Keep Your Lamp Trimmed and Burning

Well, don't you worry
Well, don't you worry
See what the Lord have done

Oh, keep a-yo' lamp

trimmed and burnin'
Oh, keep a-yo' lamp

trimmed and burnin'
Oh, keep a-yo' lamp

trimmed and a burnin'
See what the Lord have done

Traditional

Then the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish, and five were wise. For when the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them, but the wise took flasks of oil with their lamps. As the bridegroom was delayed, they all became drowsy and slept. But at midnight there was a cry, 'Here is the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.' Then all those virgins rose and trimmed their lamps. And the foolish said to the wise, 'Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.' But the wise answered, saying, 'Since there will not be enough for us and for you, go rather to the dealers and buy for yourselves.' And while they were going to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the marriage feast, and the door was shut. Afterward the other virgins came also, saying, 'Lord, lord, open to us.' But he answered, 'Truly, I say to you, I do not know you.' Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.

Matthew 25:1-10

Christ spoke this parable shortly before his death. There are a few things that we should take away from this parable that are applicable to our walk with Christ. They are attentiveness and preparation.

The first point of this parable is that Christians are to be attentive to the will of Christ. John 10:3 says. "The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out." Those that Christ has called, know and hear His voice. In practical thinking, what does this mean? From the parable, the lamp is God's word and the oil is His spirit. Those that do not belong to Christ, can have his word. It has no effect on them without the illuminating effect of the Spirit, for we know that the Gospel is foolishness to the non-believer. John 1:1-5 says,

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it."

The Word of God is life. It is of the upmost importance for the Christian to consume themselves with the Word of God.

The second point of the parable is that the Christian should be prepared for God's call. Even the foolish virgins heard the cry of the arrival of the groom. Because they were unprepared, they were left out of the marriage feast, effectively, left out of the kingdom. To be prepared for God's call, the Christian must spend much time in not only the word, but also prayer. Where the lamp is the word of God that illuminates in the darkness, it is the oil, or the spirit of God, that transforms the sinner into saint. Jesus says to Nicodemus in John 3, in order to enter the Kingdom of God, one must be born of the spirit. Verses 19-21 of chapter 3 are powerful reminders of the importance of keeping our lamps trimmed and burning.

"And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God."

It is the spirit of God through the Word that exposes darkness and overcomes the evil in our hearts and allows us to do good. Our good works are "wrought" by God.

So it is important for us to read the Word and diligently focus on prayer in order that when we hear God call, we are prepared to act. In doing so, we live as the freed sons and daughters of God, being able to love and live out the love of Christ. Our hearts will remained softened to the will of God and more apt to resist sin and temptation.

One of the main themes of all of Christ's parables is the separation of his true church from the world. In the case of this parable, the foolish virgins, who had the word and heard the cry, were nominal Christians. There is no place in the kingdom for the nominal Sunday morning Christian. Christ's true church is called to be transformed by His saving grace through His word. It just simply is not good enough to pray a prayer and claim the name of Jesus and show up to church. We must strive to be like Christ. We must be transformed into His image. So in the words of the apostle Peter, we should all strive every day to make our calling and election sure.

Yer Blues

In the morning, wanna die

In the evening, wanna die

If I ain't dead already

Ooh girl you know the reason why

John Lennon & Paul McCartney

Behold, they say to me,
"Where is the word of the LORD?
Let it come!"
I have not run away from being your shepherd,
nor have I desired the day of sickness.
You know what came out of my lips;
it was before your face.
Be not a terror to me;
you are my refuge in the day of disaster.

Jeremiah 17:15-17

In my life, I have often felt despair and helplessness when I felt like I failed my Lord. So many times, we compartmentalize our faith and establish our own set of rules by which to measure our faith and spiritual growth. The truth is, we will never do anything that will cause God to love us more. Likewise, we can't sin enough to cause God to not love us and cut us off. To those He has called, He has given faith and perseveres them into a greater knowledge of His love, mercy, and grace.

Now don't get me wrong. While God is sovereign over our salvation and enables us to not only come to Him but to repent and perform good deeds, we still have a responsibility to progress our own sanctification and pursue his holiness. Paul says we are to submit our bodies to him. But what happens when we fail? How should we react to our own sinfulness as we stand before God clothed in the righteousness of Jesus Christ?

One thing we should not do, is despair. We will sin. We will sin a lot. We will never live up to the example that Christ has set. When I first became a Christian, I often felt that I had let God down with my sin. Sometimes I would despair and feel sorry for myself. Despair is the devil's tool to lead the Christian towards apathy and then into apostasy. He wants you to give up. He is trying to convince you that you aren't good enough or worthy enough of God's love. When we fall, we must not give up on the race. We must not allow the devil to use this despair to lead us into a spirit of self loathing and fear. While despair is a very human experience, we should take our despair captive and make it obedient to the will of Christ. We conquer the spirit of despair when allow God to use the experience to grow us and lead us closer to Him.