Shining Light in Our Circle of Influence
Jesus is the Light of the world, and as His followers, we too are to be lights that reflect Him. Although light serves various purposes, the primary goal is to shine brightly so others will glorify God and be drawn to Christ. Therefore, to shine as successfully as possible, we should keep the following truths in mind:
Light shines most effectively when it is not hidden (Matt. 5:15). Have you tried to hide the fact that you’re a Christian in order to gain acceptance? As lights, we are to be transparent about our faith and love for the Lord.
Light is brightest when the lamp is kept clean (Luke 11:34). Since people are quick to spot hypocrisy, we must eliminate sinful attitudes and practices, which dim our testimony for Jesus.
Light reveals what’s hidden in the darkness (John 3:20). The Holy Spirit uses our character and actions to shine truth into others’ lives, revealing what they are lacking—righteousness. They may initially feel uncomfortable or guilty as the Spirit does His convicting work, but this is an essential step for salvation.
Light serves to warn of danger and guide to safety (Eph. 5:11-14). God is the one who reveals people’s sinful condition and need for a Savior. As He does, we can share what the Lord has done to reconcile sinful mankind to Himself through His Son: Jesus Christ’s death on the cross paid our sin debt in full so we could be forgiven and have eternal life.
To have a strong impact, we must reflect the light of God’s Son by growing in Christlikeness and becoming intentional about shining our light in our circles of influence—namely, our homes, workplaces, and communities.
~Dr. Charles F. Stanley~
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There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. (Galatians 3:28)
When we are really "in Christ," to use Paul's phrase, we are always regarded as being together, though we may be thousands of miles apart. The Lord Jesus does not look upon us as being in this country, in that country and in another country. He Himself is the only Country in this universe, and so we leave our country and our own nationality when we come into Christ. The Jews were exclusive and said: 'We are the only people and our country is the only country.' Jesus went outside those frontiers and touched the world outside....
In the Lord Jesus every earthly division is removed. There are no British, Swiss, German, French or Indian in Christ. He is only one Nationality and that is a heavenly one. He is only one Language and that is a spiritual one. He is the heavenly Country. No matter what we are here, in Him we are all together as one Man in Christ. All the earthly distinctions of place and time disappear in Him. It may take us a long time to travel about this world, though men think it is a very wonderful thing to travel at so many hundred or thousand miles a minute and get to the moon in no very great time! But, dear friends, in this very moment in Christ we can touch our brethren six or seven thousand miles away. That is a miracle.... This Life is eternal Life; it is timeless; it knows no space; everything is present when Jesus is present.
~T. Austin-Sparks~
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Gone so soon without a trace!
(Thomas Watson, "The Godly Man's Picture Drawn with a Scripture Pencil")
"We were born only yesterday and know nothing, and our days on earth are but a shadow!" Job 8:9
"My days are like the evening shadow; I wither away like grass!" Psalm 102:11
"Be very careful, then, how you live--not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time." Ephesians 5:16
How you spend your time is a matter of great importance. Many people fool away their time--some in idle visits, others in recreations and pleasures which secretly bewitch the heart, and take it away from holy things. What are our golden hours for--but to attend to our souls?
Time misspent is not time lived--but time lost!
Time is a precious commodity. As salvation is to be worked out in time, and a place in Heaven depends on using it well--time is of infinite concern!
Think of your short stay in the world. "We are here for only a moment, visitors and strangers in the land as our ancestors were before us. Our days on earth are like a shadow--gone so soon without a trace!" 1 Chronicles 29:15
There is but a span between the cradle and the grave! Solomon says there is "a time to be born and a time to die"--but mentions no time of living, as if that were so short, it was not worth naming!
Time, when it has once gone, can never be recalled. "My life passes more swiftly than a runner. It flees away, filled with tragedy. It disappears like a swift boat, like an eagle that swoops down on its prey." Job 9:25-26
This Scripture compares time to a flying eagle. Yet time differs from the eagle in this: the eagle flies forward and then back again--but time has wings only to fly forward--it never returns! Time flies away irrevocably!
The serious thoughts of our short stay here in this world, would be a great means of promoting godliness. Whoever considers how flitting and winged his life is--will hasten his repentance.
"What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes!" James 4:14
"Show me, O LORD, my life's end and the number of my days; let me know how fleeting is my life!" Psalm 39:4
"So teach us to number our days, that we may get us a heart of wisdom." Psalm 90:12
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We had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves but in God who raises the dead. (2 Corinthians 1:9)
You know that those who are not the Lord’s people are not alive to the fact that they are dead. Death is not the great reality to them until they come to their body dying. But in their ordinary life when things are going on and there is health and provision, death is no reality to them. But death is brought home to the child of God. Immediately we get into God’s hands this thing begins to be brought home to us – that we are not much good, we cannot stand up to things, we cannot go through. Our natural life and resources do not count here. The course of a true Christian life in the hands of God is that of being more and more brought to the experience of helplessness. Is that not true? Yes, of helplessness, of the impossibility of everything. Do not think things have gone wrong if that is becoming your consciousness. You may take it that you are in an immature spiritual stage if you have not come to that realization that in the realm into which you have been introduced in your relationship with God, you have no resource. You are as a dead man. The death fact is brought home to you, is made real.
Ah, but on the other side, resurrection is taking a certain form over against that. With that background and with that basis, more and more the child of God is being brought to the position where he or she has to say: "That was the Lord, it is the Lord; I cannot account for that, I am not the one who accounts for that, it is all of God," and you know quite well that resurrection is all of God. You can go a long way in many clever things and inventions, but you have not got as far as raising the dead yet. That is God’s prerogative. That is only God. And so in the hands of God the child of God is being brought progressively more and more, and still more, to the place where they have to say, "It is of God, it is all of God" and that is the testimony coming out. The Lord did that, the Lord is doing this. Is that not in Israel’s history in the wilderness? See how again and again they were brought to an end, which did seem to be an end... nothing beyond this, and then they had to come out with a new song – The Lord did it! It is victory over death, it is the power of resurrection Life.
~T. Austin-Sparks~
