Worship Call 0703 You are the Light

Friday August 8 2022 From George Whitten Worthy News .com

through the trials -- it is well with your soul! James 1:12 Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him. A few days ago I received a very detailed call from a friend dealing with trials that seem nearly impossible to bear. Often the best thing a friend can do is simply listen, and while doing just that I was reminded of Horatio Spafford. Horatio Gates Spafford was a 43-year-old Chicago Businessman who suffered financial disaster in the great Chicago fire of 1871. He and his wife, still grieving the death of their son who had died shortly before the fire, were in great need of a retreat, and decided to take their remaining children to England for a vacation. Their friend Dwight L. Moody would be preaching in evangelistic campaigns there that fall, and so Spafford arranged to send his wife and four daughters ahead of him on the SS Ville du Havre. He planned to follow in a few days. During the voyage on the Atlantic Ocean, the Ville du Havre was struck by an iron sailing vessel and sank within 12 minutes. Two hundred twenty-six lives were lost – including the Spafford’s four daughters. When the survivors were brought to shore at Cardiff, Wales, Mrs. Spafford cabled her husband two words: "Saved alone." Spafford booked passage on the next ship. As they were crossing the Atlantic the captain pointed out the place where he thought the Ville du Havre had gone down. That night, Spafford penned the following words: When peace like a river attendeth my way When sorrows like sea billows roll Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say It is well, it is well with my soul. Spafford lost his business and his children but found comfort in His savior. Friends, this world has been called a "veil of tears", not without reason. The weight of anguish and sorrow is incalculable and may feel utterly unbearable at times. Who can understand how Horatio and his wife bore up under their excruciating losses? Yeshua (Jesus) can, because He himself bore far greater agony and sorrow, and because He rescued us from an eternity of it. If you truly know Him you also can sing, "It Is Well With My Soul." Your family in the Lord with much agape love, George, Baht Rivka, Elianna & Obadiah Nashville, Tennessee

And this is another fine day in the Lord

We have thus far neglected two very important words. Words that are relevant, powerful, with great meaning when spoken by the Lord.

It is the second person plural of SU and EIMi

Translated YOU ARE (you’ll are)

Not “what you are going to be.” Not “what you may be.” Not “what you are aspiring to be,” you are now presently Salt and Light.

Like when the Lord came to Gideon who was cowering outside of an entrance to a cave which he was hiding away from the enemy. The Lord addresses him as Hero, or valiant warrior.

Judges 6:12 (NASB95) — 12 The angel of the Lord appeared to him and said to him, “The Lord is with you, O valiant warrior.”

The characteristics of Salt and light comes from our connection with the Lord who is with us.

It is a Charge. It leaves out the option. The Child of God is to be a blessing to a lost and dying world. The remnant is to reflect the glory of the Lord. To be anything other than what the Lord has deemed the believer to be is to live outside of one’s established character. To not be salt or light, becoming tasteless and suppressing the light sets the believer up to be an unfruitful branch and will be eventually be pruned from the vine.

It means a short unproductive life. It means living a life in vain. It means a loss, no reward, crowns, robes, or thrones no rulership function in the eternal state.

When I stand at the pulpit and gaze across the few that the Lord has charged me with, who sit behind the tables with their bibles open to study God’s word, I’m not seeing potential salt and light. I view them in the reality of what they are which is Salt and Light in the lives of others within their families, in their communities in the nation.

Living the Christian Way of Life is living up to the earthly Role that the Lord has place each of us in.

The verb is from μωρος [mōros] (dull, sluggish, stupid, foolish)

It is where we get the word Moron. It is moron who disregards the greatest treasure given by God in relation to his or spiritual life and casts it away as useless.

It means to play the fool, to become foolish, of salt become tasteless, insipid (Mark 9:50). It is common in Syria and Palestine to see salt scattered in piles on the ground because it has lost its flavour,[1]

They Say cleanliness is next to Godliness. Well, another aspect of Salt is a cleaning agent. So yes, cleanliness or being salty is next to Godliness.

So, when Salt loses its saltiness, it is now useless. Useless, being that it no longer fulfills its intended purpose. It is no good to God nor is it a blessing to man.

2 Peter 1:5–11 (NASB95) — 5 Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge, 6 and in your knowledge, self-control, and in your self-control, perseverance, and in your perseverance, godliness, 7 and in your godliness, brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly kindness, love. 8 For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 For he who lacks these qualities is blind or short-sighted, having forgotten his purification from his former sins. 10 Therefore, brethren, be all the more diligent to make certain about His calling and choosing you; for as long as you practice these things, you will never stumble; 11 for in this way the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be abundantly supplied to you.

While we are salt adding flavor to a tasteless world, preserves a dying world The Lord tells His disciples that they are light.

Matthew 5:14–16 (NASB95) — 14 “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden; 15 nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. 16 “Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.

Where is the first place in the bible where the word light is used?

The second verse of Genesis sets up a need. The world had become formless, void and darkness was over the surface of the deep.

Setting aside the religion of evolution there is no life evolving or otherwise without light. Only death. Without light there was no hope of life. Darkness had a monopoly over the earth.

Genesis 1:3 (NASB95) — 3 Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light.

This light was different than the light that came from the terrestrial bodies. A light that we can only say must be the Shekinah Glory. It was the light that dispelled the darkness, pushing it out of the way.

And the first thing that God deems as good is that light.

Genesis 1:4 (NASB95) — 4 God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness.

Note that he does not call the darkness good. In fact, Darkness has no properties of its own that has any substance as at all. It vanishes away when the visible light appears. Everything that is not of the light is vanity. that which may appear for a short period of time but quickly vanishes into nothingness.

Those that love the darkness because their deeds are evil hate the light. it is the light that dispels their very being.

So first let us mention the conquering quality of light in dispelling the darkness.

Psalm 37:7–11 (NASB95) — 7 Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for Him; Do not fret because of him who prospers in his way, Because of the man who carries out wicked schemes. 8 Cease from anger and forsake wrath; Do not fret; it leads only to evildoing. 9 For evildoers will be cut off, But those who wait for the Lord, they will inherit the land. 10 Yet a little while and the wicked man will be no more; And you will look carefully for his place and he will not be there. 11 But the humble will inherit the land And will delight themselves in abundant prosperity.

Evil has no substantial quality. For as light invades the realm it is the light of the world that will rule over and conquer the darkness.

There is a point also when we come to the second light, that is the light of the terrestrial bodies the Son and the moon.

Genesis 1:14–18 (NASB95) — 14 Then God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night, and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years; 15 and let them be for lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth”; and it was so. 16 God made the two great lights, the greater light to govern the day, and the lesser light to govern the night; He made the stars also. 17 God placed them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth, 18 and to govern the day and the night, and to separate the light from the darkness; and God saw that it was good.

Genesis describes the two great lights in the sky. One to rule the day, the Sun and one to rule the night which is the moon. Though the moon is called a light it has no property of light of its own but reflects the light from the source of light, the sun.

And it is those who reflect the light of the Son who is the light of the world in being Christ imagers we like the moon who has no light of its own reflects the light of the Lord.

We might also note that sometimes that moon is a dark moon, that is when the light of the sun is blocked. When the believer is walking in darkness it is that the light is no longer being reflected in our lives.

And as it is that the Sun and the moon are placed in the heaven, we ourselves are heavenly creatures to reflect the glory of God.

Thus, we can say that light in illumination becomes a revelatory. That is we see God and Christ through the representative that God choses to shine though.

A light that reflects across the world to those who are in the darkness can be led out into the glorious light.

Israel is called the light of the world.

Isaiah 49:6 (NASB95) — 6 He says, “It is too small a thing that You should be My Servant To raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the preserved ones of Israel; I will also make You a light of the nations So that My salvation may reach to the end of the earth.”

They are God’s representative light and oh how they are.

As God’s hand moved God’s dealing with and protection of and blessing of Israel a lost world filled with paganism that they took with them when God confused the languages, Israel became a beacon to the glory of God. Calling people from every tongue every tribe every nation to bow to the God of Israel.

Rahab was one such person that saw the light of the Lord the Glory of God and God’s way that He delivered the nation. It was Rahab who said to the spies

Joshua 2:8–14 (NASB95) — 8 Now before they lay down, she came up to them on the roof, 9 and said to the men, “I know that the Lordhas given you the land, and that the terror of you has fallen on us, and that all the inhabitants of the land have melted away before you. 10 “For we have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea before you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan, to Sihon and Og, whom you utterly destroyed. 11 “When we heard it, our hearts melted and no courage remained in any man any longer because of you; for the Lord your God, He is God in heaven above and on earth beneath. 12 “Now therefore, please swear to me by the Lord, since I have dealt kindly with you, that you also will deal kindly with my father’s household, and give me a pledge of truth, 13 and spare my father and my mother and my brothers and my sisters, with all who belong to them, and deliver our lives from death.” 14 So the men said to her, “Our life for yours if you do not tell this business of ours; and it shall come about when the Lord gives us the land that we will deal kindly and faithfully with you.”

Rahab is but our first example of the revelatory light of the Lord in bringing hope and salvation to the world.