How We Shine

 "Come, mighty Spirit, penetrate

This heart and soul of mine;

And my whole being with thy grace

Pervade, O Life divine....

Thus life within our lifeless hearts

Shall make its glad abode;

And we shall shine in beauteous light,

Filled with the light of God."~Horatius Bonar

The Story of Light

 
  In the Beginning God said "let there be light" and this was the start of all life on Earth.  His first human creations, Adam and Eve, disobeyed him and brought a new darkness into the world. This was the start of all death. At the crux of time  God's son Jesus came to offer light to us once more. When  he hung bleeding, then died on a cross for our disobedience, he tore open a veil, one that had darkened our heart, separated us from God,  and kept us from knowing the one who is light itself.  

   Jesus died, and at first, to the undiscerning and the powers of darkness, it seemed darkness had prevailed. But darkness can't overcome light. God the Father raised Jesus from the dead. Thus everyone who believes what Jesus has done gains the right to become children of light-----children of God. Once more God says  "let there be light"---this time in our heart.  Thus when we believe in him, we come alive.  

The Beauty of Light

 
   As children of light, Christians are beautiful beyond compare. Beauty and Light have much in common: Both are pleasing to the eye and both draw people in .  In addition, usually, those with glowing faces are considered to be beautiful. Beauty and light are body deep; a true and lasting glow actually comes from the inside. When I eat healthily, my complexion becomes brighter, and I typically get compliments for it. (Carrots in particular produce a lovely radiance). It's the same with spiritual things. Jesus said the Church is the light of the world. Christians are called light; yet most of us would agree we don't physically shine like the sun. However, one day the righteous will shine like stars , inwardly AND outwardly. 

                                              

  Radiant

    Through God's Spirit, Jesus, the light of man,  has come to live inside us.  The only reason we shine at all is because Jesus, the light of life, dwells within us. Like a light bulb, Christian light sources from within. One day soon we will see Jesus in all his glory: One day soon we will see him clearly. As he is.  Right now we see Jesus through dark glass but soon the glass will be removed----- and  then-----face to face.  That moment suspended in the air, when we look Jesus in the eye, our vision of him will become crystal clear.  Jesus himself once said "The eye is the lamp of the body. If your vision is clear, your whole body will be full of light (Matthew 6:22, BSB). Therefore when our vision of Jesus becomes clear , our whole body will fill with light. 

Once our eyes drink him in, we will be so filled with  light that our skin won't be able to contain it. Like the sun breaking forth,  ascending the horizon, scattering beams everywhere,  Christ's light will break through us and our skin will pour out glory. At the end of time, we will physically shine bright because of the incredible light within us. Yet even now, if we fix the eyes of our heart on Jesus, still we can shine spiritually to all the world. 

The Most Glorious Woman on Earth

  Who is She?




   At a passing glance she wouldn't appear remarkable.  With her hair disheveled from battle, face streaked with dirt, dressed mottled from flight, she may seem unattractive. It's said men have entertained angels unawares. Perhaps we've entertained queens with the same ignorance. Would you be terribly shocked if you've heard  that you've sat in the presence of royalty? That the hobbled woman down the road carrying a tattered bible and a cross around her neck, also stood in the courts of heaven----that even the middle aged woman filing away at his desk is also "queen"? "How can that be?" , you may ask. I say this because the most glorious woman on Earth is not a normal woman.  She is the Church, or all those who believe in Jesus. She's the Bride of Christ :


    ...we are members of his body. “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.” This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church [1].


     When Adam first saw Eve he exclaimed “ this is now bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh”. In other words “this is my self.   I see you, and I see me too.”   Just like Eve was taken out of Adam’s side, the Church was taken out of the side of Jesus: When Jesus was pierced, outpoured blood and water. From this the Bride of Christ was born. Therefore the moment we individually say yes to  Christ,  we become his. With one “yes” we are his Bride. Because both men and women compose the Church, both are apart of the Bride.  God created "man" in his image as "male and female". We are all equally in the divine image. Therefore, God uses both genders to represent humanity. In the spirit, the Church is female.   Rich, poor, plain, beautiful---the Bride is all those who confess Jesus the King of Kings. She may not look beautiful according to the flesh,  but she is beyond compare to those who look with the Spirit. 

The Most Beautiful Woman

      The beauty of the Church doesn't come from herself. Unlike the women of the earth, she doesn't spend hours primping in front of the mirror.  Her only foundation is Jesus. Lipstick isn't needed to make her lips pop. Her eyes draw you in with the light of Christ, rather than  with shadow and mascara. I say this not to  disparage the use of make up ( I wear it occasionally) ,  but to draw attention to the fact there is a superior cosmetic called holiness.

The Church wears the holiness of Jesus.

.........Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, 26 so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless. [2]

   As we can see the Church is made holy by Christ. When two people get married, everything they have belongs to the other. Jesus who knew no sin became sin for his Bride so that she can become the righteousness of God, just like him. Her sin died with him on the cross so that both of them could be free from sin. Three days after Jesus died,  God raise him from the dead and seated  him at his right hand so that only his perfect righteousness would remain. The Bride has received Christ's righteousness , which is her wedding garment.

The Most Important Wedding

     At the end of the age there will be a  wedding ceremony called the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. The Church officially married Jesus at the cross. However the marriage is in the style of the ancient Jewish wedding system. The Jewish wedding is two -part. The first stage is kiddishin (bethrothal) and the second is nussin (full fledged marriage). In the betrothal phase, a young suitor would first approach a young woman’s father. If the father and the girl agreed, then the couple would sign a marriage contract. The moment the couple signed the marriage contract, they were considered husband and wife. However , the Jewish custom was to not to live together until they had the wedding ceremony and communally celebrated their marriage.  This living apart phase was generally for a year. During the wait period, the suitor would return to his father's house and prepare a wedding chamber. Like the Jewish wedding tradition, salvation is  two-part with an interim period. Jesus died for our sins in the first part.  He then returned to his Father's house to build a home for us. Now the Church awaits his return during this current intermediate period. In the last part that's coming soon, Jesus will come again and give every believer a new glorious body (Hebrews 9:28).

    At the end of the age, the Church will be unveiled as the wife of the Lamb. In that day her beauty and worth will be known to all.  Jesus will make her enemies who fight her daily bow at her feet and acknowledge that he has loved her (Revelation 3:9).  As for our now, if you have believed in Jesus, enjoy your status as his Bride, though no one around you may know your true worth. If you haven't believed, believe so that you too can become the most glorious "woman" on Earth. Believe so that you too can enjoy the priviledge of belonging to the King of Kings.







[1] Ephesians 5:31-2 NIV

[2] Ephesians 5:25-27 NASB

Turning Tears to Wine

     God turns tears to joy-----mourning to dancing . What a boundless God he is. Lately he's been giving me much revelation from the Psalms. The Psalms are the human heart made poetry; they run the gamut of emotion, from fear to frustration all the while managing  to honor the Lord with every verse. In Psalm 58, verse 8, David was especially sorrowful. He notes to God "You have kept count of my tossings." You maybe familiar with his next words "Put my tears in Your bottle. Are they not in Your book?" (ESV)

  Of this bottle I'd always envisioned a tiny vial. Perhaps crystal, with  swoops of color across the  curve.  Today God corrected this image. In the tiny notes of my NIV translation Bible, was an alternate translation of "bottle." The NIV suggests the word  also be translated as "wineskin." God's bottle for our tears is a wineskin-----bottleshaped skin that holds the drink that makes us glad. 

  
   Didn't Jesus turn water to wine and aren't our tears as salty water? God promised through several prophets to make new wine overflow. New wine, as you may have guessed, is fresh and it was also known as "sweet wine"[1].  Sweet, new wine was also highly inebriating.  Wine is a symbol of the Holy Spirit(Eph 5:18). When God pours out his Spirit in the New Covenant, he brings joy and sweetness to his people that is intoxicating (Acts 2). This morning God gave me a greater picture of his tear-bottle. Perhaps he turns those tears into the wine of the Spirit. Maybe when we are heart broken, he empties out that wineskin of pain, then pours the happy mixture over us.  He gives us the Holy Spirit and intoxicates us with the joy of his love.


   [1] "Strong's Greek: 1098. γλεῦκος (gleukos) -- Sweet New Wine." Strong's Greek: 1098. γλεῦκος (gleukos) -- Sweet New Wine. Accessed August 02, 2016. http://biblehub.com/greek/1098.htm.

Whole-Hearted Faith

The Lukewarm

    There are such people as pew warmers; warm bodies with cold hearts that occupy seats in churches. Pew warmers  think they are Christians because they were born in a Christian family. Some may have heard a few snippets from the Bible, and nodded heartily to what was heard , all the while failing to put it into practice.  Others may simply equate Christianity with good people and conclude if good people are Christians and they are “good people”,  then surely they are Christian.

Interestingly some pew warmers don’t even go to church; but both the churched and non-churched  variety are nominal Christians. Christians in name only.  I would know because I was one of them.

    Throughout high school I  thought I was Christian because it was the religion closest to me. It was the one I was born into. Like with my last name, I took Christianity because it was there , then thought nothing of it.  One day this thoughtless belief  changed. While a freshman in college I surrendered my  life to God.  Before then,  I  wasn’t sure God even existed, but I did suspect that if I were to  truly follow God he would require all of me. For many years I wasn’t willing to give up all my life to him. I had been fine  treating him distantly and going to him only if I was scared or in trouble. Deep down I knew I was holding back yet didn’t care. Until I became desperate. On the day I surrendered I knew I couldn’t hold back anymore: I was so tired of my life, so tired of feeling lonely, so tired of my pain. So when I tearfully looked up from my bed and said “ I can’t do this anymore God”, I meant it. I made an active, conscious  choice to surrender control of my life. In an instant I went from pew warmer to real Christian.


 Real Christian

  The difference between a pew warmer and a real Christian, is that a real Christian has decided actively to follow Jesus.  When this happens God makes them a new person (2 Corinthians 5:17). Not only that, real Christians have  chosen to believe with all their heart. This can be seen in the book of Acts.  In Acts chapter 8 vv 26-38, God supernaturally leads an evangelist named Phillip to meet an Ethiopian eunuch. When Phillip came to the eunuch, the eunuch was having difficulty reading a passage from Isaiah. The eunuch didn’t know it but he had been reading about the messiah Jesus.  He asks Phillip what does Isaiah mean. Phillip uses the opportunity to preach the gospel of Jesus. When Phillip finished preaching, the eunuch said

“Look, there's water! What would keep me from being baptized? ” [37 And Philip said, “If you believe with all your hear you may".  Some manuscripts have chosen to omit this verse. However, I believe it belongs there, simply because God spoke a similar word in the book of Jeremiah.

   Some have debated what it means to be a true Christian. They ask “are you a Christian because you said a prayer, particularly one called the Sinner’s Prayer, one time in your life?  I’d say “yes”, if you prayed it with all your heart.   A true Christian is one who has believed in Jesus with all his heart.  Now, some may ask “what constitutes believing with all the heart?” I think the answer is different for different people. We can’t prescribe an exact definition or criteria. However we can generally conclude  it means if you’re prayed with all your heart, you’ve made a commitment. You have counted the cost and have decided to accept the message of the gospel. You may not perfectly understand all that entails( I didn't)———You may not grasp the degree of what you must give to God, but you do grasp that you must surrender:  Afterall, you have believed in yourself, you have trusted in your own abilities, you have tried to direct the course of your  life and have failed. When you've gotten sick of the failure, or even if you want to experience real Life, you decide to believe in Jesus with your whole heart.   You may not know exactly what Christianity is (I didn’t)  but you do know that you can’t stay where you are. To believe with all your heart is to say “I want what Jesus gives. Today I will receive it.”  It means  when you hear the gospel, you understand that when you come to God, there is no holding back. There is no half -hearted surrender. You give God all of you and you receive all of him.


 But we are weak

You may not have the ability to surrender but even if you want to,  it still counts as believing with all your heart.  Like another person did, we can exclaim "I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!" (Mark 9:24) Of course, you may also stumble in following God.  There will be moments you try to take back your life or parts of your life. This back-pedaling is inevitable, for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God (our imperfection is why we need Jesus in the first place). However, all it takes is one surrender to permanently belong to God.  Though you  may stray to unfaithfulness , he will ultimately keep his promise to to give you all of him. Thus to seek God with all the heart is a position of humility and determination. It means you understand your own weakness before God and you long for the One who can truly satisfy your heart’s desire for a full life. In surrendering to God, your heart turns from ice to fire because the very consuming fire of God comes to live inside of you. When you believe with all your heart, you are no longer content  to warm pews, to merely sit in Christianity without commitment. No, when you believe with all your heart, you set the very world aflame with your passion for God .