"Oil for
the light."
Exodus 25:6
Exodus 25:6
My
soul, how much you need this, for thy lamp will not long continue to burn
without it. Thy snuff will smoke and become an offence if light be gone, and
gone it will be if oil be absent. Thou hast no oil well springing up in thy
human nature, and therefore thou must go to them that sell and buy for thyself,
or like the foolish virgins, thou wilt have to cry, "My lamp is gone
out." Even the consecrated lamps could not give light without oil; though
they shone in the tabernacle they needed to be fed, though no rough winds blew
upon them they required to be trimmed, and your need is equally as great. Under
the happiest circumstances thou canst not give light for another hour unless
fresh oil of grace is given
to
you.
It
was not every oil that might be used in the Lord's service; neither the
petroleum which exudes so plentifully from the earth, nor the produce of
fishes, nor that extracted from nuts would be accepted; one oil only was
selected, and that the best olive oil. Pretended grace from natural goodness,
fancied grace from priestly hands, or imaginary grace from outward ceremonies
will never serve the true saint of God; he knows that the Lord would not be
pleased with rivers of such oil. He goes to the olive-press of Gethsemane, and
draws his supplies from Him who was crushed therein. The oil of gospel grace is
pure and free from lees and dregs, and hence the light which is fed thereon is
clear and bright. Our churches are the Savior’s golden candelabra, and if they
are to be lights in this dark world, they must have much holy oil.
Let
us pray for ourselves, our ministers, and our churches, that they may never
lack oil for the light. Truth; holiness, joy, knowledge, love, these are all
beams of the sacred light, but we cannot give them forth unless in private we
receive oil from God through the His Spirit!
God
bless,
David
L. Wynn, Pastor
Pauline
B. Grant CME Church
“This
is the Potter’s House”