Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Carry Your Candle....

There is a candle, In every soul.
Some brightly burning, some dark and cold.
And there is a spirit, who brings the fire
Ignites a candle and makes his home.

So Carry your candle.
Run to the darkness
Seek out helpless, the confused and torn
And hold out your candle
For all to see it
Take your candle and go light your world.
Take your candle, and go light your world.

~Go Light Your World by Chris Rice

I love this song, and I love the message behind it. This song is a reminder to us to be witnesses for Christ and to shine on those who are lost.

"You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden, nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand so it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others so they may see your good works and give glory to your father who is in heaven. " Matthew 5: 14-16

Im sure many of you are familiar with that verse from summer celebration :). This verse is something we should live by. We should be lights for Christ and spread the news about his wonderful love and grace, to non believers and believers alike. There are so many people who have been wonderful lights in my life, who have shown me God's love and compassion. I'm so thankful to all of my friends and my parents and teachers (the list goes on and on!) who have constantly brought me back to the cross. Thank you all!

Sharing the gospel is not easy. It's really hard. I'm in a situation a lot of you probably don't have to deal with. I have a job, surrounded by non believers and whenever I'm with them I have to think to myself "How can I show them God's love?" Sometimes I succeed, sometimes I don't. I've told my boss' children Bible stories and whenever they see me they want to hear another. Praise the Lord! Also, I have a younger brother who was adopted from the Philipines. He's a few months younger than me and he's not nessacarily a non Christian. He's growing up in a great Christian enviorment, but he's not getting everything out of it as a normal kid his age could. It's a tough thing to understand, but he's on his way. So even when I'm at home, I have to think about it.

This doesn't just go for people in situations like mine! We should be good examples even when we're in our homes. Most of you have younger siblings or nephews and nieces, maybe even both. Our younger siblings and younger kids we know look up to us to be a good example. We have to let our lights shine so it fills up the entire room, not just the darkest corner. And we need to prevent there from being a dark corner in the room by putting a light there before it can get dark.

I would encourage you all to go over and memorize what you can of 2 Ways to live, which most of us recieved at church a couple weeks ago. Think of people in your neighborhood, your school or job that you can reach out to. Be praying for those people. Be praying that God would help you to be a good example and a light for all of those around you.

Now, Go Light Your World. :)

In His Grace,

~Kye~

13 comments:

Elizabeth Kelley said...

Whoa... I happen to like that song as well!
I'd like to add that we ought to be lights to Christians as well, younger or older. A lot of my friends are younger than I, and I've been drawn to God by them quite often. So, that means that being a light, as it were, goes towards older siblings, cousins, what-have-you as well.
Thanks for the post Kylie!

Daniel Garay said...

Excellent post...

Dave said...

Yeah, this sort of convicted me, cause I haven't reached out to anyone in forever. i mean it's partly because I don't know to many non-Christians my age, but I could reach out to my uncles and stuff. I'm just afraid to. I know some who are in a Christian family but I don't know if they take their faith seriously, but I'm still often too afraid to speak up. Could you guys pray for me, that God would help me conquer my fear? Thanks. :)

Becky said...

Don't forget, this is every day for everyone around you - mom, dad, siblings, friends, teachers - because we ALL need to be reminded that God's grace is sufficient for all things.

Stick to the gospel - it's His message - you're just a privileged delivery person :)
Grace ~

Anonymous said...

fear is what keeps me from sharing the gospel with others, and just standing up for something. I'm always afraid someone will look at me differently or I'll get made fun of. You're not the only one Dave.

I'll be praying for you Dave! I hope all of you will be praying for me in this area too :)

~Kye~

Daniel Garay said...

The big thing for me is pride in this... I'm sure this happens to other people also. We don't want to look stupid or uncool by talking to people about this... I know sometimes on my different baseball teams this came up, and I had an opportunity to share, but I didn't. And it's sad, because we could be sharing life with people, the best news in the world. Just because we know this great news doesn't mean that others do.

The Ordinary said...

whoa! Great post! It reminds me alot of how I need to be sharing the Gospel with those around me. I know theres plenty of chances to share the gospel that I have either ignored or not seen. And this post Definatly reminds that I need to work on that!

-Robert

Dave said...

We just need to remember that if we DON'T tell others about Christ, they are going to go to HELL. *Separated* from God FOREVER. That's scary. I know even with this motivation the Devil can still slip fear and pride into our hearts. So we need to (what else?) PRAY!

Elizabeth Kelley said...

Heh. Yeah, praying is very definitely a GOOD idea. Because, as we are often told, we can't save anybody. Long speeches about the glory of God and hell and heaven and Calvary will do absolutely nothing if God isn't working in the person to whom we are speaking.
The other thing of which we need to be careful would be self-righteousness. Have you ever seen one of those movies where the Preacher comes into town and just tells everybody around that they're evil and they're going to hell? Now, I don't think that we'd be inclined to do that to that extreme (by Grace!), but we could have the same heart of I'm-better-and-how-can-you-not-get-this?
Again, prayer is a good thing in this area as well.

Anonymous said...

AMEN!

katie p. said...

Great points everyone! Really good post Kylie! I think it's harder to share the Gospel with people we know. The Devil whispers lies in our ear like, "But now you'll be that weird Christian geek who no one wants to hang out with! You'll be uncool and the 'popular' kids will look down at you..." (something like that) and on and on and on...
As my mom always wisely says, "The fear of man will prove a snare." That's my weakness. I'm too afraid of what people will think!
But it's also true what Elizabeth said. I know I tend to look down my nose at unbelievers, thinking of how that I'm so much better than them. Remember the Pharisees? What about the one praying in the temple in Jesus' parable? "I thank you Lord that I am not like that man, that... sinner." then he went on to say how righteous he was.
We are ALL SINNERS!! We ALL need a savior!!

katie p. said...

Sorry, kinda scattered...

Elizabeth Kelley said...

Not so much scattered. But very humble! Thanks for that!