He fulfilled the law:
"This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put My laws into their hearts, and in their minds, I will write them. And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more."   Heb. 10:16-17
If we rebel and disregard this law that God has written within us, which Jesus fulfilled on our behalf (Mt. 5:17), we lose that liberty:
"For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries. He who despised Moses' law died without mercy under two or three witnesses: of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite to the Spirit of grace?... It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God."  Heb. 10:26-29, 31
We live in a nation that disregards the cost paid for its liberty, using that liberty for license, enacting laws and embracing sins that are against the laws of God, and are an abomination before Him. Let us, the people of God in Christ, not share in that same spirit of disregard concerning our even more precious spiritual liberty in Him:
"For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God."
                                                                                      Rom. 8:5-8
As we resolve to turn away from the carnal, and to walk in the Spirit of God, not only will we walk in the liberty of God, but we will affect the spiritual liberty of our nation:
"If My people, which are called by My name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land."    2 Chron. 7:14
This healing is not for our land only, but for all creation which awaits the manifestation of the sons of God, who walk in the Spirit, in His liberty, and not in the flesh (Rom. 8:19).

Let us remember the price paid for our precious liberty through Christ, and honor it.


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Reference:
http://www.abrahamlincolnonline.org/lincoln/speeches/gettysburg.htm