Be More. Shine Brighter. Go Further.

• Series: Pandemic
• by: Adam Sheffield 10/17/09

But if, in fact, our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. Regarding them: the god of this age has blinded the minds of the unbelievers so they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For we are not proclaiming ourselves but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your slaves because of Jesus. For God, who said, “Light shall shine out of darkness”—He has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of God’s glory in the face of Jesus Christ. (II Corinthians 4:3-6)

I grew up going to church every Sunday morning, most Sunday evenings, and definitely on Wednesday nights. I’ve been a Christian for two thirds of my 28 years here on earth. So I definitely have a Christian-ese way of thinking. For example, I often times have a tendency to think of all people, regardless of religion or background, as just a few more sermons away or just a few more witnessing encounters away from becoming Christian. On the one hand it’s great that I have hope that anyone, no matter what they’ve done in the past or who they are, are capable of being received by God and being changed by His love. On the other hand, though, it limits how far I expect myself to go in order to reach out to people.

Paul tells us in II Corinthians 4 that Satan has blinded all unbelievers from seeing the glory of Christ, which means first of all that the blind are perishing—like Paul says in verse three—with the weight of their sins both in this life and the next. Second it means that if an unbeliever is going to come to see the glory of Christ, they will need the help of someone who can already see. What purpose does it serve for the blind to lead the blind? Jesus chastised the Pharisees for doing such a thing, and if we have the ability to stop such a foolish thing but don’t then wouldn’t Jesus chastise us as well?

In my limited way of thinking, instead of viewing others as seeing nothing, I tend to think of them as seeing some blurred colors and very fuzzy shapes. I think that all I have to do is share my testimony once and allow them to see the joy I get from God and their eyes will open the rest of the way and they’ll become Christians shortly thereafter. The Bible tells us though that we are completely cut off from God, we are enemies of God before surrendering our lives (Romans 5:8, 10). So there is no such thing as a spiritually quasi-blind person. We either see the glory of Christ and are freed from the burden and penalty of our sins, or we see nothing at all and are in a constant state of perishing and headed to an eternity of continual suffering and separation.

We, as those whose eyes have been mercifully opened, must be willing to go further into the darkness, into the enemy’s territory to reach out for the hands of the blind and lead them into the light of salvation. As Paul quotes the maker of light Himself in Genesis 1:3, “Light shall shine out of darkness,” meaning we must go into the darkness with the light of Christ shining in our hearts where it will pierce the surrounding shadows of sin. We can’t be satisfied with just watching and praying for the blind from afar while they wander around in the unlit night, stumbling over what they cannot see. We have to carry the burden that Jesus carried for us when He came to earth to lead those of us who were captives of the darkness into freedom and into the light so that we could see and be freed from the bondage of sin.

We have to reach out to the downcast and proverbial unlovable with both our hands and our words and then not react in shock and awe when they respond positively to the message of hope we declare to them. We must be willing and expecting ourselves to actually reach out and grab their hand to lead them into the marvelous light regardless of what sin they are currently covered in. We must be willing to carry them if necessary. For we once were lame and unable to carry ourselves to a place of healing.

We can’t be choosy either. Everyone needs Christ, just like you, at one point needed Him to save you. We often times are naturally drawn to those just like us, but we can’t only look for the same economic bracket or education level when evangelizing. And while our hobbies and interests will get us connected with many people similar to us, it can’t just be them that we reach out to.

This is one reason why Christianity is in decline in North America but rising in many other countries, most of which are third-world countries. Christians end up looking just like the world because we love our things more than we love other people. Sure we’re in church on Sunday mornings, but what does our time and money get devoted to as soon as we leave the church doors? For many American Christians it is the same things as non-Christians. But the people in poorer countries have so little that when a missionary or local Christian says “Silver or gold I do not have, but what I have I give you. And what I give you is everything you’ve never had and the only thing you’ll ever need,” it’s true! And the newborn Christian’s faith has so little to compete with that Jesus can quickly turn their mourning to dancing as they find the sweetness of hope they’ve never before tasted in Christ’s love.

Take the example of Peter and John in Acts 3. How many times had they walked by this 30 or 40 year old man on their way to the Temple? How many times did they give him a second thought? But now, filled with the power and authority of the Holy Spirit, and having tasted firsthand the restoring power of the love of Christ, Peter and John stopped and gave the one thing that was everything they had, and by their faith in the power of the name of Jesus Christ, the lame man was healed and able to walk and jump immediately!

Oh, if we could only lay aside the things that hinder our walk with Christ to pursue Him and His passions more fervently! Our idols pulling for our attention, our pride refusing to admit that we do need help, our money falsely giving us security, our relationships giving us comfort that quickly fades away when the next issue arises . . . The list goes on, but the key to being as passionate about the Father’s business and showing as much compassion for the lost as Jesus did which leads us to be willing to go further for those blinded from the gospel of Christ is not found in doing more, but in being more.

Being more in love with Jesus will result in being more passionate about the desires of the Father’s heart (including being burdened for those are lost in darkness), which will then lead you to doing more for the glory of Christ. When we try to do more on our own it results in us either feeling one of two ways. We may succeed and begin to think we are good in and of ourselves, that we are good at what we do, and therefore deserve praise. Or we will not find success in our attempts, feel like failures, and give up. Neither is a preferred option. But when we find ourselves being more in love with Jesus, everything begins to fall in to place and in to perspective.

It’s so much easier to live a clean little safe Christian life surrounding yourself with others who believe the same things you do and recklessly assuming God will take care of the rest as long as we bring our family to church, watch wholesome TV, listen to clean music, and are nice to our neighbors. We can’t allow ourselves or our brothers or sisters in Christ to go on living that way though. And because no one can force these changes to take place in their own lives, it has to come about as a result of Jesus Christ working in our lives. The truth is we won’t naturally volunteer ourselves for the Operation Light Special Delta Task Force Command Unit and go marching into the darkness where there’s danger and uncertainty and where we might get called out on our faith. But we should! For we are given the power and authority by our Lord Jesus Christ to go and make disciples (Matthew 28:18-20) and to thereby change this world one relationship at a time!

It starts with us and it starts now. So join us in the journey we are on to spread “the name that is above every name, [so] that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father (Philippians 2:9-11).”

Be more. Shine brighter. Go further.