Scripture:
“You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hid. No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lamp-stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.” - Matthew 5:14
Thought for the day:
Not all churches care for their property as well as Grace UMC. I remember one time, years ago, we had water throughout the laundry room every time the clothes were washed. Each time it happened, my wife told me about it. But it wasn’t until she said, “ED! I’M NOT MOPPING THE FLOOR AGAIN AND THERE WILL BE NO CLEAN CLOTHES UNTIL THIS IS FIXED!” I found time to go down and look at the washer. Long story short, I found the leak and got the Trustees of the church to fix it. But this story isn’t really about the leak, it is about the water on floor.
When I finally acknowledged the problem, I picked everything up off the floor to keep it dry, well, almost everything. There were a couple of boxes and foot locker tucked back in the corner that weren’t easy to reach and it didn’t look too wet over there so I didn’t bother to dig them out. I figured that the walls of the foot locker would protect the contents and the boxes didn’t have anything all that valuable within in them. BAD DECISION!
Once the leak was fixed, I realized that there was more water in the corner than I anticipated. So, I pulled everything out of the corner. When I opened the foot locker I found that, while the walls of the foot locker kept the flood out, the moisture creeped in and created enough humidity that mold had taken its toll on the contents which included a large Bible.
Sometimes we have a tendency to lock our faith away believing it to be safe, protected from the destructive effects our world showers upon us only to find that when we pull it out, it has nothing left of value to offer us. We find that, as protected as we think we are, the evils of the world can still seep in and destroy our closely guarded faith.
It is important to realize that the word of God tucked away for our own private enrichment, will always rot away into words totally devoid of power because that is not what the word of God was intended to do! God’s word is intended to be transformative. It’s power is in it’s daily presence. Let’s resolve never to tuck our faith away trusting that it will survive in solitude.
Prayer for the day:
Lord, when the problems of life flood my heart and soul, help me move towards the higher ground found in the transformative power of your daily presence. Amen.