You are the light of the world

Mathew 5:14-16 - “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.

2 Cor 4:6 - For God, who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God's glory displayed in the face of Christ.

For the Jews, God's glory was always associated with light and power. It was the light of the burning bush that attracted Moses. God's presence was presented as the pillar of fire  in the desert. In Exodus 19, the people trembled when God descended on the mountain and there was lightening, thunder and fire. God's glory was visible in the form of light. 

Now Jesus says that we are that light, God's glory. It first shined in our hearts but it needs to be seen in the world.

When Jesus said these words, he implies that the world out there is still in darkness. It has been darkened by sin and the works of the flesh. 

Hence He wants us, Christians to go and change the world. Yes, you and me, in spite of our background and past. We may not be the best, not the brightest or the richest but God can use anyone filled with the power of the Holy Spirit. The early first members of church of the Jesus were fishermen and tax collector, the outcast of society. Yet they changed their world upside down.

Our problem is we hide our light in the house, in our churches and amongst Christians circles. We need to go out of this box to the place where its needed the most.

The world out there is our mission field. Its enough that we have warmed our seats in the churches, preached over and over again to believers, listend to sermons and sermons week-in, week-out.  This time to go out to the mountain top and proclaim that Jesus is the Saviour.

Our lives when it shines with God's glory should invoke two responses:

1   People may see our good works

2   People should glorify God

Light also gives visibility and shows the direction in the dark. 

As a Christian, I need to ask, what good work am I doing, that people can see and thereby draw them to God. Does my works turn people to God or turn them away. Does my life shine God's glory or does it exposes the rottenness of self.  A question that every Christian should ask ourselves. 

Its not what we say that counts but what people see in us that matters. Let people see Jesus in me.