UNDER THE MICROSCOPE

by Ronnie Mutina

We, as saints, are to shine as bright as the world. As many of you already know, I love to read Paul’s writings. Philippians would probably be claimed as one of my favorite books in the Bible. You may ask why? My reasons are simple. In this book, Paul being in prison and not knowing what was going to for sure happen to him, he shows us that everyone else came before him. He was not concerned about his welfare, but he was concerned about the people of the church at Philippi.

In Philippians chapter 2 we see him encouraging this church to keep on the track that they were going. He patted them on the back and told them, "well done, but don’t stop." In verse 15, he encouraged them to continue to be a bright light in the area. "That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world."

I’m reminded of a story about a game show that required the contestants to spend a week in a display window of a department store on a busy metropolitan street. Other than scheduled restroom breaks, every part of the contestants’ lives was on public display. They were under the watchful eye of the public as they ate, slept and all other things normally done in private. The contestants who spent all week in the display window won the contest.

Christians are under the world’s microscope. Everything about their lives is under scrutiny. Their every word, action, emotion and habit reflects God, their personal testimony and the church of their membership. The world attempts to use the failure of children of God to do the proper things as an excuse for the lost to repudiate Christianity.

The child of God does nothing in private. God sees HIS every actions and hears every word he speaks. In addition, his sins have a way of becoming public knowledge (Numbers 32:23). In Matthew 5:14, Jesus told us, "Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid." The amazing thing is, to me, when a person is saved, Jesus sets that person in a high place. At times in my life, when I didn’t receive something or didn’t get to do something I really wanted to, I would us the saying, in a joking way, "I see where I rank on your totem pole." Well, I believe Christ puts us close to the top when HE saves us. Even though that is an analogy, I still think HE puts us at the top of that hill so we can shine for HIM. We should strive in our life to be Godly.

Paul lived for Christ to the extent that people knew who and what he stood for. I have come to the conclusion that the very light of Christ was always shinning around him, because he did not hide it. Granted there are a lot of people in this old wicked world who go to church and couldn’t handle the type of preaching he preached. With him, he stood on the same foundations as Christ did. There was black and white, and there were no gray areas. It’s still that way with God. We should examine our lives to see the gray areas. We need to ‘get the gray out’. Let our light shine as this church at Philippi did. They allowed their life to honor and glorify God. After all, it is about HIM anyway, right? Christians should set the proper example of godliness. Remember someone is watching you.