Archived Daily Manna | Rejoice Fellowship | A mission to release people to rejoice in the world.

Message: We are accustomed to the humility of denying glory to ourselves and giving all glory to the Lord. It is he who has made us, and he who has given us all gifts, both physical and spiritual. What an extraordinary statement, then, for Christ to tell us that we are the light of the world. We spend our time and effort — at least when we are in a religious mood — fighting down our pride and self-glory. In today’s verse, Christ introduces us to discipleship. We are to carry and transmit the very glory of God. Light is a common metaphor for spiritual truth. John 1 tells us that the Word was a light that shined in darkness, which the darkness did not understand. The Psalms recount that Israel will be a light to lighten the Gentiles. Here, the metaphor works on another level. girl with candle When you consider the energy we use for light, whether it be a candle, a lamp, an electric light, even a chemical light, it is always at its essence stored sunlight. Most energy originates in photosynthesis: wood, coal, oil, etc. Hydroelectric power has its origin in the sun heating and vaporizing water, which becomes rain in the mountains. Nuclear and geothermal power are exceptions, but even those are, in a sense, the presence of the sun on earth. When we are baptized, we have Christ’s light within us, for the Holy Spirit dwells with us and within us. We were made in God’s image; we have the capacity to live in the Spirit, not perfectly, but with great power. When we receive the Holy Spirit, we do not simply reflect God’s goodness; we become potential transmitters of it. Like a plant that stores the sun’s energy and thus can give off light in the darkness, we can give off the radiance of God’s Spirit. And not only can we do it; here, Christ instructs us that we should do it. The importance of leading a life that will bring others to Christ through our example, and the difficulties and strategies of it, would fill a book. All we have room for, here, is one anecdote. Christ fish car emblem I know a man — call him Jim S. (Hi, Jim!) — who is a devout Christian and had, as witness to his faith, one of those raised metal fish on the trunk of his car. Then, one day, he told me that he had taken it off. The reason: his driving was so often bad, and road rage so prevalent in city driving, that he was afraid he would alienate more people from Christianity than he would attract; he feared that when he did something perceived as rude, someone would say “ That figures — just another hypocrite Christian jerk” . . . or something a bit stronger. Some time later I saw him in the parking lot, and the fish had been glued back onto his car trunk. I asked him about it and he said something like this: “I realized I didn’t need to stop testifying to my faith. That’s something we are supposed to do. What I needed to do was change my driving.”