Bible

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The Parable of the Lamp on a Stand

~ As we look at the profound, life-transforming concepts Jesus shared through parables, today we’ll focus on the parable of the lamp on a stand.

Reading Matthew 5:14-15 used to stress me out. Jesus says, “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.” How can we with all our mistakes, misgivings, and failures be “the light of the world?” How could God in all His wisdom choose to use us to reveal Jesus, the only hope of eternal salvation, to a lost and dying world?

As I grow in my knowledge of God’s heart, I grow in the revelation of His desire to use me. Passages like Matthew 5:14-15 used to focus my attention on my own sin and darkness rather than God’s grace and love. But faithfully in His love, He guides my thoughts to what matters: the overwhelming reality of the Holy Spirit transforming me into the image of the God who created me. Today, let’s allow the Spirit and the Word to transform the way we view ourselves and how God in His infinite wisdom would use us to change the world.

Ephesians 2:10 says:

“For we are His [God’s] creation, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared ahead of time so that we should walk in them.”

At salvation your identity changed. You are now “created in Christ Jesus.”

2 Corinthians 5:17 says it this way:

“This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!”

You are a new creation not by your own doing, but by the powerful finished work of Christ Jesus on the cross. At salvation your sins were wiped away, cast off as far as the east is from the west. Such was the transformation that took place in your heart at salvation that you could be filled with God Himself.

Jesus says in John 14:16-17:

“And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Counselor to be with you forever. He is the Spirit of Truth. The world is unable to receive Him because it doesn’t see Him or know Him. But you do know Him, because He remains with you and will be in you.”

God Himself “dwells with you”, and, through salvation now lives inside you.

Passages like the parable of the lamp on a stand used to stress me out because I didn’t understand what God wanted to reveal through me to the world. I used to think God wanted to reveal perfection in me, that I had to act perfectly to demonstrate Christ. What I didn’t realize is that the greatest revelation I could give a broken and needy world is that God, through the immeasurable depth of His love, meets me in my brokenness and continually makes me whole. I realized that God, only by His grace, is taking what was lost, weak, selfish, and lonely and is filling me with unimaginable love and security through restored relationship with Him. God doesn’t want you to reveal perfection. He wants to reveal the fact that in your imperfection He has loved you from the beginning with an everlasting love.

Because you are weak and in need of God, you are the absolute best person to lead others to Jesus. If you act like you have everything together, as if nothing is wrong, then those distant from God will have no reason to believe God desires relationship with them. But in revealing your imperfection, in being honest and real with those around you, you will offer hope to a world that has none. You will reveal the core of the gospel: that God has incredible works prepared for those who simply come to Him in need and cry out for His help. In your imperfection you are a perfect example of Jesus’ love that comes only by grace.

God desires to shine the light of His love through you today in powerful ways. He longs to reveal to others how deeply He has loved you in His grace. He has incredible plans in store for you if you will simply be real with a world that desperately needs relationship with their Creator. Have the courage to be yourself and to be honest and vulnerable. Honesty is all your heavenly Father asks of you. In your honesty, God will reveal a greater love than this world has ever known. In the reality of who you are, God will shine forth hope, guiding those who are lost to the safe shores of restored relationship with Him. May you find peace in the fact that God longs to use you. May you find purpose in the works He has set before you to do. And may you find joy in the revelation of God’s immeasurable love poured out on you through His grace.
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~ published by: First 15

https://www.first15.org/






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