Tuesday, December 16, 2014

Devotional 12-16-14

Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise the words of the prophets... (1 Thessalonians 5:19-20)

Before I worked at the United Methodist Foundation, I was a research associate in the field of Vitamin A deficiency and diabetes. Part of what I did involved working with chemicals that would emit low level radiation – so low in energy that it was hard to detect it. I would add a liquid that would become “excited” by the radiation, and release light – light that could be detected by a sensor. In this process, it was important to avoid quenching. Quenching is physical, chemical or color barriers that could keep the radiation from being detected by the sensor.

You still reading?

In this passage from Thessalonians, Paul warns the church to avoid quenching the spirit. God’s light shines through our lives, but there are so many things that can be barriers to the light illuminating the Way for those around us.

If you were to make a checklist (I love lists!), what would you include as ways a church could avoid quenching the spirit and blocking God’s light from others? Perhaps a church should avoid focusing only on its own members, or offering an attitude that is built upon beliefs of scarcity?  Could disunity quench the light? Bickering? Gossip? What would be on a list of ways for a church to be a beacon of light? Hospitality that welcomes everyone? What about generosity of spirit that gives of itself freely? Service that extravagantly dies to self and lives for others?

To quote a favorite song of mine, “Let you light shine before others so they will know our God of love’s in the land.” Amen.

Kim Matthews

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