Monday, May 29, 2017

Manifestations of Light

UV 2284/10000 Manifestations of Light
Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.

Matthew 5 v 16


The word light in this uni-verse implies that we should manifest love, integrity, grace, happiness and truth in and through our lives of faith. The light of the Truth that is Jesus shines in us who believe in Him in many ways: It shines forth as the light of integrity or righteousness. The followers of Jesus need to not only live by their faith, they need to live their faith. We cannot walk in darkness or by compromising the truth. If we believe God and His Son Jesus, our Redeemer are perfect, we too need to imitate their perfection as closely as we can. The Lord will fill the gaps with His grace and mercy. Our good deeds will not be dirty rags as stated in the Old Testament but these will be our flags and emblem to show Jesus dwells in and with us. Our good actions and reactions should manifest the goodness of the Lord and manifest it increasingly over the course of our lives.

The light shines in us as the flame of wisdom. We are to take decisions in accordance with our faith and our faith-defined priorities. We are not to decide out of selfish ambition or vanity or pride. Our words of wisdom should reflect the wisdom of the Word. The distance between folly and us should be like the distance between the sun and the moon. The light also shines as the spirit of excellence in us. We need to excel in all that we do for the greater glory of God. We need to exude the light of influence. People should be drawn to us as flies to the fire. White light is comprised of seven colours- VIBGYOR, each colour symbolising a different domain of blessing and being. The new covenant relationship with Jesus makes us inheritors or co-heirs of these seven types of blessings: spiritual, intellectual, familial, social, emotional, financial, physical.

We are called to be a light in our nations and in our generation. We are not to be modest or hide the gifts and blessings the Lord has given us generously. We are to share this light through our generousity, hospitality and giving. The light that is in us is of love- the unconditional or agape love of God. Finally, we are to quietly emit the light of humility. In everything, we are to know that we are zero without Christ. Like the moon, we have no light of our own and we only shine and reflect the light from the Sun of Righteousness on whom we depend for our own healing, blessing and deliverance. The moon always therefore points to the sun as its source of light even as we should do. At no point in our lives should we presume to think that we are the originators of the light. The motivation then of all of our being of light is not our own greatness, fame or glory but to ascribe all praise, glory and goodness to the Lord. This kind of motivation is what distinguishes our world view from the hedonism of existentialism. Neither is the motive of our good deeds altruism or humanitarianism. The goal is to increasingly reflect the glory, greatness and goodness of God. He should increase and we should decrease even as we shine more and more brightly.


Prateep V Philip

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