Life on Fire

What does it mean to be the light of the world? That question sits at the heart of a powerful message drawn from Matthew chapter 5, where Jesus makes a declaration that stops us in our tracks. He does not say we should try to become the light, or that we might one day be the light. He says we are the light. But here is where it gets deeply personal and profoundly honest: light does not come from a flashlight or the glow of a screen. Real light, the kind that draws people in and changes the atmosphere of a room, comes from fire. And if we are going to be that kind of light, then something in our lives has to be burning. This message invites us to stop running from the fire in our lives and start seeing it for what it truly is, evidence that God is present and working through us. Just as the burning bush was not consumed because God was in it, and just as the three Hebrew boys walked through the furnace unharmed because a fourth figure walked with them, our lives on fire are not a sign of God's absence. They are a sign of His nearness. When we place ourselves in the hands of Jesus, we are touched by the one who baptizes with the Holy Ghost and with fire, and that fire becomes the very thing that makes us unmistakable to a watching world.