by Pastor Douglas Brauner

Group Shine!

You can listen to today’s devotion by clicking on this SoundCloud link.

This picture is of the First Order Fresnel lens that graced the top of the 115-foot Point Arena, California lighthouse. I don’t know how light refraction works, but what I do know is that the light from this lens shown miles out into the Pacific Ocean, warning sailors of the dangers of the California coast.

One simple light multiplied to do amazing things.

“Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father.
John 14:12 English Standard Version

If your reaction to Jesus’ words is like mine, you’re thinking, “Right! I’m going to do something greater than Jesus did, the one who died for me, the one who lived a perfect life in my place. I’m going to do greater things than Jesus did?”

It took over two hundred prisms in this lens to make the light greater than its source and produce the results sailors needed. You are not Jesus. I am not Jesus. But the church on earth with millions of believers, is the body of Christ. God connects us to others and together we magnify the light of Christ.

However, it takes every “prism,” every person in Christ’s body doing their part so that the Word of Christ is spread and active in the world.

You are one of those prisms. You play an essential part in the light of Christ glowing in this broken world. You alone will not change this world and neither will I. Solomon reminds us of the danger of pride (Proverbs 26:12). In humility we do what God has called us to do, to reflect the light of his love and to join the church around the world as we reflect his light.

For centuries, the church has been doing amazing things in the world, and still is, all in the name of Jesus and through the power of his Spirit.

Copyright Holy Cross Lutheran Church, Colorado Springs, Colorado