Being Wholly Illumined

It's hard to believe how fast time is flying... we are already half way through January! If the rest of the year goes anything like these first couple weeks, it is going to be an awesome year. Pastor Tim preached last week on the passage in Luke 20 where Jesus is responding to whether or not they ought to pay taxes to Caesar and He responded, "Whose likeness and inscription does it [the coin] have?... Then render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's." I have always wondered about this passage in that in reality, all things belong to God. Pastor Tim made the point that in Genesis 1, we are created in the image of God. So, whose likeness and inscription do we have? Render to God, the things that are God's!

Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.

It never ceases to amaze me at how He takes His Word and continually drives it into my heart. I am so thankful for His work and perseverance. We were reading the other night in Luke 11 during family devotions and I have been pondering over verses 32-36.

No one, after lighting a lamp, puts it away in a cellar nor under a basket, but on the lampstand, so that those who enter may see the light. The eye is the lamp of your body; when your eye is clear, your whole body also is full of light; but when it is bad, your body also is full of darkness. Then watch out that the light in you is not darkness. If therefore your whole body is full of light, with no dark part in it, it will be wholly illumined, as when the lamp illumines you with its rays.

God calls us to "watch out" that the light in us does not become darkness. We must guard our hearts so that we have "no dark part in it [our heart]".

God, I ask for You to purify me as You did the sons of Levi as they were preparing to come before You. I want to be wholly illumined with the light of Christ. Shine the light of Your Word on any area of darkness in my heart. "O God of hosts, turn again now, we beseech You; look down from heaven and see, and take care of this vine, even the shoot which Your right hand has planted, and on the son whom You have strengthened for Yourself." You are the One that both plants and strengthens the hearts of man. I ask that You would look down and that You would utterly destroy any darkness so that I would be strengthened for Your sake. Fill my heart with a longing for complete obedience. Grant courage and help for Your glory in my heart.