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\u201cIf you fully obey the Lord your God and carefully follow all his commands I give you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations on earth. All these blessings will come on you and accompany you if you obey the Lord your God\u2026\u201d (Deuteronomy 28:1-2).

Since I made the rules for our journey through Deuteronomy, I also get to break them. We are staying with the same text as my last edition of Wilderness Wanderings. More specifically, these words, \u201cthe Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth.\u201d

Moses does not define what this looks like. It\u2019s a safe assumption that part of the deal is that other nations would look up to Israel; that she would shine in such a way that people will be drawn to her, to her values and to her God.

It seems to me that when Jesus said to his disciples, \u201cYou are the salt of the earth\u2026You are the light of the world\u201d, he was echoing our text. And like Moses, he is telling us that our capacity to be the light of the world is directly connected to our faithfulness to God.

Paul unpacks this further when he says, \u201cDo everything without grumbling or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, \u201cchildren of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation.\u201d Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky as you hold firmly to the word of life\u201d (Philippians 2:14-16).

In these devotions and in our preaching, both Pastor Anthony and I have lamented the current state of the church. There appears to be more darkness that light. It\u2019s a fair conclusion if we only read the headlines, whether they be secular or Christian.

But then I went on tour with Renita, visiting several of our church members in their workplaces. We heard stories of what it looks like to live as a Christian in the marketplace, how Christ\u2019s kindness and love leak out of us in the most unexpected ways. I saw \u201cthe church\u201d being the church outside of the church building. It was good.

Then I remembered that in our long history, the church often initiated schools and hospitals. In Canada today, for every grocery store there are four organizations providing food for the hungry, many of them connected to a church. The light shines.

Soon after Jesus tells his disciples that we are the light of the world, he tells us three times not to show off our piety in front of others (Matthew 6:1-17). \xa0God will reveal our good deeds when the time is right. The nature of godly work is to do it quietly where it \xa0go unnoticed. Maybe that is why the writer of Hebrews gives us this encouragement, \u201cAnd let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another\u2014and all the more as you see the Day approaching\u201d (10:24-25).

It is difficult to stay the course that is narrow and challenging when we go it alone. We need companions and encouragers along the way. Do we need to put more emphasis on that in our church life?