{"id":3347,"date":"2013-01-14T16:09:53","date_gmt":"2013-01-14T21:09:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chilmarkchurch.org\/service\/?p=3347"},"modified":"2013-10-01T08:54:06","modified_gmt":"2013-10-01T13:54:06","slug":"arise-shine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chilmarkchurch.org\/service\/index.php\/2013\/01\/arise-shine\/","title":{"rendered":"Arise, Shine! (Jan.06.2013)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Arise, Shine!<\/strong>
\nIsaiah 60:1-3<\/p>\n

1 Arise, shine; for your light has\u00a0come,<\/em>
\nand the glory of the Lord<\/em>
\nhas risen upon you. <\/em>
\n2<\/sup> For darkness shall cover the<\/em>
\nearth,<\/em>
\nand thick darkness the peoples;<\/em>
\nbut the Lord will arise upon you,<\/em>
\n and his glory will appear over\u00a0you. <\/em>
\n3<\/sup> Nations shall come to your<\/em>
\nlight,<\/em>
\n and kings to the brightness of your dawn.<\/em><\/p>\n

There was a boy and his life was filled with depravity.<\/p>\n

And he ended up being accused of fraud and being in jail when he was
\nin his early twenties. Surprisingly, this boy later became a father of the
\norphans. He built about ten thousands orphanages and lived a great prayer life.
\nHe confessed that God responded to his fifty thousands prayers. Some of you can
\nimage who this boy is. Yes, it is George Muller. The boy who was a thief and
\ncon artist was totally changed into a faithful Christian who prays to God and
\nshares God\u2019s love with the people. Here I quote a famous line from him. \u201cThe
\nbeginning of anxiety is the end of faith, and the beginning of true faith is
\nthe end of anxiety.\u201d<\/p>\n

Muller\u2019s life gives us a very important lesson today. That is, no matter
\nwhat the past life was, our future can be meaningful and beautiful before God
\nand humanity.<\/p>\n

Today, we are having a new year\u2019s worship service. I know you all are
\nhere with your own prayers and hopes for your physical, emotional and financial
\nconditions and your family\u2019s as well. I also have my own prayer and hopes for
\n2013. I hope to get along with the people on this Island and to do my best for
\nthis ministry with God\u2019s wisdom and love. We should support each other with a sincere
\nprayer. I pray that you would experience the accomplishment of your hopes this
\nyear.<\/p>\n

Before we pray for our hopes, there is one question that I need to ask.
\nThat is, \u201cwhat is God\u2019s hope for us? God sent Jesus because God has a hope, a
\nvery special hope. Today, through the Bible, we can figure out God\u2019s hope for
\nus. If you keep God\u2019s hope in your mind and live your life praying for it, then
\nI am pretty sure that you can have a year full of God\u2019s love and grace.<\/p>\n

So, let\u2019s look at Isaiah chapter 60 v. 1. Here is a very simple answer
\nto the question we had.<\/p>\n

\u201cArise, shine!\u201d <\/strong><\/p>\n

Two words. God wants us to \u201crise and shine!\u201d
\nThis seems to be very simple. However, when we see our life and our situation,
\nit is never easy. I think for the Israelites that this commandment was too much.
\nLet\u2019s look at the historical context of the Israelites.<\/p>\n

After they had been oppressed and suffered for many years by
\nsurrounding nations, they finally became free to go home, Jerusalem. They had lived
\nas slaves and were definitely worn out. Even though they had a great pleasure
\nof liberation from slavery, they would certainly hope to get some rest without
\nany pressures from their masters.<\/p>\n

However, God commands the Israelites to rise and shine. What might they
\nthink of it? They could respond to God\u2019s command like \u201c, \u201cWe have been slaves,
\nwe are exhausted and worn out. We need to get some rest. Give us break! They
\nmight want to rise and shine later on after getting some rest and getting used
\nto a new life without oppression.<\/p>\n

Moreover, they had a more serious problem. For long years they had
\nforgotten God\u2019s promise that God would be with them and make them a blessing
\nfor the world. For long years, they had been slaves and they had ended up
\nforgetting God\u2019s promise. Here is the question again, \u201cHow can they rise and
\nshine?\u201d It was a pretty tough thing to do.<\/p>\n

However, we can find the answer to that question in today\u2019s text, right
\nafter the commandment. Isaiah 60 v.1 \u201cFor
\nyour light has come, and the glory of the LORD has risen upon you.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

God says that the light the Israelites can shine has already come to
\nthem. That means that the light does not come from the Israelites. They can\u2019t
\nshine a light by themselves. They can shine the light because God\u2019s light comes
\nto them. Moreover, God\u2019s glory has already risen upon them. Before commanding \u201cArise
\nand shine\u201d, God already gave the Israelites light and glory which helps them be
\nable to rise and shine for a new life. God\u2019s light and glory had already come. The
\nonly thing that they can do is to faithfully believe in God\u2019s words.<\/p>\n

Can you imagine why God gave the commandment to the Israelites? Through
\nthis commandment, God assured the Israelites that God had not forgotten them
\nand that their mission as the light to the world had not been changed. It was a
\nway of reassuring them that they were connected with God in a never ending
\ncovenant. This is exactly the way that God does for us. When God commands us to
\ndo, God always gives us the ability to fulfill God\u2019s commandments.<\/p>\n

Then,
\nwhy this gift to the Israelites? The Bible tells us in vs. 2 and 3,<\/p>\n

\u201cFor darkness
\nshall cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples; but the LORD will arise
\nupon you, and his glory will appear over you. Nations shall come to your light,
\nand kings to the brightness of your dawn.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

We can see God\u2019s hope for us through these verses. God is now seeing
\nthe people living in darkness and invites all of the people living in the
\ndarkness into God\u2019s light. And God is sending us to light the world. In today\u2019s
\nverses, light is emphasized and the light definitely means the life of a
\nservant. The darker a place is, the brighter the light is. <\/strong><\/p>\n

We are Christians and call ourselves a church, the body of Christ. We
\nlive on this Island as the body of Christ. For us, God commends \u201cArise and
\nShine.\u201d I don\u2019t know how we can do this but I believe that God commends this because
\nGod loves us so much. Also, God gives us the light and grace and the power to
\nrise and shine. We are the community in which we worship and praise God and
\nfollow the way Jesus lived. Moreover, we should remember that the commandment
\nis not only for our new life here in Chilmark church but need to spread this
\nlight to our neighbors.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Today is the first Sunday of 2013 and the light and grace have already
\nbeen upon all of us. Let\u2019s use the light and grace to spread brightness all
\naround us. The story of Muller, I told earlier, gives us a great lesson. He was
\na thief, con artist and a gambler. Muller\u2019s father wanted his son\u2019s life to be
\nchanged, so he sent his son to a seminary. In the seminary, Muller met a lot of
\ngood Christian friends. One day, some of them invited him into their prayer
\nmeeting. In the meeting, Muller was so moved that his life was changed. He started
\nreading and studying the Bible every day. He realized that God\u2019s light and
\ngrace had been upon him. He realized that God wants him to rise and shine. He
\nrose and shined and became a light for his neighbors and the world as well.<\/p>\n

This year, let us emulate Muller. Let us be a faithful and praying
\ncommunity like the one that changed the Muller\u2019s life. God commands to us,<\/p>\n

\u201cArise, shine; for your light has\u00a0come,\u00a0and the
\nglory of the Lord has risen upon
\nyou.\u201d<\/p>\n

Let us pray,<\/p>\n

Loving
\nGod, Arise and shine, you command us today. And you gave the power to rise and
\nthe light to shine. We give thanks to you for them. Now bless us to live as a
\nlight of this Island and bless us to share God\u2019s grace with the people around
\nus. In you name, we pray. Amen.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Arise, Shine! Isaiah 60:1-3 1 Arise, shine; for your light has\u00a0come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you. 2 For darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples; but the Lord will arise upon you, and his glory will appear over\u00a0you. 3 Nations shall come to your light, and kings […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3347","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-worship-and-teaching"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chilmarkchurch.org\/service\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3347","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chilmarkchurch.org\/service\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chilmarkchurch.org\/service\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chilmarkchurch.org\/service\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chilmarkchurch.org\/service\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3347"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/chilmarkchurch.org\/service\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3347\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4020,"href":"https:\/\/chilmarkchurch.org\/service\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3347\/revisions\/4020"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chilmarkchurch.org\/service\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3347"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chilmarkchurch.org\/service\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3347"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chilmarkchurch.org\/service\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3347"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}