This Little Light of Mine…

John 1:4-5 American Standard Version (ASV)
4 In him was life; and the life was the light of men. ⁵And the light shineth in the darkness; and the darkness ^[a]apprehended it not.

Footnotes:John 1:5 Or, overcame.
via http://www.biblegateway.com

I love words. But sometimes, it can be frustrating to find just the right word to express a complex idea. I’m sure the Apostle John felt the struggle as he began writing his Gospel account of the life of Christ. How can mere words describe the arrival of GOD– creator and ruler of the universe– into a darkened and sin-filled world, come to live among and serve the very lost souls He would die to save? John, of all the Gospel writers, uses the most visual metaphors to describe the Advent of Jesus (many of which he heard from the lips of Christ Himself)– He was the “Light of the World”, the “Bread of Life”, the “Living Water,” the “Way, the Truth, and the Life,” and the “Good Shepherd.”

But right away, the phrase John uses to talk about the “Light of the Life” causes modern English scholars confusion. John says that the light “shineth”, or “shines” in the darkness and the darkness “comprehended” (or apprehended, or understood, or overcame) it not. The phrase is simply too big for one word, or idea. The Greek word comes closer to expressing a dual idea, but even it can’t wrap up the totality of such an event.

Consider–This Jesus, one with God from the beginning, and the “Word” of creation, spoke light into existence. Where there was darkness, He exploded– light upon light– stars and galaxies of light! Even on the darkest night we will ever know, there are millions of lights spread out across the vastness of space, including our own sun, even unseen on the other side of the planet. Darkness can never “comprehend”, let alone “overcome” the existence of light in our world.

Moreover, when we see physical light piercing the darkness, we are aware of it, but we rarely comprehend, or understand it. Whether we are blinded by a flash of light, or compelled to seek out a single hint of light in a darkened tunnel, it is not obvious at first glance (and sometimes even after diligent study) the source or scope of the light. It may be a candle, or a set of glaring headlights, or the glint of reflected light in a mirror. It could be a distant star, a satellite, or a street light shrouded in fog.

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But in a spiritual sense, it is even more true that “Light has come into the world” (John 3:19), and it “shines” in the darkness, and the darkness has not understood, or apprehended, or overcome it. Jesus came as an infant to His own chosen people, people who were longing for the advent of their Messiah. But few of them recognized Him. They didn’t understand– even Jesus’ closest friends didn’t “get it” at first. And some of them tried their best to “overcome” and “apprehend” the Gospel message– zealous religious leaders like Saul tried to stop the “light” of Jesus’ message and all those who trusted in it. Saul had to be “blinded” by a light on his way to Damascus, so that he could finally “see” Christ (Acts 9).

And the light is still shining in the darkness– as followers of Christ, we are to reflect God’s love and grace to those around us. Many of them will not comprehend; many will try to overcome or even destroy the message we bring. Our light may seem small and insignificant. It may seem like we are surrounded by the vast darkness of space, or shrouded in fog. But the light of Christ cannot be extinguished, or rationalized out of existence, or contained. All the words ever spoken, written, or thought throughout all the ages of mankind cannot compare to the power of God’s “Word”, who spoke worlds into being in an instant, and yet entered His own creation with a soft cry of an infant in the middle of a dark night so long ago.

This is the “little light of mine”, and of yours if you are a follower of Christ. It pierces through the darkness of despair, hatred, addiction, injustice, greed, oppression, malice, rebellion, war, grief, loss, disease, and sin.

This season, as we anticipate the Advent, let us remember the greatness of the tiniest of lights, and the triumph of that light over the vast darkness. It is easy to get distracted by the twinkling of a thousand artificial and commercial lights this season, or blinded by the soot and smog and clouds of gloom and pain that surrounds us. It’s so important that we keep shining; continue reflecting the true light that only comes from the “Light of the World”

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“This little Light of mine–I’m gonna let it shine!
This little Light of mine– I’m gonna let it shine,
Let it shine, Let it shine!”

December 6, 2019 0

Tending the Garden of Prayer

I don’t think it’s any accident that God placed Adam and Eve in a garden, or that Jesus used so many farming metaphors in his teachings. There are a lot of Biblical lessons to be learned in gardening and farming–lessons about living, about relationships, and, of course, about prayer.

Start by preparing the soil. No good crop comes from randomly throwing seeds up in the air and leaving them untended. We cannot expect our lives to produce peace, love, patience, and joy if our hearts are hard, unbroken, and unable to accept God’s mercy, wisdom, conviction, and discipline. We cannot expect friendships or family ties to grow without time, effort, and vulnerability. And prayer requires faith and a sincere desire to meet with God–to listen, learn, and draw near. https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Hosea+10%3A12&version=ESV See also https://www.biblestudytools.com/bible-stories/parable-of-the-sower.html
Plant seeds! It seems almost too basic to list, but how many of us (and I count myself) have a tendency to hold on to our faith, to the wonderful promises of God, to the grace He has given, to the love we should be sharing with others? How many opportunities do we lose because of fear, busyness, or self-interest over the interests of others? Today will soon be yesterday– it will never return to give us another, better chance to make a difference. Small steps taken are better than grand plans that never come to fruition! ” Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters.” Colossians 3:23 Pray boldly, pray deliberately, pray consistently.

Seek (and give) nourishment. Just as seeds and plants need light and water, we need to take in the nourishment of scripture, meditation, prayer, and fellowship. We need to spend time with the one who is “the light of the world”, and “the living water”. Even so, we will experience seasons of drought and shadow. We need fellowship with others who can keep us in touch with the true source of light and life– and we need to be there for others in their time of need.
Watch and wait. Plants grow with light and water– and time. We live in a world that celebrates speed. We expect immediate gratification; instant satisfaction. But growth and maturity and wholeness can only come in God’s perfect timing. http://Psalm 145:15-16 The eyes of all look to You, And You give them their food in due time. You open Your hand And satisfy the desire of every living thing. James 5:7-8 Therefore be patient, brethren, until the coming of the Lord The farmer waits for the precious produce of the soil, being patient about it, until it gets the early and late rains. You too be patient; strengthen your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is near Don’t give up, and don’t try to hurry God’s provision. He is Faithful.

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Expect a harvest–but expect some surprises, too! God’s ways are not our ways (https://bible.knowing-jesus.com/topics/God~s-Ways-Beyond-Human-Understanding) God often chooses to answer our prayers or alter our circumstances in ways that defy or exceed our expectations. God never answers our prayers only to gratify us in the moment– His plans are mysterious and eternal. They are also righteous and perfect and just.
Give Thanks and Rejoice!

August 14, 2019 0

Let All Within Us Praise His Holy Name

O holy night!
The stars are brightly shining
It is the night of the dear Savior’s birth!
Long lay the world in sin and error pining
Till he appeared and the soul felt its worth.
A thrill of hope the weary world rejoices
For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn!
Refrain:
Fall on your knees
O hear the angel voices
O night divine
O night when Christ was born
O night divine
O night, O night divine
Led by the light of Faith serenely beaming
With glowing hearts by His cradle we stand
So led by light of a star sweetly gleaming
Here come the wise men from Orient land
The King of kings lay thus in lowly manger
In all our trials born to be our friend.
Refrain
Truly He taught us to love one another
His law is love and His gospel is peace
Chains shall He break for the slave is our brother
And in His name all oppression shall cease
Sweet hymns of joy in grateful chorus raise we,
Let all within us praise His holy name.
Refrain

From /www.songsforteaching.com/christmas/oholynight.php

To the untrained eye, it was not a Holy Night– The streets of Bethlehem were crowded and dusty. The night, even if the stars were shining, was filled with noises and smells that fell far short of anything sacred or glorious. There were strangers clogging the city’s streets and inns and homes– extra animals to shelter, extra mouths to feed, extra waste everywhere. It was a weary world, it was in error and it was pining– but it was also noisy, angry, distracted by petty inconveniences and worried by chaos and upheaval and oppression.

There was nothing special about the night itself. It was NOT a Holy Night until Holiness arrived in the form of a squalling infant born to a teenage mother and a carpenter/stepfather who were compelled to beg for shelter in an unfamiliar city full of squalor and resentment. People had come from all over to be nothing more than numbers in an unpopular bureaucratic nightmare. This child might have been no more than a number to the governor of the region, or to the Roman Empire, or to the Herod, the hamstrung pseudo-ruler of Judea–but His coming split history in two; it redefined the value of a single, simple soul! This was the night when the creator entered His creation AS a member of the creation– a child among other children; a helpless baby in a fallen and depraved world, vulnerable to disease, cruelty, abuse, starvation, exposure and exploitation. This God/Man would see and hear, and smell and feel the ugliness of leprosy, poverty, hunger, homelessness, despair, grief, madness, war, slavery, loneliness, betrayal, and death.

In His lifetime, He had no home of his own. He built no monument, founded no schools or hospitals, fought no (physical) battle, and toppled no governments. But, in the years since that otherwise ordinary night, majestic cathedrals have been built and have stood for hundreds of years; nations and governments have been transformed; hospitals, clinics, shelters, sanctuaries, universities, and institutions have served the poor, the sick, the outcasts, the weary, the forgotten, and the lost. The world is still fallen– there is still injustice, slavery, weariness, sickness and sin around us. But, because of that night, we are not waiting in utter darkness–as the Apostle John writes:

¹⁶For God loved the world in this way: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life… ¹⁹This is the judgment: The light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than the light because their deeds were evil. ²⁰For everyone who does evil hates the light and avoids it, so that his deeds may not be exposed. ²¹But anyone who lives by the truth comes to the light, so that his works may be shown to be accomplished by God.
John 3:16, 19-21 Christian Standard Bible

We live on the other side of that ordinary, Holy Night– we will never know the darkness of a time without a Gospel of Peace on Earth, Goodwill to Men–we are witnesses to the power of Divine Love in human flesh. We have reason to “fall on (our) knees” and “let all within us praise His Holy Name!”

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My prayer is that we would all “hear the angel voices” this season and be able to worship in the fullness of joy this Christmas.

December 20, 2018 0

Be Thou My Vision

One of my favorite old hymns is the ancient Irish tune, “Be Thou My Vision.” I have heard it jokingly referred to as “the optometrist’s hymn.” But there’s a lot more to unpack in the title than just a plug for good eye care.

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God’s word is full of references to sight, seeing, blindness, light, lamps, darkness, night, day, visions and dreams, foresight and prophecy, images and reflections, and much more. God is both the source of our sight, and of our insight. God sheds light on our deepest secrets of the past, and provides a lamp allowing us to see the obstacles ahead more clearly. Jesus came to be the Light of the World, and bring sight to the blind, both physically blind and spiritually blind.

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Many times, we pray for answers– we want a quick solution to our circumstances, or a definitive direction for our next step. But God sometimes wants to show us a bigger picture. Sometimes, he wants to show us more intricate details. Instead of asking for what we want God to give us, we need to ask for God to give us the vision HE has for our future. He may not reveal every detail– or he may only reveal the next detailed step. But God’s vision is clearer and bigger, and more glorious than we will ever know if we aren’t willing to look with His eyes to see.

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We also need to ask God to BE our vision– that we would see him more clearly for Who He Is! Whatever is in our focus will appear bigger and clearer than things in the periphery. When we allow Him to be our vision, we start to see things from His perspective, which makes all the difference. What we see on our own is often an optical illusion– problems look bigger than they really are, hurts and grievances grow larger, and people become distorted by the lenses or mirrors we use to view them. And we lose sight of God’s glory, wisdom, majesty, power, and everlasting love. But God restores our focus and our perspective, so that we see problems in the light of His power to overcome; we see people who are made in His likeness and image– people who are loved by God, even if they are in rebellion against Him. We see the glory of God’s creation as it was meant to be, even as we see the wreckage of pollution, corruption, disease and disaster. We see God’s mercy as lives are transformed and families are mended and justice is finally achieved. And we see the rays of hope in God’s promises fulfilled and those yet to be fulfilled.

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July 26, 2018 0

This Little Light…

Yesterday, I wrote about reflections– about being a reflection of God’s character in a dark world. Today just happens to be the 49th anniversary of the first moon landing, so I’d like to revisit yesterday’s theme, but with a slightly different analogy.

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Mirrors, lakes, glass, and more can be used to reflect both light and images. The moon reflects light from the sun to light our way at night. God created it to do just that, and I believe that God never wastes an opportunity to teach us lessons in nature. So I want to look at just some of the ideas that occur to me about how the moon can teach us about reflecting God’s light in our darkened world.

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First, the moon generates no light on its own. The moon is NOT the sun– it does not and cannot generate light or heat. On its own, it is lifeless and cold. But because of where it is, and what it is, it provides light, acts on the oceans to create tides, and helps us chart the weeks, months, and seasons. The moon doesn’t act independently, but it has purpose and beauty in reflecting the sun and following its prescribed orbit around the earth. If the moon were smaller, farther from the earth, nearer to the earth, or different in its nature, the effect on the earth and on all life would be devastating.

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Second, the moon can only reflect the sun’s light when it is in position to do so. Moonlight is different every night because of its changing position. We have names for all the many phases– full moon, half-moon, quarter moon, crescent moon, new moon, and so on. Even more dramatic are the eclipses– when the world comes between the sun and moon, we get a lunar eclipse– the moon is shadowed because the sunlight cannot reach it– the world gets in the way. And, if the moon comes between the sun and the earth, there is a solar eclipse– the world becomes dark as the moon gets in the way of the sun’s rays. There is a good lesson here to us. If we are to reflect God’s light and character to the world, we cannot afford to let the world block out our light source. Worse, we cannot reflect light to the world when we step in front of our source and block out the Son!

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Third, the moon can be visited– it can be mapped, studied, comprehended. We can look directly at the moon, stare at it, look at it through a telescope, and not go blind. We can send people in rockets to walk on the moon, take samples of its dust and rocks, plant flags on its surface, and even leave trash on its surface. There is still mystery and fascination to be found on the moon, but it doesn’t have the glory and awe of the sun.

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Another interesting observation– there is no moon, nor need for it, in Heaven. There will be a new heaven and a new earth, but there is no mention of a new moon. There will be no seas (no tides), and no night. We will no longer be a reflection of God’s character to a darkened world– instead, we will be living in the actual light of His presence. What an awesome thought!

Obviously, like most analogies, there is no perfect correlation here. These are just some random thoughts and observations, and I’m no scientist or theologian. But, today, as we (hopefully) enjoy some time in the sun, and tonight as we reflect on the moon, I pray that we would get a special glimpse of His glory, and that we may use any opportunities that come our way to reflect it.