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SHINING FOR JESUS

By George W. Sinquefield

(Mat 5:13 KJV)  "Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men."

(Mat 5:14 KJV)  "Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid."

(Mat 5:15 KJV)  "Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house."

(Mat 5:16 KJV)  "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven."

        John Summerfield Stapler of Stroudsburg, Pa., was enlisted in the Union army in 1864 as a substitute for Abraham Lincoln. The young recruit must ever have borne about with him a sense of his responsibility and honor as a representative of the great President.

        In a very true sense, you and I, as Christians, are representatives of our Lord, and as such we are to reflect in our lives and actions the Lord Jesus.

        A saint, according to the New Testament is anyone who is a Christian, who has been born of the Holy Spirit. A saint is one who has accepted Jesus as their Savior and Lord.

        I like the illustration a little boy gave about what a saint is. He had gone to Europe and visited some of the fabulous cathedrals. Upon returning to America he attended Sunday School and the teacher asked everyone to identify or give a definition of a saint. He said, "I believe a saint is someone that's lets the light shine through." You see, he'd seen something, and what he saw was this -- in those huge fabulous cathedrals in Europe are stained glass windows and everyone of them has the name, St. John, St. Jude, St. Peter, etc. He'd seen those windows and he saw that light coming through those saints. And he said a saint is someone that lets the light shine through. Do your children say you're a saint? Does your wife say you're a saint? Does your husband say you're a saint?

        The evangelist Billy Sunday used to tell a story of a professing Christian who got a job in a lumber camp that had the reputation of being very ungodly. A friend, hearing that the man had been hired, said to him, "If those lumberjacks ever find out you're a Christian, you're going to be in for a hard time!" The man responded. "I know it, but I really need the job!" The next morning he left for the camp. After a year had passed, he decided to come home for a visit. While in town, he met the friend who had predicted the ridicule and persecution he would receive from the other lumberjacks. "Well, how did it go?" asked the friend. "Did they give you a hard time because you're a Christian?" "Oh, no not at all," the man replied. "They didn't give me a bit of trouble -- they never even found out!"

        A father was teaching his little boy what manner of a man a Christian is. When the lesson was finished,  the father got the stab of his life when the boy asked, "Father, have I ever seen a Christian?"

        That simple story reminds me of my experience in my first pastorate. A mother and her daughter belonged to the church. The father was unsaved. He professed to be an atheist. On a visit to the home and after some conversation about the Lord Jesus Christ in the presence of his wife and his daughter, he said, "It would be refreshing to see one person live the Christian life." When he said this, the wife and daughter rushed from the room in tears. They were smitten by the words of this loved one. Yes, they attended church. There were times when I suppose they read the Bible, but they had not so lived out Christ that this unsaved, unregenerated, hardhearted loved one could see Christ through them.

        A heart searching question is, "Do others see Jesus in you and me?" If they do not, then our lives are not pleasing to our Lord.

        A student asked professor Josiah Royce (Harvard University), "What is your definition of a Christian?" He replied, "I do not know how to define a Christian but wait, there goes Philip Brooks." His definition was a living one.

        Remember a small light will do a great deal when it is in a very dark place. Put one little candle in the middle of a dark room and it will give a good deal of light.

        A way out in the prairie regions, when meetings are held in the log school house at night the announcement of the meeting is given out this way. "A meeting will be held by early candle light."

        The first man comes and brings his candle. His one candle does not light the building but it helps and that is all he can do. The next man brings his candle and the next family brings theirs. By the time the house is full there is plenty of light. So if all Christians will shine a little, there will be a good deal of light. That is what God wants us to do. We cannot light up the whole building but if we'll just let our one candle burn brightly, we'll be helping to light the building and that is what our Lord desires of us.

        Robert Caro wrote a book on that very complex former President of the United States, Lyndon Baines Johnson. Some of us may remember Johnson for his War on Poverty. Others of us may remember him for his conduct of the Vietnam War. Younger members of our congregation may simply remember him as the man who became president when John Fitzgerald Kennedy was assassinated. Caro found, however, that the people in the Hill Country of Texas where Johnson first began his career as a congressman remember him for something else.

        Caro notes that when he was interviewing in the Hill Country, no matter what he was talking to people about, he found that one phrase was repeated over and over again concerning Johnson. The phrase was, "He brought the lights. No matter what Lyndon was like, we loved him because be brought the lights." They were talking about the fact that when Johnson became congressman from the Hill Country in 1937, at the age of twenty-eight, there was no electricity there. And by 1948, when he was elected to the Senate, most of the district had electricity. "He brought the lights."

        It is our God-given privilege to bring the light of our Lord to the dark places of this world. May it ever be said of you and me. "He (or she) brought the light."

I.    We are reflectors of the light of Jesus.

       I was speaking to a large class of business men on the Christian's being the "salt" and "light" of the world: salt, penetrating power, the effect of a quiet influence that works internally; light, and illuminating power, working externally, reflected from the Light of the World. After the class a gentleman came and related this experience. Going into his cellar one day, he discovered in one of the darkest corners a number of potatoes that had alone taken root and flourished.

        After several days he discovered that the cook had hung from he ceiling near a cellar window, a copper kettle which was always kept brightly polished, and which caught the sun and reflected it down into the dark corner, causing the remarkable growth. "When I saw that," said he, "I said to myself: I may not be a preacher or a teacher with ability to expound Scripture, but at least I can be a copper kettle catching the rays of the Light of the World and reflecting them down to someone in some dark corner." -- Keith Brooks.

        Let me illustrate. When the moon comes up at night, we say, "My, what a glorious moon tonight!" The reason for the glorious moon is the glorious sun. The sun shines on the moon, and the moon reflects the light of the sun. The moon holds up a mirror, so to speak, to reflect the sunlight. It is simply a faint hint of the glory of the sun. We can look on the moon but we cannot look on the sun. We are glorified as we reflect the likeness of our blessed Lord. The light will be dim in comparison to Him but it is His will that we be good reflectors.

        A man brought back from Germany a little phosphorescent match case and one evening he took it out to show to friends. He turned out all the lights but the little match case wouldn't shine. He was disappointed and thought he had been swindled. The next day he examined it more closely and read some directions he had not seen before. "If you want me to shine, keep me in the sunlight." He put it in the sunlight and then taking it to a dark room he found it had a brilliant glow.

        We are told that once in England a firebrick was advertised with this slogan. "For every hour of saturation there is a corresponding hour of illumination. Soaked for an hour it would burn for an hour. Soaked for two hours it would give off heat and light for two hours.

        Our lives are like that. The greater their saturation in Christ, the greater their illumination.

II.    We're to win others to Jesus by the life we live.

       Notice - "Let you light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify you Father which is in Heaven."

        When others see Jesus in our lives and in our actions, they'll want to know Him.

        Some years ago I read of a group of businessmen who were running to catch a train. One was a wonderful Christian, while the others were not. They were all rushing to catch the same train.

        A little boy was selling chewing gum and candy. He had a box in his hand and a few pennies and coins. One of these men ran against him, knocking him down. The box went one way and he the other. Candy, chewing gum and coins flew everywhere. But the men ran right on to catch the train. But the fine Christian man stopped to help. He picked the boy up, got a clean handkerchief and wiped away the tears. He got down on his knees, picked up the chewing gum and candy, put all the coins back in the box, pulled out a five dollar bill and laid it in the box.

        "I'm sorry, son, that somebody knocked you down."

        The little boy looked up at him, the tears still running down his cheeks, and asked, "Sir, be you Jesus?"

        The man answered, "No, but I'm sure trying to be like Him."

        A poor undernourished woman came to a Christian hospital as a charity patient. After a month, during which she had received every possible attention, she said to the doctor. "I am just an ignorant country woman but if Jesus makes folks treat others as you have treated me, then I want to be his follower."

        Imagine that you're walking through your neighborhood supermarket. As you approach a display featuring a new kind of shoe polish, a salesperson grabs you attention and says, "This miracle of modern science will bring a rich luster to dull leather. Its secret lies in the rare mixture of oils extracted from the bone marrow of a sperm whale. It is so good that soon your neighbors will notice the difference and want to know what you're using. Sure it costs more -- four dollars for a small can -- but you really can't afford not to buy it."

        Up to this point you've been patient, but now you've heard enough. So you say, "I'm sure you believe in your fancy wax, but so what! From what I can see, your shoe polish doesn't do any better job than the brand I usually buy for three dollars less. If what you're selling is so great, why don't your shoes shine brighter than mine?"

        Our efforts to interest people in the Christian life are sometimes just as unconvincing. All too often we ask them to receive Christ as Savior and to be willing to pay the higher price of following Him, but we fail to give them visible evidence that we are any better than a moral, upright nonbeliever.

        A musician was walking down the street with a friend when they heard an organ grinder playing a familiar tune. They stopped to listen for a moment, but then the musician hurried away, saying, "That sound drives me crazy."

        A few weeks later, these same men went to hear a great orchestra. At the close of a certain piece, the musician stood to his feet, cheering wildly and waving his program. The friend smiled. The tune was the same one that was played by the organ grinder on the street.

        There is a world of difference between the grand symphony of the Christian faith lived out prayerfully in the energy of the Holy Spirit and a profession of faith lived out prayerlessly in the energy of the flesh. When people can see the touch of God in a person's life, they are attracted to the Christian faith.

        In her book  Power for Christian Living, Ethel Wilcox tells an interesting story. Years ago, Taylor Smith, a clergyman from England, was invited to address the Moody Centenary Bible Conference in Chicago. When he arrived, Smith had lost his voice and couldn't speak above a whisper. Convinced that he was there in God's will, he spoke at length in spite of his handicap. His voice carried no farther than the first few rows of the audience. At the conclusion of the service, a man who had been sitting up in the balcony came to Smith and said, "I couldn't hear anything you said, but I watched your face and I want to be a Christian!" Ethel Wilcox made this comment: "This story is only one of many that have testified to the heavenly radiance of this man whose face reflected the glory of the inner life, the character of Christ. And the wonder of it is that the Spirit is desirous of doing the same for each one of us.

        One of the big reasons it is so hard to win the lost to Christ is because of the unchristian conduct of professing Christians. This tragic truth is illustrated by an experience I had when I was a boy. I had a small pony and buggy, and would go about selling various things. One thing that I sold was a certain brand of herbs as a tonic.

        Despite the fact that I was a "runt", with a "sickly look" I was zealous in selling the medicant. I had learned the "selling points" well, and was having fair success until one day I went down town and climbed up into the freight car where a giant of a man was packing big watermelons. I said, "Pardon me, Mr. Holmes, but I want to tell you about a medicine that will make a real man out of you. It will give you strength, etc, etc."

        I told him all of the virtues of my product. Looking down at me like a bulldog would look at a sickly pup, he said, "If you take that medicine, I don't want it." My possession had not backed up my profession.

        Billy Graham once told about something that happened a long time ago when teachers could talk about religion in the classroom. A teacher was talking to her class of young boys, and she asked, "How many of you would like to go to heaven?" And all the hands instantly shot into the air at once, except one. She was astounded. She asked, "Charlie, you mean you don't want to go to heaven?" He said, "Sure, I want to go to heaven, but not with that bunch."

        Sometime back, a white prisoner died of a heart attack in a Montgomery, Alabama, jail. While in prison he had had a profound conversion experience and entered into an authentic relationship with Jesus. The convict in the next cell, a huge black man, was a cynic. Each night the white prisoner spoke through the prison bars and told him about the love of Jesus. The black mocked him, told him he was sick in the head, that religion was the last refuge of the insane. Nonetheless, the white man passed Scripture passages to him and shared his candy whenever he received a gift from a relative. At the white man's funeral service, when the prison chaplain spoke of the Easter victory of Jesus, the burly black man stood up in the middle of the sermon, pointed to the coffin, and said, "That's the only Jesus I ever knew."

        You may be the only Jesus someone will know. Let your light shine that they may be drawn to Jesus and His salvation.

III.    Where are we to shine?

        The Bible tells us that we are to shine where light is needed in a dark world.

(Phil 2:14 KJV)  "Do all things without murmurings and disputings:"

(Phil 2:15 KJV)  "That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world;"

(Phil 2:16 KJV)  "Holding forth the word of life; that I may rejoice in the day of Christ, that I have not run in vain, neither laboured in vain."

        Jesus tells us that we are to let our light shine before men and that means that it should shine before people wherever they are.

(Mat 5:14 KJV)  "Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid."

(Mat 5:15 KJV)  "Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house."

(Mat 5:16 KJV)  "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven."

        R. L. Middleton in his book, "Take Time" says, "Every true Christian is as a candle shining in this dark world. The world is dark because sin dominates it. It needs light, penetrating, revealing, awakening light. Watch the earth when the light of morning breaks over it. The birds begin to sing; flowers open their petals, nature rejoices because the shades of night have been pushed back and the glory of the Lord is made manifest.

        Recently I read about a woman who felt very much alone at her place of employment because she was the only Christian. To make matters worse, she was often ridiculed for her faith and accused of being narrow minded. Finally she became so discouraged that she considered quitting her job. Before doing that, however, she sought the counsel of her pastor. After listening to her complaints, the minister asked, "Where do people usually put lights?" "In dark places," she replied. No sooner had the words escaped her lips than she realized how her answer applied to her own life. She quickly recognized that her place of work was indeed a "dark place" where "light" was vitally needed, so she decided to stay where she was and become a stronger influence for Christ. It wasn't long before a number of her fellow employees -- 13 of them, in fact -- came to know Christ as their Savior.

        George Maxwell Gordon wanted to learn the language of a certain tribe. He tried to get one of them to teach him. This native said, "I dare not; I should be made a Christian." Gordon assured him that there would be no religious talk. The native still refused him saying, "I love Gordon and I am sure that I could not help accepting his religion if I were with him."

        An American teacher was employed in Japan with the understanding that during the school hours he would not utter a word about Christianity. He kept his word, but he lived before his students the true Christian life -- not a word was said to influence them for Jesus.

        One night forty students met and signed a secret covenant to abandon idolatry. Twenty five of them entered a Christian Training School and several of them went to preach the Christ whom their teacher had unconsciously commended.

        In "Romans" by William Barclay it says:

        "Christianity is not an emotional experience; it is a way of life. The Christian is not meant to lururiate in an experience however wonderful. He is meant to go out and live a certain kind of life in the teeth of the world's attacks and problems. It is common in the world of religious life to set in church and feel a wave of feeling sweep over us. It is not uncommon experience, when we sit alone, to feel Christ very near. But the Christianity which has stopped there, has stopped half way. That motion must be translated into action. Christianity can never be only an experience of the inner being; it must be a life in the market place."

        Dr. R. G. Lee tells of going into a candle store and seeing so many candles of every shape, size and color.  He talks about the unlit candles.

        There they were, these unlit candles, boxes of them, piles of them, unbesmirched, unused. The hot lips of matches had never touched them. The kindling torch of lamplighter had never scorched their hearts of thread. No illuminating fire had warmed their tallow bodies. Never having burned, they had never given a ray of light to dispel and darkness. Never had they brightened the corner where they were -- or any other corner. Never had they driven darkness away from any room. Never had they shown the pitfalls adjacent to any path. They had never shown the way up or the way down any dark stairway -- had never gleamed from any window as an invitation to some travel weary stranger -- had never testified by night to any prodigal that forgiving love still awaited his return. Not once.

        Then Dr. Lee speaks of the partly consumed candles.

        Some had shone a little -- but not much. Some had burned brightly -- but only spasmodically, only flickeringly, only occasionally. Some had burned themselves sparingly -- as miser pay taxes -- so inadequately. Some had burned a bit -- but only a little. Some had shone a while -- but not long. How like those half used, slightly burned candles are hosts today! Doing something, but not much. Weighing something for God, but not sixteen ounces to the pound! Living some, but not up to the fullness of their possibilities. Using their power and talent only occasionally, scrimpingly, lackadaisically! Measuring something for God are many, but not thirty-six inches to the yard. Multitudes striking somewhat for God, but striking three when twelve is the demand. Tragic truth this also!

        He now speaks of the candles that had burned to the sockets -- that had burned out.

        Yes, there is the little shop I saw also candles that had been burning and had burned till the had burned away. Candles that had come to mere remnants of themselves, mere crumbs of tallow for the glory of giving light to those in the darkness of night and the shadows of gloomy rooms. Hours of darkness had these burned-to-the-socket candles dispelled. Sickroom had they made softly bright, glowingly cheerful, comfortingly radiant, at night. Fragments and segments of the daytime had they brought into the nighttime.

        By their light some traveler found his way at night. By their burning some wanderer found the path to the door -- and shelter. By their light some student solved his problems, some poet put the language of his heart into words, some writer made his pen to do duty glorious. By their light some nurse was assisted in smoothing rough pillows and cooling hot brows.

        By their shining, some weary one waiting for the dawn had been strengthened in his fight against disease. All this,  and much more than this, was done by the candles burned away -- burned even to the socket.

        Like these consumed candles are many people today. So like some today -- burning till they burn out to give others light. So like many today -- being consumed that they may bless, giving themselves in utter and unselfish abandon that others might find and know and follow the paths that lead from darkness to daylight. In bondage to high and holy objectives, they burn themselves away that others might come "out of their bondage, sorrow and night into Christ's freedom, gladness and light."

        Not till we are burned to the sockets can we say we have fulfilled our mission, that we have finished the work God gave us to do on this earth.

        As I looked that day, before I left the little candle shop, at the candles that had never known the touch of fire, had never felt the eating of flame, had never known a minute's consuming burning, I recalled this from an old hymn:

O the bitter shame and sorrow,
That a time could ever be
When I let the Saviour's pity
Plead in vain, and proudly answered,
"All of self, and none of Thee!"

Day by day His tender mercy,
Healing, helping, full and free,
Sweet and strong, and, ah! so patient
Brought me lower, while I whispered,
"Less of self and more of Thee."

Higher than the highest heaven,
Deeper than the deepest sea,
Lord, Thy love at last hath conquered,
Grant me now my heart's desire --
"None of self, and all of Thee."

(Mat 5:16 KJV)  "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven."

        It is not enough merely to bring converts into our churches. They must be sent out into all the world with the fanaticism and faith of the early Christians to transform the world and the hearts of men. -- Walter H. Judd