If you are reading this on Facebook, type in the verses in Bible Gateway to read along, or grab your Bible. Or you can go to my original post and click the links in there to read the Bible passages along with the blog. Its pretty deep, and if you want to understand it, you should read the Bible along with this post... Thanks.
Continuing my journey through Luke 8 I will look at verses 16-18.
No one lights a lamp and hides it in a jar or puts it under a bed. Not unless you are creating some sort of lighting effect.
Motel 6 leaves a light on for me. I think of that old commercial where Motel six sounds like a place where families stay for the night when taking long drives. We keep the light on, we welcome you even after dark. It's never too late to come over. In my town, you have to put on your porch light to indicate its okay to trick-or-treat at the house. A light left out is a welcome sign, a beacon for safety.
I love how this follows the parable of the sower, because Jesus just explains to them all about seeds being the word of God, or the gospel, and then says, by the way, you don't light a lamp unless you plan to put it out for all to see. I often confuse this verse with the one about being salt and light, I can't separate the two in my head, so this exercise has been good.
This to me takes on so many levels... first and easiest is the prophetic of Jesus being hung naked on a cross for all to see, the judgment of the Kingdom, etc. Lots of people comment on it, get a good study Bible, its easy to find. The next is the personal level. See, this plant- being me- the Christian who has been working her soil etc, has to be this lamp. I can't hide or I do no good whatsoever. I am laid out, open. Everything. First and foremost to God, secondly to the world. I am to be a welcome lamp, inviting others in. I am to be shining, and bright. This doesn't mean I need to go platinum blonde and get my teeth bleached. This does mean I need to be transparent, held accountable to my actions, and represent the Kingdom. I need to be out in the world, welcoming others in, not hiding in my safe little world with christianese language and condemning others. Its why I blog openly, and Facebook openly and know that it really matters little what people think of me, as long as I help them get just a little bit closer to God then before.
I think these verses contain within them the very gospel themselves and the very doctrine in which to live our lives. I know it sounds crazy, and I am not a Bible scholar, but I really don't think God intended for us to become Christians and then stop playing with others. Yes, we do need love and support from other Christians, but by no means are we to stop loving people who have yet to find their way.
Jesus warns us to listen carefully here: "Whoever has will be given more; whoever does not have, even what he thinks he has will be taken from him." This means so much and yet so little. Yet I get it. I hope to anyway. What is this that Jesus refers to us having or being taken from us?
See, I think in parables. I get it now. I never got it really before, but I think in big concepts that are gigantic metaphors and tell stories. Its how I understand life. It is how I live. To me, I get what Jesus says.
Because I thought I had, and what I thought I had was taken away. Isaiah 6:9-13 nails it on the head for me. I was stubborn, and had to be reduced to a stump to become a holy seed. My heart was calloused, and now I have naught but a stump to start from. But I have that stump, and the stump will be a holy seed.
I had to be laid to waste and ruin to be free from all the things that were keeping my light from shining, my tree from growing.
I think I had to be cut down to size and then cut down again. And God will keep doing it as long as I think I have. You know why? I don't have a thing. I am nothing without my Holy God. All my righteous acts are nothing but filthy rags compared to the light of God. Without Him, I am lost. Without Jesus I have no hope. God owns it all, and it is all His doing, the Holy Spirit's work, and none of my own. So when I think I have stuff, God is gonna take it all away. I only truly have when I cling to my Savior, my Liberating King. For He provides all I need.
Thanks Renata for challenging me to this, as I have learned more about myself and my God this week from the same verse I have read over and over again that I ever have before. And thanks Bill Hybels whom she stole the idea from. And thanks Holy Spirit for being the origin of these ideas, and our motivation to follow them. Continue working in me, sanctifying me Jesus. Amen.
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