Light from the darkness ∙

Light from the darkness ∙

The people who walk in darkness will see a great light. For those who live in a land of deep darkness, a light will shine. – Isaiah 9:2

Ephesians 5:8 You were formerly darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. So live as people of light!

Functioning in the dark of night has always been a challenge for humanity. Of course, partial illumination from fire, oil, and gas helped, but they were poor, often unreliable, and even dangerous light sources.

Thomas Edison invented devices for a wide spectrum of purposes such as mass communication, sound recording, electric power generation, and motion pictures. Among his many inventions were the phonograph, the motion picture camera, and the long-lasting, practical electric light bulb. The electric light bulb transformed the modern industrialized world.

Edison was persistent and systematic. By slow and tedious trial and error, he determined that a thin filament with a high electrical resistance could make an electric light bulb practical because it would require only a small current to glow. Edison first demonstrated his light bulb publicly in December 1879.

“I didn’t fail 1000 times. The light bulb was an invention with 1000 steps. I know of over 3000 ways [that] a light bulb does not work” (Edison).

Night has been transformed into day through advances and improvements in his original invention. What about the dark night of the soul and moral darkness? How do we turn the darkness within into light?

The Father has provided light that pierces the darkness and offers inner illumination and transformation. Humanity is no longer doomed to walk in spiritual darkness. Each person can wake up, depart from darkness and become light. However, there is a sad fact regarding moral darkness. People choose to walk in darkness rather than light, deceiving themselves, believing that they are walking in light rather than darkness. 

John 3:19-20

 19 Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil.

 20 For everyone who does evil hates the Light and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed.

“Those who are in darkness must grope through life without the light of God’s revelation (Ephesians 4:18)” (Hoehner).  

REFLECT & PRAY

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.”

Father, thank You for providing a cure for my spiritual and moral darkness. I am now a child of the light. Encourage and strengthen me to live as such.

INSIGHT

“‘God is light’ (1 John 1:5). Light expresses His majesty and glory (1 Timothy 6:16) and His perfect holiness, but also the truth that He wills to reveal Himself to humanity (Psalms 43:3). The opposite of that glory and holiness and wisdom of God is darkness, and the world estranged from God dwells in such darkness” (Foulkes).

But something remarkable has happened with the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. He came to bring light and overcome darkness that had persisted since the Fall. He not only brings light, but He is “the light of the world.” And now, a remarkable transformation is available to bring all of humanity.

Each child of the King has knowingly or unknowingly experienced this inner reality. When we accept the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior and Lord, we are transferred from the domain of spiritual and moral darkness to the realm of light. “There is nothing in all history like the moral miracle which Christianity brought about” (Barclay).

Colossians 1:13 For he has rescued us from the kingdom of darkness and transferred us into the Kingdom of his dear Son.

But there is more. They were not merely in darkness and surrounded by darkness. The darkness was in them. In fact, they were darkness. Consider for a moment how such moral and spiritual darkness shapes and influences each individual’s soul and spirit.

Ephesians 5:8

For once, you were full of darkness, but now you have light from the Lord. So live as people of light!

Perhaps a real-world analogy is sepsis. Sepsis is the body’s extreme response to an infection. It is a life-threatening medical emergency. Sepsis occurs when an infection you already have triggers a chain reaction throughout your body. Without timely treatment, sepsis can rapidly lead to tissue damage, organ failure, and death (CDC).

Moral and spiritual darkness is a life-threatening spiritual emergency.

The Father has intervened and provided a cure for moral and spiritual darkness. All children of the King have been inoculated. We who were darkness are now light. But it is incumbent upon us to live it out and walk as children of the light and not as children of darkness.

Grace is not only a privilege and a gift; it is a responsibility and an obligation. It was true that the Father’s love could and would forgive, but the very fact that the Father loves us so much motivates us okay good to live as children of the light (Barclay).

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 7-06-2

© Dr. H 2022