The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe…
"The Candle of the Lord"
"Apply the truth to this day. Whatever its plans, events, responsibilities, blessings, and simply moments, all serve as opportunities to be what God made humanity to be, that is, the bearers of His image."
"For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light" (Ephesians 5:8).
How are born again believers in the Lord Jesus Christ light? And how do we walk accordingly?
First, the light Himself, the Lord Jesus, dwells within us. "I am the light" He declared, and His Spirit dwells within us to make us bearers of the flame of His life (John 8:12).
"The spirit of man is the candle of the Lord… the Lord will light my candle" (Proverbs 20:27; Psalm 18:28).
Believers are light in sense of serving as lamps who absorb and reflect God's illumination. We have no independently generated spiritual and moral light of ourselves, but rather become our Lord's lamps in the new birth. We then "shine as lights in the world" as we walk by faith (Philippians 2:15). Our countenance, demeanor, attitudes, words, and deeds bear the potential of revealing Christ to our spheres of influence. Trusting and submitting to God fulfills this potential and makes actual our reflecting the Lord Jesus through the leading and enabling of the Holy Spirit.
Innumerable glories of grace bless us in the wonder of this truth. For now, let us simply realize and rejoice in the blessedness of such a reason for our existence. Candles bearing the light of so fine and splendid a Lord? How can the grace of such purpose and potential ever be fully known and appreciated? Apply the truth to this day. Whatever its plans, events, responsibilities, blessings, challenges, and simply moments, all serve as opportunities to be what God made humanity to be, that is, the bearers of His image. Fulfillment of the calling most often occurs so quietly that even our left hand does not see the candle borne by our right hand (Matthew 6:3). The God who lit our flame directs its illumination according to His wisdom and for the glory of His Son. We do not shine for our own benefit or personal satisfaction, but to cast needed light upon others. Thus, we rejoice in knowing that as we submit ourselves to God by faith, the flickers of our flame - His flame - cast their glimmers of Christ in ways largely unknown to us, but seen by God and others.
Through Christ, our Lord has illuminated our innermost being with His light. Believers are lights in this sense, the candles of His flame. To walk accordingly means that we trust God, submit ourselves to Him, and live step by step in the awareness of a reason for being glorious beyond all understanding and imagination. The realization will progressively change us, and it will change those around us in ways we will rarely see, but which will do exactly that which our Heavenly Father purposes His light to accomplish…
"For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ."
(II Corinthians 4:6)
"Arise, shine, for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee."
(Isaiah 60:1)
Weekly Memory Verse
"Unto Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen."
(Ephesians 3:21)
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