“But the path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day.” (Prov. 4:18) Those who have been born-again shine, we just can’t see it, no one can in the material world, but if we could see with our Spiritual eyes as easily as most of us can with our fleshly ones, we would see a world quite different.
We are the shining ones, we are not like those we have left behind, and only because we recognize who we once were and where we are now, and because of our love for Christ, do we go back into that world to attempt to find those that are still lost. But its more than a little difficult, for not only can we not see them glowing, shining if you like, but we don’t know where they are.
Those of you who spend time attempting to find them know what I mean, we search amongst the crowd, looking for that needle in a haystack, we speak basically the same words over and over as the decades go by, looking for those that don’t even know they’re lost. If you have been blessed to be present when they realize and accept Jesus Christ as Lord you understand these words better, for those times for most of us are rare indeed. Then if you are so-called, after a period of time teaching them of the glory of God, they are to go out and begin the search themselves, children of Light out in a dark world looking for their brothers and sisters in Christ.
To top it off, we must go into enemy territory to do this work, we must go where we are not wanted, where there is danger, where we might be tortured or even killed. Here is where we see just how much light, if any we truly have. “But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven.” (Matt. 10:33)
These last few decades of supposed Christians have little, if any light, they have determined that it is the pastor’s job, the elders and deacons responsibility to go out into all the world, (Mark 16:15) their job is to sit in the pews and listen, to occasionally read their Bibles and attempt to live the best life they can, to act like a Christian without ever going out into the dark, scarry, dangerous world to look for the lost. They may profess Christ as Lord but show little to no regard for His commandment to go into all the world, (Matt. 28:19-20) they are self-centered, not Christ-centered.
Many of them remind me of those who have been deceived by the Mormon cult, good people, morally upright, polite, kind and rarely offensive in any way, yet just as lost as they are. They portray parts of the attributes of the Roman Catholic cult, holding fast to traditions, obligated to the rules and standards that whatever church they attend requests of them, holding fast the traditions of man instead of the things of God, (Matt. 16:23) and they feel saved, as the Charismatics profess, their emotional state, for the most part, has been modified for the better, they are happier, but no more holy than the day they say they accepted Christ.
Most of these are still just as dark as the day we met them, outwardly they portray an image of what they consider the finer attributes of the Lord, inwardly their hearts are still far from Him. (Matt. 15:8) That doesn’t mean we don’t stop looking, that doesn’t mean because there are more failures than there are successes in our search that we stop searching, their response is not our responsibility. The Lord doesn’t need us to go out into all the world, He commands us to go, and we are privileged to be able to serve Him in this way.
