Let Your Light Shine
From The Pastor's Pen in the January 2006 Voice of the Valley, the monthly newsletter of Valley Bible Church, by the Reverend Frank C. Emrich. Reposted here with permission.
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As we begin a new year, I feel led of the LORD to challenge you to join with me in making the above passage our theme for the year 2006. I read this story the other day which conveys, I think, why this would be a good theme for us.
Some years ago a magazine crried a series of pictures that graphically depicted a tragic story. The first picture was of a vast wheat field in western Kansas. The second showed a distressed mother siting in a farmhouse in the center of the field of wheat. The accompanying story explained that her four-year-old son had wandered away from the house and into the field when she was not looking. The mother and father looked and looked all day but the little fellow was too short to see or be seen over the wheat. The third picture showed dozens of friends and neighbors who had heard of the boy's plight and who had joined hands the next morning to make a long human chain as they walked through the field searching. The final picture was of the heartbroken father holding his lifeless son who had been found too late and had died of exposure. The caption underneath read, "O God, if only we had joined hands sooner."
The world is full of lost souls who cannot see their way above the distractions and barriers of the world and cannot find their way to the Father's house until Christians join together to be the light of the world and sweep through the world in search of them. Our work is not simply as individual rays of light but as the whole church of Jesus Christ.
As I said in my message today, it's getting very, very dark and because this world is dark and getting darker all the time, it needs light. We are talking about the darkness that settles on the soul of men - a moral darkness. The darkness of sorrow...the darkness of sin...the darkness of hopelessness...the darkness of loneliness...the darkness of separation. All of these things plunge into the deeper darkness of illicit sex, drugs, alcohol, demon worship, and the ultimate darkness of suicide, a form of "escape" that only leads to eternal darkness. We look at our world and we say our world is very dark - even pitch black. And then somebody comes along and says, "Yeah, it's a black world; do you know where there is any light?"
And the answer? Yes, there is light! There is hope for deluded, depraved, despondent people. Where is this hope to be found? It's found only in and through the church of Jesus Christ. That's us. We are the only light the world has. Will you join me in being light this year? From time to time I will be telling you how we can let our light shine.
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13 "You are the salt of Earth; but if the salt has become tasteless, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled under foot by men.
14 "You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden; 15 nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house.
16 "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."
As we begin a new year, I feel led of the LORD to challenge you to join with me in making the above passage our theme for the year 2006. I read this story the other day which conveys, I think, why this would be a good theme for us.
Some years ago a magazine crried a series of pictures that graphically depicted a tragic story. The first picture was of a vast wheat field in western Kansas. The second showed a distressed mother siting in a farmhouse in the center of the field of wheat. The accompanying story explained that her four-year-old son had wandered away from the house and into the field when she was not looking. The mother and father looked and looked all day but the little fellow was too short to see or be seen over the wheat. The third picture showed dozens of friends and neighbors who had heard of the boy's plight and who had joined hands the next morning to make a long human chain as they walked through the field searching. The final picture was of the heartbroken father holding his lifeless son who had been found too late and had died of exposure. The caption underneath read, "O God, if only we had joined hands sooner."
The world is full of lost souls who cannot see their way above the distractions and barriers of the world and cannot find their way to the Father's house until Christians join together to be the light of the world and sweep through the world in search of them. Our work is not simply as individual rays of light but as the whole church of Jesus Christ.
As I said in my message today, it's getting very, very dark and because this world is dark and getting darker all the time, it needs light. We are talking about the darkness that settles on the soul of men - a moral darkness. The darkness of sorrow...the darkness of sin...the darkness of hopelessness...the darkness of loneliness...the darkness of separation. All of these things plunge into the deeper darkness of illicit sex, drugs, alcohol, demon worship, and the ultimate darkness of suicide, a form of "escape" that only leads to eternal darkness. We look at our world and we say our world is very dark - even pitch black. And then somebody comes along and says, "Yeah, it's a black world; do you know where there is any light?"
And the answer? Yes, there is light! There is hope for deluded, depraved, despondent people. Where is this hope to be found? It's found only in and through the church of Jesus Christ. That's us. We are the only light the world has. Will you join me in being light this year? From time to time I will be telling you how we can let our light shine.
posted by JASmius at 2:49 PM
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