Celebrate the Light!

Students in a science class had good answers when they were asked what light is. "If we didn't have light we couldn't see", something that makes us happy" Grandpa likes to sit in the sun. It makes him feel good." But they missed the answer I was seeking, so I put a pot of ivy into a dark closet for a few days.
On the third day I brought the ivy back into the light. "It's all droopy! Said one pupil. "It looks sick!" said another, But I knew I had made my point when one student exclaimed: "Living things need light to live." Children have such insights. In reality they became my teacher.
We need the Light of God to live, too. "God is light, in him there is no darkness at all" {1 John1:5}
Knowing this is truly something that makes you happy, like the student said. Sitting in the presence of the Son makes one feel good, like the student's grandpa.
Walking in the light of Jesus enables the believer to see by faith, and that leads to a victorious life. "But if we walk in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin" {1 John 1:7}
Sin, on the contrary, breeds in darkness. Most crimes are committed in the dark. Suicides increase in gloomy weather. Cabin fever occurs in a long dreary winter.
Without light, life cannot exist, physically or spiritually. How we need the "Light" of a risen Savior.

Christians Are the Lower Lights "Matt.5:14-16"

Dwight Moody used to tell of a ship that crashed on the rocks near Cleveland, Ohio, because the lower lights of a lighthouse had gone out. Moody's song evangelist, Philip Bliss, was so moved by it that he wrote the song "Let the Lower Lights Be Burning."

1. Christians Are Not the Main Light.
A. They are like John the Baptist was:

John 1:6 (NIV) There came a man who was sent from God; his name was John.
7 He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all men might believe.
8 He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light.
9 The true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world. {[9] Or This was the true light that gives light to every man who comes into the world}
B. Jesus is not only the Main Light; He lit us up as well.
C. His light brought us out of darkness safe into the harbor.

Ephe 5:8 (NIV) For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light

Ephe 5:13 (NIV) But everything exposed by the light becomes visible,
14 for it is light that makes everything visible. This is why it is said: "Wake up, O sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you."

Colo 1:12 (NIV) giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you {[12] Some manuscripts us}to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light.
13 For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves,

2. Christians Are to Keep the Lower Lights Burning.
A. It's a tremendous responsibility.

1The 5:5 (NIV) You are all sons of the light and sons of the day. We do not belong to the night or to the darkness.
6 So then, let us not be like others, who are asleep, but let us be alert and self-controlled.

Phil 2:15 (NIV) so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe
B. It is so men can see {Matt.5:16}
1. What if our light has gone out?
2. What if it is burning faintly?
3. "Brighten the corner where you are... Someone far from harbor, you could guide across the bar."
C. No matter the cost, keep the light burning!
1. Not all appreciate the John 1:9 (NIV) The true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world. {[9] Or this was the true light that gives light to every man who comes into the world}
10 He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him.

John 3:19 (NIV) this is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.
20 Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed.
21 But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God." {[21] Some interpreters end the quotation after verse 15.}
2. Sometimes lighthouse keepers paid with their lives. A long list of martyrs, beginning with Jesus, died letting their light shine!
Conclusion: Bliss, the author of this grand song, was killed in a train wreck, along with his wife, while traveling to Chicago for a meeting at Moody Tabernacle. He was only 38. But his light was brightly clear while he lived – and still does, whenever his song is sung.
Let’s not be like "Lava Lamp Believers"
Lava Lamps have made a comeback in recent years. Many of today's versions are more creative than when they first introduced some forty years ago. They do have one thing in common, though. None of them is very adequate as a source of light. They were called lamps, but they were not lamps.
Unfortunately, many Christians aren’t much better than lava lamps; they don't really want the whole Light of God, just enough so they can go by the name of the Genuine Light yet remain in the shadows.
Let’s be the Light that Jesus wants us to be!! This year!!
Yours truly in Jesus Christ, Pastor Jim

I, would like to tell you of a lady that love God. Her name is Lottie Moon. Most Southern Baptist have heard the name. Some have made wisecrack along these lines: "Are we ever gonna get that lady paid off? or Haven't we collected enough to send Lottie to the moon yet?"
But how much does the average Southern Baptist know about Lottie Moon? Who was she and what does she have to say to us today?
I believe she still speaks to us by her embodiment of the twelfth chapter of Romans. Her life seems to have taken its cue from this timely part of Scripture. "Lottie opened the Bible to the twelfth chapter of Romans and spoke so convincingly that her hearers would later recall after her death the significant way in which she foreshadowed her life story."
To understand this chapter is to understand the heartbeat of Lottie Moon as well as the nature of missions.
The origin of missions: commitment {v.1}
The expression "a living sacrifice" is set against the backdrop of the Old Testament. Rather than offering dead and useless gifts to God, we should offer to Him our lives in and abiding sacrificial commitment to His will. While the Old Testament worshiper offered an animal, the New Testament worshiper is to offer himself or herself.
Was Lottie Moon a supersaint, quite different from the rest of us? Only in that she offered herself a living sacrifice to God. No doubt as she read Romans 12 that day she found impetus in the phrases describing the commitment called for, such as "by the mercies of God" and "your reasonable service." How did Lottie become such a living sacrifice?
The subject of missions: conversion {vv.2-3}
Only one who has experienced conversion, who has been "transformed by the renewing of {their} minds" becomes active in the work of missions. The reason so few take a living faith into the world is because the world is more alive to them than their faith.
Lottie was not always the saint we suppose her to be. She labeled herself a "devil" and was considered to be a "heretic." After attending a reveal meeting to scoff but returning home to pray all night, she made a profession of faith in Christ.
Miss Moon was in fact a brilliant linguist and her pastor John Broadus called her, "the most educated woman in the South." But her capabilities were instruments toward, not substitutes for, fulfilling God's will as she sought to 'prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God." After hearing Broadus preach a missionary sermon in February 1873, she went forward and said, " I have long known that God wanted me in China. A converted individual is needed for mission work, especially in the method by which missions are done.
The method of missions: cooperation {vv.4-8}
The work of the church cannot be done by a few. Paul's "body of Christ" image serves as the blueprint for the church to follow; it was a pattern Lottie Moon knew well.
Miss Moon always insisted that those who wished to support her work do so through the proper denominational channels. Although she preceded the Cooperative Program, she saw its day and rejoiced.
A pollster asked a shopper if he could give his opinion as to the two greatest problems in America at the time. The man snapped back, "I don't know and I don't care." Perhaps he answered correctly and perhaps it is ignorance and apathy that keep Southern Baptists from meeting our date with destiny.
That attitude of apathy eventually broke the spirit of one of the greatest missionaries Southern Baptists can claim.
Lottie Moon died on board a ship headed for America, weighing about 50 pounds because of depression and concern over the staving Chinese people. Her tombstone carries the simple epitaph, "Faithful unto Death."
As we approach the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering for Foreign Missions, may we each be motivated by the powerful message of Romans 12. May our lives be a "living sacrifice."
I pray that each one have a very Merry Christmas and remember that this is the time to give thanks to Jesus Christ, our Lord!!
With Love in Christ: Your Pastor Jim McGuire