“Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” 1 John 2:15
…And so, for worldly lovers, it’s lights out!
The light of the Gospel shining brightly from your inner life, fueled by a fierce, unquenchable love for God and others; filtered through your brokenness, will displace enough darkness for the blind to see.
I’m not speaking of physical blindness, mind you, but that of spiritual blindness.
“In whom the god of this world has blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine to them.” 2 Corinthians 4:4
“Although your people live in darkness, they will see a bright light. Although they live in the shadow of death, a light will shine on them.” – Matthew 4:16
We who call ourselves by God’s name must shine like beacons as the daylight is dimming and darkness is coming.
“You are to live clean, innocent lives as children of God in a dark world full of people who are crooked and stubborn. Shine out among them like beacon lights…” – Philippians 2:15
Can a Nation be darkened in a day? Can the brightly lit torch of freedom be snuffed out without notice?
Yes, it happened while we were asleep in the light. All the while, consuming “Turkish Delights” and worshiping false gods and false teachers, while sitting in enchanted chairs of passivity.
In the sixth book of C.S. Lewis’, The Chronicles of Narnia, titled, “Silver Chair,” the witch had placed a curse on the silver chair, so that when anyone sat on the chair they’d fall under the chair’s enchantment.
The Silver Chair was a magical device constructed by the Queen of Underland (also known as the Lady of the Green Kirtle), designed to keep Prince Rilian bound to a cursed enchantment…
“Every night, Rilian was sat down on the chair to renew the manipulative magic. It made him susceptible to the witch’s lies, and caused him to forget who he truly was.”
I think this is what’s happened to much of Western Christianity; we’ve become enchanted by worldliness, which has made us susceptible to the devil’s lies, and so, have forgotten who we truly are. And our forgettablness has ushered the world into darkness.
The Church was never to be about the “church,” but about Christ for the Nations, burning brightly as the light of God’s love and power over darkness. We were never meant to be bound to chairs, orbiting cathedrals, separated by a great divide between the clergy and the laity.
We’ve lost our place of influence because we’ve lost our identity and in losing that, weve lost our mission! We have lost our identity because we’ve exchanged our First Love for second-hand worldliness. We have purchased the lie that if we look like the world, the world will come to us. How utterly foolish!
“If you belonged to the world, its people would love you. But you don’t belong to the world. I have chosen you to leave the world behind, and this is why its people hate you.” – John 15:19
Many Churches look so much like the world they have little to offer except a Savior without saving, a Lord without lordship, and a King without a kingdom. Who’d want to follow after that?
Somebody hit the dimmer switch in the Church on the hill, and I think we all know who that “somebody” is.
Our Churches need to do what Motel 6 has successfully done over the decades:
“We’ll leave the light on for you.”
We need to rekindle our first love into a firestorm, recapturing God’s intended glory for the Church and our lives, that is, the glory of Christ alone, and then light up the world again!
Call To Courage 