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In our staff meeting today we looked at the passage in John 8:12 where Jesus says he is the light of the world. he then enters into a discussion with the Pharisees about the validity of his claims and how living in the light would illuminate for them the truth of his claims.
It dawned on me that people are afraid of the light. Where the light of Jesus shines then the truth is revealed and all is laid bare. Chistians are fearful of the light, probably for different reasons.
“What if God shines the light on me and sees what i am really like?” – Fear that God will reject us is a lie. First, it assumes that God does not already know who we really are. This is God we are talking about. Second, it assumes that good people will get better treatment and more ready acceptance from God. There is no-one who is good but God alone and there is nothing we can do to persuade God to save us. We are saved by grace, not because we are good but because God is good. Third, the enemy wants us to believe this lie since when Christians come to understand the truth they begin to move into the full potential of their place as adopted children of God and ambassadors of His power and love.
“It would be better to leave good enough alone” – The idea that it is better to leave things in the dark where they cannot do any harm is also a lie. I have notices that it is in the dark that totally innocent things can appear to be greatly sinister (such as the coat rack appearing as a monster) and evil things can appear to be more harmless than they really are. It is in the dark that danger lurks. a car that is speeding towards a person on a dark night without lights can be deadly, but in daylight it can be seen with plenty of time. It is for good reasons that the Bible says that God shines the light into dark places. it is when there is light that we see the truth and can deal with what we find accordingly.
“What if I don’t like what I find” – all of us hide our darkest aspects of ourselves in the darkness of our hearts. The murderous, lustful, and hateful thoughts about others as well as any number of other unedifying truths and acts. And do you know something, they are not nice and if we are at all affected by our encounter with the Spirit of God we are repulsed to think that such thoughts and actions reside in us. Yet, if we do not allow the light of Jesus and to show them in their true form we will be unable to gain healing and rescue from them. they will fester and continue to stand in the way of our relationship with God.
The truth is, as the Bible says, as the people of God we are called out of the darkness into the wonderful light of Jesus (1 Peter 2:9). God calls us out of darkness into light and that we might be arrogant enough to believe that the place where God calls us to live out our lives (in the light) is not as good for us as the place where we believe things should remain hidden (the darkness) is just plain wrong. God loves us passionately and our growth into the image and life of Jesus is His wonderful intention for us. Through submission to His plan for us (which includes bringing our very selves into the light of Jesus where we will see what is really there) and obedience to Him (as he works the process of healing that sees broken lives made whole and warped spirits made true) we are remade into the image of the very living God, which is Jesus.
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