the Third Week after Easter
Daily Devotionals
Truths to Live By - One Day at a Time
“…the God who spoke that out of darkness light should shine…has shone in our hearts for the shining forth of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” (HYPERLINK "javascript:" , Darby’s translation)
“God has shone in…for the shining forth.” Here we learn that we are not meant to be the terminals of God’s blessings but only the channels. The expression “God has shone in” refers to our conversion. Whereas in the original creation He commanded light to shine, in the new creation He Himself has shone in our hearts.
But He did not do it in order that we might selfishly hoard the floodtide of His blessings. Rather He did it so that the knowledge of His glory in the face of Jesus Christ might be made known through us to others.
In similar vein, Paul spoke of how God had “revealed his Son in me, that I might preach Him among the heathen”. God reveals His Son in us that we might reveal Him to others. When the truth of this came home to me years ago, I wrote on the flyleaf of my Bible:
If of Jesus Christ their only view
May be what they see of Him in you,
MacDonald, what do they see?
No wonder that Ian MacPherson said, “Preaching is something august, sublime, awe-begetting—a supernatural act, the transmission of a Person through a person to a company of persons, the Person so conveyed being the everlasting Jesus.” He illustrated it by an incident that happened when King George V was speaking on the radio and his words were being relayed to America. A vital cable broke in the New York station, plunging the staff into panic. “Then Harold Vivien, a junior mechanic saw in a moment what to do. Seizing the ends of the broken wire, he held them, grimly and gallantly, as the current conveying the royal message was transmitted. Electrical charges of some two hundred and fifty volts shook his body, convulsing him from head to foot and causing him considerable pain. But he did not relax his grasp. Resolutely, desperately, he clung to the cable till the people heard the king.”
Channels only, blessed Master,
But with all Thy wondrous pow’r
Flowing thro’ us Thou canst use us
Ev’ry day and ev’ry hour.
'Truths to Live By - One Day at a Time' Copyright 2007 © William MacDonald. 'Truths to Live By - One Day at a Time' articles may be reproduced in whole under the following provisions: 1) You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use. You may not use the material for commercial purposes. If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you may not distribute the modified material.
