Tuesday, June 10, 2014
1 Peter 2:9 You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.
THE HOLY SPIRIT, THE GREAT ENLIGHTENER
We worship the Holy Spirit and sing praise to His name for the work of love He has performed for us and in us, the work of sanctification. In love, He set us apart from the sinful world for the holy purpose of serving our Lord and Savior for time and eternity. He did this by creating faith in Jesus in our hearts through the Gospel and making us the happy possessors of all the benefits of Jesus' redemption.
The work of the Spirit is truly amazing. As He once participated in the work of creating our world (including making light on creation day one), so He used His power as the omnipotent God to accomplish the awesome work of taking our hearts which by nature were trapped in the dark night of unbelief and bringing them into the light of God's grace in Christ, with our sins forgiven, outfitting us with the clothing of saints, empowering us to live for our Savior, and making us heirs of heaven's glory!
When we walk into a dark room at night and flip on the light switch so that we can see, let us be reminded of the Spirit's gracious work of illuminating our hearts which used to be "in the dark." Let us praise Him for His wonderful work of love in our behalf. Let us pray that He bless us with opportunities to share the light of salvation in Jesus with others.
Thou whose almighty word Chaos and darkness heard
And took their flight, Hear us, we humbly pray,
And where the Gospel day Sheds not its glorious ray,
Let there be light!
(The Lutheran Hymnal, 508:1)
