Good morning!
Welcome to your morning coffee! May our Heavenly Father help us to shine with the light of what Jesus has done for us, in us, to us, and is doing through us. Father, we need your help to share Jesus with our living and speaking. May our obedience to you in this bring others into your family. You desire that all would be saved, and you send sun and rain on the good and evil alike. May we prove Jesus to be who He says He is by our daily living. So that the people around us would turn the eyes of their hearts to you, Father. In the powerful name of Jesus may it be so! Amen.
Your Morning Song: "This Little Light of Mine" The Dead South
Your Morning Scripture: Matthew 5:14-17
“You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.
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The most interesting part of the see-saw is the spot where it all connects together, where everything about the apparatus comes together to make it all work. Sure, enjoy the playground toy from the seat, but the real magic happens at the pivot point.
Scripture is often like this. If we read our Bibles too quickly, with too little thought, it is easy to let our hearts take over for our minds, and the Bible becomes a mixture of things that make me feel good, and things I ignore because I'm trying to move on to the next part of my day.
But the Bible isn't about us. It is for us, but it is not about us. It is about God. So when we read the Bible it is important to be asking ourselves, "what is God saying here in these verses? What is He actually saying to us?"
One way to make sure that we are reading the Bible on God's terms and not our own, is to look for the pivot point in a selection of verses. How are we to correctly understand what God wants us to get from what we are reading?
The pivot point for the verses above is this small phrase, "so that."
If you do not read these verses according to the pivot point, where everything comes together, at least two horrible things will happen. You will think that the light originates within you. And you will think that you deserve to be praised for this light that originates within you. Your daily life will then become pious and moral, but will point to no one other than yourself.
You will be religious and spiritual, and little else. You will not be an obedient child of God. At best your fake walk with God will fall apart and you will be faced with your wrong reading of the Bible and worship of yourself. At worst you will waste your life and on Judgement Day Jesus will say, "I don't know you. Depart."
But if you come to God on His terms, and not yours, one of the things you WILL do, is read these verses rightly, embracing the "so that."
We shine with a light that is not our own, not so that others will praise us, but so that others will praise our Heavenly Father. "So that" puts us in our place, and calls us to be humbled and receive the kind of intimacy with God that nothing else can match, and that can be received in no other way.
Humble yourself before God in all things at all times in all ways.
The light is for you, but it is not from you. The light in you, that you are called to shine out into the world, is Jesus. Our good behavior and loving kindness to others is meant to help them become a child of God, not so that they would think we're awesome.
Do what you do as a child of God, so that by God's power, you would get more brothers and sisters in His family. Not so that people would say how great you are.
Shine so that others would know God.
It is His light, His work, His goals, His desires, His Will, His ways, His power.
And we are His kids.
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