Or are we hiding our light? Check out this passage in Matthew 5:14-16 (TNIV) – “You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.”
As Christ-followers we are called to be a light to our world. The question we should always be asking ourselves is that if what we are doing is being a light to those around us? Or in essence, “am I doing what I can to let people see Christ in me and through me?” Or are we putting our light under a bowl?
One of the things that bugs me as a Christ-follower is that we have to have a “Christian” alternative for everything. Just do a simple Google search for “Christian MySpace” or “Christian Facebook” and you will find that there are a half dozen or more of these alternatives to Facebook and MySpace (do people still even use MySpace?). There was also an alternative to YouTube called GodTube, which is now Tangle.
Today, I just found out that someone created a so called Christian alternative to Twitter. It is called Christian Chirp and it even labels itself as “The Christian Alternative to Twitter”. Maybe they should have just gone ahead and labeled itself “The Place Where Christians Can Put Their Light Under a Bowl”.
I am really tired of people in the church finding new ways to hide from or take themselves out of the the world, because they are afraid of being influenced negatively by the world. But that is not what the Bible tells us to do. Check out John 17:15 (TNIV) – “My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one.”
I am thinking that as Christ-followers we should have the same prayer as Jesus and instead of trying to constantly finding ways to remove ourselves from the world, that we would find ways that we can be that light to the world. We need to pray and ask God to protect ourselves from the evil one and trust that He will do His part while we go and do our part to be that light in the world that we are supposed to be a part of.
I believe that all of these Christian alternatives that we create are showing our complete lack of faith in God. And I believe that in some small ways that we are even setting ourselves up to be bigger then Him by doing this. If we don’t believe that He can keep us safe then we are really taking over the reins of our life and kicking God out of the driver seat. I am not saying that this gives us the right to make foolish decisions, but I am saying that we don’t need to wrap ourselves up in bubble wrap, because we are so fearful of the big, bad world. God will honor the prayer of the faithful asking Him to protect them.
I am choosing to not be a part of those things because I don’t want to hide my light under a bowl and I would rather set my light up as high as possible for everyone to see. I hope that through my life other people will see the love, mercy, grace and forgiveness of God. I want God’s kindness to show through me, so that others will be led to repentance.
