For the same God who said, "Out of darkness let light shine," has caused his light to shine within us, to give the light of revelation—the revelation of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. 2 Cor. 4:6, N.E.B.

The great contribution that Christ makes is not only that He died for us but that he also gives us power to be and to do that which, until we gave our lives to Him, we had never been able to be and do on our own. God so loves us as to change and transform us. Men and women spiritually dead, lost in a round of secular and worldly activities, ambitions, and pleasures, become new men and women with all the power of God available. Prophets, apostles, missionaries, martyrs, gave their lives and spilled their blood.

When Christ comes into our lives, this does not necessarily mean we must change our work or the place where we live in order to escape difficulties and temptations. We may have the same job, the same home, the same community, the same people to live with. But there is the power of God added, a new dimension to life. There is something thrilling about life with Christ. We can throw ourselves into our job, singing our way through the days and weeks and years.

In Christ's time, to the Greek, the only man who counted was the one who could think. To the Roman, the only man who counted was the one who had power to conquer. To the Jew, the only man who counted was the man who knew the law and kept it. Then came Jesus. He cares for the lilies of the field and clothes them with beauty. Not even a sparrow falls to the ground but what He knows. Even the hairs of our head are numbered. Christ left the ninety-and-nine sheep in the fold and came to our world searching for His lost children. It is this that makes the difference in our world and in our lives.

I have read that in the field of botany, radium is sometimes used with plants that are warped and stunted. Then the flower or the plant comes to bloom and to fullness in a way never seen before. Similarly, when God walks into our lives, nothing is the same again. Nothing makes life so abundant as the coming of Christ into our hearts.