Jesus, Light of the World (12-9-12)

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(Excerpt from Cheryl Gnagey's Advent Devotional, "Jesus, Light of the World," for preparing to light the third  Advent Candle, the Good News candle.)

2 Samuel 22: 28-29

“As we prepare this week for the lighting of the third Advent Candle, we will focus on its meaning.  It is called the Good News candle, and it is the only one that is pink, reminding us of the awful price Christ paid for our sins.  Its color symbolizes the blood that He shed, not only for us, but in place of us.  It points us to the good news of salvation that can is found in Christ alone, for He is the only way.   He is our Light and salvation (Psalm 27: 1).  We begin today by looking at two verses that tie our affliction (darkness) to the Light of Jesus for the very purpose of salvation, the good news for us all.

Last week we studied in depth how the Light comes into our darkness in many specific ways.  We saw our own spiritual affliction as darkness.  We have come to understand how the light of Jesus affects the darkness of our souls, pushing it out of us and away from us.  Jesus Himself is our lamp, and He illuminates the darkness that can be found in the depths and crevasses of our hearts.

Consider now the darkness of a room on an evening in mid-winter, when an ice storm has downed nearby power lines and left you without electricity.  You move quickly to find a flashlight or some candles and a lighter or matches, don’t you?  You do this because it is difficult to function in the dark.  But what happens as soon as the ‘lamp’ is lit?  It illuminates the darkness, and while the bit of light may not make everything quite clear, what you can see is certainly better lit than what you could see in the dark.  Even the smallest candle with a tiny flicker can help you to see where your furniture is so that you don’t trip and fall over it!

Jesus is your lamp.  He is the very light that illuminates your darkened heart.  Your darkness and sin are what afflict you.  They are what keep you from an intimate and deeply personal relationship with the Light.  God would never be satisfied with His children remaining in the darkness of their own sin and flesh.  So He had to meet that need.  Simply stated, He sent Jesus, the Light of the world.  But Jesus was not sent merely to show you that you have things in your life that He considers darkness; He came to save you from what those very sins and what the enemy uses to afflict you.  What better ‘good news’ could there ever be?  The God who loved us in the midst of our darkness always had a plan to save us from that very darkness!

Jesus left the light of Heaven to enter into our world and become your light.  He came so that you might believe that He is the Light and the only One who could save you from your darkness and sin.  He came for you!  He is the only light that you need!  Have you allowed Him to continue to shine His light into the dark corners of your heart?  Ask Him to search you and show you today’s darkness.  Confess to Him what His light reveals to you.  Then rejoice in His light!  Staying in His light will keep you from stumbling over the sin in your life!”

Jesus, Light of the World (12-2-2012)

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Isaiah 9: 6-7

"Today, in the Word, we see that Jesus is to be our burden bearer.  All too often we are walking under the heavy burden that is called 'self rule.'  We wrongly operate under the impression that we are to rule our lives.  But Jesus is the King and the Governor, or at least He is supposed to be.  We tend to wear heavy yokes as we try to walk out holiness, and we all too frequently collapse under the weight of it.  You see, the 'government' of our entire lives, yes EVERYTHING, is a yoke that is not fitted for our shoulders, but for the shoulders of Christ.  It is a yoke perfectly designed for Christ.

And the government (the rule of my life and yours) shall be upon His shoulders (not mine or yours) . . .

In order for us to experience an increase in peace, we must first lay our heavy and burdensome yokes down, in humble submission to His rule and authority in our lives.  With Jesus, there is no end to the governments (yokes) that He can wear and bear, for on Him is the government of every believer who chooses to take his yoke off.  Jesus is the only one who has no problem carrying the rule our lives.

When we give up the authority and 'right' to run our own lives, Jesus come and sets up His kingdom in us, and He becomes our King and Ruler.  Then He is responsible to uphold this new kingdom.  Righteousness becomes our way of life because of His rule in our lives.  And He will rule it forevermore.  For all eternity!  When Jesus bears our yoke, we need do nothing more than follow His lead.

When we come to this crossroads in our walk in His Light, we are blessed to experience the nature of Christ, the Light, in many new ways.  He becomes our Wonderful Counselor who gives us clear direction in our lives.  We see Him more often as the Mighty God, the One who can accomplish the impossible.  We know our God-family through Him as we sense the all-consuming love of our Everlasting Father, both now and with foreknowledge of the love we will enjoy in Heaven forever.  Can we continue another day, taking control of the life that was meant to be left in the hands of God?

Yes, Jesus is the Light, the Light of all men.  The prophets told us who He was and that He was coming.  Jesus, Himself, said that He was the Light of the world.  Who, then, are we to think we should be the god of our own lives, in light of who He is?  The question still remains:  Will we take a step deep with the One we call the Light?  If we do, we will find real peace this Christmastime.  But remember, peace is not a feeling inside us.  Peace is a Person, the Prince of Peace!  Seek Him, not it!"

Jesus, Light of the World (12-1-12)

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Isaiah 60: 19-20

"God has done an incredible thing by introducing us to the Light!  We will never be able to fully comprehend His great love for us, nor how that love and that Light are everlasting.  EVERLASTING!  Our finite minds simply cannot begin to understand the concept of forever.  If we have a hard time falling asleep and staying asleep one night, we tend to say that the night lasted 'forever'.  We typically say that about anything that is, for the moment, unpleasant.  Our concept of 'forever' is, at least in part, limited to the negative.

Yet we see today in the Scripture reading that Jesus has been given to us as an everlasting Light.  There is nothing negative at all that can be attached to that!  For every single circumstance that God allows into our lives, for every decision we must make, for every question to which we need an answer, for every problem we have, Jesus is our Light.  He illumines our pathway if our eyes are intending to see His light.  And He will light the way for us forever!

When we take that thought to its most basic level, we can come to no other conclusion but this:  Jesus is the ONLY light we will ever need, both now and forever!  We know that this is true, so why do we seek so many other means of 'light' when life becomes complicated and difficult?  Why do we rely on our own wisdom when pressing decisions must be made?  When we need answers to our questions, why do we hesitate to pray and seek the Word?  By looking to ourselves, or anything other than God, we are telling Him, 'I know You are all-powerful, all-knowing, and ever-present, but I just don't trust You with this particular issue.'  Whether we like it or not, this is unbelief.  The fact that we so often rely on everything but God might be the very reason verse 20b in today's reading references 'your days of mourning'.

We walk out of the light of Jesus and back into darkness when we blow out His Light that is at work within us.  We snuff out His Light by taking matters into our own hands, trusting our lives, our decisions, and the answers to our our own understanding.  When we do this, our peace is disturbed, and it begins to erode very quickly.  The light in our life diminishes and becomes dark and fearful as 'the sun goes down' in those moments of self-reliance and self-sufficiency.

Are you beginning to see why it is so critical that the Light of our life also be the LORD of our life?  God will continue to work throughout our lives for the purpose of bringing us to a place where He is the LORD of everything, and who can and will continually and forever light the pathway for our journey.  Every time we choose to walk in the light of our own making, instead of the the Light of His Son, His light dims and our world darkens.

God is working to bring us to the place of recognizing that we have no need for any other light but His!  Eternal light is not merely reserved for Heaven where there will be no more day or night, no need for sun or moon, because it will be illuminated by the Son.  Eternal Light is also for the here and now, as well.

The prophets of old foretold the coming Light of Messiah, and His Light resides inside of us in ways they could have never understood.  How many more days shall we walk in the light of our own self rule, which is no light at all?  Jesus is the Light of the world!  Having believed in Him, shall we now continue to intentionally snuff the Light out?

Where, in your life, are you currently experiencing darkness?  Surrender the self-will, the self-reliance, or the self-sufficiency as is personally necessary.  Ask the Light to return to that area (or those areas) where you have allowed darkness to take over.  Then keep in mind these words:  "Arise!  Shine!  For your Light has come!  And the glory of the Lord has risen upon you!"  (Isaiah 60:1)  You will experience the darkness becoming as the noon!

THE RESURRECTED LIFE -- Day 18

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Day 18:  The Man Born Blind (John 9)

Jesus was ministering from place to place.  While he was traveling he came upon a man who had been blind since birth.  His disciples were full of questions for their Master.  Had the man sinned to bring about his blindness?  Or had his parents?  Jesus took the opportunity to have a “teachable moment” with his disciples and the others who were there.

“It was neither that this man sinned, nor his parents; but it was so that the works of God might be displayed in him,” was Jesus’ reply.  Jesus then declared that as long as He was in the world, He was the Light of the world.  Even while He was saying this, He spat on the ground, made clay of the spittle and put it on the blind man’s eyes, telling the man to go to the pool of Siloam and wash. 

This very intimate exchange probably stunned those present.  Surely they wondered at the ways of Jesus.  But all their musings came to an end when the blind man returned SEEING!  The Light of the World had brought to his blind eyes--and his blind soul--the first light he had ever seen.  God used His Son to perform a healing that had never occurred before, so that He might be glorified.

When questioned by the Pharisees as to who had done this miracle, and whether Jesus was a sinner because He healed on the Sabbath, the now-seeing man could only proclaim, “Whether He is a sinner, I do not know; one thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see.”  This man held no resentment for the purpose of his blindness, but instead gave a powerful testimony of God’s work in him, received Jesus by believing that He was the Son of Man and the Lord, and began to worship Him.

From your birth sin has been your handicap.  It doesn’t matter that sin originated with Adam.  What matters is that you were saved to show God’s work in and through you.  You have been washed by the blood of the same Man who healed the blind man so that you could spiritually see.  Are you resentful of the circumstances that God has allowed in your life?  Or are you living to give testimony to the One who saved you and to reveal His good works in you?