Shining More Brightly

by Ivan Venter
(South-Africa)

Php. 2:15-16 “so that you may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation. Among these you shine as lights in the world, (16) holding forth the Word of Life, so that I may rejoice with you in the day of Christ, that I have not run in vain nor labored in vain.” (Modern King James Version)

The Bible is full of scriptures like the above mentioned one saying that we as God's children should be lights in the world that we find ourselves in. The strange thing is that we tend to shine among ourselves more than we would shine among those that need it most. The reason can be attributed to such a large spectrum of things that we easily get bogged down in the details forgetting about the simple yet affective solution that Jesus showed us in His ministry on earth. I say simple because it cannot be found in institutions, steps and methods its a way of life.

Take for a moment the life of Jesus:
Joh. 4:6 “And Jacob's well was there. Jesus, therefore, being wearied with His journey, sat thus upon the well. It was about the sixth hour.” (Modern King James)

Luk. 8:22 “And it happened on a certain day that He went into a boat with His disciples. And He said to them, Let us go over to the other side of the lake. And they put out to sea.”(Modern King James)

Joh. 2:1-2 “And the third day there was a marriage in Cana of Galilee. And the mother of Jesus was there. (2) And Jesus and His disciples were both invited to the marriage.”(Modern King James)

While there is countless examples still to mention, we will use the above mentioned as examples for now. Looking at the above we see that these were moments of service, where Jesus was shining like a light in this dark world. Notice that it's also moments in the day to day life of Jesus. That moments that otherwise wouldn't even reach the things worth remembering was transformed into life changing moments for those that was on the receiving end of the 'light'.

The point that I trying to make is that we do not have to work endlessly to find moments to shine, they are already there right in front of us presenting themselves to us. Someone once stated that God is currently busy working, changing and forming the lives of those around us, all that we have to do is realize it and join God's movement.

It all comes down to living each day, every day with everything that you have for God, showing to all that you meet that God is King and that He has the answers for this life. This does not however say that we have to be something that were clearly not. Most think that being a child of God is always being happy and cheery like a little bird singing its little lungs out. This just isn't true, life happens to all of us, the difference however comes to what we do with that life.

It comes down to this scripture in 2Cor. 4:7-9 “If you only look at us, you might well miss the brightness. We carry this precious Message around in the unadorned clay pots of our ordinary lives. That's to prevent anyone from confusing God's incomparable power with us. (8) As it is, there's not much chance of that. You know for yourselves that we're not much to look at. We've been surrounded and battered by troubles, but we're not demoralized; we're not sure what to do, (9) but we know that God knows what to do; we've been spiritually terrorized, but God hasn't left our side; we've been thrown down, but we haven't broken.” (Message)

Were just ordinary people living each day for Christ. This brings me to the all important question, are you living the life that God has given you, or are you looking to be something that you're not. It will make all the difference when you really want to be a light in this world.