Friends Email 196 7-16-20
The Light Shines In The Dark
John 1:5, “In Him was life, and that life was the Light of all people, and the Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has no power to overcome it. A man came, who was sent from God; his name was John. He came to bear witness to that Light - the true Light that shines on everyone, came into the world, so that through Him all people might believe.”
We live in a time when we are starting to feel the power of darkness suffocating us. Covid – 19 is only one element of that darkness, but its fingers have reached into nearly every recess of our mental, emotional and spiritual beings. The prince of darkness is seeking to separate Disciples from the “Light” that nourishes and sustains our souls, by creating fear and anxiety.
Colossians 1:13, contains an important truth. It was written to encourage us when dark days come - “Jesus has rescued us from the “power of darkness,” and transferred us into the Kingdom of His Son – who is the Light!”
Notice that the “rescuing” that Jesus does is an accomplished fact – not something that is going to happen after we die. Jesus did it when we were born of the water and the Spirit in baptism. Not only did He forgive all of our sins, by the “power” of His shed blood on the cross, He did it by the transforming “power” of the Holy Spirit that we received as a gift in the new birth.
If you don’t feel “rescued” from the power of darkness, it’s because you are not leaning on, and relying on, that “transforming power” of the indwelling Holy Spirit.
Not only has Jesus “rescued” us from the power of darkness, He has “transferred” us into the “Kingdom of Light.” Jesus doesn’t just rescue us from darkness - He “transfers” us into the Kingdom of Light!” Disciples of Jesus “live” in the Light, and there is no darkness in that Kingdom.
We are not the first Disciples to have our resolve tested by satan, and we won’t be the last, but in every previous testing, it weeded out those who were not committed Disciples of Jesus, and strengthened the resolve of those who were. The challenge we face is, having had it so good for so long, and having become completely comfortable in our religious routines, how will we react, when those routines have been destroyed – when walk in the Light is a new challenge every day?
The Light Shines In The Darkness
In 1946, when I was nine, they began the process of draining the swamp below our house. I know now that some crass materialist – who had no appreciation for the swamp - wanted to turn it into a place to build houses. But, I didn't know that then, so I was just fascinated by the size of the machinery, and the excitement of the event.
There was a creek, about three hundred yards from the north end of the swamp, but it was separated by a natural elevation, on top of which was the road to our house. Their plan was to drain the water from the swamp through the drainage ditch, to the creek.
The drainage pipe was constructed of sections of concrete, about two feet in diameter. When they finished putting the pipe in the trench, they covered it with a mound of fresh dirt. I guess it didn’t occur to them to make sure that the creek was lower than the swamp, because not long after they finished, we had several days of heavy rainfall - the creek flooded, the water ran from the creek, through the drain pipe, and poured into the swamp. Where it emptied into the swamp, the velocity of the rushing water dug out a huge hole, which later formed a large pool.
Swamp life migrated to the pool. Fish, leeches, turtles, crabs, muskrats, frogs, even ducks and geese were found there. I often found myself in the pool chasing something. Inevitably, I was drawn to the mouth of the drain pipe, which was right at the water level. If the sun was shining, I could actually see through it – a distant, tiny, white speck of light, about the size of a quarter, which beckoned to me to crawl through, but on dark days, I couldn’t see the light, so there was no temptation.
I crawled into the pipe several times, intending to crawl through, but it was a very tight fit, and backing up was extremely unpleasant because I had to lay down in the filthy, mucky water and wriggle out, which got my clothes filthy, and what was worse, my mother would ask how I got my clothes so dirty, and telling her the truth, would mean that the pool would be off limits.
One day, my friend James and I, were chasing a large turtle in the pool, and it eluded us by going into the drain pipe. I was determined to not let it escape, so I crawled into the pipe after it. I was so intent on catching it, that before I realized it, I had gone a lot further in than ever before. When I stopped, James bumped into me - James was bigger than I was. “Did you get him?” he yelled. His voice sounded really weird in those close quarters. “No,” I whispered, “let’s go back.”
When he tried to back up, he panicked, “I’m stuck,” he cried. “No, you’re not - tell you what, let's just crawl all the way through, I’ve always wanted to.” At first, I felt some apprehension because the light looked like it was miles away.
In some places, the pipe wasn’t level, and the low spots were filled with nasty, smelly, mucky water, that lay within four or five inches of the top, and it was filled with blood sucking leeches that attached themselves to us. We had to tilt our heads up as high as possible to keep the water out of our noses, and we bloodied our knees and toes on the rough concrete, and scraped the tops of our heads clean of either hair or skin.
The whole way, James kept a death grip on my ankle, and talked about dying – about our bodies never being found, and our parents never knowing what happened to us. Sometimes, even now, I look at my ankle and imagine that I can still see the imprint of his fingernails.
Gradually, I noticed that the light wasn’t just a tiny speck anymore, it was bigger and brighter – I could actually see my surroundings, and my confidence grew proportionately to the brightness of the light. I started whispering to James, “Not far now, James, almost there, James, we'll make it, don't worry.” But as confident as I was, I was still greatly relieved, when we finally reached the end, and jumped out into the fresh water of the creek.
As we sat on the bank and helped each other pull the leeches off, James said, “Weren’t you scared?” “No,” I said, “not at all.” “I was,” he said.
Looking back, I’m sure I told the truth. I had been scared before, and I have been scared since, but what I felt in that pipe wasn’t fear, it was determination, because, I knew I was going to live –and the closer I got to the source of the light, the more determined and confident I became.
I hope you have figured out the difference between my attitude and James’ attitude. I hope that you can see that the contrast between what I experienced, and what James experienced wasn’t because I was more brave, and courageous - No! - a thousand times “NO!” the difference was that - I could see the light!!!
What a marvelous spiritual application that has for us as Disciples of Jesus, who are living in a world dominated by a thick darkness, which grows darker by the day. Paul tells us in 1 Thessalonians 5:4, that although Disciples of Jesus see the darkness - they do not live in it. They are “Children of Light,” and Children of Light are like moths - drawn irresistibly closer to the Light.
Jesus tells His Disciples in John 3:36, that, “Anyone who believes in the Son has eternal life,” Eternal life is not something we get by and by, it is something we get now. And the closer we get to Jesus, the brighter the Light of everlasting life shines, not only too us, but in us.
One other beautiful thing about this story is that we all get discouraged, of course we do, we all have those times when we think that the darkness is going to overcome the Light, but Disciples refuse to give up, they just get down on their knees and keep crawling toward the Light, even when it’s just a tiny speck in the distance, and Jesus crawls in front of them whispering, “Not far now John – don't lose heart John, I'm with you John – and don’t you ever forget that, you are the only light James has.”
Never forget that YOU are the only Light (Jesus) some people will ever see, so never allow the darkness to overcome the Light that is in you. “Let your Light shine so brightly before others, that they see Jesus in you and glorify God.”
I asked God today, to help me to realize that things like this virus have been happening for thousands of years. They are used by satan to distract me from what is really important - and God uses them to help me to focus on what is important – the “choice” is mine.
John
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Sunday, August 2, 2020
“The Light Shines in the Dark” by John Smith
This writing is from a friend we met on one of our cruises. Thought it was a good illustration and have permission to share!
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