"The Light"

Matthew 5:14-16

“You are the light of the world.  A city set on a hill cannot be hidden; nor does anyone light a lmap 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.”

When Jesus says that we are something, then certainly without a doubt, undeniably, irrevocably, we are that which He said we are – and He said we are the light of the world, so therefore we are the light of the world, no question about it.  What makes us the light of the world is the question?  Is it our good works?  Is it our ambition to do right?  Is it the way we think?  What is it?

-It’s Jesus-

He is the Light of the World.  John 1 says that “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.  He was in the beginning with God.  All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.  In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men.  The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend (overpower) it.”  The Word is a He – John 1.14 says that “And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.”  This is Jesus!  The Word is Jesus!

If we have received Jesus as Lord and Savior, then certainly this statement in Galatians 2:20 is the truth – “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me…”  This is not to say that I no longer exist, but rather that the nature I had before I had gotten saved, the fallen nature, the sin nature that I once had, is now removed and Christ, the Word, dwells on the inside of me.

Since this is the case, then we carry that Light which was spoken of in John 1, “In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men”.  We are the vessel of light to all men.  Men should see this great Light on the inside of us who have received Jesus as our Lord.

If the Word is light and God is love, then the Word is love too.  Men shall know that we are His (Jesus’) disciples because we have love for one another.

Let’s shine the light of Jesus Christ by sharing the love which we have freely received.  Jesus said in Matthew 10:8, “Freely you have received, freely give”.  Be that vessel of love, be the light that Jesus said you are!

Giver of Life

John 6:63 – "It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.”

The closer one draws to God, the more stronger their spirit is, the sharper they are, the brighter they are, the more joyful they are, the healthier they are. Why? Because they are drawing closer to the One who gives all these things. They are understanding more and more just who God has made them to be and they are stepping into the light in which they receive. But what happens if we begin to draw back? We lose sight of these things, we become more focused on what’s around us, what’s attacking us, what’s going on in our mind – we are drawing back from the Giver of Life. How can we keep the life if we are drawing back from it?

The further one draws back from God, the less life they have, the less life they will walk in, and that which is now taking up their time and their focus will eventually consume them – these things that cause us to draw back from God, they are life-suckers. The things that cause us to draw back may not necessarily be evil, but the fact that they are being idolized and chosen over God makes them evil. They are sucking the life right out of us. The precious time we could be spending with God, working on the things which He’d have us to do we are now wasting on temporal things which only take the life out and cause us to draw back from God. And don’t blame the stuff….There is only one responsible – ourself!

Just as the things of the flesh suck the life out of us, the things of the Spirit give life. We spend time in His presence, we read His Word, the Holy Spirit then reveals this Word to us, this is the life and the light that comes on the inside. That’s why Satan will do all he can to get you distracted because the more light comes on the inside of you, the more you will shine and the more destruction you will bring to his evil kingdom. He works overtime to get believers to walk by the flesh and please the flesh and put the things of the Spirit away. But the more we give to God, the more life we have, and the better life will be – in fact, it is the best life! So don’t give yourself to the things of the flesh, give yourself to the Giver of Life – this is life!

Serving

What shall a man boast in? What shall a man value in life? What shall a man make his priority in life? What shall a man set his face, his eyes, his focus, his life on? What shall a man live to serve? - Every single question is answered by this, and it’s not a what, it’s a Who. He is Jesus.

For what does man have, what talent or gift or good thing does he profess to have that has not been given him? James 1:17 says “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of heavenly lights, Who does not change like shifting shadows”. Should material wealth, should fame, should the glory of man be that which is valued in life above all things? What is it that is said should be the value of a man’s life? Philippians 3:8 “More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for Whom I have suffered the loss of all things and count them but rubbish that I may gain Christ…” What is it that should be the number one priority in life? Mark 12:30-31 “‘And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, with all your strength. And the second is this, You shall love your neighbor as yourself’. There is no other commandment greater than these.’” A man shall set his face, his eyes, his focus, his life, on this – Proverbs 4:20 “My son, give attention to my words. Incline your ear unto my sayings. Let them not depart from your eyes, keep them in the midst of your heart for they are life to those that find them and health to all your flesh”. A man should not live to serve himself, his possessions, nor any dumb idols, but he shall serve the one and only God! Matthew 4:10 “Then Jesus said to him, ‘Go Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God and serve Him only’”. 

Luke 16:13 “No servant can serve two masters…” Every decision, every choice that we make reflects just who it is that we are serving. For instance, I choose to sleep in rather than get up and go to church, and I may turn around and try to justify it by saying “Well, I was overly tired”. Well, who’s decision was it to stay up late? “Well, I was out of town and got in late”. But is that really an excuse? Is that reason enough to miss church? It would be different if God would have had me be somewhere else doing something for him and I was out of town, but that is not the issue at hand. In this instance, I have chosen myself over what I know is right and what I should have done for a bit of comfort, because I didn’t “feel” like getting out of bed to go to church. That’s a simple example, but we are faced with decisions every day that reflect who I have decided to serve in that situation. Our lives should be constantly changing, that is, we are becoming better and better, more on target, that every day we are decreasing ourselves that He may increase, choosing to do what is right, what He has told us to do, rather than what our old, dead, carnal nature wants to do. The carnal man serves himself – the godly man serves others. The carnal man puts himself first – the godly man puts others first. The root of this godly nature is putting God first, for to those who put God first, His love will abound in them and will flood out into others.
Serve God, not self.

An Act of Love

“An Act of Love”

Ephesians 3:17-19  “And that you, being rooted and grounded in love would be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God”.

God is love – Should this statement be pushed to the side or deemed just semi-important?  No…For this is the foundation of true love, for any of the true love that you and I walk in.  God is love – and what is the proof?  The proof, that the Father would send His one and only Son into the sinful world, be smitten, beaten, scourged, mocked, crucified and become OUR sin that we would be put back in the place from which we had fallen, that we would be a family yet again, the Father and His children.   This is love – No greater love does a man have than this, that he would lay his life down for his friend.  He would give up all he had for his friend, everything the man had, his entire life, to save his friend.  And so we have our loving Savior, Jesus, who did this for us.  Jesus is the perfect representation of the will of the Father, and the Father is love, which makes Jesus love.  We must be grounded in this, we must be grounded in Him.

In order to be rooted and grounded in love, we must be walking in it.  It takes a setting of our will to love.  Chances are we have run into people who are not loving at all but yet Jesus, who is the perfect will of the Father made manifest, said we are to love our neighbor as we love ourselves.  It even takes a setting of the will to love God!  Yes, it’s true, we ourselves have to set our will on God to love Him.  You may be thinking, “WHAT?  I LOVE GOD WITH ALL MY HEART!” But do you act like it all the time?  I guarantee there are areas still need working, and if you think there aren’t, you have deceived yourself.  What if He asks you to take some time in the morning, get out of bed 30 minutes early and spend some time in the Word, what will you do?  At that point, we must set our will to love because fact of the matter is, the flesh doesn’t want to get out of bed and the decision that is made will determine whether you are loving the flesh more or loving God more right at this time – love comes down to single decisions.  Now if you don’t choose to get out of bed at that time, God isn’t going to grab his Holy Club and beat you over the head. After all He is love!  The reason He asks you to do these things is because He wants you to get closer to Him, He wants to be close to You, He wants to make Himself so real to you like never before.  When we don’t choose to act in a loving way towards God, we actually open the door to the enemy because we chose to ignore the prompting of the Holy Spirit.  He really cares about you – A LOT!  If bad things happen as a result of not following the leadership of the Holy Ghost, it’s not God putting evil on you, it’s the enemy now having access because you chose to step out of line of God’s will, out of His arms of protection.

So, how much are we willing to give to God?  Are we willing to love God with all that we have?  With our time, our resources, our talents (which are from God), our lives? He doesn’t ask for more than what He has already given.  John 3:16 says “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son that whoever would believe in Him would not perish but have everlasting life”.  God gave us all that He had, He gave His Word, Jesus, to pay the price for our mistakes and He sent the Holy Spirit to teach us and lead us and empower us to do His will on this earth.  We have all that we need, He’s given us all He has.  What are we giving to Him?

Lets make a sincere effort to give more.  If you’ve been giving a lot, see if you can increase it.  If you’ve been giving little, don’t be condemned or discouraged, turn it around, repent, He is ready to forgive, 1 John 1:9  “If you confess your sin, He is faithful and just to forgive you your sin and cleanse you from all unrighteousness”.  Lets make an effort to go all out, or rather, all in, and love with every breath that we take, every action we make, every word we say, every thought we think, all that we have, lets live to love to the fullest!

Fearless

Mark 5:35-36 “While He was still speaking, they came from the house of the synagogue official (Jairus) saying, ‘Your daughter has died; why trouble the Teacher anymore?’ But Jesus overhearing what was being spoken, said to the synagogue official, ‘Do not be afraid, only believe’”.

This past year has been a 180 degree turn in so many areas, but I believe this area is the biggest one for me. This past year, fear has been broken off of me in so many areas and I’m learning more and more areas where I have been acting out of fear and quickly uprooting it. God is so good and has so many great things up ahead for my life and yours as we give ourselves to His Word and His direction from the Spirit of God.

Jairus in this passage approached Jesus at the beginning of the chapter implored Jesus to come and heal his daughter who was nearly dead. Jesus, the willing Healer He is, went with him. On the way there was a bit of a hold up when a lady with a blood issue found Jesus touched His cloak and was healed. As this was happening, officials from Jairus’ house came to him and said that his daughter has died so there was no point in having Jesus come. But before Jairus could let anything out of his mouth, Jesus piped up and said “Don’t be afraid, only believe”. This statement is life-altering.

Jairus came to Jesus on the basis of faith – he believed that Jesus could heal his daughter. But what was he faced with later on? His daughter was not only sick, but now she died so his faith had to be taken to a different level. It was obvious the ones who approached Jairus had no faith for they said that she had died and to not bother Jesus anymore, afterall, he can’t raise the dead…But the words that came forth from Jesus’ mouth gave Jairus faith, faith that Jesus could raise his daughter up from the dead, and Jesus didn’t want any words of doubt to come out of Jairus’ mouth – Jesus knows the importance of words, and so should we (We have the ability to create and to destroy with our mouths). Here is the point that I want to get to. If there had been any fear in Jairus about Jesus not being able to heal his daughter or raise his daughter from the dead, it would not have happened.

Fear should be just like an abomination when it comes to us believing God for what He has promised. Doubt says “I don’t believe that can happen”, or in this case, “I don’t believe God can do it”. This is gross…That is basically calling God a liar, the One Who has never lied and never will, the One Who gave all He had so that we could have all He had. That’s why Jesus jumped all over that situation, He didn’t want any fear in there! And it’s the same thing with us, He doesn’t want any fear in us, none at all.

Does this happen overnight? No…This takes work, it takes dedication, it takes commitment, it takes time, but it is possible and is so worth the work! The Word says that faith comes by hearing and hearing the Word of God and fear is the opposing force of faith. The more faith we put in, the less fear will be able to abide. God told me this in the middle of sickness I was dealing with, an unknown sickness – “Uproot the fear and I will take care of the rest”. How can I do this? How can we do this?

Spending time with Him every day, in the Word, in prayer, focusing on His kingdom rather than on ourselves. These are critical and necessary and fundamental! This will produce fearlessness!