I write this morning with a humble heart. I am in awe of how the Lord has used this blog! I have recieved many facebook notes, e-mails, phone calls, instant messages about how this study has touched you. I want you to know I have read every single one of them and adore all of you so very much! This study is not mine to claim. There is no way I could've pulled something like this off, without the good Lord at my side the entire time. I tell ya, honestly, I could've very easily shrugged off even attempting to do such a thing. He has started a new chapter of my life in 2010. Something that I cannot explain in words, just know that he has kept me right where he wants me: on my knees seeking his face.
Some of you have asked what now? Well, I am doing a bible study at my church and will use this blog as a 'discussion zone'. Anyone is free to follow along and please comment if you wish. I will announce the details of the study and links to where you can get material in another post.
If the good Lord has it in my future to write another study then let it be so!
As he leads; I will follow.
Alright, time to dig into the word!
Turn with me to Psalm 36:9.
For with you is the fountain of life;
in your light we see light.
According to Vine's Biblical Dictionary:
Without risking the chance I totally confuse you.
I have numbered the definitions, and will serve as the discussion headings.
Light means ....to become light, become lighted up, give light, cause light to shine.
Our topic verse and the Old Testament verses I will refer to, uses the hebrew definition which is an expression....
1. 'of a joyful, blessed life' in which the quality of 'life is enhanced'.
In the New Testament the greek definition means to...
2. 'light as seen by the eye', 'spiritual enlightenment', 'as 'reaching the mind' and being 'full of light which acts as the lamp of the body'.
1. 'of a joyful, blessed life' in which the quality of 'life is enhanced'.
Psalm 4:6
Let the light of your face shine upon us, O Lord.
2 Samuel 22:29, 23:4
You are my lamp, O Lord, the LORD turns my darkness into light. He is like the light of morning at sunrise on a cloudless morning, like the brightness after rain that brings the grass from the earth.
Psalm 18:28
You, O LORD, keep my lamp burning; my God turns my darkness into light.
Psalm 19:8
The words of the Lord are right, giving joy to the heart. They are radiant, giving light to the eyes!
Psalm 119:105,130
Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path.
The unfolding of your words gives light; it gives understanding to the simple.
Now this passage I find fasinating, I hope you will too!
Psalm 37:3-7
Trust in the LORD and do good;
dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture.
Delight yourself in the LORD
and he will give you the desires of your heart.
Commit your way to the LORD;
trust in him and he will do this:
He will make your righteousness shine like the dawn,
the justice of your cause like the noonday sun.
Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him!!
Just maybe if you can bare with me a minute, do you think that the psalmist David is trying to tell us that the LORD has given us the 'land' we are in and this is where he intends us to be? The differences is wether good or bad, trials or praises, joy or depression...there is the light of the LORD that shines on us to show us what way to go. He extends a burning torch to us to carry throughout our lives. We must choose to grab ahold of it with both hands and never let go! He is our strength, with him, we can overcome anything!
This Febuary the 2010 Winter Olympics will be held in Vancouver, BC Canada.
I live in WA state close to the border. My husband works construction so fortunately he has been blessed to work on a couple of major state highway expansions in the past five years to allow for the high volume of traffic on their way to Canada. Every night we watch the Canadian news track the 'Torch Relay'. I love watching the joy that fills the one blessed to carry it through streams of people lined up cheering them on.
Though we may not be the one blessed enough to carry an Olympic Torch. We are certainly blessed by our LORD enough to carry the torch he joyously gives us! And this torch is one that will live in us forever and never get snuffed out. However, it will be passed on to others in the Lord's Torch Relay!
You and I are made to SHINE as we carry the Lord's torch with joy and gladly light as many torches as we can and pray for each torch lit as it runs away on to the next torch carrier. Amen? Amen!
"We will see the light of life and be satisfied by his knowledge." Isaiah 53:11
2. 'light as seen by the eye', 'spiritual enlightenment', 'as 'reaching the mind' and being 'full of light which acts as the lamp of the body'.
Do everything readily and cheerfully--no bickering, no second-guessing allowed! Go out into the world uncorrupted, a breath of fresh air in this polluted society. Provide people with a glimpse of good living and of the living God. Carry the light-giving Message into the night so I'll have good cause to be proud of you on the day that Christ returns. You'll be living proof that I didn't go to all this work for nothing. Philippians 2:15
Paul is speaking to the Philippians......he wants to make sure they completely understand what he has been teaching them....and that they will continue carrying their torches he has lit!
For God, who said, "Let light shine out of the darkness," made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. 2 Corinthians 4:6
Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal! 2 Corinthians 4:16-18
The Message Bible paraphrases perfectly 'Reflect God's Glory'....
The Government of Death, its constitution chiseled on stone tablets, had a dazzling inaugural. Moses' face as he delivered the tablets was so bright that day (even though it would fade soon enough) that the people of Israel could no more look right at him than stare into the sun.
How much more dazzling, then, the Government of Living Spirit?
If the Government of Condemnation was impressive, how about this Government of Affirmation? Bright as that old government was, it would look downright dull alongside this new one. If that makeshift arrangement impressed us, how much more this brightly shining government installed for eternity?
With that kind of hope to excite us, nothing holds us back. Unlike Moses, we have nothing to hide. Everything is out in the open with us. He wore a veil so the children of Israel wouldn't notice that the glory was fading away—and they didn't notice. They didn't notice it then and they don't notice it now, don't notice that there's nothing left behind that veil. Even today when the proclamations of that old, bankrupt government are read out, they can't see through it. Only Christ can get rid of the veil so they can see for themselves that there's nothing there.
Whenever, though, they turn to face God as Moses did, God removes the veil and there they are—face-to-face! They suddenly recognize that God is a living, personal presence, not a piece of chiseled stone. And when God is personally present, a living Spirit, that old, constricting legislation is recognized as obsolete. We're free of it! All of us! Nothing between us and God, our faces shining with the brightness of his face. And so we are transfigured much like the Messiah, our lives gradually becoming brighter and more beautiful as God enters our lives and we become like him.
I conclude this study with tears in my eyes. What a truly Awesome God we serve!
Let's see what the Lord has in store for us at the end of our torch relay! When the Lord is standing before me, and he grabs the torch snuffer like in the show Survivor and snuffs out my torch and says "Well done good and faithful servant!" Now that is something to look forward to....Believe me that is something I long for, and trust me my torch will not be in perfect condition ...it has been scratched, dinted, refinished, re-lit and may be barely blazing by the time I get there. But I want to get there! AMEN!
Turn to the book of Revelation.
On that glorious day "His face will be like the sun shining in all it's brillance." 1:16
Heaven does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light! 21:23
There will be no more night. We will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give us light. And will reign forever and ever! 22:5
I want to share an old children's church song I used to sing as a child.
Let's keep our lights shining!!!
This little light of mine,
I'm gonna let it shine
This little light of mine,
I'm gonna let it shine
This little light of mine,
I'm gonna let it shine
Let it shine,
Let it shine,
Let it shine.
Hide it under a bushel? No!
I'm gonna let it shine
Hide it under a bushel? No!
I'm gonna let it shine
Hide it under a bushel? No!
I'm gonna let it shine
Don't let Satan blow it out,
I'm gonna let it shine
Don't let Satan blow it out,
I'm gonna let it shine
Don't let Satan blow it out,
I'm gonna let it shine.
Shine all over
[name of town]
I'm gonna let it shine
Shine all over
[name of town]
I'm gonna let it shine
Shine all over
[name of town]
I'm gonna let it shine.
Let it shine til Jesus comes,
I'm gonna let it shine
Let it shine til Jesus comes,
I'm gonna let it shine
Let it shine til Jesus comes,
I'm gonna let it shine.
I'm gonna let it shine.
Shine for Jesus this year 2010!
I have enjoyed every single minute of this New Year Study. All the while lifing my hands to the heavens screaming you are Awesome! I look forward to great things in 2010! He is up to something...that something is always good and will be revealed in His time not ours!
Thank you so much for joining me on this journey. You have stolen my heart.
~Melanie
