Each Day a New Day

April/The Martyr Life

12 April 2010

Whoever does the will of God from heaven is a blazing sun in which there is summer, he is the seat of God in heaven, he is a pure vessel of crystal...

  - Oengus mac Oengobann, Feilire Oengusso (Irish, 9th century)

...the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining...And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.

  - 1 John 2.8, 17

I wonder whether we who profess faith in Jesus Christ as Savior and King rightly consider what vast potential resides in actually doing the will of God day by day. We can only complain so long and loudly about the wretched darkness of the world. Sooner or later, we have to bring the light, or just shut up. John, in exile for his faith, could see in the Church at Ephesus clear evidence that the light of Christ was increasing and driving back the darkness of sin and unbelief. Doing the will of God: That's the key to making each day a new day in the light of Jesus Christ.

The scene of Christ's ascension faces each new day on the east face of the Cross of Muiredach. Those 9th-century believers who looked upon that giant cross, and listened while the priest expounded its meaning, could hardly have missed the point: If we claim to believe in Jesus, to have come to Him in faith, then we must go forth each day as His witnesses - martyrs for Christ - to do the will of God and shine the light of our King into every recess of darkness in our lives.

Do you read these words with assent? Do you agree that doing the will of God can bring the light of Jesus into the sad, hopeless lives of the people you will meet today? And into the dark corruption of a world being choked in the vomit of its own sin? Do you believe this? Then what is God's will for you today, you who bear the light of Christ the Sun in your souls and lives? If you do not know, or are not sure, then do not go forth into the darkness until He makes plain to you one simple step, one word of truth, one act of resolute obedience and grace that can, as it breaks into the lives of those around you, bring the light of King Jesus with dark-dispelling power.

Go forth as a martyr this day, carrying the light of this new day in the Name of the Eternal Day.

Today in ReVision: Quails in the Desert?

This Week's Download: Be Witnesses - Reading this brochure won't take ten minutes. Living it could change your life. And it's free!

The Hidden Life provides meditations and exercises for becoming more consistently immersed in the light of Jesus. Website, Publications, Waxed Tablet - that will get you to the bookstor.

T. M. Moore, nacurragh@aol.com