Skip to main content

Let light shine out of darkness ...

 
"The Church, and the world, desperately need men and women who practice the presence of God" ... at least that was my conclusion recently after having heard someone speaking who clearly spent time in the presence of the Lord. There were no whistles, bells, complex arguments, sophisticated powerpoints or hyped up human oratory, rather a simple, humble message by a godly man.

Very powerful!

In 2 Corinthians 4:6 the apostle Paul writes "For God, who said, 'Let light shine out of darkness', made His light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God's glory displayed in the face of Christ."

I was once darkness and even now, whilst in the process of increasingly understanding how complete I am in Christ, there are still areas of darkness. Yet His light continues to shine, just as He has decreed! What grace ... He get's the glory for it is HIs light that shines ... Christ in me through the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit.
Can we see light, or do we see what the light reveals? The light, which is unseen and eternal, reveals that which is seen and temporal, the hidden is revealed as it is brought into the light.

Paul reveals this mystery that God works both in us and through us. The light revealing what is going on in us - the hope we have, the sanctification He is working in us, the action that He is inspiring us to - all this works towards His goal and purpose to direct light into ever increasing numbers of people.

If we want 'fruitful' lives then we must be as open and willing to 'let' God work in us as we are trusting Him to work through us in the lives of others - this is surrender.
This 'tent', this mortal body, clothing the immortal, the finite clothing the infinite, the groaning, longing and hungering we experience for the day when this tension will be overcome forever. Notwithstanding the 'limitation' that we currently experience, though recognised is is no hindrance to our service - for the limitation becomes the 'model' or 'type' that shows the world the truth of the gospel. A bridge between the imperfect and the perfect.

Press on in faith!

Comments

Post a Comment

Feel free to add comments or ask questions:

Popular posts from this blog

Does God really lead us?

  Often as evangelical believers we talk about the concept of ‘calling’ explaining it along the lines of God speaking to his people, sometimes this is narrowed even to the experience of a special, select ‘few’ and limited in scope to those who are engaging in full-time Christian ministry. The following are some notes I prepared for a talk: Firstly, I would like to say that most Christians would believe that God communicates with his people, and that this may happen in many different ways. What is of utmost importance is that it does happen. We are in relationship with a Living God, who we call Father, and who communicates with us His creation and covenant people.   God communicates in a number of ways and one special way in which He leads and guides his people might be termed a vocation or calling and it’s this particular aspect of His communication I want to focus on.   So what is the calling? Who is called? And what are we called to? The whole i...
Post a Comment
Read more

Thoughts from a previous incumbent ...

In reference to 2 Tim 1:7 "For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of p o wer, of love a nd of sel f-discipli ne."   Norman Grubb decl are d that; "We are set in our day and generation to be overcomers, not to sail through calm seas but to walk on storms, to replace need with supply, to transform aspiration into realization. The language of defeatism, fear, lack and weakness is not to be in our vocabulary. "Let us go up at once and possess it, for we are well able to overcome it. As for these giants, they are bread for us," we say with sturdy Caleb.  We are to act as the men of faith of old; we are to visualize our goal in clear outline; we are to take it for granted that we shall reach it, for we have both the commission and anointing of God?   We lay our plans ,build our organisations, produce our written and verbal pronouncements,  prayer our prayers, do our work, not as those who will fail and fall by the way, but...
2 comments
Read more

Helpful read ...

Sacred Pathways: Discover your Soul's Path to God - Gary Thomas  When you became a christian did you look around other people's lives and seek to model some of their spiritual disciplines? Did you find that somehow they didn't work for you in quite the same way as they seemed to work for them? Did this lead you to a place of discouragement? Did you think that, somehow, the things that bring such life to other people but don't bring life to you must mean that there is something wrong with you? Or that maybe God doesn't love you as much as He loved those people whom you sought to emulate? These are very real questions that all c hristians probably grapple with at some point. As we grow and mature in Christ we eventually reach a place of liberty where we realise that we are unique and therefore we shouldn't be surprised when our Father deals uniquely with us - and the way we most easily 'connect' to Him is also unique. Or perhaps we find over time th...
Post a Comment
Read more