“Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying,
I am the light of the world:
he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness,
but shall have the light of life.”
John 8:12

Years ago I read this magnificent story. Hugh Latimer, with Bishop Ridley, was burned at the stake during the reign of Bloody Mary in England. They delivered themselves to the executioner, and when the fire was lit, these prophetic words were uttered: “Play the man, Master Ridley,” said Latimer, as he stood in the flames. “We shall this day light such a candle by God’s grace as I trust shall never be put out.” The burning took place at Oxford.

The story of Hugh Latimer’s conversion is exceptional. He purchased a New Testament written in Latin, and his eyes chanced to fall upon one sentence, and with that sentence, the light of day broke upon his soul. The sentence was: “This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief” (I Timothy 1:15). It was a great day for Latimer.

Hugh Latimer appeared before royalty and declared, “It is worthy of all acceptation-it is worthy-Your Majesty! For this proclamation craves on patronage. It is worthy your Excellency; my lords, ladies, gentlemen, all: for the Gospel asks no favors.” He stood before kings and courtiers and declared this faithful saying. Never once did he forget the dignity and the challenge of the message. It was faithful! It was worthy in its own right of the acceptance of the lordly; and Latimer staked his life upon it to the very last!

This is the message dedicated to the business of “Shining for Christ.” The Bible says, “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven” (Matthew 5:16).

To shine for Christ, we must know Him as Saviour. Here is the great essential for shining! Just being good is not enough. Just knowing about the Bible is not enough. We must know Him, the Saviour. Jesus said, “…Ye must be born again” (John 3:7). Then in a very particular way He said: “He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God” (John 3:18).

Permit me to present three simple truths:

First, The Admonition Of The Bible Is To Shine - To Give Light.

Jesus said, “Let your light so shine.”

Give thought to the darkness of this world. We are now living in the nighttime of world history. The darkness is about us. There is no spot where Satan’s power is not felt. If we read the papers, we see the news of sin in every place. If we walk the streets, we see the evidence of evil, rebellion, and wickedness. If we enter the world of politics, we find sin on every hand. Sin is everywhere - in business, in social life, and in church life.

Give thought to the destitution of this world. By the word destitution, I am referring to the wreckage of society as it is today. Many people run to the world and seek help-the world cannot help us! This is a world of sin and emptiness. This is a world that is headed for the judgment of God.

Think of the deception of the world. Yes, the world tries to deceive us and turn us away from Christ. The world tries to take you away from Christ. The world tries to make you think that all is well but our own heart testifies to the fact that evil surrounds us.

The magic tricks of Satan are always at evidence. We read in II Corinthians 2:11, “Lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices.” The Devil is ever working to deceive us and turn us aside.

But in the midst of darkness, destitution, and deception, we are to shine! To shine for Jesus we must know Christ as our Saviour. We must keep ourself in touch with Him daily and show forth His grace and mercy to a lost and dying world.

But we say, “Shining for Jesus is costly.” Yes, it is. Shining for the Saviour may mean suffering. To shine for Christ may mean financial loss. To shine for Christ may mean surrender of our popularity. To stand for our convictions may mean loss and pain. But say what we may, the Bible still says, “Let your light so shine.”

We must shine consistently and permanently. It is tragic that some people shine brightly for Christ for a while and then they permit something to come between them and the Lord. They are not the light of the world that God intended them to be.

A blind man walked down the street one night with a lighted lantern in his hand. Someone said to him, “Why do you carry a lighted lantern? You can’t see. It doesn’t do you any good.” “Oh, yes it does,” he said. “It keeps other people from stumbling over me.”

Christians are to so live that no one will stumble over them. The light must shine forth from our lives. It isn’t necessary that we boast and brag about our goodness. It is simply necessary that we know Christ as Saviour and that we walk in His steps and thereby we shine for Jesus.

Miss Blanche Groves was for many years a faithful missionary in China. One day in Soochow, she stood on the curb of the street and watched three men being led to execution by the Japanese. One of them recognized her, broke away from his captor and ran up to her. He cried out, “Thank you for telling me about Jesus. I’m not afraid to die now. I will die at sunset, but I will spend the night with Jesus.” This one was faithful unto death. He was shining “as the light of the world.”

Second, We Must Avoid Everything That Dims Our Shining For Christ.

The Apostle Paul said, “Abstain from all appearance of evil” (I Thessalonians 5:22).

Avoid everything that is questionable. The Christian’s life must be open-not shady. If there is a question mark upon something, then the chances are that that thing is wrong.

Avoid everything that robs Him of His glory. It seems like a rather small thing for Demas to turn away from the Apostle Paul. It was not a small matter to the apostle. He knew that the quitting spirit of Demas was robbing God of the glory that belonged to Him. Not only so, Demas brought shame upon the cause of Christ.

Avoid everything that keeps others from seeing Christ in us. This is to be the goal of our life-to be Christlike!

What does it take to bring a person to consecrated and dedicated shining for Christ? I think I can name some things that it surely takes:

- We must truly see Christ. We must see and know this Beloved One. Jesus Christ must mean everything to us. He is more than just the words of a song. He is our Saviour, our Companion, our Helper, and our Guide. I do not think that there is such a thing as consecration unless there is a definite vision of Jesus.

- We must see the awfulness of sinful flesh. We must see the wickedness of our own bodies. We must see the corruptness of our minds. Furthermore, we must understand that accepting Jesus Christ as Saviour does not remove us from the touch of Satan. The danger of carnality is always before us.

- We must see the greatness of salvation. The wonder of being saved must never escape us. The miracle of His touch upon our hearts to redeem us and bring us unto Himself must never be lost. The experience of coming to know Christ as Saviour must ever be real.

- We must see a lost world. This will kill the selfishness of the average life. The true seeing of a lost and dying world will make generous Christians. We must remember that the man without Christ is lost. The Bible states “…the soul that sinneth, it shall die.” It is our business to warn the wicked of his way. If we fail to do so, then the blood of others will be upon us. Consecration will come by remembering that one day we shall stand before the Lord Jesus Christ. This is what Paul was trying to communicate to the Christians in Rome. He said, “…for we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ” (Romans 14:12). Now, if we can remember this, it will surely transform our lives, it will cause us to be cautious in life and deed.

Yes, avoid everything that dims your shining.

Third, The Presence Of God Is With The Shining Christian.

Dedication, obedience, and shining will mean His presence, for He said, “…lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen” (Matthew 28:20).

His presence gives courage. Hugh Latimer stood in the flames and displayed the courage that God had given him. He said to his fellow sufferer, “We shall this day light such a candle by God’s grace as I trust shall never be put out.” It is courage that is so sorely needed in our present day society. We do not need the foolhardiness of the marching mobs, but we need the courage that comes from the presence of God. The Lord said to Joshua: “Only be thou strong and very courageous…” (Joshua 1:7).

His presence gives the privilege of prayer. If I know Christ as my Savior and walk with Him, then I have the privilege of coming before Him and praying. When I walk with the Lord, I can know that my prayers will receive His Divine answers.

This is the promise that Jesus gave to His disciples and to us: “And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it” (John 14:13,14).

There is nothing that will so lift the shadows from your heart as a time of prayer. When the burdens of life are heavy, and we feel that we cannot go on, this is the time to seek His face and to come to the place of prayer.

His presence gives witnessing power. We are commanded to go with the Gospel of our Lord Jesus; but woe be unto us if we go without His power.

Every child of God should desire the fullness of the Holy Spirit. We have the Holy Spirit as our indwelling Guest. But does the Holy Spirit have us?

Men are lost and dying without Jesus Christ. We must go with the power of God upon us. We must go with a radiant testimony for our Saviour upon our lips. And as we go, we must remember that His presence will give the witnessing power.

I repeat, Jesus commanded us to go into all the world and preach the Gospel. He gave His promise that He would be with us, even unto “the end of the world.” He does not promise to be with us as we walk the ways of sin and worldliness. But he does promise to be with us as we do His will and carry out His command. Dr. G. Campbell Morgan was preaching from Matthew 28:20 “…lo, I am with you….” He called this a promise. A woman came up to him later and said, “That is not a promise. It is a fact.” That is true. Jesus did not say, “I will be with you,” but, “I am with you.”

You may have heard me speak of David Livingstone and of his experiences in Africa. When Livingstone received an honorary degree from Glasgow University, he calmed a rebellious crowd by saying, “My favorite verse is this: ‘…lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen’” (Matthew 28:20). You see there was a time when David Livingstone was in great danger in Africa. By the flickering candlelight he read the words, “Lo, I am with you.” Then he said, “That settles it. These are the words of the gentleman of sacred honor. I will trust Him and not be afraid.” Let us give ourselves to the great task of witnessing, knowing that this is the work that He has committed unto us.

Years ago, it was harvest time in the great wheat fields of the West. Hundreds of men came to work the fields, which covered thousands of acres. One day a group of children were playing in the field. They came in at nightfall, but a little three-year-old boy was missing. His mother was frantic. Her boy was somewhere out in the vast fields, subject to all the dangers of the elements.

When the harvesters came in, they set out to find the boy. All night they searched in vain. Finally, one of the men said, “I know that we are all tired, but let’s try one more thing. Let’s join hands and walk across the fields and search every foot of ground.”

So they joined hands and started out. In a few hours time someone shouted, “Here he is.” And in a little crevice, overgrown by grain, they found the dead body of the little boy. They took the little body and put it in his mother’s arms and said, “We did our best. We don’t know what else we could have done. We did our best.” And the brokenhearted mother said, “I am not blaming you. I know that you did your best. But oh, why didn’t you think of joining hands together before you did?”

Yes, this is our need, to join hands in doing the task that God has given unto us. Christ said, “…I am the light of the world…” (John 8:12). We are to go everywhere, showing forth Jesus Christ. We are to light our candle. We are to shine that they may see and know that we belong to the Saviour.

Has something been dimming your light? Perhaps God is speaking now, urging you to rededicate your life to Christ. Perhaps you have never accepted Jesus Christ as Saviour. This is the time to repent and believe and be saved. Salvation is fully and completely in Him. You cannot shine until first you know Jesus Christ, the Light.

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Baptist International Missions, Inc. is celebrating 45 years of mission service. This issue of the WORLD is dedicated to Dr. Lee Roberson, one of its founding fathers.

Dr. Roberson said, “The great purpose of the local church is evangelism at home and abroad. Our Savior came down from glory to die that sinners might be saved. ‘For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which is lost’ (Luke 19:10). Because of this truth we must: Start the fire-keep it burning-claim the blessing! The command of our Lord has been given, ‘…Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature’ (Mark 16:15). Obedience to His command brings His blessings upon us!”

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

John 15:5 I am the vine, ye [are] the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.

Jonathon & Mandy Crews -  BRAZIL
Joel C & Brooke Daku -  KIRIBATI
Paul W & Martha Daku -  FIJI ISLANDS