YOU are the Light of the World...wait?

YOU are the light of the world!  YOU are the salt of the earth!  No, wait YOU are a sinner.  YOU are a bad, disrespectful teenager.  Don’t the second two comments sound more familiar?  Don’t they sound like the more common fare that you get from ‘churchy’ settings?  That’s the very reason I L O V E D Mr. Hagen’s chapel yesterday. 

His message was a departure from the typical dependency talks we hear.  As a dad, yes, I teach my kids to ask for help and to depend on Mommy and Daddy, but ultimately my job is to move them towards: YOU can do it.  To me, the Lord was speaking through Mr. Hagen yesterday and He was saying: YOU can do it. YOU are incredibly influential…and you must believe that! 

Think about how cool it must have been to be one of the people listening to Jesus when He spoke the words: YOU are the light of the world.  YOU are the salt of the earth.  These were people who had been raised in a religion of rules.  The goal of life was to please God by not breaking any of the religious rules.  Then comes along Jesus who says: “YOU, followers of mine, you are powerful.  With me living inside you, you can alter the world around you.”

Let me say this: YOU will change the world around you.  YOU will affect the people you go to school with, live with, date, are friends with, marry, raise.  But HOW will you change their worlds?  As you become a disciple (one who learns), the Holy Spirit will teach you the ways of your God, a God who loves, who builds up, who strengthens, encourages, who challenges and enlivens people.  And you will find yourself doing those things, yet in a way that is unique to the person you are and the person you are becoming. 

Today, who is one person that you can live this way toward that you haven’t before?  Go, then, for YOU are the LIGHT of the WORLD; YOU are the SALT of the EARTH!