June 12, 2023
“You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden.”
-Matthew 5:14
Late last week, three of the Baptist Bikers started the trek to New Orleans for the annual Southern Baptist Convention. I was leaving from Pigeon Forge, TN and my two friends, Randy and Gary were leaving from Kentucky. Randy and Gary got a head start on me and they made it to Chattanooga, TN where they found a hotel for us to stay in for the night. I arrived a couple of hours later and, as I was checking in, Randy and Gary happened to walk through the lobby. We greeted each other, hugged one another and just caught up as I was waiting on my turn to get registered at the hotel. I was completely oblivious to anyone who may have observed our interaction.
The next morning, I went to the hotel lobby for some coffee and to just sit and do my morning reading. As I was sitting there, I became aware of someone looking at me. Several feet away sat an older gentleman and his wife, having their breakfast. He rose from the table and began to approach me. He started asking me about my two friends and where we were riding to. I told him that we are part of a Christian motorcycle group and that we were making our way to the Southern Baptist Convention. He caught me off guard when he said “I knew it! I knew you were Christian men.” I think he could see I was puzzled by his comment because he clarified and said that he could just see a light about us, the way we interacted with one another and the way we treated others. Turns out he is a pastor at a church in North Carolina and he rides a Gold Wing, might not be a Harley, but he still enjoys the love of riding, besides we all know that sanctification is a process and one day he will have that Harley.
We left Chattanooga later that morning, on our way to Meridian, MS, and this gave me a lot of time to think about the devotion for this week, and I found myself coming back to the words that pastor spoke to me in the hotel lobby, he could see a light about us. That really got me thinking about how people see Christians and how they just sometimes seem to know. What sort of silent witness are we sharing with the world around us that may point others to Christ or, unfortunately, lead others further away from Him?
How we carry ourselves has a lot to do with how the lost world perceives Christianity as a whole. As William Toms famously said “Be careful how you live. You may be the only Bible some person ever reads.” It is powerful to consider just how true this statement is, think about how many professing Christians you know that don’t exhibit a life that draws others to Christ. What sort of witness do you believe that exhibits to someone who is living in this world lost and without the knowledge of Christ in their lives? They may think to themselves, “Well I don’t live a life any worse than theirs, why do I need Christ? I’m probably going to heaven too, if they think they are.”
Luke records these words, of Barnabas and Paul, in the book of Acts:
“For so the Lord has commanded us, saying, ‘I have made you a light for the Gentiles,
that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth.’”
-Acts 13:47
We are meant to stand out, to be recognized as one who belongs to Christ. When we are truly saved by grace through faith, we are radically transformed and our lives should bear witness to that salvation.
Others are watching us, whether we realize it or not, will they see the light of Christ shining through you or will they simply see a reflection of the world?
