Matthew 5:14-16--
14"You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. 15Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. 16In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.
14"You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. 15Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. 16In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.
He also gave me a word: TRANSPARENT or TRANSPARENCY
So I sat here asking God how the two went together. I looked up the definition for transparent on Dictionary.com and this is the definition I assumed He was talking about:
-Open, frank, candid (which is what this blog is doing to me)
...but then, He pointed out another definition: having the property of transmitting rays of light through its substance so that bodies situated beyond or behind can be distinctly seen;
so sheer as to permit light to pass through
I then looked up transparency: That which is transparent; especially, a picture painted on thin cloth or glass, or impressed on porcelain, or the like, to be viewed by natural or artificial light, which shines through it.
-Have you also been praying to be "real" in your Christian walk?
-Have you been asking God to mold you and refine you?
-Have you been convicted more over your visible and/or hidden sins?
-Do you feel "naked" without your excuses or reasoning?
-Do you feel like others are constantly getting "away" with things, while God checks your heart and motives OFTEN?
Then, CONGRATS! You are on a "transparency" walk with God...
Yeah, He's "still working on you!"
Jesus said in the above verse that YOU are the light of the world!
Now look again at the definition of transparency...This is cool!
(I'm going to ad lib for a moment)
--YOU, being transparent, as a picture painted on a thin cloth or glass, or impressed on porcelain...to be viewed (by the world)...by shining natural or artificial light (Jesus Christ) through it...
Without Jesus, we are nothing. We are a "simple picture painted on a thin cloth or glass" that has no real beauty until the rays of light shine through it".
If we have "junk" in the way, the light cannot get through. If you have prayed for God to make and mold you into what He wants you to be, that is exactly what He is doing. You are to be the light to the world. If His light can't shine through because of "junk" in your life, He's going to help you remove them, because you are to shine and be a city on a hill that cannot be hidden.
Look at the first definition of transparent: having the property of transmitting rays of light through its substance so that bodies situated beyond or behind can be distinctly seen;
so sheer as to permit light to pass through.
Do rays of Jesus' light shine through you so that you stand out among the darkness around you? Do people notice that you are different? Do people seek Jesus because of what they see in You? Are you allowing Satan to hide your light under a bowl? Or is your light becoming brighter everyday for God?
I want to be so emptied of myself that God's image can totally shine through me. I want to have the property of transparency that Jesus can distinctly be seen...
Transparency is a journey...not a destination. This is one journey we will be on until we meet Jesus face-to-face. But as long as we allow Him to remove the spiritual obstacles one at a time, our light will grow brighter and brighter, permitting His reflection to overpower ours...
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~Determined to shine~