"Something Worth Sharing"

This quarter Charley Bazzell and I have begun team teaching a series of Wednesday night studies from 2 Corinthians. I am very grateful to Jerry Jones for introducing me to this study many years ago at Harding University. Until then I had not really paid much attention to it but that week of intensive studies really got my attention and have blessed me over and over and over again. Over the years since, 2 Corinthians has become one of those reads I return to consistently with a new sense of anticipation every time I go through it again.
Charley and I are teaming up to share much of the meat of Paul's letter with some folks who have characteristically pretty much overlooked it too. In fact I have found very few Christians who have ever actually read all of the book. Strange isn't it that we have invested so much time and effort into 1 Corinthians and largely ignored Paul's follow-up letter written only a few months later! Paul seemingly wrote it primarily to defend his apostleship against some caustic Jewish critics in the Corinthian church. But, he also includes MUCH that blesses all disciples of Jesus.
Paul's use of numerous metaphors in this letter is exactly the teaching methodology of Jesus who most often crafted his message around parables and metaphors. They are a dynamic way of making a spiritual truth more easily seen when laid out beside the everyday and cultural realities that were familiar to his audience.
Here is one such example that excites me every time I read it and study it again:

"But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of him. For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those are being saved and those who are perishing. To the one we are the smell of death; to the other the fragrance of life. And who is equal to such a task?" 2 Corinthians 2:14-16 NIV

Last week as I was preparing my part in presenting this material to the class I kept thinking and praying about how to communicate the power of it in a way that would cause us to really GET IT! Finally, after hours of prayer and searching through the teaching of Jesus, I found it and it's just to good not to share with my readers.

"Here's another way to put it; You're here to be light, bringing out the God-colors in the world. God is not a secret to be kept. We're going public with this, as public as a city on a hill. If I make you light-bearers, you don't think I'm going to hide you under a bucket, do you? I'm putting you there on a hilltop, on a light stand - shine! Keep open house; be generous with your lives. By opening up to others, you'll prompt people to open up with God, their generous Father in heaven."
Matthew 5:14-16 MSG

WOW! That's it folks. God wants you and me to get out of our comfortable, safe, routine lifestyle and be light in the Satanic darkness that surrounds us. He wants us to shine the knowledge of his Son from every true follower of Jesus into every dark corner of your town and the entire world. He wants us to carry the sweet fragrance of his unique Son to our neighborhood, our workplace, our school, our family, everywhere we go. So get out there and "SHINE" - now, today!