Where Does Your Light Shine?
““To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: ‘The words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand, who walks among the seven golden lampstands.” (Rev. 2:1)
What I have loved most about being in a small town is the use of nicknames. Being every nickname is a story, a profession, or a memory. The Bible is no different. In our passage today, Christ refers to the church as a “lampstand.” (Rev. 1:20) Why? Well, let me offer two reasons for us that may shine a light on our own purpose in Hinds County.
One, a lampstand is in a fixed position. He does not describe us as a flashlight nor a torch. Those luminaries can be moved and transported into a variety of locations. The Lord’s intention in the church is to be fixed and focused on one people. Thus, in Leviticus 24, the Lampstand stayed in one place, shining a light down on the twelve loaves, representing God’s grace shining down upon the twelve tribes of Israel. In the same way, God has intentionally placed our churches where they are to shine His light on a particular people. The local church is called to the local community. The local community is the field in which we are called to labor, the darkness in which we are to shine, and our efforts are greatly diminished when we seek to labor outside those bounds. None of this is groundbreaking information, is it? And yet, how often does this information fail to translate into application? As God spoke through Jeremiah: “Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat their produce. Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not decrease. But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the LORD on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.” (29:5-7) As much as I love Clinton and Madison, God fixed our lampstand elsewhere, and there we must shine.
Alongside her position, the lampstand has a profession. Her job is simple – shine a light. We shine a light by proclaiming the gospel and worshipping the triune God. We illuminate the darkness by loving one another and by living a holy life. When we conduct all of our affairs as “children of light” and “walk in the light” as God is light, then we are practicing our profession. Whether you are on the farm or in the pulpit, in the kitchen or on the jobsite, you can shine a light. Those who do will expose the deeds of darkness and bring many sons to the light.
Now, I ask a simple question. Where are you shining your light? Are you serving in your church and community? Are you investing your time, your money, your prayers into where God has placed you? Are you settling roots down deep that fruit may come? Are you shining a light in the darkness around you?
