Today we’re sharing an excerpt from Christine Caine’s new study, 20/20: Seen. Chosen. Sent. Order your copy or see a free sample today at Lifeway.com/2020Study. We’ve also included some fun, free downloads at the end of this post to celebrate this new study!
In Matthew 4, Jesus called us the light of the world.
Consider what light does to the dark: dispels it. Illuminates it. Changes the environment so we can go from blindness to sight. Isn’t that why we flip on the light just as we enter a room? We don’t want to stumble over the coffee table or a pair of shoes. We want the darkness to be eradicated so we can see.
Salt and light. Agents of change. Part of our identity as His disciples. Things He empowered us to be on the earth and in the lives of people.
Hopefully we’ll embrace this identity and never underestimate our power to effect change in someone else’s life. I underestimated this power once. I’ve never forgotten it and have made it a point to never make the same mistake.
While in college, I made a friend who appeared to have everything. She was beautiful, confident, and successful. She had good grades, achievements, opportunities, and wealth—everything I felt I didn’t have. Over the months we grew close and often met on campus to eat lunch, study, or catch up on life.
So when she disappeared for three days straight, I was naturally alarmed. She didn’t answer my calls, and I didn’t see her anywhere on campus. I grew more and more concerned until the third day, when she surprisingly surfaced during lunch.
She told me that she had been to a nonstop party where most everyone had taken drugs to stay awake. I’ll never forget what she said to me: “There was so much love. There was so much joy. There was so much peace that I was blown away.” And with that, she put her hand in her pocket and pulled out this little flower. “I loved it so much, Chris, that I didn’t want you to miss out on the experience, so I saved you half a tablet.”
I kindly declined her offer, but I was rattled to my core. I was a fairly new Christian, but I couldn’t help but think to myself, This girl loves you so much that she didn’t want you to miss out on the love and joy and peace from a drug. And you, Christine, have the Holy Spirit of God, the true source of love and joy and peace, living on the inside of you. Christine, you are too embarrassed to talk about God because you think she doesn’t need Him, but the one thing she needs the most is God.
Afterward, I found an empty room and wept. I made a promise to God that I would never allow anyone’s passion about anything—drugs, money, success, or even a cause—to be more passionate than my love for Him and my willingness to go and tell people who He is and what He wants to give them—eternal life.
I was convinced my friend had it all, so much so that I reasoned she didn’t need to hear the gospel, when the gospel was what she needed most from me.
Why do we easily recognize people with messed-up lives as lost, but fail to recognize that those who seem to have it all together are lost too? God wants us to understand that lost people look like all people.
Since that day, I have never forgotten there is a God-shaped vacuum in every human heart that only God can fill with the love, joy, and peace of Christ.
Want to learn more about this new study? Watch the short video below or view a free sample and teaching video clips at Lifeway.com/2020Study.
And here are some fun wallpapers for your phone! Click the images below to download!
