Hi, my name is Joshua and I am 24 years old. I was encouraged by my brother to share my thoughts and applications for verses from the Bible to be a blessing to others. I only hope to encourage and to be a blessing to my fellow brothers and sisters in Christ.

     I am reading through the 4 gospels and will try to share with you what the Lord has shown me out of his word as I study Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. While reading I came across a portion of scripture most of us have been familiar with since our early days in Sunday School. Our candle, and not hiding it under a bushel. The teaching in particular is found in Matthew 5:15-16, "15 Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. 16 Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven."

     Most of the time when we hear a lesson or sermon about these verses they are almost always about letting our light shine in the dark world in which we live. To be a bright testimony, lifting up Christ to lead others to salvation. That is all true, and a very important lesson to understand, though there is so much more one can apply this verse to than just being a good witness.

     Every word in the Bible is used for a reason and all were used very carefully by God. The source of light he chose in verse 15 is that of a candle. He did not say lamp, light, or torch, he very specifically chose to use the word candle. An important application for this is just think of how quickly a candle will burn up. It is a temporary light source which represents the limited amount of time we have here on Earth to let our light shine out into the world. Another message conveyed often to Christians in the New Testament is how short life is. James 4:14 "14 Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away."

     The second application out of verse 15 regards the bushel. A bushel, simply, is a basket woven from twigs which is quite flammable. If you cover your light and run from the will of God, he will chastise you and convict you greatly. It will burn away at you and if you refuse long enough, that bushel (in this case your life and testimony) will be destroyed and left to ruin. What will remain is the candle, still shining and ready again to be used for the Lord if you would come back to him. Still others hide their light under an even thicker, larger bushel to repeat the process over again only to end in an even greater disaster than before. The most miserable Christian is one living outside of the will of God.  

      I shared these thoughts with my Pastor and he had a great bit of wisdom and insight into the bushel as well. He said, "A bushel is woven from twigs, and so it has many small gaps that the light can shine through. Even if you try to turn your back on God and live like the world, some of that light will still shine through. The lost are watching and you cannot hide your light from them completely. You will only hurt your testimony and the testimony of Christ." What a great truth! God help me, and us all, to be a proper testimony for Christ.

     Our time here on Earth is limited thus we only have so long to be a light in the darkness today. I encourage everyone that has kindly taken the time to read my thoughts to work for the Lord! Let your light shine before men, lift up Christ in the preaching of the gospel. Bring lost souls to Christ, for that is the only thing that will matter in eternity. Live for him, do his will, if you do those 2 things faithfully God will give you a peace and joy in life that is beyond understanding.