"Who is more foolish, the child afraid of the dark or the man afraid of the light?" - Maurice Freehill
"At midnight the cry rang out: 'Here's the bridegroom! Come out to meet him!'
"Then all the virgins woke up and trimmed their lamps. 8The foolish ones said to the wise, 'Give us some of your oil; our lamps are going out.'
" 'No,' they replied, 'there may not be enough for both us and you. Instead, go to those who sell oil and buy some for yourselves.'
"Better to light a candle than to curse the darkness." - Chinese Proverb
"There are two kinds of light - the glow that illumines, and the glare that obscures." - James Thurber
Sometimes I think it's great to look at the wisdom of humans before I dive into a spiritual topic. As wrong as we can be sometimes, there is still some great stuff that has been said.
Today at Park Hill Baptist Church in both our college fellowship and our main sermon we looked deep into LIGHT - and it's importance in our lives. We looked at 1 John 1:
"This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all." - 1 John 1:5
"But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin." - 1 John 1:7
We also looked at Matthew 25:
The wise, however, took oil in jars along with their lamps. The bridegroom was a long time in coming, and they all became drowsy and fell asleep.
"At midnight the cry rang out: 'Here's the bridegroom! Come out to meet him!'
"Then all the virgins woke up and trimmed their lamps. 8The foolish ones said to the wise, 'Give us some of your oil; our lamps are going out.'
" 'No,' they replied, 'there may not be enough for both us and you. Instead, go to those who sell oil and buy some for yourselves.'
"But while they were on their way to buy the oil, the bridegroom arrived. The virgins who were ready went in with him to the wedding banquet. And the door was shut. - Matthew 25: 4-10
We got to talking about what this light really meant. If God is light and light leads us into fellowship, then light is our sharing of the goodness of God, that is sharing the fact that Christ was here in the flesh and is our hope. Even more, though, it is following in the footsteps of that fleshly Christ who showed us that it is was possible to live in the flesh and live in the light. So what is it then? It is living like Christ did, which means sharing living like Christ did. We need to shine our lights. We need to be open, honest, and exposed to the world; and what is exposed should be the goodness and love of Christ himself. Our oil should be plenty because we draw from the Holy Spirit. If we run low, it is of our own foolishness. Our wicks should be trimmed. The charred part that build up from our old lives needs to be cut off. Only the pure burning part should remain. The charred part will come so we need to be ready to trim. We're not denying our imperfections, but we're cleaning them away as they are made visible by the light. Pray that we can be accountable in this.
In His salvation,
The Voyager
"Park Hill Baptist Church", in reference to the church in Arkadelphia, AR, is the property of Park Hill Baptist Church, Arkadelphia. All else except the quoted content is the original content of Josie Stewart.
Copyright © 2010 Josie Stewart. All rights reserved.
"Park Hill Baptist Church", in reference to the church in Arkadelphia, AR, is the property of Park Hill Baptist Church, Arkadelphia. All else except the quoted content is the original content of Josie Stewart.
Copyright © 2010 Josie Stewart. All rights reserved.
