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  • Letting Our Light Shine!

    Jesus last words before ascending to the right hand of the Father was to commission His followers to take this glorious news of the Gospel to the World.  “Go” He said and “make disciples”   What a privilege we have been given to be His ambassadors!  Entrusted with the greatest news this planet will ever hear!  I have never gotten over the fact that God would use me, with all my challenges, to proclaim Him to a dying world!!!  Absolutely Amazing!

    We have been looking at this humbling call the last few weeks as we believe more than ever, Jesus wants MVC to be vigilant about being on His mission and making disciples.  This is why we have set out over the next 5 years to be “Intentionally on Mission…and Purposefully Make Disciples”  and to let this drive all we do at MVC.

    Over the next several weeks, I hope to give many practical suggestions on how we can live our lives intentionally each and every day.  Instead of adding many new activities and ministries to our lives, we can simply be incredibly intentional and purposeful with where God already has us.

    Most of these ideas are going to be based on the principle Jesus taught us in Matthew 5:16 “Let your light shine before men in such a way that they see your good works, and glorify your Father in Heaven.”  This requires two things:  First, that we are in close enough proximity to those who need the hope of Christ that they can see the way we live.  This requires spending time, opening our lives and homes, and building relationships.   But secondly, it requires that we live in such a way around non-believers that they see Christ in us and desire to know what makes us so different.

    Please keep in mind though, that relationships will never bring a person to faith in Christ.  Neither will loving people, serving people, or being the best neighbor in the world.  What saves people is Jesus and His glorious Gospel.  Therefore our desire is to herald and accurately proclaim the Gospel.  Loving people, building relationship and being intentional with those in our life builds bridges into their lives from which we can proclaim the Gospel from.  The relationships become simply a bridge for the Gospel to travel across.   This is important because we can be very faithful to love, serve and build incredible relationships with those around us, but that will never ultimately change a heart.  This is why we must always keep the Gospel central.  However, we often never get to proclaim the Gospel because we aren’t close enough to people to be able to share His truth with them.  I believe when we are intentional and purposeful to get into people’s lives, loving and serving them, this will open up great doors where we can point people to Jesus.  So often, the first step of proclaiming the Gospel is building a bridge into someone’s life.

    So, where has God sovereignly placed you to be a light?  In your neighborhood, your workplace or in your school? How can you be more intentional in those environments to build relationship with people.  How can you put Christ on display in those environments so that people can see Christ in you?  How can you be purposeful in the way you act, in your speech, the way you serve, the way you don’t complain, the way you honor others, the way you love?  We all have been given a great opportunity to let our lights shine before men and women!  Let’s shine brightly and point people to Christ!!!