In preparing for a message on God’s light, I ran across this illustration of what it means to be a light-bearer for Christ:
Years ago, a traveler arrived at a village in France on Sunday evening, and found people hurrying through the streets, each carrying a similar looking lamp. As they walked through the streets with these lamps, little pockets of light were poking holes in the darkness.
The traveler stopped someone to ask where they were all going with these lamps and was told, “We have no other way of lighting our church. When the church was built, it was decided that each member should bring his own lamp. Everyone goes there to make it brighter, for he knows that if he stays away, the church will be darker and the service sadder.”
So the traveler followed the people and entered the church, and he saw that on every pew there was a place to hang a lamp; and as the church began filling, what began as individual little pockets of light, slightly piercing the darkness, became a building filled with light by the many lamps brought together to overcome the darkness.
We are called to do the same today. Jesus calls us the “light of the world,” and as a light-bearer, you carry the light of Christ within you. As a light-bearer, you poke a hole in the darkness individually when you are out in the world. But each of us are also called to bring our individual lights together as the church to make an even larger impact on the world around us as we bring glory to God and overcome the darkness with His Light.
God tells us that people love darkness rather than light. Without Jesus, our hearts are black, bound to sin, with no light within us. But Jesus wants you to receive His light and be transformed. What have you done with His light?
“Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.” Jesus’s light helps us navigate through this dark world – His light helps you find a way through the treacherous paths that Satan and this sin-filled world have placed in front of you.
Have you allowed God’s light to help you on your life journey? Are you sharing His light with others to help light their way? Or have you walked into danger and difficulty, because you were unwilling to accept His light?
Jesus – the Light of men – want to share His light with you today – the light that pierces the darkness, the light that will show you the path to His righteousness and allow you to be a light-bearer for Him. Let His Word and the Holy Spirit be your light, and then bring your light together with other light-bearers – to be even more effective at poking holes in the darkness and pointing people back to Jesus.
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