Called to be Light Called to be Salt

 

What is that thing called light

Which I must ne’er enjoy?

What are the blessings of the sight?

O tell a poor blind boy!

The preceding lines of Colly Cibber

From his poem enttled “The Blind Boy”

Conveys the challenge of the blind

And the mechanisms their minds employ.

So is the unbeliever in this world

Stricken by sin and sin’s curse

As he lives in the land of the blind

And daily those sins are rehearsed.

The believer then is called to be light,

To reflect Christ and be a light that’s bright,

To feed on the word and gather insight

And fight life’s battle in the Spirit’s might.

Called to be light I must repeat,

Called to be a light in this world,

Filled with the Spirit, walking with Christ

As directed by the Spirit and the Word.

 

That light though lit from within

Should shine out for the world to see

That Jesus who was from heaven sent

Now lives in you and me.

With signal sharp and focus clear

A light that shall never be dimmed

Alerting the world of a Saviour’s love

Who died to save them from sin.

A light that shows God’s wisdom,

A revealer of sin and of wrong

A light that is ever discerning

A light that spots brightly and long.

Called to be salt I must also add

To season, to preserve and to enhance  

As we spread the Gospel message

And for Jesus Christ take our stance.

  

 

Called to be salt I must repeat

For such shows a dependency on Christ,

The one who came to give us life

Having given his life as our sacrifice.

Called therefore to be both salt and light,

Such salt within and such light without,

Both flavouring and lighting a sinful world,

Telling what the Gospel story is all about.

So that for them life would be meaningful

As the abundant life they come to know,

And they too would be salt and light

And in turn would Christ to others show.

Stewart Russell © June 2017