I'm working on a picture and am looking for a way to light up a small screen, something like a LED display on a watch, I want to light up the glass but not the numbers. Please help with any ideas or links to tutorials Thanks

crank up the ambient setting on the glass background material, and crank down all the lighting parameters (diffuse, ambient, & specular) on the number material. Then, assuming that some light is getting to the object, you should get a glowing background with dark numbers.