Unlit Candles: Part 3

“For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.”  - Habakkuk 2:14

Lord, what can I do…what can we do to fill the whole earth with the knowledge of your glory? 

He told them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.  Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.  Go!  I am sending you out like lambs among wolves.”  - Luke 10:2-3

May we be faithful to pray for workers to go out and win people for You.  May we be faithful to go when you send us!

“Then Jesus came to them and said, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth is given to me.  Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations.”   - Matthew 28:18-19

Jesus, you are my king.  You have all authority over me.  When you say, “Go” I will obey without question or hesitation.

“The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned.  You have enlarged the nation and increased their joy; they rejoice before you as people rejoice at the harvest, as men rejoice when dividing the plunder.”   - Isaiah 9:2-3

Jesus, help us to take your light to dark places.  Break our hearts for the lost.  May we weep over them as you wept over Jerusalem.  Let all the nations of the earth rejoice in the hope and joy you bring. When can the entire table of candles shine brightly for you without any darkness?

Unlit Candles: Part 2

I have been challenged to think about the people in this world that are still living in darkness. People who have never heard the message of hope Jesus brings. People whose difficult and bitter lives we will never begin to comprehend until we live among them. But maybe we don’t want to. The American Dream seems easier. Happier. Safer. Why give up my nice things when I can be an active member of church right where I’m at? That country, that city is unsafe. Unsanitary. Unfriendly.

One night as Amy Carmichael, a missionary in India, lay awake and listened to drums beating to tell of someone’s death, she saw this:*

“That I stood on a grassy sward, and at my feet a precipice broke sheer down into infinite space. I looked, but saw not bottom; only cloud shapes, black and furiously coiled, and great shadow-shrouded hollows, and unfathomable depths. Back I drew, dizzy at the depth.

Then I saw forms of people moving single file along the grass. They were making for the edge. There was a woman with a baby in her arms and another little child holding on to her dress. She was on the very verge. Then I saw that she was blind. She lifted her foot for the next step…it trod air. She was over, and the children over with her. Oh, the cry as they went over!

Then I saw more streams of people flowing from all quarters.  All were blind, stone blind; all made straight for the precipice edge. There were shrieks, as they suddenly knew themselves falling, and a tossing up of helpless arms, catching, clutching at empty air. But some went over quietly, and fell without a sound…

Then I saw, like a little picture of peace, a group of people under some trees with their backs turned toward the gulf. They were making daisy chains. Sometimes when a piercing shriek cut the quiet air and reached them, it disturbed them, and they thought it a rather vulgar noise. And if one of their number started up and wanted to go and do something to help, then all the others would pull that one down…

What does it matter, after all? It has gone on for years; it will go on for years. Why make such a fuss about it? God forgive us! God arouse us! Shame us out of our callousness! Shame us out of our sin!”

*Taken from Amy Carmichael's book "Things as They Are: Mission Work in Southern India"

Unlit Candles: Part 1

Tonight at my church’s Good Friday service, we experienced different aspects of Jesus’ death on the cross. We tasted vinegar and asked Jesus to be with us in the bitter times of our lives. We held a branch of thorns and reflected on the crown of thorns Jesus wore. We torn a piece of cloth and remembered that through Jesus’ death, we no longer had to be separated from God.

But the final station is where God spoke to my heart. Each person lit a votive candle and placed the candles on a table. I sat and watched the room begin to glow with light. But that’s not what I really noticed. As I sat, listening to the people around me sing the lines, “Amazing love, how can it be? That you my King would die for me?” I looked at the candles on the table that had not been lit. And I thought about the places on earth that still have not seen the light Jesus brings. There are people who don’t celebrate Good Friday. Not because they choose not to, but because they’ve never heard the Good News. And my heart broke for them.

Perhaps I got to experience just a little of what Jesus felt as he stood on the hill overlooking Jerusalem for the last time before his crucifixion. Jesus didn’t see the magnificent temple or hundreds of people and animals busily milling around the streets. He saw the hearts of people who were hurting, people who were empty; hearts covered by darkness. And he wept over the city.

How often do our hearts break for people living in darkness? People who have no hope? How often do we weep for the lost and the least of this world? Too often I am content to sing about how Jesus died for me, but I fail to bring that wonderful message to others who desperately need it.