Are You Hiding Your Light?
No one lights a lamp and then hides it under a bed (or a basket!). We’ve all heard that verse many times, but have you thought about how it applies to our lives today? In Chapter 8, verse 16, Luke tells us we must place our light on a stand where it can be seen by all. He goes on to say that all that is secret will eventually be brought into the open, and everything that is concealed will be brought to light and be made known to all.
I believe he is telling us that when the light of truth about Jesus shines within us, we have a duty to shine the light so others can see it too. Especially now when the world seems to be darker and meaner than it’s ever been.
When things were going well, it was easy to shine our light. People were generally drawn to the light because there was something different about people who knew Jesus. But it hasn’t been until recently when I’ve really dug deep into the Word that I’ve realized that not all light is truth and not all that seems good is Godly.
Once again I learned that we don’t know what we don’t know. We are all operating with the sliver of information available to us and making decisions based on that limited information. We rely on friends and other influencers in our lives to share what they know so we can avoid making mistakes, but what if their information is incorrect? What if we are basing decisions based on flawed data?
There are millions of paths we can take in this life and we are all geared toward taking the path of least resistance and choosing the options that will bring us the most pleasure. But in reality, so many things lure us into areas not meant for Godly people to enjoy.
Through my years, I’ve been down many of these paths. Honestly, some seem innocent enough, but if we look closer, we find many are the gateway to evils much darker than things we want to talk about in everyday conversation, much less on a faith-based podcast. So we look the other way. Or we avoid conversations with people who don’t agree with our beliefs.
Take a Stand for Truth, Peace, Justice, and Morality
But if we continue to close our eyes and ignore these things that do not stand for truth, peace, justice, and morality, one day we will open our eyes and the world we know and love will be gone. It is time we wake up and see these things we do to get along with the world for what they really are, a pathway that leads us away from God and the life He wants us to lead.
I am going to dig into this topic today and I hope you’ll join me. Yes, it is an uncomfortable conversation but is one we can no longer ignore.
In Matthew 7:15 Jesus says, “Beware of false prophets who come disguised as harmless sheep, but are really wolves that will tear you apart.” Folks, our world is full of wolves in sheep’s clothing that have an agenda that will destroy everything good in our lives.
I grew up in a church that I truly thought went a little overboard. No musical instruments were used in worship, women were discouraged from wearing anything more than basic jewelry, dancing was considered inappropriate and even card games were frowned upon. Thinking about it today, though I think they probably went too far, I at least understand where they were coming from. And I understand where many of those things can lead someone to sinful acts.
Looking back on my life, I can see where I went wrong on many occasions. I started drinking at a much too young age. Yes, it did lead to other actions that I don’t need to go into details about, but let’s leave it at I’m not really proud of some of the things I did during my years of promiscuity, but I do see how once you get started down that path, it is hard to turn back. I also now understand how it could have been so much worse for me had I not had people in my life that were praying for me and sharing the truth with me.
As much as we like to believe that someone else’s decision to sin is harmless, I now realize that some things should not be accepted in mainstream society. In fact, a few years ago I remember talking to a friend about legislation proposed to legalize same-sex marriage and her concern about what doors that would open. I thought the people talking about those things were being a little too radical in their assumptions and sort of blew them off.
But here we are today looking at almost every one of their predictions becoming a reality. We have pending legislation that will legalize pedophilia, child pornography, and full-term abortions. In addition, they want to reduce the age of consent to protect predators and they want to decriminalized felons. Folks, with these changes, we are letting everything that stands for morality as defined by scripture slip away and we aren’t even batting an eye. These things are against everything Jesus warned about in the Bible. And they are being supported by well-meaning Christians in the name of tolerance.
More God and Less Tolerance
But tolerance isn’t what we need. We need obedience and we need more of God in our lives. I imagine Him sitting there on his throne watching us as we slip further and further away from Him all in the interest of not offending someone. Don’t get me wrong, it doesn’t mean we stop loving the people who struggle with these problems. Quite the contrary, we love them and we kindly help them see where these thoughts and actions will separate them from God.
It’s hard, I know. I understand that some of you are offended by me even saying this, but I hope you will stay with me.
We can’t fix this. It isn’t our job. It’s God’s job. But we can lead people to the truth. We can love and support one another as we encourage them to reconnect with the one thing that will bring them true peace in their lives. Our lives. We must all be strong and courageous as we battle against sin and evil, but we must not give up.
And so many have. It makes me sad to see the multitude of Christians who claim to love God and yet, the world let sin rule our lives. And you should be saddened by this too. I know, you may be thinking, it doesn’t affect me, I’m staying out of it. But it does affect you and it affects your children and grandchildren. And it not only affects our livelihood today, but it also affects eternity. If we don’t build our lives on the foundation of scripture, we are only fooling ourselves and we are inviting the wolf in so he can devour our children.
Judging People by Their Fruit
Just after the verse about false prophets in Matthew, Jesus goes on to talk about how we can judge people by their fruit. He cautions us against following people who sound religious but do not live good moral lives and do not follow scripture. He cautions that on the day of judgment, only those who listened to His teachings and obeyed Him will be saved.
The reality is we are saved by faith and our relationship with Jesus. And as such, we can go hide out in our tornado shelter and stay safe until this storm passes, or we can speak out and help others to learn about Jesus and have a relationship that creates a better life while we are here and ensures our eternal salvation.
You may fear losing friends and loved ones if you speak out against these evil things, but we are commissioned by Christ to invite as many people into the fold as we can. That takes courage and it takes a love that is bigger than ourselves.
The bullies of this world have caused us to hold our tongue for fear of their wrath, but it’s time we speak out. That doesn’t mean that everyone has to start a podcast or start an ad campaign, but it does mean speaking up for truth in our everyday conversations. It means challenging people when they say something that is against the morals and beliefs we hold dear.
It’s Time to Speak Out
It’s scary, I know. But remember you don’t have to do this alone. The Holy Spirit will guide you and will provide the words to speak. But before you do anything, seek the wisdom provided in Scripture. Don’t go off your memory of what might be God’s truth. Or following what someone else is telling you is just. Read it for yourself.
Then, when you get the opportunity to speak out over a cup of coffee with a friend or a casual conversation with your family, you can point them back to God’s word, not your personal belief which may or may not be accurate.
It is time the silent majority find their voice and speak out. It’s time we put our light on the tabletop and stand up for truth. Not our own personal truth, but the truth of God. If you’ve been following the last several episodes of the Longing for More, you’ve heard about some pretty horrific things that are happening in this world. It’s easy for us to compare ourselves and our loved ones to some of the people who are committing those evil acts and decide we are doing Ok and that we don’t need to worry about our minor sins. But the reality is that God sees all sin the same. We will be judged by committing our “little” sins in the same way others will be judged for the “big” sins. God wants us to speak out and He will remember it on the last day if we don’t.
Desires of This World
Listen as Paul describes different sins in Galatians 5 starting at verse 19, “When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear, sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these.” I don’t know about you, but I am really grateful for forgiveness after reading that list. I’ve certainly committed more than my share of these.
Just before this verse, Paul talks about how the Holy Spirit will give us desires that are the opposite of what our sinful nature desires. We need the Holy Spirit to guide us and protect us. We are all helpless to fight against these sinful acts on our own.
But, as I mentioned earlier, we don’t know what we don’t know. If someone has never been exposed to the law and therefore doesn’t realize their actions are sinful, they may assume they are ok. Or if they don’t know the consequences of pursuing a life of sin, they are not likely to make the changes or even know they can ask for help. That is why we who have accepted Jesus and are saved have an obligation to share that wonderful gift with others who do not yet know or maybe know but haven’t yet accepted it as truth.
Let’s be clear about this, we don’t have to share this gift to be saved. Rather, we do so out of love and compassion for our fellow beings because we want them to have the opportunity to live in peace and fulfillment during their time here on earth and then to spend eternity in heaven with Jesus, too.
The note in my study Bible says it better than I can. As Christians, we have become infatuated with the worldly power of movie stars, sports, celebrities, political coalitions, and world economic forces. We crave the power and prestige that position, wealth, and connections offer. When this happens, we become easy targets for Satan’s great deception. Worldly power is Satan’s trap; the desire for it can turn us away from God.
Too many of us base our identity on our job, successes, wealth, or knowledge rather than on our relationship with Jesus and we will go to great lengths to have these things. And when it gets to be too much, it becomes easy to cheat our employers of their time and resources, or we begin to work all hours of night and day at the expense of our relationships with our family and our Lord. Some get so entrenched in their grab for money and power that they believe they are above reproach. They scheme and manipulate others to get what they want and hide their evil agenda’s so well that people are unwittingly following after them not realizing how far they have or will go to grasp even more power.
They talk the talk that sounds like it will empower the people who have been harmed in society, but at what cost? They pretend they love all, but their words and actions do not reflect that. They act hatefully and violently against anyone who disagrees with them. We’ve all met them and believe me, these are not people we want to rule our society.
Waking Up
First, we all need to be reminded that God is still in control. Nothing has or will happen in this world that He is not aware of or He has not allowed. It is a hard pill to swallow when we want to believe He is here to bring joy and peace, but honestly, the joy and peace we seek comes when we believe in Him and trust Him with every aspect of our lives. My stomach turns when I hear some of the stories of things that take place in the name of power and control by the world’s standards.
But people are waking up. They are seeing the false truths for what they are. And they are walking away. They are realizing that tolerance of things like abortion and sexual perversion is not the way our society should be going. They are standing up for true justice and morality. And they are telling their stories. Hundreds of thousands of people are seeing through the lies and are saying enough. If you are curious about these people and their individual stories, check out a Facebook page called #walkaway campaign. You will gain a new perspective on what is going on in our world and hopefully, if enough people do, we will change the direction and bring our world back to civility and morality.
Before you decide that this is not for you, I ask you to remember that we have been chosen by God as His very own and we are called to represent Him to others. If we are afraid to do so, or simply chose not to, we will be judged accordingly. To share Him with others, even the most unlovable in our society, is the greatest act of love we can make.
I don’t know about you, but someone shared that truth with me years ago. Even though I had been raised in a Christian home, I had drifted away and had chosen to believe things about faith that weren’t true. I accepted the false teaching that parts of the Bible didn’t apply anymore and we didn’t need to try to follow all of it. That being a good person was enough and honestly, there are many ways to heaven, and we can simply pick the path that works best for us. I am so grateful that someone loved me enough to explain that I’d been fed a bunch of lies and that there is truly only one way.
Fortunately, the beautiful part of it all is that regardless of how far we’ve fallen, no matter how many lies we’ve believed, indeed no matter how many sins we’ve committed, we can still return to Christ and receive His mercy. Time and time again. For that, I will be eternally grateful. Literally.
As you can imagine, I’ve only touched the tip of the iceberg of the wisdom that can be found in Scripture. I pray you will take some time to go check out the verses I’ve mentioned here and dig into them so you can learn for yourself other passages that will ring true to you. If this is new to you or if you struggle with some of this, I encourage you to subscribe to Longing for More at longingformorepodcast.com.
If you are ready to make some changes in your life and aren’t sure where to start, I encourage you to check out the resources I have available at vonajohnson.com. If you know you are ready to shine your light where God has planted you and would like a group of people to offer encouragement and support along the way, please be sure to check out the Living Your Faith Mastermind Community found at vonajohnson.com/mastermind.
Thank you for stopping by. I pray you have been blessed by this message and that you will share it with any and everyone who you think may need to hear it.
I hope you will stop back next week.
Until then, go, be blessed, and live your more!