While recently listening to a sermon by Pastor Brent Webster of Resurrection Oakland Church he shared a wonderful quote about Jesus that really blessed me.
Before I share the quote I would like to make a disclaimer. If you have been following my website for any length of time you are aware that I use quotes all the time that I think are interesting, thought provoking, and are designed to get you more excited and committed to following Jesus. While most of the quotes are by evangelical Christians, that does not mean I endorse all of their doctrines. I have also, in the past, used quotes from people that clearly were not Christians like Albert Einstein, when I believed the quote would be a blessing to my readers. My personal opinion is that a good quote should not be judged by who said it, but by the merits of the quote.
With these thoughts in mind the quote that really made an impact on me was spoken by the late American writer, Madeleine L’Engle (1918 – 2007). A self-professed Christian she believed in universal salvation – the belief that all will be redeemed in God’s fullness of time. This totally false doctrine caused many Christian bookstores to ban her books. Whether she was a Christian only the Lord knows but her quote below really blessed me:
“We do not draw people to Christ by loudly discrediting what they believe, by telling them how wrong they are and how right we are, but by showing them a light that is so lovely that they want with all their hearts to know the source of it.”1
We know from Scripture that this light refers to Jesus, for we read in (John 8:12): “Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, ‘I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.’”
And Oh, what a lovely light Jesus is! He is the only one that can free us from the bondage of sin and darkness that we walk in. He is the only one that can give us lasting peace and joy that we so crave to experience. He is the only one that can bring deep meaning into our lives. And He is the only one that can spiritually reconnect us to our heavenly Father and allow us the incredible privilege to have fellowship with Himself.
As Christians we are ambassadors for Christ and our job is twofold. One, we need to reflect Jesus and His great love for all those around us and to do it in such a way, by the lives we live, that we, in the words of Madeleine L’Engle, show them “a light that is so lovely that they want with all their hearts to know the source of it.” The Christian life is so wonderful that we should reflect so many of the things, by our lifestyle, that non-believers really wish they could have, that they will want to know the source of the great joy and peace we always seem to walk in.
Our second responsibility is to earn the respect, trust, and confidence of the people we interact with to such a degree that they will be willing to listen to the full gospel message that Jesus really loves them but without Him they are dead in their sins and spiritually bankrupt. And, as a result, they are incapable on their own of ever enjoying the things they really want in life such as peace, joy, and meaning.
As Christians we have the only source of true light – Jesus Christ. The world only has counterfeit lights that never seem to deliver on their promises of happiness and a bright future.
So, let’s live in such a way that we truly reflect the light of Christ wherever we go. Sadly, many will choose to not want to be around our light because they love their sin too much and will be too uncomfortable having our light expose their sin. But many others, will be so attracted to our light that they will want to know the source of it, even if it means that their sins will be exposed.
While we would prefer that non-believers read the Bible for themselves, so that the Holy Spirit can show them that they are sinners in need of Christ, sometimes the only Bible they will ever read is us. Thus, it is imperative that our Christian testimony shine brightly the light of Christ. For only this light is able to extinguish the bondage of darkness that so many walk in. In our world so full of darkness let’s never forget to thank God for sending us His light – Jesus Christ!
1 TOP 25 QUOTES BY MADELEINE L’ENGLE (of 427) | A-Z Quotes (azquotes.com)