Today I wanted to talk a little about light. Particularly living or walking in the light. Now, of course, I just wouldn’t feel right if I didn’t put some kind of song lyric or poem in here, so here you go….this is from dc Talk’s ‘Jesus Freak’ album the song is In The Light.
I keep trying to find a life On my own, apart from youI am the king of excusesI've got one for every selfish thing I do
Chorus:
What's going on inside of me?I despise my own behaviorThis only serves to confirm my suspicions That I'm still a man in need of a saviorI wanna be in the Light As You are in the Light I wanna shine like the stars in the heavensOh, Lord be my Light and be my salvation'Cause all I want is to be in the Light All I want is to be in the LightThe disease of self runs through my bloodIt's a cancer fatal to my soulEvery attempt on my behalf has failed To bring this sickness under control
(Repeat Chorus)
Honesty becomes me (There's nothing left to lose)
The secrets that did run me (In Your Presence are defused)
Pride has no position (And riches have no worth)
The fame that once did cover me (Has been sentenced to this earth)
Has been sentenced to this earth
(Repeat Chorus)
In the light, in the light
In the light, in the light
In the light, in the light
There’s no other place I want to be
No other place that I can see
A place to be that’s just right for me
Someday, someday in the light
You are in the light
That’s where I need to be
That’s right where I need to be
This is one of my favorite songs by dc Talk. I like the arrangement, and the message is perfect! (I got the word arrangement from watching American Idol, hopefully I used it right). Anyways, continuing right along. When they talk about ‘the light’ and when I talk about the light, we are referring to the light of God’s presence. The Bible talks about light and darkness many times. The word light appears in the Bible over 200 times and darkness appears almost 150 times. Now some of these are referring to actual light and dark in regards to day and night, but the others refer to the light of His presence, or the darkness of the absence of His presence.
I will be using quite a few scriptural references, so this might be kind of long. If you need to get up and stretch your legs or rest your eyes, I understand and won’t be offended. I just hope you will come back and finish. John 1:5 says: The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it. Some translations say the darkness can not understand it, or over take it. This just talks about the power that is in the light and that is the light.
I find it interesting that the first thing that God said was, “Let there be light.” And it came to be. Genesis 1:4 goes on to say, “And God saw that the light was good. Then He separated the light from the darkness.” Now what is even more interesting is that God did not create the sun and moon until the fourth day! You may be like, “Hold up, Jason. I thought you said that God created light on the first day.” I didn’t say that, the Bible said that. It is true! God created light on the first day. That was His first order of business. I think that the light that He was working by on days 2 and 3 was the light of His presence. Revelation 21 talks about the New Jerusalem that we will live in after the end of the Earth. Verse 23 says: And the city has no need of sun or moon, for the glory of God illuminates the city, and the Lamb is its light. See, God is so powerful and so magnificent, that He just exudes light. He IS light, (John 1:9 says The one who is true light, who gives light to everyone, was coming into the world), but God has the ability to turn that light on and off. I don’t think that when God separated the light from darkness He completely left the Earth like a construction worker leaves a job site at the end of the day. I think He just allowed His presence light to shine away from it. We see in scripture several times that God ‘allowed’ His presence to be removed from certain people. I think that is what happened here. He is always everywhere, He is omnipresent. But, I think that he can remove His holy presence from wherever He wants. It’s kind of like He turns on His cloaking device when and where He wants, but He is still there. We just can’t sense Him.
After He got the heavens and the Earth prepared the way He wanted them, He created the sun for the daytime and the moon for the night time. Now the Earth didn’t have to be illuminated by His presence. His presence, certainly, shines brighter than the sun ever has or will ever shine, but He allowed the light of His presence not be the ruling light of the day time.
Here are several more passages from the New Testament about this light. You can read over them, and I am going to touch on each of them throughout the rest of this blog.
Matthew 5:16 - In the same way, let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father.
John 3:19-21 - And the judgment is based on this fact: God’s light came into the world, but people loved the darkness more than the light, for their actions were evil. All who do evil hate the light and refuse to go near it for fear their sins will be exposed. But those who do what is right come to the light so others can see that they are doing what God wants
John 8:12 - Jesus spoke to the people once more and said, “I am the light of the world. If you follow me, you won’t have to walk in darkness, because you will have the light that leads to life.”
John 9:5 - But while I am here in the world, I am the light of the world.”
John 11:9-10 - Jesus replied, “There are twelve hours of daylight every day. During the day people can walk safely. They can see because they have the light of this world. But at night there is danger of stumbling because they have no light.”
John 12:44-46 - Jesus shouted to the crowds, “If you trust me, you are trusting not only me, but also God who sent me. For when you see me, you are seeing the one who sent me. I have come as a light to shine in this dark world, so that all who put their trust in me will no longer remain in the dark.
2 Corinthians 4:6 - For God, who said, “Let there be light in the darkness,” has made this light shine in our hearts so we could know the glory of God that is seen in the face of Jesus Christ.
2 Corinthians 6:14 - Don’t team up with those who are unbelievers. How can righteousness be a partner with wickedness? How can light live with darkness? What harmony can there be between Christ and the devil? How can a believer be a partner with an unbeliever?
Ephesians 5:8-14a - For once you were full of darkness, but now you have light from the Lord. So live as people of light! For this light within you produces only what is good and right and true. Carefully determine what pleases the Lord. Take no part in the worthless deeds of evil and darkness; instead, expose them. It is shameful even to talk about the things that ungodly people do in secret. But their evil intentions will be exposed when the light shines on them, for the light makes everything visible.
1 John 1:5-10 - This is the message we heard from Jesus and now declare to you: God is light, and there is no darkness in him at all. So we are lying if we say we have fellowship with God but go on living in spiritual darkness; we are not practicing the truth. But if we are living in the light, as God is in the light, then we have fellowship with each other, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from all sin. If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth. But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness. If we claim we have not sinned, we are calling God a liar and showing that his word has no place in our hearts.
Have you ever been out in the country away from all of the lights? One, it’s absolutely beautiful, seeing all of the stars and planets. Two, you get to experience what it is like to be in darkness. If you ever find yourself driving down a country road at night without any street lights, turn your headlights off. It will FREAK you out!!! I do this all of the time, and it still scares me. Even if it is only for a second or two, it is VERY disorienting. Have you ever noticed that it is always darkest just beyond the light? The next time you are out on that country road, or walking with a flashlight, see how far you can see just beyond your light beams. It is very dark. Just like when you are driving with your headlights on and you shut them off, it is probably one of the darkest darks you can experience.
What do we do when we walk from a bright room or a sunny day into a dark room or house? We normally stand there for a few minutes until our eyes adjust to the darkness so we can walk around and function. Unfortunately, we tend to do this in our spiritual lives as well. If we are not careful, we can stumble into a sin and start to get ‘comfortable’ with it. We may stand there at first, but once we become accustomed to the ‘darkness’ that is our sin, we then can just walk around in that life. Eventually, we either realize that we are in a dark place and run back to the light with repentance, or we walk deeper and deeper into the dark and further and further away from the presence of God. Some people never even bother with coming back to the light because they are too deep into their sin, and don’t want to get back. (John 3:19-21)
When we find ourselves walking out of the bright, glorious light of God’s presence, and into the dark, emptiness of the sin of this world, we need to immediately do a one-eighty and get back in the light. And please, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, if you do ever turn your headlights off in the country, PLEASE turn them back on immediately!!! (Reread John 11:9-10 above.) I do not want anyone to get in a wreck and say, “Jason told me to drive with my headlights off in the dark. That’s why I ran off the road and killed that cow.” One, I don’t think the police and the farmer with the dead cow will find the humor in it, or think that you are intelligent enough to be driving. But also, people will start to think of me as some crazy cult leader telling his followers to drive with their headlights off in the dark in order to reach the heavenly comet that will take us to our paradise planet where Kool-Aid flows from the Candy mountains.
I also want to encourage all of you to be watchful in these times. Things that are going on in the world can seem like darkness is winning. We may even live in areas that are dark, or work in places that are very dark, spiritually speaking. Just make sure that you are filled with the light. The Bible tells us that we are to be in the world, but not of the world. That means, we may live in a dark world because Satan has control of the Earth and is the ‘Prince of Darkness’, but we do not have to live like the world. (John 8:12, John 12:44-46, 2 Corinthians 4:6, 2 Corinthians 6:14)
I will close with this. We need to let the light of God infiltrate every fiber of our beings. We need to let it completely consume us. We then need to surround ourselves with others that walk in the light, and we all need to walk together. When God’s light is that prevalent in our lives, it can’t help but to shine on those in the darkness. Like Matthew 5:16 says: “…let your light shine before all men so they can see your good works and praise your Father in heaven.” (NIV) Live in a way so that those who don’t know God, will see a difference in you and want to get in on the action.
I hope that this has been a blessing to you that are reading it, as much as it has been to me just writing it. Like always, if you have any prayer requests, comments, complaints, questions, or anything, PLEASE, let me know. If you have something confidential, give me a way to contact you, and I will. Take care and God bless!!
Jason
