When Jesus says, “You are the light of the world," he’s not saying it because you are really great, he’s saying it because HE is really great.

WHAT IS PHOSPHORESCENCE?

REFLECTION

Definition: The throwing back by a body or surface of light, heat, or sound without absorbing it.

If we only reflect Jesus to people, we’re not changing ANYTHING about ourselves, we’re just regurgitating good stuff.  I would call this Cultural Christianity.

FLUORESCENCE

Definition: The visible or invisible radiation emitted by certain substances as a result of incident radiation of a shorter wavelength such as X-rays or ultraviolet light.

This is what it looks like to have God change our outward appearance. Something that was once dark, now looks vibrant on the outside, and reflects the lights shone at it in a new way.

I think we see this with new believers and people who are willing to show who Jesus is to the world around them.

PHOSPHORESCENCE

Definition: Light emitted by a substance without combustion or perceptible heat.  In Physics - the emission of radiation in a similar manner to fluorescence but on a longer timescale, so that emission continues after excitation ceases.

This is what it looks like when we really meet with God, and we really let him into our innermost being. It amps us up in a way that makes us glow, even when we are not currently being lit up by God.

Often, when we think we aren’t ready to share the Gospel with someone, it’s probably not because we don’t have the words to say, it’s probably because we don’t have the character and lifestyle to back it up!  Every single one of us HAS to have the character of God DEEP within us to clearly and convincingly share the story of Jesus.

Really, this is what it means to be a light to the world: being people that are SO LIT UP BY the Holy Spirit, and have our character SO CHANGED BY GOD, that we GLOW for everyone we are around.

IN THE BIBLE

2 Corinthians 3:18
18 And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

1 John 1:5
God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.

Matthew 17:2
There he was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light.

Job 37:22 HCSB
22 Yet out of the north He comes, shrouded in a golden glow; awesome majesty surrounds Him.

 Ecclesiastes 8:1
Who is like the wise?
    Who knows the explanation of things?
A person’s wisdom brightens their face
    and changes its hard appearance.

What would it be like, if just someone seeing us on the street caused them to stop and say, “what is different about them?” or “what do they have that I don’t?”

When you let God into the deep dark places and you let him transform you from the inside out, you GLOW, and people see that you have something they want!

Exodus 34:29-35
29 When Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the covenant law in his hands, he was not aware that his face was radiant because he had spoken with the Lord. 30 When Aaron and all the Israelites saw Moses, his face was radiant, and they were afraid to come near him. 31 But Moses called to them; so Aaron and all the leaders of the community came back to him, and he spoke to them. 32 Afterward all the Israelites came near him, and he gave them all the commands the Lord had given him on Mount Sinai.
33 When Moses finished speaking to them, he put a veil over his face. 34 But whenever he entered the Lord’s presence to speak with him, he removed the veil until he came out. And when he came out and told the Israelites what he had been commanded, 35 they saw that his face was radiant. Then Moses would put the veil back over his face until he went in to speak with the Lord.

Acts 4:13
When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus.

HOW DO WE DO THAT?

Shift your mindset so that your relationship with Jesus is internal AND external

Missions and evangelism start with wearing your relationship with Jesus on your sleeve.

Your relationship with Jesus Has to be YOUR relationship with Jesus

It’s pretty easy to get a contact high from people around you and be so enveloped in their glow that you feel like you have it too.  It’s a great thing having Godly people to walk with, but you need to seek God for yourself.

What is God wanting to do in you, that he might not be doing in the person next to you?  Are you giving him that place?

You have to work through your habitual sin patterns

If you have darkness that is constantly rearing its ugly head in your life, you are not likely to GLOW. People are going to see you for your guilt and shame, not your freedom in Jesus.

That’s not to say that you need to be perfect tomorrow, but you need to dig up the dirty stuff and bring it to the light.