My Life as a Beacon of Light

Text: 1 Peter 2:9
But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. (NRSV)

From Genesis 12 and the call of Abraham (Abram) on, God has called ordinary people to extraordinary tasks.  Primarily, God has called or chosen people to live in certain ways that have clearly delineated them from others in order that those outside of a relationship with God might establish a relationship with God.

The chosen people of God have always been tasked with the responsibility to proclaim the mighty acts of God in such a way that those who have been kept in bondage by sin and death might come out of darkness into the marvelous light of God.

The Church established by Jesus is the most recent example of a gathered people who represent God to the world.  The Church has been called to represent the love of God as seen in Jesus to a world that, through sin, has been alienated from God.  If we forget our call, we run the risk of devolving into a group of people who believe that we are somehow exceptional and worthy in and of ourselves to receive the good from God that we have received.  This line of thought leads the Church into the role of judge and away from God’s intended role of messenger.

However, when we remember that it is only by the grace of God that we have been called out of darkness into his marvelous light, we shine that same marvelous light into the darkness that remains.  The light we shine, which is not our light but the light of God’s love in Jesus Christ, then continues to draw others who have been trapped by sin into that same light of God’s love.

How have you shared God’s love with others who are trapped by sin?  In what ways is your life a beacon of hope reaching into the darkest corners of our culture?  How can the memory of what it was like to once live in the darkness of sin motivate you to share the same love of Jesus that has brought you from sin and death into the light of God’s love and life?

Pray with me:

God of love and life remind me daily of my role in your Kingdom to be one who shines the light of your love into the darkness of sin.  Keep me from my tendency to judge others and equip me to proclaim instead your mighty acts which have called me out of darkness into your marvelous light.  AMEN.