How Bright Is Your Light?
Julia Bettencourt

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"Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works,
and glorify your Father which is in heaven."   Matthew 5:16


As Christians we know we are to shine as beacons of light in this sinful world but how bright do we shine? Our verse says, "Let your light so shine before men..." but do we really look any different to our co-workers and neighbors than anyone else they come in contact with? Is our speech different? Is our attitude different? When things go wrong in our lives do others see that we have something or Someone to lean on? Do people see that we as Christians have something they don't have?

Many of us learned the little song when we were small about not hiding our light under a bushel, but as adults that's exactly what we do sometimes. We get so caught up in living in this world that we forget that we are not of this world. We have something better in Christ but our sinful nature rears its ugly head, and we forget we are children of the King.

We need to realize that this world is dark with sin and people need us as Christians to shine. As we look around at the school shootings, drugs, crime, and the diluting of the family we are reminded of how there are hurting people all around. People need the Lord and they need hope. We as children of God can give that to them if we just live as a shinning example of Christ. We can't keep Christ to ourselves. We have to flood the world with His Light!

What Kind of Light Are You?

1. Are you a Smokey Lamp with a Cloudy Globe?
   When a lamp's globe is clouded up it doesn't shine to it's fullest potential. Maybe the blackness of unconfessed sin has crept in and started smoking up your life. It just takes a little smoke to cloud up a lamp globe. The same is true with our lives. It just takes a little sin to make our light dull. We are always going to be prone to sin because it's our nature but we have to work on it one day at a time. We have to confess our sin to Christ. Having unconfessed sin breaks our fellowship with Christ and causes our lives not to shine our brightest for Him.
   
   "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." 1 John 1:9



2. Are You a Dim and Slow Burning Candle?
   As a candle burns out it gets dim and burns slow. Are you this type of light? Remember when you first received Christ? The Christian life was exciting and new! Are you getting slow about having a devotional life? Is your prayer life getting dim? It's easy to become complacent in our Christian life but when we do our light for Christ begins to dim and others can't see Him in us. Take a step back, and get things into perspective, and remember what Christ did for you.
   
   "But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." Romans 5:8



3. Are you a Flickering and Hazy Light Bulb?
   Just before a light bulb blows out, it flickers. It shines bright then dull and hazy, then bright and then dull again. Are you that type of light for Christ? Do you serve Him wholeheartedly then slack off? Maybe you get discouraged about something and you start flickering. Then you get fired up again and begin really serving the Lord only to be bogged down again and you find yourself not attending church, not reading your Bible, slacking off in your prayer life and fellowship with the Lord. The Christian life wasn't designed to be lived on and off again. It has to be a daily continual thing.
   
   "And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me." Luke 9:23



4. Are You a Bright and Shinning Beacon?
   When you think of a beacon you usually think of a light that is a bright and shinning guide. That is the type of light that we should all desire to be. Being constantly in fellowship with Christ and sensitive to His leading will keep our lives as beacons to a lost and dying world. To do this, we have to work at it.

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Be a B-E-A-C-O-N

B    Battle.    Remember what you are battling against.

"Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:" 1 Peter 5:8

E    Endure.    Keep pressing on.

"Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." Philippians. 3:13,14

A    Abstain.    Don't get caught up in the world.

"Abstain from all appearance of evil." 1 Thessalonians 5:22

C    Consecrate.    Live a holy life.

"I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service." Romans 12:1

O    Obey.    Be obedient to Christ.

"Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;" 2 Corinthians 10:5

N    Nurture.    Stay in the Word.

"Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth." 2 Timothy 2:15

So, how bright is your light?


Copyright ©2001-2008 Julia Bettencourt
Scripture References are from the King James Version.
www.juliabettencourt.com

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