Multiplying Your Light

Hello, Readers of My Blog! Happy New Year! I hope you had a blessed Christmas season and are looking forward to what God has prepared for you in 2009. My first blog post this year is something I wrote in July, 2007. I intend to post more often in 2009, so feel free to become a "follower" of this blog if you like.

Tonight I started reading a biography of Thomas A. Edison, famous for inventing the light bulb, and so many other things. It was late in the evening when I started reading, by the light of the lamp at the end of my couch, and it occurred to me that I would not be reading by that light, had the light bulb not been invented.

That got me thinking – we have so many kinds of lights from that one invention – such as chandeliers, lights in our refrigerators and stoves, night-lights, flashlights, Christmas-tree light, lights in every kind of building, lights in mines, lights in airplanes, headlights, traffic lights, street-lights, and neon signs. Look at how much pleasure we have from being able to access light so easily! I'm sure it took a lot of perseverance to invent the light bulb, and then a lot more work to get it to the many forms in which we find it today. We couldn't count how many light bulbs have ever existed, or even exist today! What if Edison (or anyone else who worked on it) had given up? What if he (or anyone else) had said, “It will never work!” or “Aren't candles and kerosene lamps good enough?” Yes, the world would have stayed the same in many ways, but look at how much light has been brought into so many lives by his perseverance, even though Edison would not have realized how many lives would be affected, and in how many ways they would be affected!

Journal Questions to Reflect On --

1. How does my perseverance or lack of it affect others?

2. Whose lives can I brighten today -- with a prayer, with a kind word, with a helping hand, with a smile?

3. Are there goals or tasks or other areas of my life in which I have been tempted lately to give up? If so, which areas?

4. What is hindering me from persevering? Am I willing to deal with these hindrances? What steps can I take to deal with them?

5. Whose lives will be “lit” if I persevere? Will my perseverance possibly affect the lives of people I don't even know? Will I choose to persevere?

Treasures New and Old

I would like to comment on why I chose "Treasures New and Old" as the title for this blog.

Jesus said that God's kingdom is like a householder bringing out of his treasure "things new and old." (Matthew 13:52) Our hearts are like treasure chests. The Word of God, insights from the Holy Spirit, as well as the lessons and character development gained through suffering (trials), are all rich "treasures" that get deposited in our hearts as we go through life. I would like to "enrich" the lives of the readers of this blog, by drawing out some of these "treasures". Some of what I post may be "hot off the press" things that God has shown me recently - "new treasures." Other items will come from what has been shown or imparted to me some time ago - "old treasures." I hope that what has strengthened or encouraged me in the past may do the same for someone else in the present or future.

I enjoy journaling - recording how things "strike" me and what God says to me or shows me. I enjoy it so much that I like to challenge others to do the same! If you like journaling, or if you haven't tried it but would like to, you might try journaling about some of the things I will be posting. From time to time, I will include some questions to help you "dig deeper". I would love to hear what God speaks to you or shows you as a result of your "pondering" over the posts or the questions, so you are welcome to share in the "Comments."

Here are some "Digging Deeper" questions -

1. What is one "treasure" God has deposited in your heart in 2007 or so far in 2008? How did He deposit it in your heart?

2. Read/ponder Proverbs 2:1-5, Proverbs 3:13-18, Proverbs 16:16., and Job 28:12-28.

a. Why would God say that wisdom is a treasure more valuable than silver, gold, onyx, sapphire, crystal, coral, pearls and topaz?

b. What does it, or will it, "look like" for you, to be seeking wisdom as hidden treasure and giving it the same value and importance as God does?

3. Read/ponder Isaiah 45:3 - "And I will give thee the treasures of darkness, and hidden riches of secret places, that thou mayest know that I, the Lord, which call thee by thy name, am the God of Israel." What are the "treasures of darkness" and "hidden riches of secret places"? Has God given you any of these? How?