Glow Stick

“No one after lighting a lamp puts it in a cellar or under a basket, but on a stand, so that those who enter may see the light. Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eye is healthy, your whole body is full of light, but when it is bad, your body is full of darkness. If then your whole body is full of light, having no part dark, it will be wholly bright, as when a lamp with its rays gives you light” (Luke 11:33-36).

This passage can be kind of confusing. After all, how are lighting a lamp and your eye being your lamp related? They appear to be two different concepts: 1) sharing your faith and 2) refusing to look at ungodly things. But I think this teaching of Jesus goes much deeper than that.

It’s about casting the light of the revelation of Christ over your own perspective.

Sometimes we translate Jesus’ saying in the most simple way: “All of you people have burning lamps, and you shouldn’t hide them under a basket. Share your faith!” However, that doesn’t make sense in the context, because this metaphor is sandwiched between admonishments against religious people who couldn’t see signs. In other words, they had no faith to share! I think this statement can be more accurately interpreted this way: “Um, y’all are in darkness. Y’all need to go get a lamp and light it.”

In the previous paragraph, Jesus had been telling his audience that they were looking for signs when all the scriptures of the prophets were right in front of them, pointing straight at Him. But the people either had so little faith in the Word of God spoken through the prophets, or they were so blind that they couldn’t see the obvious prophetic signs in front of them, that they got stuck on seeing miracles and wonders on the earthly level—and were missing the bigger divine picture that was happening right before their eyes.

Jesus was telling the people that they needed to see things from His perspective. They were seeking to prove His identity with a checklist of signs. But He knew that if they would believe His identity, they would begin to see the signs.

If you go to the trouble to find and light a lamp, you are going to use it to light your way. Only a crazy person would light a lamp and hide it—that’s not even really an option. The intentionality of lighting a lamp naturally brings light.

So what’s the lamp? It’s the true revelation of Christ’s identity. This is the reason He says that your eye is your lamp. Since an eye takes in light, rather than putting it out, this seems kind of confusing.

However, think about your eye as your perspective. For example, if you believe your roommate/friend/husband/wife/parent is angry with you, you are probably going to interpret all of his or her actions as aggressive or confrontational, whether they are or not. In the same way, if you live your daily life believing that God is mad at you, displeased with you, or wanting you to live up to some standard before He blesses you, you are more likely to think that He is punishing you when things don’t go the way you think they should go.

On the flip side, if your perspective is that God loves you, wants to bless you, and is on your side in the fight, you are likely to think that, when things don’t go your way, it must be because He is working on something even better.

“Lighting your lamp” is choosing to believe that He has good intentions for you and will fight for you. It’s lighting up your own world—your own “body,” the "room" of your own circumstances—with the bigger perspective of God’s kingdom.

Beware of interpreting the Word of God through your limited experience, rather than interpreting your experience in the light of the Word of God. Light up your eyes to see His goodness. Then your whole body will be aglow with His perspective.

That’s easier said than done when you are in a season of waiting, like I am. I have applied to many programs and jobs in another state, and I am just waiting for the process to unfold. I know the “where” and “what” of His calling on my life right now; I just don’t know the “how” and “when.”

Even more disconcerting at times is realizing that, since I've committed to a life with Jesus, my life path will always be lit up one step at a time. I'm not the one in charge of the plan here.

So, when I am rejected (as I have been many times over the past few months), I can choose to think that God is punishing me or wants me to “improve” in some way before He gives me what [I think] I want. This is the darkness of the world creeping in on my perspective. God’s promises are too good to be true, it says. You can’t measure up to what He wants. He won’t give you what you ask for.

Fortunately, I have another choice. I can believe that, when I am rejected from a job I thought wanted, it’s because He’s preparing something much better. The “best” He has for me will not only be concretely better (more pay, better conditions, better location), it will also be full of surprises that will take me into blessings I cannot expect. Only God knows who I need to meet and what I will need; He’s the one looking so much farther into the future than me. And He is thinking eternally. He is trying to bless me both in the moment and forever.

You know why?

This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all (1 John 1:5). His intentions towards me are always good. He can no more forget me than a nursing mother can forget her child (Isaiah 49:15).

Everyone knows that if you try to read a book in the dark, you won’t get very far. But if you choose to interpret your circumstances in light of the grace and favor of God, you are letting light into your body. Then, you can’t help but be a little glow stick that lights up a whole room. Not only will you bring peace to your own perspective, you will also show others the way.

I form light, says the Lord (Isaiah 45:7).

Light your lamp and, just like your Father, you just won’t be able to help beaming.

Return to Sender

And you, who were dead in trespasses and in the uncircumcision of your flesh (your sensuality, your sinful carnal nature), [God] brought to life together with [Christ], having [freely] forgiven us all our transgressions, having cancelled and blotted out and wiped away the handwriting of the note (bond) with its legal decrees and demands which was in force and stood against us (hostile to us). This [note with its regulations, decrees, and demands] He set aside and cleared completely out of our way by nailing it to [His] cross (Colossians 2:13-15, Amplified Bible).

Ransom is a simple mathematical calculation, a one-to-one ratio, a balanced equals sign. Our legal debt has been paid by Jesus, our substitute, leaving a balance of zero. Anyone can rationally understand this. Most of us have heard it preached that we are cleansed by the blood of the Lamb and that our sins have been cleared completely out of our way.

However, even though the note of our debt has been totally cancelled, the devil still likes to send us nasty little envelopes full of accusations.  We need a personal, fresh, daily, divine revelation of God’s grace toward us to combat this nonsense. In other words, we need to be assured of our identity in Christ so that, even if the devil mails a condemnation surprise, we will refuse to sign for the package.

We all have sins we feel condemned about. They may have happened yesterday or ten years ago, but somehow we’ve absorbed the idea that we are not worthy of God’s love because of we’ve messed up. They may be concrete actions (stealing, sexual sin, lying), perceived spiritual failure (I don’t measure up because I don’t read my Bible or pray “enough”), or just attitudes (judgmentalism, quick temper, impatience).

Many times, these are lies that have been spoken over us, either directly or indirectly, from our childhoods. Words have great power. We heard at church, “If you don’t [insert spiritual discipline], you’re not a good enough Christian.” Or some teacher told us that we talked too much, we were too messy, we had a bad temper, etc. Sometimes the wounds are even deeper—a friend questioned our sexuality in junior high, someone spread lies about us in high school, or a parent told us we wouldn’t amount to anything. These false accusations of our childhoods have blossomed into destructive beliefs that we’ve internalized.

A lot of times, we haven’t even committed the sins we’re ashamed of—just the fact that we have been tempted or even just accused brings us shame. Somehow, through the sneaky lies of the devil, these sins and attitudes have become part of our identity.

We start to expect accusation from others, and we self-condemn regularly. We all have some sensitive area of our life that can cause us to fall into an identity crisis. For most of us, it’s become habit to pick up the mail that the devil is sending.

If it seems like I’m harping on the subject of self-condemnation lately, it’s because I am. I have been realizing just how insidious the attitude of condemnation can be. It is often woven directly into the fabric of who we are so that we don’t even recognize it. Usually, all of these thoughts are subconscious. For each of us, there is a place or set of places in our hearts that identify with the person we once were, who was crucified on the cross. The result is that we try to raise that person from the dead—start thinking, acting, and feeling like the person we were before we were saved by grace.  

Can I help you out? Even if you completely committed every sin in the book, the sin itself is still a lie. When you are saved by grace, not only are you no longer defined by sin, you never were defined by it in the first place. It’s as if the sins never happened. It’s not that God has taken a broken pot and repaired it. He creates a new, beautiful vessel and completely obliterates the old pot, as if it never existed.

You have no holes, chips, or imperfections. It’s become as though you never had them in the first place. They are gone.

Even when we make mistakes (which we inevitably will, because we are human beings with feelings), we need to realize that God cannot and will not condemn

us, because we have been completely redeemed by the blood of Jesus. The debt balance is still zero.

On the cross, Jesus took the things that rightfully belong to the devil—sin, shame, accusation, and condemnation—and brought them straight back down to hell, where they came from. Legally, they don’t belong to us anymore. If we think they do, it’s a lie. Even when we sin, that’s a lie—an action that reflects a person whom we are not, a result of believing the lie that we are sinners. (Wrap your mind around that for a second.)

When we take up mentalities of self-condemnation, fear of accusation, and shame, we are actually stealing stuff that really belongs to the devil.

Of course, he’s more than happy for us to take it back. I mean, who wants to hang on to that stuff? So he packages it up, ties it with a bow, and delivers it to us in the hope that we will be convinced that it is ours.

But when he does, you just remind yourself of the completed work of the cross. Tell yourself that God sees you whole, pure, and sinless. Then stamp a big “RETURN TO SENDER” on the envelope and stick it back in the mail.