Readily and Cheerfully

 Do everything readily and cheerfully—no bickering, no second-guessing allowed! Go out into the world uncorrupted, a breath of fresh air in this squalid and polluted society. Provide people with a glimpse of good living and of the living God. Carry the light-giving Message into the night so I’ll have good cause to be proud of you on the day that Christ returns. (Philippians 2:14-16)

Do everything readily - promptly, easily, and willingly. Do everything cheerfully - ungrudgingly, joyfully, with brightness. These two instructions might just seem a little bit like a summary at the beginning of our study and you would be right. We are told to 'go out' and as we do we are to shine as bright examples of his grace - grace upon grace. Why? So others will have a chance to meet the living God - the God who lives and breathes in us - so they may embrace this grace upon grace for themselves.

An even taller order comes when we consider there is to be no bickering - petulant arguments get us nowhere in this life. We find people quibble over the weirdest things these days - sometimes just to cause division because division gives no 'one source' power over the other. Do you know what these arguments do? They not only bring division, but they allow truth to be evaded, if even for a short time. When truth is prohibited from being shared - evidenced to the world - there is celebration, but not in heaven. That celebration is amongst Satan and his demons.

Where are we to go? Into an unbelieving, corrupt world. How is it we make a difference in this world? By living uncorrupted by the things that corrupt, pollute, and create division. The corrupt are only exposed where a lack of corruption is seen - where light is free to shine forth. Become the lives that shine - that refuse to engage in the petulance around us these days. Petulance is really the fodder for bitterness and cynicism. Impatience abounds around us today, but God's people are to stand strong, with hope, in total assurance of his power to bring down strongholds all around us.

Carry the light-giving message into the darkness - where evil abounds, darkness abounds. Wherever we go, we bring light. Be the light - shine brightly. Don't engage in the cynicism of this world. Don't become a means of furthering the bitterness and ugliness around us. Instead, be the means by which the world comes into direct contact with God's grace - his light shines best in his people. Just sayin!