You shine as lights in the world, holding fast the
word of life. Philippians 2:15-16
The name of Peter Carter is probably unknown to most people today. He was a 19th-century
American Presbyterian pastor. He wasn't as famous a pulpiteer as Charles Haddon Spurgeon.
He didn't write great works of theology like his contemporary Charles Hodge. He never
achieved the international recognition of Henry Ward Beecher of the Brooklyn Tabernacle.
But he lived his faith in such a way that he encouraged hundreds of people to trust and
serve Jesus Christ. Carter radiated the Savior's love to children as well as to adults.
For example, a visitor asked some of the children in Carter's Sunday school if they knew
the Good Shepherd. "Oh, yes," they answered. "He's Pastor Peter
Carter." Missionary-statesman Robert E. Speer said, "If all the reasoned
arguments in support of Christianity were destroyed, Peter Carter and the two or three men
like him I have known would remain for me as its impregnable basis and defense.
" Even if we think of ourselves as rather ordinary believers, all of us can by God's
grace be shining lights that "glorify [our] Father in heaven" and point people
to the Savior (Matthew 5:16; Philippians 2:14-16). We too can be flesh-and-blood evidence
that the gospel is true.
-VCG
I want my life to shine for Jesus
So that everywhere I go
The watching world will see He loves them
And His saving grace will know.
-Hess
God put us on earth to shine as lights, not to get used to the dark.