The Amazing Flashlight

For my birthday this month, my son gave me a present I love.  It is a 200-lumen, 3-mode flashlight.  It

(Photo credit: mr.smashy)

 is amazing how far and how bright this flashlight shines.  I carry it with me everywhere.  It does a wonderful job of illuminating the darkness even at a distance.

I thought about my flashlight today when I heard a preacher say, "When weak Christians are illuminated, what do they see?"  Then he answered his own question, "They see God."

He continued to say that fire can consume, but it also illuminates.  The Word of God is a fire to us as Christians.  We read it, we let it soak into our hearts and it consumes and illuminates.  It consumes that which needs to be burned away. . .those things in our lives which are not conformed to the image of the Lord Jesus.

It also illuminates.  It allows us to see the power of the Lord in our lives working out His eternal purpose in Christ Jesus.

The three Hebrew men who were captives in Babylon knew about fire and illumination. Nebuchadnezzar threw them into the fiery furnace, but they weren't consumed, they were illuminated.  And so was the "fourth form" walking in the furnace with them.  Nebuchadnezzar said "the form of the fourth is like the Son of God."  We all know why he thought the fourth man looked like the Son of God, because He WAS the Son of God.

If we are willing to turn on the "flashlight" the Lord has given us, He will illuminate us to His presence all around us in our own fiery furnaces.  He will reveal Himself to us in ways we never imaged possible and our lives will be a testimony to all who witness it.