Shine Full-Time

​I know what I am about to recite will date me, confounding many of my young readers. But I am going to do it anyway!

​When I was in Sunday School a few years ago (how about six decades!) my teacher taught us a little song that went like this.
 

• This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine. This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine, let it shine, let it shine all the time.

 

• I will not let Satan poof it out, I’m gonna let it shine, let it shine, let it shine.

 
Ah, some of you are humming the song, aren’t you? You have matured too!
 
The point: I was taught that Christians are lights….and they should always shine. In Christ, you and I, are to shine all the time and never let Satan blow our light out.
 

• Full-time shining is what Christian living is all about.

 
In I Thessalonians 5:5-6 the apostle Paul writes that believers in Christ are “sons of light and sons of day.”
 
“For you are all sons of light and sons of day. We are not of night nor of darkness; so then let us not sleep as others do but let us be alert and sober.
 
Christians are not of the night or darkness. That is what Christ’s followers came out of. You and I are now light…. and should be light 24/7. That is why Paul exhorts us to behave better than some who sleep in the darkness instead of shining in the light of day. Christians are to be alert and sober, aware of darkness and always shining for Jesus Christ.
 

• Shining as lights for Jesus is full-time business.

 

• Our soul-weary, sin-sick world needs to see consistent Christian witnesses. Believers who are sober in spirit, alert to what is going on and shining brightly during spiritual darkness are the need of the hour.

 
There is no doubt we live in dark, perilous days (Read II Timothy 3:1-15). Spiritual darkness is getting darker and darker. This is biblical in light of end time scriptures. But I also know that light is greater than darkness. Light always dispels darkness. Darkness never dispels light.
 

• The only light that pushes back and prevails over the darkness of hell is the light of God that shines all the time. Think about it. Darkness does not turn off and on. Dark is dark. Light is light and should always be lit and shine!

 
If we are not of night or darkness, and our verse says we are not, then let us not go dark, but keep our light shining in dark places. Too many Christians have let Satan poof out their lights. Less and less lights are shining brightly on the high places pointing the way to salvation through faith in Jesus Christ.
           
Some professing Christians are like light switches. They turn their testimony and witness off and on like a switch on the wall.
 
ON when they want to be like Jesus, and OFF when they do not want to be like Him. When it is convenient or profitable to be a believer they TURN ON THE LIGHT, and when shining is inconvenient and not personally beneficial, they FLIP THE SWITCH OFF.
 
As a committed follower of Christ who cares deeply about winning the lost to the Lord, I have a real problem with on and off Christians. Jesus did not suffer, die, rise again, and fill us with the Holy Spirit so we could be part-time lights. Satan, sin, and death never take a day off. Neither should God’s redemptive people.
 

• The times demand that we believers take stock of our light and how we are shining for Christ. Believe me, God knows, Satan knows, the world knows, the church knows, and deep down inside we know if we are part-time or full-time lights.

 
Here are a few questions that might shed some light on our light.
 
Light Shining Questions
 
v Does your Christian light shine consistently no matter who you are with?
v Is your Christian light the same in public and private?
v Do you think it is all right to turn your Christian light off and on?
v How do you feel about on and off Christians whose lights shine inconsistently?
v What do you think the unbelieving world thinks about inconsistent Christians?
v When darkness comes, does your Christian light chase it away?
v Would people say that you are always shining brightly for Jesus Christ?
v Do you know anyone that is turned off by your on and off Christianity?
v Does your Christian light light the way for people to find and follow Christ?
v Does your light encourage other Christians to shine brighter for the Lord?
v My fellow Christian and friend, how is your spiritual light switch? Permanently ON? That is where it should be if you are serious about your Christian life and witness.
 
v Turn your light on and turn it up to BRIGHT! Then searching people, who are trying to find their way out of the darkness, will turn to the light of the world, the Lord Jesus Christ.
 
v That is why Jesus leaves Christians here to shine and turn people from darkness to the marvelous light of God! So be it.
 
“But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.”                                                         I Peter 2:10  
 
 “But since we are of the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet, the hope of salvation. For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.”            I Thessalonians 5:8-9
 
A Word For Your Week: Shine full-time, not part-time