SCRIPTURE: God's corrective lenses!

"But what does it say? 'THE WORD IS NEAR YOU, IN YOUR MOUTH AND IN YOUR HEART' - that is, the word of faith which we are preaching, that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation."

Romans 10:8-10

With rare exception all of us suffer from deteriorating eyesight. As time passes we’re less able to see what we saw before. What can the older person do when he can no longer read? Get eyeglasses. And when even these fail? If his pride will let him, he can get a magnifying glass.

Sin has caused man’s spiritual eyesight to deteriorate. What was once clearly seen in God’s creation is now dim and fuzzy.

When our own limited God-given senses fail us, what do we do? We go to the testimonies of others concerning the faith. And if these seems unclear or fuzzy? We can go to the magnifying glass of God, His written word.

Remember, in the same way we don’t focus on the glass of the magnifier but on the object needing magnification, we must not focus on the words and letters (logos), but on that which they magnify (rhema) … the Lord Jesus Christ.

Christianity, Illustrations,
Religion, Scripture

ILLUMINATION: The fruit of prolonged consecration!

"Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God, which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words. But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised. But he who is spiritual appraises all things, yet he himself is appraised by no one. For WHO HAS KNOWN THE MIND OF THE LORD, THAT HE WILL INSTRUCT HIM? But we have the mind of Christ. And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual men, but as to men of flesh, as to infants in Christ."

1 Corinthians 2:12-3:1

One Fall we planted bulbs … Daffodils, Narcissus, Tulips! They had to be planted in the Fall in order for them to bloom in the Spring … they remained hidden until March and April.

Planting bulbs in Southern California isn’t like planting bulbs in the Northeastern United States. Bulbs, if expected to bloom as desired, require a freeze or at least several days of a very cold weather. We don’t have many cold days in Southern California, let alone freezes. Many of our precious bulbs didn’t bloom.

It’s certainly true that many things of God are hidden for a season, like bulbs, only to be revealed at the proper time. His hidden things, like bulbs, don’t bloom in their planting season, rather, like bulbs, they bloom in due time.

Notice also the bulbs the gardener plants bloom where they are planted, they do not bloom where not planted.

God provides illumination for His people. But the gift does not come unwrapped. In fact a great deal of quiet energy must be spent in order to acquire the illumination offered. As was said by another, “Illumination sprouts from the soil of prolonged consecration.”

Jehovah has been planting His hidden things since the expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden. Many have bloomed and provided His creation with glorious bouquets. Others have not bloomed; not because their time hasn’t come, but rather because they were not acquainted with the difficulties of a hard winter.

Christianity, Illumination,
Illustrations, Religion

ILLUMINATION (Progressive) - A wonderful work of the Holy Spirit!

BOUNDING HOMEWARD! [2 Timothy 2:15, 1 Corinthians 2:12, 13]

In the movie Homeward Bound, “Shadow,” (a dog; Golden Retriever) leads “Sassy” (a cat; Persian Bi-Color) and “Chance” (a dog; American Staffordshire Bull Terrier) up a mountain to find their way home (they thought they’d been abandoned by their owners).

Shadow, the older dog, truly believes the mountain is the only thing in between them and home. When they reach the top they discover several more mountains ahead.

That’s how I feel as I study the things of God: no sooner do I mount one peak than I discover so much more remains to be learned. Unlike Shadow and his friends, I’m not disappointed or overwhelmed … I count it a blessing and a delightful challenge.

LIGHT - Let the be no darkness at all!

BETTER TO BE BLIND! [John 8:12; Illumination, Jesus, Life] (Added 3 June 2006)

Imagine no red rose, no blue sky, rolling but grey hills, and a several shades of grey Monarch Butterfly. Without light, there is no color. Color is just bands of light reflected off an object; which bands are reflected depends on the nature of the object. Without light, things would be very plain … AND VERY DARK.

So too without Christ … imagine no hope, no love, no future, and no present purpose for living.

Jesus said, "I am the light of the world; he who follows Me shall not walk in the darkness, but shall have the light of life."

Without the light of Christ, there would be no spiritual blessings, no sustaining grace, and no “daily bread” worth eating. Just as it is impossible to receive mail without a delivery address, it is impossible to receive a true blessing outside the person and authority of Christ but it is the individuals nature that brings His ultimate blessing.

TAGS: Blessings, Color spectrum,
Darkness, Illumination, Nature

COME INTO THE LIGHT! [1 Peter 1:19; Revelation, Sin, Truth]

One of our church janitors was in my office the other day and told me a fascinating but sad story.

A hardworking man finally had time to go to a night baseball game with his family. They were doing the usual things: eating hot-dogs and peanuts, drinking cokes, and complaining about the prices.

His wife, a registered nurse and mother of his three kids, said something and he turned in such a way that the park lights were directly in his eyes. She gasped and took his face in her hands to have a closer look. Her suspicion was correct, his eyes were jaundiced, a sign of several serious diseases. Within a few weeks her childhood sweetheart and the father of her three children was dead.

Man must come into the light of God to see the ravaging affects of his sins. He is little more than the walking dead without the cleansing power of the blood of the Lamb. The Light reveals the truth for all to see. Many will come into the light too late. [1 Corinthians 4:5]

TAGS: Blood of the Lamb, Death,
Kingdom of God, Sin

CONSUMED BY HIS POWER! [2 Corinthians 4:4; gospel, power (God's)]

My associate pastor, Dan, used to work for Orkin (the pesty people); he was pulpit supply for me this morning and I was blessed to hear an illustration he used on the whole armor of God [Epesian 6:10-17].

Orkin evidently had special Maglites with custom commercial grade batteries in them ... make that battery. Instead of four D-cells it had a single, long battery. I gather They're like those used by law enforcement. At any rate he said it was a blessing when he was crawling around in attics and under houses; it would light up the area from one end to the other.

He used this tool to illustrate the power of the Light of God, Jesus our Lord. When an ordinary flashlight was shined directly into the beam of light coming from his Maglite the beam from the common flashlight was consumed by the power of the more powerful light.

So too the power of Satan, when it is exposed to the Light of God.

TAGS: God, Power of Satan

LAVA LAMP BELIEVERS! [1 John 1:6,7; apostasy, believers, nominalism, testimony, witness]

Lava Lamps have made a comeback in recent years (2002). Many of today’s versions are more creative than when they were first introduced some forty years ago.

All lava lamps have one thing in common, none of them are adequate as a source of light. They're called a lamp, but they're not a lamp.

The age of their introduction was an age of darkness and half-light. People in that day didn’t want a lot of light. You might say they wanted just enough of the real thing so they could call the facsimile by name of the real thing.

Unfortunately, many Christians aren’t much better than lava lamps; they don’t really want the whole Light of God, just enough so they can go by the name of the Genuine Light yet remain in the shadows.

TAGS: Lava lamps, Testimony, Witness

TURNING TOWARD THE LIGHT! [Ephesians 5:7-10; other topics - Holiness, Righteousness] (Added 3 June 2006)

Our adopted daughter, Naomi, was admiring one of her mom’s houseplants. Her older sister, Jennifer, asked her if she noticed how the plant leaned toward the light coming through the front window. She said, “Yeah!” He sister then told her, “If you turn the plant around halfway, the plant will lean back toward the light inside of a week.” Naomi said, “Wow!”

Likewise genuine Christians; separate them from the Light, or turn them away from the Light, and inside a short period of time they will have leaned back toward Him.

TAGS: Conversion, Nature, Turning

Topic TAGS: Christianity, Homoletics, Illustrations,
Light, Preaching, Religion, Sermons