Mark 4:21-23

Passage

Jesus continues to teach in parables.  He asks if a lamp is meant to be put under a basket or under a bed or anywhere else but on a stand.  Nothing is made that is not meant to be manifest.  Nothing is secret that isn’t meant to come into the light.  Again we hear Jesus tell people that if they have ears, they should be listening.

Thoughts for Today

First Thought:

What is a lamp?  This is an old device made by burning a wick that has been saturated with oil.  These lights were typically fairly small, certainly hand-held.  Most of them would contain a single small flame to cast light by which a person could see enough to walk.  What we can learn from this is that the lamp was saturated with the material it needed in order to be useful in providing light to the wielder.  In the same way, if we are going to be useful in casting God’s truth into the world, we must be saturated with God’s Word.

What does it mean to be saturated in God’s Word?  Are you saturated in God’s Word?  How did you get there?  If you aren’t there, how can you get there?

Second Thought:

Lamps are not meant to be covered over.  If you put a lamp under a basket or under a bed then one of two things will happen.  Either the flame will catch the surrounding material on fire – causing a huge issue but creating much short-lived light in the process – or the flame will consume all of the oxygen and the flame will go out.  In either case, there is very little use for a lamp that has been covered over.  It’s not how the lamp is intended to be used.

Are you being used as God intended you to be used?  Is the saturation of God’s Word in your life allowing you to be a light into the darkness?  Is God doing through you what God has done in you?

Third Thought:

Notice Jesus’ words.  Nothing is made that isn’t meant to come into the light.  Nothing is secret that isn’t meant to be brought to light.  We are meant to come into the presence of God’s Word.  We are meant to experience the fullness of God’s truth.  We are meant to be full and complete expressions of that in the world around us.  We are not meant to have some secretive Christian lifestyle.  We are meant to shine into the world as people experience what God is doing within us.

Are you good at keeping things secret and private?  Is this a good or a bad thing?  What are the consequences of doing something in secret or in private?

Passage for Tomorrow: Mark 4:24-25