The 81st Convention of the Episcopal Church of Liberia and Its Theme of “Arise, Shine, for You are The Light of Christ”

From Liberia-

This fourth article of the series on the theme of the recently held 81st Diocesan annual convention of Episcopal Church of Liberia, “Arise and Shine, for You Are the Light of Christ”, brings to a close the series by encouraging all who have the light of Christ in them to shine brightly. How is this to be done? What does it mean to shine in this particular context?

The third article on what it means and takes to arise in order to shine made the following points: The theme of the Episcopal Church convention enjoins upon Episcopalians and all Christians to arise and shine because they are the lights of Christ to this world. To arise or rise (there is no significant difference between the two in terms of grammar and meaning) is to get up or stand up; it is to muster courage and face a serious challenge as one would rise to an occasion.

To rise can be a summons to do something as opposed to sitting around and doing nothing. It can be a rebuke to one who is doing poorly or an encouragement to one who is doing good to do better. There are such several rebukes or encouragement in the Bible to God's people to trust God and do what they must in spite of the perceived dangers or the enormity associated with the required tasks.

We all need to rise from our moral slumber, sheer laziness, religious slumber, political slumber, and slumber of non-initiative and do something that honors God and uplifts all concerned. We must shake ourselves from the shackles of immorality, religious luke-warmness, the attitude of waiting for the government and someone else to do something for us , and not taking any risks at all, and then to rise to be counted. In order to shine one must first learn to rise. To rise is to respond to God's call to us to become his active agents, channels and instruments to transform self and others.

more here-

http://www.liberianobserver.com/content/81st-convention-episcopal-church-liberia-and-its-theme-“arise-shine-you-are-light-christ”--0