One of the fun songs I remember from church camp days was “Give Me Oil In My Lamp.”
Some of you know the song. The idea, I believe, is a take-off from Jesus’ parable about the virgins who made sure they had oil for their lamps whenever the bridegroom showed up late at night and called them to follow him to a wedding celebration.
Some girls were apathetic, however, and didn’t prepare. They ran out of oil for their lamps and couldn’t join the procession to blessing.
It is SO much better when we know the source of spiritual oil and we take care to learn how to tap into it. You’ve seen people wasting match after match, in effect, as they tried to light a lamp filled with theological emptiness or tainted water of carnal teaching.
It doesn’t work, of course. And they wander in darkness.
Sometimes they see a believer with a bright light and they join him or her until they can see how they, too, can be filled by God.
But sometimes, their frustration with trying to light “fool’s fuel” stirs their pride to attempt the snuffing out of the Christian’s flame.
What kind of lamp are you just now in the eyes of those around you? Are you burning clear and consistent as God’s Spirit fills you from the inside? Or is your flame flickering and shrinking as the flow dries up?
This idea of a burning lamp occurred to me this morning when I read Isaiah 8:19-20.
“When men tell you to consult mediums and spiritists, who whisper and mutter, should not a people inquire of their God? Why consult the dead on behalf of the living?
“To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this Word, they have no light of dawn.”
I appreciate the logic of what Isaiah wrote. It makes no sense to claim that contacting dead souls can provide hope for living people. Even if one could make a phone call to the dead, only what has been could be discussed.
There would be no insight for what is ahead. That means that the dead could offer no message of hope for the future.
There is a way to find hope for the future. There is a Spirit that can speak about what will happen as time passes, a Spirit that can show us the pathway to certain eternal life and even certain blessings along the way.
That Spirit is God’s Holy Spirit. And that Spirit speaks through scripture, the Living Word, the Light of Dawn that provides hope against the backdrop of deepest darkness.
Listen, there is only one perfect hope. He is the Morning Star that calls people out of the darkness and into God’s wonderful Light.
Jesus is the Light of the World, the dawn of deliverance.
My friend, ask God to fill you with the light of dawn. That way, you’ll have a fountain of hope flowing from you, shining as a lamp with a ceaseless supply of oil.
Any other effort to light up this world will waste a lot of matches, a lot of breath and a lot of time.
And I’m sure you don’t want that.
As always, I love you
Martin
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