Matthew 13:22 - "He also that received seed among the thorns is he that heareth the word; and the care of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, choke the word, and he becometh unfruitful."
MASS: noun: the property of a body that causes it to have weight in a gravitational field
MATTER: noun: that which has mass and occupies space
LIGHT: noun: (physics) electromagnetic radiation that can produce a visual sensation
adjective: of comparatively little physical weight or density
adjective: (of sound or color) free from anything that dulls or dims
adverb: with few burdens
Does your mass and matter stop you from being a light to the world?
Matthew 5:15 - "Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house."
John 12:36 - "While ye have light, believe in the light, that ye may be the children of light. These things spake Jesus, and departed, and did hide himself from them."
The Bible often refers to Jesus as being the light of the world. These two verses are speaking of the first definition I listed for light which we know comes radiating from the sun, light bulbs, and fire. This type of light is a noun. It can be seen. But I’d like to compare Jesus and His followers to the other two definitions of light.
But first, let’s get “physics”al. Light has very, very little mass. Mass is what causes different objects to be pulled down to the ground by gravity. Because light has such little mass, it moves very fast through the vacuum of outerspace (Wikipedia says 186,282 miles per second!). It also moves fast on the earth. When you cut on the light, it doesn’t take long to see it! It’s said that it takes sunlight 8 or so minutes to get from the sun to the earth. That’s a 93 million miles distance!
But like I touched on, things with mass can get pulled down to the ground because of gravity. And the more mass you have, the faster and harder you come down towards the center of the earth. For example, a feather has much less mass than an elephant. So if you were to drop both of those from a 10-story building, the elephant would make a dent or an ugly stain on some concrete. It would fall fast and hard. But a feather would just take its time because gravity does not have as much as an effect on feathers because of their low mass. They don’t weigh very much. God actually designed feathers not to weigh much because He knew that His birds would be spending a lot of time flying and didn’t need a lot of mass holding them down and making it hard for them to soar through the air. If you try to hold on to too many material things, you’ll get pulled down to you-know-where quicker. Jesus said:
Matthew 19:21-24 – “…If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me. But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful: for he had great possessions. Then said Jesus unto his disciples, Verily I say unto you, That a rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven. And again I say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.”
Light has very, very, very little matter. Physics say that light is not just energy that comes out in waves, but that it is made of little packets of photons (which are subatomic particles like neutrons, electrons, and protons). So since photons are a “thing”, they have to have mass. But you can kind of compare them to helium. We all know that helium-filled balloons float in air. Helium-filled balloons and hydrogen-filled blimps float up in oxygen because they are lighter than oxygen.
I like to compare living like Jesus to living “light” (4th definition). Experienced travelers travel light. They’ve traveled so much that they know not to bring a bunch of bulky luggage. They know just what to bring to make their trip enjoyable.
Matthew 8:20 - "And Jesus saith unto him, The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head."
Jesus was a “light” traveler. He knew what He was set on earth to do, and He set himself about the business of doing it. He had three years to do His ministry. He knew that His purpose was to teach us some important truths and then to die for us on a cross as prophecied so that we can be reconciled to God. He had no time for a wife and kids. He had no time to get established in a career and to get settled in a home. He had work to do. He didn’t even worry about where He would lay His head when He went to sleep every night! Now THAT’S what I call packing light.
Something tells me that Jesus probably didn’t have a lot of change of clothes and jewelry and whatnot. He didn’t get caught up in material things like we do today. Of course, few people probably did because those were the Bible days. No electronics and cool gadgets like we have nowadays. But I believe that Jesus had even fewer things than others did. He probably didn’t carry a lot of money either. You see, Jesus was the light of the world (and still is), and light doesn’t have much mass or matter. Missionaries who travel around the world sell all they own to go to a different country and help and lead souls to Christ. They have to "pack light" because that’s what it takes to do a lot of work on most foreign mission fields.
I believe that Christians should live more like Jesus did. The second definition of “light” is “adjective: (of sound or color) free from anything that dulls or dims”. I like to think of this with the example of a light bulb. You can add color or stickers or stencils to light bulbs to make different colors and shadows and shapes go over the room. You might buy a light bulb that has star cut-outs all around it. So when you cut the light on when it’s dark outside, all you see are cute little stars around your room. Of you might get a red-colored marker and color the light bulb so that your room looks pink. Or you can just buy a light bulb that’s blue and that makes the room blue. All of those things are cute and pretty and unique, but they all tend to dull or dim the intensity of the light.
Matthew 5:15 - "Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house."
This verse says that when someone lights a candle (because back then, there were no light bulbs), they dare not put it under something to shield people from the light. If you want people to see in the nighttime and not walk into things and fall over things, you’re going to let your little light shine throughout the house. It’s pretty neat how far a little candle can reach in a dark house.
The other neat thing about candles is that if 100 people are surrounding you without a flame on their wick (the little rope inside all the wax) you can share your fire with all of them and STILL have just as much light as you did at first. You couldn’t do this with money, water, or food. But with fire, you can share with an innumerable amount of people and your light will never go out (as long as you have wick, wax, and oxygen). People are usually cautious about sharing some things because they’re afraid that they will run out of the stuff for themselves or they want to have all the control by being the only one with the power. But when it comes to sharing the good news (the gospel) you’ll never run out of it for yourself. And if the gospel really gets inside of you, you won’t want to keep it all to yourself. You’ll put your light on a candlestick and give light to all that are in the house!
But back to the definition of light that says free from anything that dulls or dims. I think that the problem with religion is that it is not pure and undefiled religion. It has accumulated so much matter and mass that it no longer looks like the pure and undefiled religion that Jesus had intended for us. Our religion of Christianity has become so boggled down with clutter. It’s no longer the light of the world but a burden to the world. Instead of the following:
James 1:27 - "Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world."
Christianity has instead turned into a list of dos and don’ts. We leave love out, we leave holiness out, and we leave Jesus out. Christianity is less about “visiting the fatherless and widows and keeping ourselves unspotted from the world” and more into asking God to make me a millionaire, have God get rid of all my diseases and troubles, having an on-beat step in the church, having a grand choir, having a fine suit and fi’ hat, speaking in fake tongues, getting the pastor a new house, getting a gospel artist record deal, having a sold-out gospel concert, etc. etc. Instead of being light like Jesus and letting our “light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven (Matthew 5:16),” we want all the praise and attention on us.
Let’s start packing light, Christians. Let’s stop looking to accumulate stuff that dims and dulls the light that is within us. Jesus’ light shines within us, and the less of us there is, the more of Him that shines through just like with the example with the decorated light bulbs. We get more glory if we have on our cut-out shapes, stickers, paint, and colors, but Jesus gets obscured in all of that. If we just remain plain and simple (or pure and undefiled), more of Jesus’ beauty can shine through. For those of you who want to know how to be truly attractive, holiness is attractive. People will be drawn to something in your spirit and won’t even know why. It’ll be what Mary Mary calls “the God in me!” But if you have on tons of makeup, flashy jewelry, and all these expensive name brands, people will be distracted from seeing the true beauty of God in you.
Think of a baby. They are so beautiful without even trying. They just laugh or smile and everyone who hears or sees it will be drawn to the baby. Babies don’t need make-up, cute hairdos, fancy clothes, or jewelry to be adorable. Their purity and light-spiritedness makes them attract people. Jesus was the same way. He put on no airs, He did not brag, He was fine being born in a stable! Jesus didn’t say, “Before I go down to the earth, I need to be sure that I will be born in the finest king’s palace and I need a nice crib." He was put in a pig’s trough! But His inner beauty shined through as a baby, as a kid, as a man, and now at the right hand of God. The light in Him (which is the same light that is in us) is so attractive! Personally, I can only be attracted to a man who is saved and who has the light of God in Him. I can see the God in saved people, and I’m attracted to that!
I John 1:5 - "God is light; in him there is no darkness at all."
Revelation 21:23 - "The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp."
Revelation 22:5 - "There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light. And they will reign for ever and ever."
God’s glory is so bright in heaven that they don’t even have a sun or moon there. I know that this verse is referring to the New Jerusalem which will be the Holy City that is being prepared for all the saints when the world as we know it is over, but I believe it also means that right now in heaven, God is so bright, that there is no need for a sun! Imagine if there was no sun or moon shining on our earth but that all the light we needed came from a being. That very same being can shine through you! I've met Christians who were so on fire for God (a church term meaning they were sold out to Christ and super-zealous about Jesus) that their eyes actually shine bright. Their eyes are just glossy and you just can't look away almost. You can tell that there's not much of them left, but a whole lot of Jesus!
Ezekiel 36:27 - "And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them."
I Corinthians 3:16-17 - "Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are."
So as you see, His spirit dwells in us, in our bodies. It doesn’t dwell in the temples mentioned in the Old Testament in an inner room called the Holy of holies where only the high priest could go in and minister after being sanctified by the blood of an undefiled animal sacrifice. Now His Holy Spirit dwells within us. But we have to live holy. We have to shed off all of this excess baggage (our sinful flesh) that covers up the light. High priests had to be totally purified to go into the Holy of holies.
It was/is commonly believed that they actually tied a rope around the high priest’s ankle in order to drag him out in case he was unworthy of going into the holiest of holies and dropped dead from God’s wrath. (However, some sources say that was totally false because it’s not written in the Bible, but it still gives us an idea of how serious it was taken.) The Bible does mention the priests wearing bells, so that might have been the reason why. The priests had to leave their clothes in a separate room when they left the Holiest of holies room because of how holy God is! So don’t you think you ought to shed off the dirt and sin and live holy for Him to dwell in you?
Ezekiel 44:17-19- “And it shall come to pass, that when they enter in at the gates of the inner court…they shall not gird themselves with any thing that causeth sweat. And when they go forth into the utter (outer) court, even into the utter court to the people, they shall put off their garments wherein they ministered, and lay them in the holy chambers, and they shall put on other garments; and they shall not sanctify the people with their garments.”
He’s so holy that the clothes the priests ministered in would have sanctified the people!
I know that shedding off our excess baggage takes time, but please note the importance of it. I’m not talking about sin in this post, but just about Christians sacrificing more of their lives and dying daily to their flesh. Let's take up our crosses and follow Him! I’m still shedding off things that block out the light of God in me and that hinder it from shining on others (my sarcasm for example), but when I finally get rid of my light-blockers, people will really see the God in me and benefit from it. I've argued rudely with so many Xangan atheists on my posts. I would just tear them down with my words. But I realize that there was so much Mistye covering my light that they could not see God through me. They just saw my self-defense through my words. But I've learned to answer lovingly and not to do much arguing anymore. When Mistye steps out of the way, God can be seen more!
Hebrews 12:1 - "…let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us."
Let’s lay aside weights that cause us to slow down as we run our race. When your mark or goal is the first prize that God has set for each of us, do you need a backpack, some high heels, and a wig? When people are running a race, they have their hair slicked back, some running shoes, and clothing that is close to their skin and not at all baggy. Some runners pretty much wear athletic underwear because they know that they can't wear some blue jeans and a baggy t-shirt to get first place. They “pack light”. So while we run our race, if we want to get to the finish line in first place, let’s shed all the extra. Erykah Badu told the Bag Lady to lay off some of those bags because they were slowing her down and making life hard for her!
I Corinthians 6: 12 - "All things are lawful unto me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any."
I Corinthians 10:23 - "All things are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but all things edify not."
I take these last two verses to mean that while everything is not a sin, it is still not expedient. Expedient means “serving to promote your interest” or “appropriate to a purpose; practical”. Sure I can listen to whatever music I want and still go to heaven, but it’s not promoting my well-being. Sure I can go to a club every once and awhile and not drink or dance, but it’s not edifying my spiritual walk. Sure I can drink wine in moderation, but it’ll slow me down. So Christians, let’s evaluate our spiritual walk and see if we’re carrying around too much. PACK LIGHT!
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