THE LIGHTHOUSE

Week Seven, 2022

I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Phil. 4:13

Walking through Christ Church Cemetery, near Fort Frederica on St. Simons Island, I came across the grave of James Gould. The headstone marked his name, the dates of his birth and death and the following description: For twenty-seven years, the keeper of St. Simon’s light.

A little later research told me that he served as the lighthouse keeper from 1810 to 1837 and did much to make the offshore waters safe. Only God knows how many lives he saved as he kept countless ships safe at sea and off the rocks of the barrier islands.

Being a lighthouse keeper in those days was no easy task. There was no electricity and a lantern and fuel had to be carried up winding stairs to the top of the seventy-foot imposing tower at the tip of Cooper’s Point.

The light had to be on and continually burning from before sunset until after sunrise. The lantern had but a small flame and was not like the imposing beam we associate with lighthouses. That is done with a crystal prism which magnifies the light and as the keeper continually spun it around the lantern flame and created a rotating beacon that could be seen from miles at sea, as it protected the maritime traffic.

As I stood before Gould’s grave and contemplated the contribution he made to ships and people for so long. Just a common uneducated lighthouse keeper, but the annals of heaven will reveal the importance of those he saved.

Then I thought there is a spiritual parallel here. We are the ships at sea who, without warning would crash on the rocks. The rocks are the sinful places that would take our lives if we were not steered away. The beacon is the light of Jesus, flashing us continually away from danger.

But wait, there is more. We are called to be in that lighthouse with the prism as we expand the flickering light of Christ to magnify it into a beacon of hope and warning to all who traverse the seas of life, as it steers people away from danger and becomes a beacon of hope in the lives Jesus came to save.

Is Jesus the beacon of hope in your life and are you helping to magnify it for all to see in a lost world and guide them to an eternal home in heaven? You might be a lighthouse in someone else’s storm.

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SOMETIMES TRUE STORIES

TWBOA. It’s an anachronism for The Work Beyond Our Abilities. We are not able to do any of the tasks of life because they are beyond our abilities, but we can, step by step as we focus on Philippians 4:13…… I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me.

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American philosopher William James once noted that men habitually exert less than their maximum power. The speedometer on my car says it can go over 100 mph, but I’ve never driven anywhere close to going that fast. I’m perfectly happy driving at (far) less than the engine’s maximum power. Kenny Chumbly

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The gospel is this: We are more sinful and flawed in ourselves than we ever dared believe, yet at the very same time we are more loved and accepted in Jesus Christ than we ever dared hope. Tim Keller

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A recent listing of the twenty-five most influential people in human history includes Napoleon at #24, Julius Caesar at #21, George Washington at #16, Abraham Lincoln at #15, Plato at #10, Aristotle at #5, Albert Einstein at #2, and in first place, Jesus Christ.

Here’s what makes him different from all the others: we can know him personally. Jim Denison

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QUOTES YOU CAN USE

It’s hard to move forward when you are tied to the past. Ken Whitten

You are either a part of the systems the is corrupting the world and dragging it under, or you are a part of the system that will float over it when it falls. Dan Shock

Destiny is not a matter of chance; it is a matter of choice. It is not a thing to be waited for, it is a thing to be achieved. WILLIAM JENNINGS BRYAN

Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant. ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON

When your faith in someone exceeds your fear in something, fear loses its grip. Andy Stanley

When you judge others, you do not define them; you define yourself. EARL NIGHTINGALE

You have to do your own growing no matter how tall your grandfather was. ABRAHAM LINCOLN

The reward for work well done is the opportunity to do more. JONAS SALK

What a wonderful thought it is that some of the best days of our lives haven’t even happened yet. ANNE FRANK

Kindness is a language which the deaf can hear and see. Mark Twain

The best way to predict the future is to study the past. Robert Kiyosaki

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