There are times that the most beautiful photographs we take are ones where there is a stark contrast between light and dark. There’s something about the way that the shadows and darker colors make the brighter colors stand out. Since moving to Henderson, Kentucky in 2011, I have probably taken hundreds of pictures of the scenery along the Ohio River from the comfort of my back patio – and over the last summer, I began exploring the many features of the camera I use and the effects that shadows and focus can have on the photograph. It is truly remarkable what shadows and darker foreground objects can do to for the background of a picture.
As I was doing my personal devotion this morning I came across a verse that made me think of this particular picture. While on Earth, the Lord Jesus Christ was teaching his disciples a way to understand their new relationship with the world around them. He told them Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid (Matthew 5:14) and was demonstrating that now, as believers in him, they were to be different; they were to live a life that would draw others to Him. He also taught those men that followed him If thy whole body therefore be full of light, having no part dark, the whole shall be full of light, as when the bright shining of a candle doth give thee light (Luke 11:36). This concept was well-understood by the apostle Paul; he wrote to those early Christians in the city of Ephesus, For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light (Ephesians 5:8). As Christians, we are to be different than the world For every one shall be salted with fire, and every sacrifice shall be salted with salt. Salt is good: but if the salt have lost his saltness, wherewith will ye season it? Have salt in yourselves, and have peace one with another (Mark 9:49-50).
The apostle Paul taught on this concept of living differently than the world around us, Let your speech be alway with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man (Colossians 4:6). Even the apostle Peter taught how, as Christians, we should also strive to be different than the world and be ready to tell others the reasons for our joy and our faith, But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear: Having a good conscience; that, whereas they speak evil of you, as of evildoers, they may be ashamed that falsely accuse your good conversation in Christ. For it is better, if the will of God be so, that ye suffer for well doing, than for evil doing (I Peter 3:15-17).
I also think of how this teaching is clearly demonstrated in the teachings of the prophet Isaiah, Then shalt thou call, and the LORD shall answer; thou shalt cry, and he shall say, Here I am. If thou take away from the midst of thee the yoke, the putting forth of the finger, and speaking vanity; And if thou draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul; then shall thy light rise in obscurity, and thy darkness be as the noonday: And the LORD shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not (Isaiah 58:9-11). Again, there is this concept that the believer of God should live their life different from the unbeliever; it’s been God’s desire that his believers would reject the standards of the sinful world and accept his standards as their own, Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine (Exodus 19:5). When you think about it, if we do adopt God’s standards in our life and live accordingly, we do become peculiar. In five verses scattered through the Old and New Testaments, God calls his people, his children, to be peculiar people and to be different than those around them.
Just as in the picture above shows contrast between light and dark, we are to provide contrast between the lost world and God’s grace. Everything we do, whether we are lost or saved, provides a message about us and what is important in our lives. If we live like the lost around us and do those things that the lost do, whether it be for entertainment or our work ethics, it speaks volumes about our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. It tells the lost world there is no real difference between a Christian and a lost person; there is no reason to become a follower of Christ. At that point, we have inoculated our coworkers, family, or friends from the effects of hearing the soul cleansing effects a real acceptance of the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior. We tarnish the name of Christ, and we lose that savor we were supposed to bring to the world. If we adopt God’s standards, meaning a full acceptance of the apostle Paul’s teaching, Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God (I Corinthians 10:15), everything we do takes on a spiritual dimension; what we do at work, at school, in the home, while we are running errands in town – all of it – we are to do as if we are doing it for God. All of a sudden, the fleshly attitude of doing enough just to get by no longer has the same appeal to us.
As a child of God, we are all called out to be different than the lost around us. It is not because we are any better, but because we have been redeemed by the love and grace of God. Its’ his will that we should tell others about that precious saving grace that only Christ can give; we are to tell it through our conduct, the way we treat others, by the way we do our jobs, and even by word of mouth about the plan of salvation. The Lord Jesus Christ told Nicodemus that God’s desire was that all would come to accept that same saving grace: For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved (John 3:16-17).
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Towards the end of last week, I took a trip to Fayetteville, North Carolina. On the way back to my home on Saturday, I had reached a point that I needed to stop for gas, a soda, and something to eat. I decided to leave Interstate 40 and exit to a little town called Canton, roughly halfway between the North Carolina state line and Asheville, North Carolina. After I paid for and pumped my gas, I decided to go into the store to go to the restroom and to buy some chips and drinks to take with me on the road. Without realizing it, I was whistling the old church hymn, He Keeps Me Singing as I entered the convenience store.
