Matthew 5:16
Not a Glare, But a Glow
“Let your life so shine (Matt. 5:16). It is not a glare but a glow; and we are simply to let the light shine. God prefers stars to comets. The figure is a candle, not a firecracker.”
Reformation Days
At the beginning of the Reformation, Martin of Basle, Switzerland, came to the knowledge of the truth. He accepted Jesus as his Savior. Afraid to let his friends know that he no longer believed the many falsehoods taught by his formal church, he wrote these words on a leaf of parchment. “O merciful Christ, I know that I can be saved only by the merit of Thy blood. Holy Jesus, I love Thee.” Removing a stone from the wall of his chamber, he hid behind the stone these beautiful words. The parchment was discovered more than a hundred years later.
About the same time, Martin Luther of Wittenberg, Germany, also found the truth in Christ. Boldly he confessed, “My Lord has confessed me before men: I will not shrink from confessing my Lord before princes and kings!” We all know what followed. Everybody has heard what Martin Luther accomplished by his public confession of Christ. On the contrary, no one knows of Martin of Basle.
If your life is to bear fruit, we cannot hid behind a stone in the wall our love for Jesus (Rom. 10:9, 10)