Be Brilliant!

Last night before I went to sleep, I thought about the great need of the world for Jesus Christ.  The world is full of people that deny God's existence and are willfully ignorant of the sacrifice Christ has given for their redemption and salvation.  My mind wandered to many groups of people that are largely unreached by the church.  People searching for the love and forgiveness of God are turned away by the hate and disgust they feel towards them from professing Christians.  "How can those lost people who impale themselves with their own lusts be brought to Christ?" I thought.

When I got out of bed to close the window, I looked the dark street below.  Light from a street light behind my house flooded through the swaying vertical blinds.  I blinked in the light and I considered how Jesus reached the world and it was never again the same.  First of all, He was and is the Light of the World.  He was in the world but was not of the world.  His conduct was a shining example of God's sacrificial, active love.  The second thought which crossed my mind is that Jesus Christ did not remain in the heavens.  Instead of remaining unobtainable and impersonal in divine glory, Jesus came down to earth as a person.  He touched and mingled with people.  Jesus reached people who needed healing, help, forgiveness, and love.

Sometimes we Christians become so overwhelmed with saving the whole world we forget we have a neighbor who needs to hear the Good News.  We theorize and build church programs to reach a segment of society when an ignored co-worker is in deep depression and considering suicide.  Jesus could have become a politician.  He could have become an activist for civil or animal rights.  He could have invested in swords, militias, and propaganda to fuel a revolution.  Jesus did none of these things.  He knew every method of the world was incapable of redeeming the world.  How did Jesus change the world?  With God's love and grace.  With mercy and truth.  He sent the power of the Holy Spirit to transform people from within.  He did it one person at a time.

The way of Christ is a path every single Christian ought to walk.  Jesus did nothing for "posterity:"  He did it to glorify and honor His Father in heaven.  Churches all over the world often seem to operate for the purpose of creating a lasting legacy through buildings, curriculum, books, DVDs, methods, or organizations.  Vance Havner says it very well in his brilliant simplicity:  "The only way to minister effectively to this generation is to be Christians in it.  I do not mean run-of-the-mill church members, but Christians in all the glorious implications of the word." (Why Not Just Be Christians, pg. 13)  Jesus is the true Messiah, the Savior of the world - and there was only one of Him.  Has being a Christian lost its glorious brilliance?  If it has, either the power of God has ceased or Christians have ceased to be empowered by God!  When we cease operating to honor Jesus Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit, rust seizes us and dims Christ's glorious light.

It is time for us to be Christians!  Instead of shaking our heads at the condition of the world and the church, let us be tuned to Jesus Christ and shine bright for Him.  Allow me to quote again from Havner:  "We Christians do not need unanimity or unification.  The only place where you will ever get the saints together is where they are already together, in Jesus Christ.  We need more unity of the Spirit.  There is a common understanding when we are in Him.  One does not tune twenty pianos by harmonizing each with the other; they are tuned to a tuning fork, and when each is in tune with the standard pitch, they are in tune with each other." (pg. 13-14)  Let's shine for Christ and glorify Him!