JESUS TEACHES US

A great cholera epidemic sweep through London in the 19th century.� John Snow observed that those who pumped water from the Broad Street pump tended to get cholera, but those who took their water from other pumps did not get it.� He knew nothing about germs, bacteria, and polluted water, but he removed the handle from the Broad Street pump, and because he did many did not die.� He used the logic of prevention.� If you stop people from doing what leads to cholera, you will stop cholera, and it worked.

Prevention is one of the great powers of life.� Some things cannot be cured, so they have to be prevented.� All the kings horses and all the kings men couldn't put Humpty together again.� He couldn't be cured, but with a little forethought they could have prevented him from falling in the first place.� Just a little sign saying no eggheads on the wall could have done it.

You cannot cure murder or suicide, but you can prevent them.� You cannot make any sin you commit not to be.� You can forgive it and even forget it, but the fact is it will leave some scar or blot on life that cannot be eliminated.� That is why prevention is even superior to forgiveness.� The Proverb that says, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure is not in the Bible, but it is as biblical as any Proverb you can utter, for it is one of the primary themes of the Sermon on the Mount.� If this greatest sermon of all time were titled it could very well be called, The Power Of Preventative Thinking.� Some examples we see are‑

1.� Christians are to be the salt and light of the world to prevent the world from decaying and being dominated by the forces of darkness.

2.� Christians are to prevent violence, murder, and breakdowns in human relationships by learning to deal wisely with anger.

3.� Christians are to prevent all of the sorrows of immorality by learning how to deal with lust.

4.� Jesus goes on and on trying to help the believer prevent divorce, revenge, hypocricy, greed, worry, judging, and folly in general.

Prevention is where its at in living the effective Christian life.� That is why Christians are strong supporters of the prevention movements of even the secular society of our day.� Christians are a strong force in the health movement.� Good food, good exercise, good rest, and balanced living all prevent unnecessary suffering, and Christians are all for it, and rightly so, for it fits God's ideal for wise living.� Christians are all for crime prevention, fire prevention, disease prevention, or the prevention of any form of evil.

To prevent a war is far superior to the winning of one.� That is why Jesus is primarily concerned with Christians learning to practice preventative thinking and action.� The foolish man who built his house on the sand may� have built a solid and lovely a home as the wise man.� His folly was due to the fact that he did not think ahead to the consequences of the rainy season, and the result is he did not prevent his home from being destroyed.� The wise man did prevent this foolish loss by his choice of foundations.� The difference between the fool and the wise man is in preventative thinking.� Almost every foolish and sinful thing we do that robs us of God's best could have been prevented by obedience to the principles Jesus lays down for us in this marvelous sermon.

Jesus is teaching us to be realistic about sin and the weakness of our human nature.� You do not wait until your anger is ready to explode and then try to deal with it.� You don't wait until lust is at a fever pitch to grapple with it.� You think ahead, and you know when the first signs of irritability or temptation arise in you.� That is the time to act and gain control of your inner nature before sin gets strong enough to take over.

David brought down the giant Goliath, and that was great, but Jesus says there is a better way, and that is to never let the giant grow up.� Defeat your sins while they are scrawny weaklings just beginning to develop. Prevent them from ever getting to be giant forces in your life.� In other words, get them before they get you.� This is done by exercising the power of preventative thinking.� It involves being honest about your sinful nature.� It is not wise but foolish to hide from yourself, and pretend you are not tempted to do evil.� Wise is the Christian who says, if I get into such and such a situation I am likely to fall.

The power of prevention is based on being honest with yourself.� The Christian who refuses to admit to himself that he could even murder or commit adultery is the Christian most likely to fall.� It is the Christian who knows he is capable of such evil who prevents it, because he avoids those circumstances that would lead to a fall.� The wise Christian is the aware Christian.� He knows his weakness, and he is in touch with his feelings.� If he senses he is in a very negative mood, and some old resentments begin to surface in relationship to someone in his life, he will go out of his way to avoid a confrontation with that person, and so prevent his anger from dominating his life.

If he feels strong sexual energy he will recognize it is no time for dropping off papers at his secretaries apartment, or developing any intimate relationship apart from his mate.� These same actions on other occasions may be perfectly harmless.� It is all a matter of knowing who you are, and what your potential is for being tempted.� That is what preventative thinking is all about.� Preventative thinking is a balance to the popular theme of our day which is possibility thinking.� The possibility thinker is always positive about his potential, and his ability to move ahead, and achieve higher and higher goals.� This is a good and biblical way of thinking.� We all need it to press on to what God wants us to achieve.� The danger is pride.� We become so sure of ourselves that we can keep climbing that we forget the reality of our sinful nature.� We climb alright, but cease to care that we step on others as we do.� We use people and abuse them, and cease to be Christlike in our attitudes and actions.

Christians locked into their possibility thinking become cold and calculating Christian Pharisees.� They justify all of their sin as necessary to keep marching toward their goal.� They are in a class by themselves, and they say with the Pharisee of old, "I thank God I am not as other men."� Christians in this state of mind are capable of doing any evil, and considering it as legitimate.� Preventative thinking keeps the possibility thinker in a state of balance.� It keeps him honest about his capability for sinful attitudes and actions.� It prevents his pride from blinding him to the reality that he is as other men.� He can still press on toward his goals, but not at any price.� He sees his tendency to use people, and will chose to move slower rather than damage the life of a brother.

Preventative thinking is simply being honest about yourself; about your feelings, motives, desires, and then choosing to so live that you prevent your evil tendencies from determining the path you travel.� Preventative thinking is just the other side of possibility thinking.� Yes, I can succeed and climb, but it is also possible I can fail and fall, and this negative possibility can spoil the positive, and, therefore, I can only achieve the positive by being aware of the negative, and preventing it from becoming a reality.

In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus is saying that the key to the victorious Christian life is prevention.� This sermon has no cross in it; no resurrection,� and there is no call to repentance.� It is not a doctrinal sermon, nor an evangelistic sermon.� It is not a message to the lost.� It is a message to the saved, and to those already in the kingdom of God who are part of the family of God by faith in Christ.� Jesus is not preaching the Gospel in this sermon.� The Gospel deals with the first step of salvation which is justification.� This is an event in which the sinner becomes a child of God by faith.� When a lost person prays, "God be merciful to me a sinner.� I trust Jesus as my Savior," that person is saved, or justified.

Then comes the second stage of salvation which is not an event, but a process, and it is called sanctification.� This is what the Sermon on the Mount is all about.� It is the process by which we become more and more Christlike as we become stronger and wiser in overcoming the power of sin.� The third stage of salvation is glorification, and it is both an act and a process, for when Jesus comes again we will be transformed to be like him, and then for all eternity be able to advance in holiness as we move closer and closer to the infinite holiness of God.� Each of the three Persons of the Trinity are closely associated with one of these stages.� It is Jesus and justification; the spirit and sanctification, and God the Father and glorification.� We are now in the second stage, and this is the stage of Christian living, and that is what the Sermon on the Mount deals with.� Prevention is the name of the game.� Sanctification is the outwitting of sin by preventing it from ever happening.� To prevent sin is to do the will of God on earth as it is in heaven where all sin is prevented.

God is the great Preventer.� Most of us never realize how blessed we are, for the providence of God in history is so often preventative.�� By this I mean, many of our greatest blessings we never even know about.� It is because they are things that never happen.� That sounds crazy maybe, but think about it.� If your life is a gift you treasure, you only have it because you have been prevented from losing it by disease or accident, even though you have lived in the same evironment that has taken the lives of many others.

You have your life, your health, and your resources all because of things that never happen.� Because they were prevented from happening.� There is not a one of us who was not prevented from serious injury.� I have prevented my children and grandchildren from taking terrible falls, and so have you.� The life of a parent is a life of prevention.� You spend a good portion of your life preventing all kinds of things to save the life of your child.� God, as our heavenly Father, has the same task in our lives.� Unfortunately, God has the same problem we have as parents.� We cannot prevent our children from taking foolish chances, and God cannot prevent us from doing this either.� If I want to risk going 90 miles per hour on a gravel road, I have no claim to God's protection, for I have chosen to reject the rules of precaution and prevention.

When we cooperate with God, and seek his providential protection, then we experience the blessings of that which never happens.� What a paradox!� The blessings of the non‑existent.� It is the preciousness of what isn't.� History is full of this kind of preventative action of God.� The history of America is not just a history of what happened, but of what never did happen, and those things which never happened are some of the greatest of our blessings.� If you read the history of the Revolutionary War, you will be impressed at how often the British could have won that war had they attacked at the right time.� For various reasons they did nothing when the victory was within their grasp.� It is these numerous nothings and non‑battles that prevented them from winning.� These things that never happened lead to the preservation of all the freedoms we cherish.

For example:� The British General Howe, with 15,000 trained troops, reinforced by 5,000 Hessians from Germany had General Washington with his 8,000 men, half of them untrained, trapped in the Northern tip of Brooklyn.� Washington was in despair.� They were almost out of powder and were out numbered almost 3 to 1.� The British had ships in the river to pound them to pieces with their big guns.

They waited for the inevitable attack, but it never came.� General Howe had craved out a brilliant and flawlessly executed maneuver to trap the Americans. He could have given the signal and the war would have soon been over, but he did nothing.� Washington praising God for the miracle planned a daring escape.� He was able to deceive the British into thinking they were still trapped, while by laboring all night he was able to get nearly 8,000 men out of that death trap, and across the river to safety.� The non‑attack of the British enabled Washington to prevent them from winning the war.

Remember, it is not just what happens, but what does not happen that makes life victorious.� God's providential prevention is a part of every life that is truly blessed.� The point is, prevention plays a major role in history and in our lives, and we should all be aware that God wants us to join in the effort to prevent those things that rob us and others of the abundant life.

As we meet around the Lord's table again, let us remember the cross is God's ultimate weapon in His plan of prevention.� On the cross Jesus accomplished that which prevents Satan from taking the whole human race into the pit of hell with him.� It is the cross which prevents evil from being victorious over the good.� It is the cross which prevents our sin from having the final word before the judgment seat of God.� Thanks to the cross the eternal loss of all that God planned for men has been prevented.

Praise God for the power of prevention, and let us commit ourselves to cooperate with God in His plan of prevention.� We will either be part of the problem or part of the answer.� If we are part of the answer it will be because we prevent what otherwise would be.� Is there less sin and less evil in the world because you live in it?� That is not likely, for all of us sin, and so all of us contribute to the total amount of sin in the world.� But is there less sin in your life because you practice the power of prevention?� This is possible, and it is the will of God for all His children.� It is possible to prevent most of the damaging sins of life if we give heed to this message of the Master from the Mount.� Thank Christ for what He has prevented, and pray for guidance as we learn together how to practice the power of prevention.

2.� �THE LUMINOUS LIFE� Based on� Matt. 5:13‑16

William Sangster, the great British preacher, tells of one of the strangest taxes ever imposed.� He asked his father one day why so many of the homes in London had blocked up windows.� His father explained that back in 1695 every house that had more the 6 windows was taxed for the extra ones.� Many people blocked up those extra windows to avoid the tax.� Imagine that, the government put a tax on sunshine, and by so doing they shut out the quantity of light in many homes.

Man does some strange things with God's gift of light.� John tells us that the life of Jesus was the light of men.� He was the true light that enlightens every man, yet when he came into the world men loved darkness rather than light, and so though he came unto his own, his own received him not, but they shut out the light.

Man in his folly resists the light and rejects it, but John says the light goes on shining in the darkness, and the darkness cannot put it out.� The sun does not cease to shine because of the dark clouds that cover it, and Jesus does not stop being the light of the world because of the dark valley of man's fallen nature that covers the world with a blanket of blackness that blocks men from seeing the glory of the Gospel.

Jesus has a plan to penetrate this world's night of ignorance with the light of knowledge.� The plan is very simple.� It is to advertise.� Every Christian is to be a living commercial for the Producer of the program of life. Most everybody watches TV, but absolutely everybody watches the program of life, and this is where the Christian has a chance to shine and be advertising for the Sponsor of history.

The church is the biggest business in the world, and long before Coke and Pepsi, and hamburger businesses ever dreamed of going into all the world, Jesus made his church international.� Go into all the world Jesus told His disciples.� There is no exception.� The Gospel is to be taken to every tribe, tongue, and nation.�� Christianity is to be universal, and like any big enterprise Jesus knew there had to be a program with advertising of the product.� That is why Jesus said to His disciples, and says to all of us we have joined His company of the committed:� "You are the light of the world."

If men are to come to God out of the world of darkness, they have to see the light.� They have to have before them the evidence that the Gospel is real and valid.� They need to see lives that have been touched by Christ, and now radiate the love which He expressed in, coming into the world, caring for the world, and being crucified for the sins of the world.

Jesus saw the power of video long before TV was even a dream.� He knew the best advertising was not just audio; just the preaching of the good news.� He knew men would want to see the Gospel in motion.� Jesus, therefore, launches His world wide campaign by making every believer an advertisement for His kingdom.� Your life is to be an audio‑visual appeal to the world so that by the power of sound and sight men in darkness might see the light, and turn to God with a spirit of praise.

Without radio, TV, computers, satellites, or any other modern technology, Jesus launched the first truly world wide advertising campaign to bring light to all who are in darkness.� The goal of Jesus is the same goal that all of your large businesses have today in their advertising plans.� The whole idea of a commercial is to portray people enjoying the values and benefits of a product so that others desire is to experience those benefits for themselves.� I see a miserable sufferer of sinus congestion who is smiling and breathing freely after taking a certain product.� Naturally, I want in on that experience as a sinus sufferer, and so I go to get the product, and when it works for me, I praise the maker of this product, and bear testimony to others of what it can do for them.� This is the power of advertising, for it enlightens and spreads the word.

Jesus says we are commercials for God.� Men see the goodness of our lives, and the benefits of the Christian life, and our good deeds, and they are impressed with the Gospel, and desire to be in on it.� What a challenge for every Christian to recognize that they are a key part of the world's most universal business.� You and I are into advertising for the Universal Power Company, better known as the kingdom of God.� To better understand our job we want to focus on two aspects of light that can enlighten us as lights of the world.� A salesman, or actor, or anyone dealing with a product will do a better job if they are sold on the product, and are convinced of the value of it.� Let us, therefore, focus on‑

I.� THE NEED FOR LIGHT.

Johann Wolfgang Goethe was the last of the so‑called "Universal men.''He was knowledgeable in every major area of human learning.� When he laid dying in 1832 he suddenly sat up in bed and cried out, "Light, light, more light!" Then he fell back dead.� His last words were a cry for more light.� He was one of the most learned of men, yet he longed for more light.� The cliche is true that the more you know the more you realize how little you know.� All geniuses know that their knowledge is a puddle, and their ignorance is a Pacific.� All men who really know cry out for more light.� There is a desperate need for answers in a world plagued with problems.

Jesus is saying to his followers that they help meet this need for light.� Be part of the answer, and not part of the problem.� The world has enough problems, so don't add to them.� Reveal instead that there is an answer in Christ who is the source of all light.� You reveal this by your own luminous life.� That is, by a life that shines and radiates a love for people.� The luminous life is the life that advertises the love and goodness of God.� It is easy to say, God is love, but people must see it to believe it.� Does God care?� Does anybody care about all of the desperate needs of this world?�� These are the questions that come to every mind at sometime or another.� The Christian is to be the evidence that the answer is yes, God does care, and He has provided� a way to show it.� The question all of us need to ask ourselves is, are we convincing evidence to the world that God cares? Are we good advertising, or are we so poor that we add to the darkness?

Jesus says the Christian who is a good ad is the Christian whose life benefits others through good deeds.� In other words, the world is not impressed with a Christian vocabulary as much as with their visual display of love and caring.� It is so easy to learn to talk of love, but not show it.� We can do it in relation to our family and to the world.� We see so many commercials where a celebrity says a product is great, but in the back of our minds we wonder, do they really use it themselves, or do they just say these nice things for a fee?� We are skeptical and rightly so.

The world looks to the Christian life with the same skepticism.� The Christian faith sounds pretty good, but do these people just say all this good stuff to please their Sponsor, who is God; in hopes of a reward, or do they really mean it, and live by the love they so eloquently speak of?� Jesus says the world has the right to expect the Christian to reveal the depths of his commitment by good deeds.� It is doing good that penetrates the skeptical darkness of the world.� As with Sarah Lee, nobody doesn't like doing good.� I have read of Mafia leaders who use money they steal from others to do good.� Everybody can appreciate good deeds.� They may not understand theology, but they can see the difference between doing good deeds and doing harmful deeds.

Even the non‑Christian wants to see his children be good and not bad.� Everybody can be reached by the message of good deeds.� That is a frequency all men can pick up, and that is why the Christian must operate on that frequency if they expect to reach the world.� The world is not tuned in to which Bible translation is best; which denomination has the best missionary program; or which Christian college is the best.� The world can only judge the value of Christian life by what they see, and if they do not see good deeds, they do not see anything for their needs.

Good works do not save the person who does them, but they are a vital part of saving the world, for they attract the world to Christ who alone can save them by faith.� They will seldom come to Christ, however, if they never see the light in Christians.� Advertising a car does not get people to travel, but it gets them to buy the car in which they can travel.� Advertising a cough medicine does not stop anybody from coughing, but it gets them to buy the cough medicine that can stop coughing.� So advertising of the Gospel does not save anybody, but it brings people to Christ where they can be saved.� Good deeds are, therefore, a vital part of God's plan to save the world.

Seeing is believing to the world, and so Jesus says to let your light shine so the world can see.� You cannot convey the beauty of a flower show over the radio, because beauty is not verbal, it is visual.� So you cannot convey the love and goodness of God by the verbal means only.� There must be� a visible demonstration that men can see.� The world cannot grasp the reality of the unseen realm of the spirit.� But they have the capacity to see tangible works of good.� Not all Christians can speak effectively, but all Christians can be loving, kind, and do good deeds.

Has someone seen Christ in you today?

Christian, look to your life, I pray;

There are aching hearts and blighted souls

Being lost in sin's destructive shoals,

And perhaps of Christ there only view

May be what they see of Him in you.

Will they see enough to bring hope and cheer?

Look to your light!� Does it shine out clear?

Robert Louis Stevenson remembered how, as a boy, he would look out of the window of his home and see that lamp lighter going down the dark street lighting the lamp posts.� His nurse called one day as he was doing so, and asked, "What are you doing?"� He responded, "I am watching a man make holes in the darkness." �That is the job of all Christians in this world.� They are to be lamplighters making holes in life's darkness.� People need to see these holes to be aware that life is not all dark.� The only way to make people aware of hope is by means of light.

Light gives people a choice.� If you had to go into a dark store and pick out a suit or dress, you would not have much of a choice.� You might be able to feel the kind of material and the style in which it is made, but there is not much of a choice in the dark.� It is light that gives you a meaningful choice.� The world needs to see that there is a choice between the life style of darkness and the life style of light.� If there is no example of light before them, they really don't have a choice.� They live in the dark and follow the ways of darkness.� It is only the light that can give them a choice.

In 1944 Switzerland did not want the allied bombers to bomb their territory, and so they marked the boundaries of their land with lights.� The pilots could see the boundaries clearly, and they had a choice as to where they let their bombs fall.� The world needs to see clearly where the boundaries are between the life that will bring down the judgment of God, and the life that will bring down His blessings and peace.� The Christian is to give the world the benefit of this choice by their luminous life, that is, the life that is pleasing to God, and of benefit to man.

The only way the lost can become aware that they are in darkness is by seeing the light.� The contrast of their life with the Christian life can make them aware, and can give them the choice they never had without the light.� The need for light is the world's greatest need, and the answer of Christ to this need is His disciples. He said to them, "You are the light of the world."

The question is not, does anyone use a certain medium because you use it?� Does anyone wash with a certain product because you do?� Does anyone go to a certain doctor or dentist because you do?� Does anyone drive a certain car because you do?� We all become a part of the advertising process for those things we like and enjoy, and which feed our affections.� The real question for the Christian is, does anyone praise God and love Jesus because you do?� Is anyone sold on the love and goodness of God because they see in you the luminous life?

The need is there, are you part of the answer?� The second aspect we want to focus on is‑

II.� THE NATURE OF LIGHT.

Light is very complex and paradoxical.� Scientists do not understand the nature of light.� There's nothing quite like it in the universe.� It is both a wave and a particle.� It is supposed to be one or the other, but it won't cooperate.� It keeps acting like both, and so science must accept light as it is.� Light seems quite simple to us as we look at it, but it is very complex.� Light has all different degrees of strength.� The reason you can have a red light on in a dark room is because the photons coming from red light are so weak they do not set the chemicals in motion.� If only red light came from the sun you could look straight at it.� In fact, that is about the only time you can look at the sun, when it is large and red, and about to go down.� The ultraviolet rays that come from the sun are very strong, and they can damage your eyes.� They are the rays that cause sunburn.� Other rays, like x‑rays, and gamma‑rays are stronger yet.

The point is, light is complex and full of variety, and this has important implications for both science and the Christian life.� God made light visible, and He also made His children visible.� We are not all alike just as light rays are not all alike.� This is important to grasp because we can lose our sense of self‑esteem and feel guilty if we try to be something we are not, and strive to shine the same as another Christian we admire.� The study of light leads us to the same conclusion as the study of gifts.� God loves variety, and each of His children need to discover their gifts accordingly, and not try to conform to gifts they do not have.� They also should not try to force others to conform to theirs.

As lights of the world Christians will differ.� Some will radiate with such strength they will produce warmth as well as light.� Others will be more subdued and not have that kind of impact.� There will be variety even in the same life.� The radiant Christian will sometimes not shine very brightly.� They will be tired and run down, even as Jesus was. And they may be angry even as Jesus was.� Jesus, as the light of the world with a capital L could become angry and create a storm in the temple as He expressed judgment on the injustice of man.� Even Jesus did not radiate love 100% of the time.� Love was behind His anger, but it was not love for those doing what was unjust.

The reason I point this out is so we can keep balance as we look at the ideals of this great sermon.� If we strive to live on a level of absolute radiance, we will only fail, and end in a state of despair.� This is not the goal of Jesus in this sermon.� The goal of the Christian is the same as the goal of the scientist.� Keep working with light, and learn of its nature, and develop it for higher ends.� Science has done marvels with light in recent years.�� They have learned how to use the power of light that has always been there, and this is the challenge for the Christian to understand light so as to use its power more effectively.� In the realm of science man has discovered the laser beam.� It is simply light developed to a higher power.

Ordinary light comes off the light bulbs with all the different wave links mixed together.� It is just a mass of variety all mixed up.� Laser light is different.� There is no mixture.� It is light waves all on the same frequency.� It is pure light not mixed up with all the others in degrees and colors.� It's oneness is the source of its power.� It is concentrated light.� Regular light goes off in all directions, but laser light all goes the same direction.� Regular light is more like a mob, but laser light is like a column of soldiers marching with precision.� It sticks together, and with the power and unity it strikes its object.� Because of the oneness and unity of the laser beam it can be focused with such precision that man has been able use it to heat a cup of coffee a 1000 miles away.

There are many marvelous things men can do with this form of light in medicine, industry, and in the military.� The so‑called death‑ray is a reality. The point is, what is true in the natural realm is also true in the realm of the spirit.� Jesus said that He is the light of the world.� Then He tells His disciples that they are the light of the world.� Does this mean Christians are equal to Christ?� Not at all.� No more than general light is equal to laser light.� Jesus is pure light.� He is one and consistent, and thus, powerful light.� God is light and in Him is no darkness at all.� In us there is still the shadow, if not the night.� We are visible and inconsistent, and thus, we cannot penetrate as the light of Jesus does. The Lord is the laser, and we are the regular light.� But regular light is all that is necessary for the primary task of the Christian in the world.� All regular light needs to do is help people see the Laser in Christ.

Jesus is the light people must come to for laser power.� He alone can cut out the sin of their lives.� He alone can heal their blindness.� He alone can penetrate to their innermost soul and bring healing.� Our task is to help the world see what Jesus can do.� Advertising does not do the job of the product.� It just points to the product.� Christians are not the saving and healing light.� They are the light that points the world to Him.� Jesus does not say that when the world sees your good works they will praise you and honor you.� They will praise God and glorify Him, for if you do your job right, the glory will go to Him.� Your light is to point to Him, and not yourself.� You are not the answer to the world's darkness, but Jesus is, and only as you point men to Him are you part of the answer.

The light from a lighthouse does not save the drowning sailors.� That light just shows the way to go to be saved.� If they do not get to land they will drown in spite of the light.� So the Christian cannot save the lost sinner.� He can only point to the one who can.� The poet wrote,

The world is in a crisis today.

The powers of hell are set in stern array.

Men are blind and cannot find the way.

Christ, our Lord, will help us in our plight.

Christ, for the Crisis!� He is the Source of Light.

You and I are like Andrew coming to Peter his brother, and saying, "We have found the Messiah.� Come and see."� We point to Jesus, but the only reason they have to listen to us is because we reflect His light and enable them to see there is power in Him.� There is a lot to complain about in the world, for the power of darkness is great, but let's remember the only reason there is need for light is because of the darkness.� If the world was not a rotten place, there would be no need for Christians to be the salt of the ear