Today’s Podcast
Today’s Bible reading plan:
Read it in a year – Proverbs 11-12
see the whole year’s plan [here](http://www.bible-reading.com/bible-plan.pdf)
Today’s Devotional
Mark 4:30-32
Jesus: What else is the kingdom of God like? What earthly thing can we compare it to? The kingdom of God is like a mustard seed, the tiniest seed you can sow. But after that seed is planted, it grows into the largest plant in the garden, a plant so big that birds can build their nests in the shade of its branches.
What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?
Wikipedia tells us the candela is the International Standard base unit of luminous intensity; that is, luminous power per unit solid angle emitted by a point light source in a particular direction. Luminous intensity is analogous to radiant intensity, but instead of simply adding up the contributions of every wavelength of light in the source’s spectrum, the contribution of each wavelength is weighted by the standard luminosity function (a model of the sensitivity of the human eye to different wavelengths). A common candle emits light with a luminous intensity of roughly one candela. If emission in some directions is blocked by an opaque barrier, the emission would still be approximately one candela in the directions that are not obscured.
Like most other International Standard base units, the candela has an operational definition—it is defined by a description of a physical process that will produce one candela of luminous intensity. Since the 16th General Conference on Weights and Measures (CGPM) in 1979, the candela has been defined as:
The luminous intensity, in a given direction, of a source that emits monochromatic radiation of frequency 540×10(12) hertz and that has a radiant intensity in that direction of 1⁄683 watt per steradian.
The definition describes how to produce a light source that (by definition) emits one candela. Such a source could then be used to calibrate instruments designed to measure luminous intensity.
The candela is sometimes still called by the old name candle, such as in foot-candle and the modern definition of candlepower.
So why bring up the definition of the candela? Well, we don’t know much about mustard seeds like they did in Jesus’ day. But probably most of us have participated in a service or memorial or some event like the following.
The crowd is given an unlit candle as they come into the auditorium and asked to just hold it until they are told what to do with it later in the program or service. At the right time, maybe at an invitation or a commitment service, a call to missions, a light the world theme or some such event, the speaker has all the lights in the auditorium not just dimmed but extinguished. The auditorium goes black.
As the speaker continues, one candle is lit. It’s a small thing, barely visible from the cheap seats in the balcony at the far end away from the podium, but it is visible. That one candle gives out about one candela of radiant lux, about 12 1/2 lumens if you want to measure the luminous lux. That’s it. Not much to try and conquer the darkness that engulfed the auditorium just a few minutes earlier.
Then the speaker does something you probably expected by this point. That one candle touches the candle of a person nearby, then those two lit candles touch two more, then those four touch four more, and so it goes until every candle that each person holds has that same small flame burning in the hand of its holder. Suddenly, the auditorium is no longer dark, but instead is bathed in hundreds, maybe thousands of candela as each lighted candle adds 12 1/2 more lumens to the auditorium.
In just a few minutes, that one candle, barely visible from the back of the room, becomes the single flame that fans the flame of every candle in every hand that fills the whole room with light. The darkness has been dispelled, but it started with just that one candle.
That’s how God’s word spreads, too. Like the mustard seed that grows into a bush the size of a tree where birds build their nests or like that single candle used to light others that finally engulf the whole room with light, when we share God’s mercy and grace and love with those around us, something happens. His spirit works to spread that fire not only in us, but into those with whom we share. His spirit is always at work. He leads us to people who are ready to hear His word if we will listen to His guiding voice and share when He tells us to. He knows when the time is perfect.
Will we see the results of our labor? Maybe, maybe not. It’s not our responsibility to save people from their sins. We can’t do that. We can’t even win them to the kingdom. Not within our power. But what we can do is tell others what He has done and is doing in our lives. We can act as His witnesses and tell them about Jesus and the good news of His kingdom right here for those willing to give themselves to Him. God does all the rest.
You might feel like one candle in the darkness sometimes. But remember that single candle begins to lighten the whole room. That event or service or memorial you remember with all those candles lit and providing light in that auditorium started with one candle touching another. Are you willing to be that candle in a dark world?
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