Proverbs 20:27
The spirit of man is the candle of the Lord, searching all the inward parts of the belly.
The LORD’s light penetrates the human spirit, exposing every hidden motive. (NLT)
I have long been fascinated by flashlights, or torches, as we call them in the UK. One of the earliest I owned was shaped like a gun. To make the torch work you simply pulled the trigger. That torch didn’t last long, it was cheap and my friend’s sister broke it. I was heart broken at the time, but since then I have been on a quest for brighter and better torches. The latest LED torches are currently meeting my needs!
We had some fairly powerful torches when I was at sea – they were important emergency equipment, but none were as bright as the Aldis lamp we had on the bridge for the purpose of signaling. The Aldis lamp could light up pretty much anything, but it was intended for sending messages by Morse code over long distances. I remember a third mate on one ship standing outside the wheelhouse and shining an Aldis lamp into the jungle while we were anchored in the River Orinoco in Venezuela. He had hoped to spot some monkeys in the trees. All he actually achieved was to become a focal point for every hungry insect in the vicinity.
Just like the third mate got more than he expected when he shone a bright light into the jungle, so God’s light exposes more than we expect or wish it to when He penetrates our human spirit. Stuff we thought we had hidden away is suddenly exposed for all to see. But God doesn’t want everyone to see all our hidden secrets. He wants us to see them, recognize them, and surrender them to Him. Then He can deal with them so that when His light shines in us it also shines around us, illuminating His beauty in us and attracting others to Him.
Caitlin Klem
Chris Jordan
Daniel M. Klem
dawnlizjones
David
Grady Davidson
Jason Sneed
Michael Wilson
Nick
Anthony Baker
Katie Marie
Wally Fry
Proverbial Thought 
June 12th, 2013 at 7:01 am
Loved the way your wrote about this Proverb. Thanks.
June 13th, 2013 at 3:03 am
Thank you.
June 13th, 2013 at 12:41 am
I was a leader on a youth trip this one time, and one of the students brought a light with 100,000 lumens. The first night he fired the thing up toward the small valley not far away to show us how bright it was. He, too, was swamped with mosquitoes and other little buggers!
Fortunately for the rest of us, the bugs were not interested in our little headlamps!
June 13th, 2013 at 3:19 am
I like powerful torches but 100,000 lumens?! At least he did everyone else a favour by keeping the bugs away from you.
June 13th, 2013 at 1:13 pm
Seriously!
June 13th, 2013 at 10:16 am
Great post, David. I used to have a Surefire flashlight (until it was stolen). It was small, but it could blind a person. I used to have fun with it at night, while riding in the passenger seat of our car. With my wife driving, I would point my Surefire at street signs a few cars in front of me, then click the light on and off. Drivers in front of me had no idea why the road signs were flickering 🙂
June 13th, 2013 at 11:08 am
Thank you Anthony. I just looked up Surefire on Amazon – you need insurance for one of those! I have had a massive maglite for years but it isn’t a patch on a small LED Lenser I have that fits in my hand.
June 13th, 2013 at 11:24 am
I had a rechargeable one. It was a perfect size, about half the size of a Mag Light, but a lot brighter. The spot was a perfect circle with no distortion from a bulb. It was great, especially for termite inspections in crawl spaces under houses. I could see farther under a house.