Lighting Up Your World

Lighting Up Your World

“…And let your living spill over into thanksgiving” (see Col_2:6-7, The Message).

The end result of a life well-lived is thanksgiving, not only from the one who lives the life — but from those all around who have been benefited by that person’s living.

The differences between a thankful person and a thankless person are many. One is a blessing to be around, the other is a burden. One brings hope and joy everywhere they go, the other brightens up a room by leaving!

When you live a grateful and thankful life, others end up thanking God for sending you their way. How good is that? This is the life that makes a difference. Yes, this is the life that brightens even the darkest corner.

And this is why Paul tells us to “do everything without complaining or arguing, so that you may be innocent and pure as God’s perfect children, who live in a world of corrupt and sinful people. You must shine among them like stars lighting up the sky, as you offer them the message of life” (Php_2:14-16, Good News Bible).

The Message puts it this way — “Do everything readily and cheerfully — no bickering, no second-guessing allowed! Go out into the world uncorrupted, a breath of fresh air in this squalid and polluted society. Provide people with a glimpse of good living and of the living God. Carry the light-giving Message into the night.”

You can be light in some-body’s darkness. You can bring color to some-one’s grey and dreary world. You can bring cheer to a soul that is saddened, joy to a heart that has been broken; hope to those who have lost their way in the fog. You have got what it takes to live the life that pleases God and blesses others.

Now just do it — and have a blast!


Romans 8:5

For they that are after the flesh - And here is the great distinction between Jews and genuine Christians: the former are after the flesh - are under the power of the carnal, rebellious principle; and consequently mind, προνουσιν, relish, the things of the flesh - the things which appertain merely to the present life; having no relish for spiritual and eternal things.
But they that are after the Spirit - They who are regenerated, who are born of the Spirit, being redeemed from the influence and law of the carnal mind; these relish the things of the Spirit - they are spiritually minded, and pass through things temporal, so as not to lose the things which are eternal. And this, which in these apostolic times distinguished between the carnal Jew and the spiritual believer in Christ, is the grand mark of distinction between the nominal and the real Christian now. The former is earthly minded, and lives for this world; the latter is spiritually minded, and lives for the world to come.