Will You Shine

While everything seems to be crashing around you will you retreat, hiding your light under a bushel, so to speak, or will you let your light shine so that the world will see your good works and glorify your Heavenly Father?  We hear so much negativity today about Christianity and the church and how it is dying out little by little, but I’m here to tell you the truth, not everyone that claims they are a Christian or that they are a believer, are Christians.  

This may be a time of shaking, to weed out the true church from the pretenders, but the true church is alive and well and it will never ever die and it is and always has been growing.  Jesus told Peter that He would build the church on the rock, and who was the rock?  Jesus is the rock, the sure foundation and the church would be built on Him and the gates of Hell itself would not prevail against it for He is the head of the church and the church is His body.  There have been many men over the years that have attempted to destroy the church but the true church is alive and well and still growing.

Let me make this clear, not every religious group that claims the status of Christianity, or that they are true believers, are.  Only if you are born again are you a true believer; read prayerfully John chapter 3 and you will see what Jesus had to say about this subject, if you are truly seeking the truth.  I have heard this and have used it many times so here I go again, just because you find a mouse in a cookie jar does not make him, or her, a cookie.  This part I don’t remember using but I will use it here to stress my point, no more than finding a person in a lion’s den makes them a lion.

Jesus made this very clear when He said this in Matthew 7:21-23, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’”

I think on the day of judgement many will be shocked when they see who is turned away because they thought they were a believer but were not.  God’s Word says you will know the true believer by their fruits.  What fruits was He talking about, could it be the fruits of the Holy Spirit?  

Read what the Word of God says in Galatians 5:22-26, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.”

These fruits are very important and need to be growing in every true believer’s life.  God’s Word says that we were born in God’s image and likeness, outside of the sin nature.  Because of this sin nature we inherited, we were separated from God and became God’s enemies, but God had a plan knowing all things and that plan was to redeem mankind to Himself and that would take the sacrificing of His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, a man who knew no sin became sin for us and if we will repent of our sins and turn from them and ask Him to forgive us He will, if we are sincere.  Jesus was crucified, died and was buried and rose again for this very reason, to make atonement for our sins.  Jesus paid the price that we should have paid, praise His Holy Name!!

Jesus said this in John 14:6, “Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.’”

The only way we can get to God is through Jesus Christ His beloved Son!!  So if you want to be a true believer, God has showed you the way in His Word.  Read it and hide it in your heart and you will know the truth, then walk in it and let your light shine brightly in this lost, dark and dying world so that others will see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.  I have given you something to think about and my prayer is that you will make the decision to repent and ask the Lord to forgive you of your sins and to come into your heart and life and be your Lord and Savior.  May the good Lord bless you and yours with His peace, love and joy and may you have a super day!!