Darkness: Do you let your light shine?

This is how the world is today. DARK. But, there is hope. A light, which the darkness runs from! This spotlight represents Jesus Christ! And as Children of Jesus, we should be too!! But I’m afraid that we aren’t. It is easy to sit back and curse the darkness. It’s easy to be afraid of the dark and the perverse people of this world. But why? Our God is greater than any unreasonable fear we have! Paul was one such man who was not afraid of the dark. We see in Philippians 2: 12-15 that he challenged the darkness. Paul tells us that we are to be ‘blameless and harmless, the sons of GOD, without rebuke, In the midst of a perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world.’ We have a mission, charged by God, to shine as lights in a dark world. And as dark as the present day is, that isn’t a very hard thing to do. It’s kind of like today’s economy. Except that the economy is in the red and the dark is black. I hear many people talk about the fact that they are concerned about job security. Money is tight, so people are cutting back costs. They don’t buy as much, so those who have anything to do with sales are suffering. BUT, we always have job security with doing the work that Christ has commanded us to do. Many, many people do not know Christ as their savior, and it is up to US to help them get to know him. I would say that we have a lot of job security.
Last Wednesday night, we talked about seeking approval from the correct people. Obviously, we should seek God’s approval before all others’. And in order to receive his approval, we must gain wisdom. I think that letting our light shine will take us on the path that leads to wisdom. We looked at Proverbs 8: 33-34. Verse 33 tells us to ‘Hear instruction,’ ‘Be wise,’ and ‘Do not refuse it.’ Verse 34 tells us that ‘Blessed is the man that is waiting at the posts of my doors.’ We came to the conclusion that “waiting” does not consist of sitting there waiting for something to happen. If we look at Verse 33 again, it tells us to ‘be wise.’ So if we are wise, we will not only hear the instruction but we will LISTEN and then act upon that instruction. That takes us to the source of a childhood song This Little Light of Mine: Matthew 5: 14-16. This comes directly from Jesus, which for me, multiplies the intensity of this order exponentially.
We*, as children of God, are saved by grace through faith; therefore, we have a duty to God. A HUGE responsibility to uphold: we are commanded to let our light shine and to show the LOST how great, how wonderful, how powerful our God is and what he has to offer to them-ETERNAL SALVATION!! Why do we sit and watch the darkness and curse it? Are we afraid of what others will think? Are we lazy? Are we more concerned with the things of this world? Have we lost sight of what is really important? Are we more interested and focused on TV, Dating, or School? I guess we, as a nation of the saved, have truly forgotten what is really important. Well, we go on “mission trips” to Mexico, Africa, New York, South America, and other exotic places, but we fail to start at home. I’m glad the people who introduced my family to Christ didn’t decide to head over the hottest “mission trip” location and forget about the family that lived down the street or across the road.