I love words.

I love short words, long words, silly  words, profound words, new words, old words, descriptive words, etc…

You get the point.

But most of all I love The Word.  He is my passion.  The word that The Word gave me today is RADIANT.  This word is delightful.  I love the way it rolls off my tongue.  I love the warmth it exudes.

Hold your RADIANT thought for a moment. Let me go back, for a second, to The One who gave me this resplendent treasure-The Word. (I also really love the word “resplendent”, just so you know:)

“The Word became flesh and blood,
and moved into the neighborhood.
We saw the glory with our own eyes,
the one-of-a-kind glory,
like Father, like Son,
Generous inside and out,
true from start to finish.”

John 1:14 MSG

When God’s Son became flesh, He became the visible expression of the invisible God.  Jesus is the Glory of God, the Shekinah Glory.  Shekinah is a Hebrew word that means a divine visitation of the Presence of God on earth.  In the Old Testament The Shekinah was first evident when the Israelites set out from Succoth in their escape from Egypt. There the Lord appeared in a cloudy pillar in the day and a fiery pillar by night:

“After leaving Succoth they camped at Etham on the edge of the desert. By day the LORD went ahead of them in a pillar of cloud to guide them on their way and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, so that they could travel by day or night. Neither the pillar of cloud by day nor the pillar of fire by night left its place in front of the people” (Exodus 13:20–22).

We see the close relationship between God and Moses in Exodus 33 and 34.  The Lord would speak to Moses face to face, as one speaks to a friend, and after these divine meetings, Scripture says that Moses would literally glow!

“When Moses came down from Mount Sinai carrying the two Tablets of The Testimony, he didn’t know that the skin of his face glowed because he had been speaking with God. Aaron and all the Israelites saw Moses, saw his radiant face, and held back, afraid to get close to him.” (Exodus 34:29-30 MSG)

There is my word:

RADIANT: sending out light; shining or glowing brightly.

Resplendent is a synonym for radiant.  I had never even heard of the word resplendent until I looked up the actual definition of radiant one day and it was in the synonym list. I love a new word!

Why am I talking about RADIANT? 

Radiance is the outward expression of a heart that is in love. Do you know someone who literally glows because they are in love? Do we glow because we are in love?

God’s outward expression of His heart that is in love is His Glory, the radiance of His Son.  Moses literally radiated from the inside out after spending time in God’s Presence, and in the New Testament, Scripture tells us:

“When they observed the boldness of Peter and John and realized that they were uneducated and untrained men, they were amazed and recognized that they had been with Jesus.” (Acts 4:13)

The outward expression of Peter’s and John’s hearts that were in love with Jesus was their boldness.  When we are unashamed to speak about the One we love, we will gladly and boldly step up and say, in the deep, spiritual words of “Elf”:

“I’m in love and I don’t care who knows it.”

In a world where politically correct trumps passion, we have lost our glow and our boldness. We are so scared to offend people that we choose to break the heart of our first love instead.    Our radiance and our witness are supposed to be the outward expressions of our hearts in love with Jesus.  I want to be unashamed and unafraid to live a life that joyfully proclaims this resplendent outcry:

“I’m in love and I don’t care who knows it.”

What treasures do I want to share?

*Think about the words we love and let’s use them.

*How do words make us feel?

ex) I said Radiant made me feel warmth.

make a list of some words that make you feel something positive.

May we Use those words to speak life over every path we cross.

*What words would we want people to use when describing us?

(I want to be remembered as radiant or resplendent, not because of me, but because of the One I have spent time with, Jesus!)

*It is time to let our light shine, so that the world around us will gravitate to the source of our shine, Christ.

*Being untrained or uneducated does not disqualify us from being used in positive, purposeful ways.

*Don’t be ashamed or afraid to stand up and say:

“I’m in love and I don’t care who knows it.”