Week 19 What Does Your Light Look Like?
“We are each gifted in a unique and important way. It is our privilege and our adventure to discover our own special light.”
Evelyn Mary Dunbar
Passage
1 Now these are the last words of David. David the son of Jesse declares, The man who was raised on high declares, The anointed of the God of Jacob, And the sweet psalmist of Israel,
2 "The Spirit of the LORD spoke by me, And His word was on my tongue.
3 "The God of Israel said, The Rock of Israel spoke to me, 'He who rules over men righteously, Who rules in the fear of God,
4 Is as the light of the morning when the sun rises, A morning without clouds, When the tender grass springs out of the earth, Through sunshine after rain.'
5 "Truly is not my house so with God? For He has made an everlasting covenant with me, Ordered in all things, and secured; For all my salvation and all my desire, Will He not indeed make it grow?
6 "But the worthless, every one of them will be thrust away like thorns, Because they cannot be taken in hand;
7 But the man who touches them Must be armed with iron and the shaft of a spear, And they will be completely burned with fire in their place."
2 Samuel 23:1-7 (NASB)
"Ugly Lamp" by rreihm is licensed under CC BY 2.0.
Background
Quote-Evelyn Mary Dunbar (18 December 1906 – 12 May 1960) was a British artist, illustrator, and teacher. She is notable for recording women's contributions to World War II on the United Kingdom home front, particularly the work of the Women's Land Army. She was the only woman working for the War Artists' Advisory Committee on a full-time salaried basis. Dunbar had a deep devotion to nature and a particular affection for the landscape of Kent. Dunbar was modest regarding her achievements and outside of the post-war mainstream art world which has led to some neglect of her work until recent years. She painted murals at Brockley County Secondary School, and was a member of the Society of Mural Painters. After the war she painted portraits, allegorical pictures and especially landscapes.
Passage-The book of 2nd Samuel is a Narration of David as he becomes the King of Israel and the time during his reign, yet it also includes two psalms in hymns of praise in the final chapters. Its author is Samuel the prophet who wrote it at about 930 B.C. The key personalities are David, Joab, Bathsheba, Nathan, and Absalom. It was written to record the history of David’s reign and to demonstrate effective leadership under the submission of God. Approximately half of the book tells of King David’s success and the other half shows his failures.
Lesson Notes
Opening Statement
Are we the thorns that people should be armed against us or are we as the tender grass, comfortable underfoot on a spring day? What does your light look like?
Ask: Do you think you are special?
Point: This simple question has a complicated answer because we are at once both very unique and quite the same.
We are unique First Reading (Psalm 139:13-14 (NASB)
We are the same Second Reading (Romans 3:10-12 (NASB)
Ask: Why would God make us like this?
Point: The answer comes in three parts which we will look at individually and taken as a whole.
Third Reading (1 John 4:16 (NASB)
Ask: Why is it important to understand that God IS love in relation to determining what our light (gifts) look like?
Point: Fourth Reading (Genesis 1:27-28 (NASB)
Ask: What implication does the idea that God is love have for us if we accept that we are made in the image of love?
Point: Fifth Reading (1 John 4:17-18 (NASB)
Ask: What does it mean regarding our position with God if we are afraid and don’t feel like we love very much?
Point: It doesn’t change a thing because God loves us and He doesn’t change.
God loves us Sixth Reading (1 John 4:19 (NASB)
God does not change Seventh Reading (Malachi 3:5-7 (NASB)
Ask: If God loves me even though I’m afraid, God is love, and I am made in the image of that love, what does that mean to what my light is supposed to look like?
Point: Eight Reading (1 John 4:20-21 (NASB)
Closing Statement
God is love. God does not change. We are made in God’s image. We are made to love others. We should love fearlessly. What does all that have to do with what the light I shine out to the world looks like? Everything. Nothing. It is at once as unique as each of us is, and exactly the same. We each have unique gifts that are shaped by the experiences we’ve had living our lives. Those experiences are unique to us as individuals because no one is us and at the same time there are a host of people out there that can only identify with that uniqueness. Reach those unique people that are just like you with your gifts. How you do that is also unique to each individual, and at the same time the same because it can only be done through Jesus. Only you can determine what that looks like to the people you meet.
Questions for the Week
Question 1 There was a lot of scripture in this week’s lesson. Probably too much to digest in the short class time. Re-read each of this week’s readings and contemplate each in the context of the week’s opening statement. Write in your journal your thoughts concerning each scripture and how it affects your application of your gifts to the world you encounter on a daily basis.
Question 2 Read through all of 1 John 4 included at the end of this week’s lesson. The first six verses are a warning. We covered from verse sixteen to the end in class. Do verses one through fifteen change anything you picked up in class? Why/why not?
Scripture
First Reading
13 For You formed my inward parts; You wove me in my mother's womb.
14 I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Wonderful are Your works, And my soul knows it very well.
Psalm 139:13-14 (NASB)
Second Reading
10 as it is written, "THERE IS NONE RIGHTEOUS, NOT EVEN ONE;
11 THERE IS NONE WHO UNDERSTANDS, THERE IS NONE WHO SEEKS FOR GOD;
12 ALL HAVE TURNED ASIDE, TOGETHER THEY HAVE BECOME USELESS; THERE IS NONE WHO DOES GOOD, THERE IS NOT EVEN ONE."
Romans 3:10-12 (NASB)
Third Reading
16 We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.
1 John 4:16 (NASB)
Fourth Reading
27 God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.
28 God blessed them; and God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth."
Genesis 1:27-28 (NASB)
Fifth Reading
17 By this, love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; because as He is, so also are we in this world.
18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love.
1 John 4:17-18 (NASB)
Sixth Reading
19 We love, because He first loved us.
1 John 4:19 (NASB)
Seventh Reading
5 "Then I will draw near to you for judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers and against the adulterers and against those who swear falsely, and against those who oppress the wage earner in his wages, the widow and the orphan, and those who turn aside the alien and do not fear Me," says the LORD of hosts.
6 "For I, the LORD, do not change; therefore you, O sons of Jacob, are not consumed.
7 "From the days of your fathers you have turned aside from My statutes and have not kept them. Return to Me, and I will return to you," says the LORD of hosts. "But you say, 'How shall we return?'
Malachi 3:5-7 (NASB)
Eight Reading
20 If someone says, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen.
21 And this commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves God should love his brother also.
1 John 4:20-21 (NASB)
A Warning to Believes and Understanding of God as Love
1 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.
2 By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God;
3 and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God; this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world.
4 You are from God, little children, and have overcome them; because greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world.
5 They are from the world; therefore they speak as from the world, and the world listens to them.
6 We are from God; he who knows God listens to us; he who is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.
7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.
8 The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love.
9 By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him.
10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
12 No one has seen God at any time; if we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us.
13 By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit.
14 We have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son to be the Savior of the world.
15 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.
16 We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.
17 By this, love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; because as He is, so also are we in this world.
18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love.
19 We love, because He first loved us.
20 If someone says, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen.
21 And this commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves God should love his brother also.
1 John 4:1-21 (NASB)