Darkness vs. light

TODAY'S SPECIAL: John 1:1-14

TO CHEW ON: "And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it." John 1:5

Where I live Christmas day comes only days after the winter solstice. It's no wonder that for us, lights play a big part in our celebrations—candlelight, tree lights, spotlights. How wonderful that the connection of Jesus' coming to earth and light is not only a human invention but came straight from the heart of God.

Darkness as both physical phenomenon and spiritual symbol appears often in the Bible.

1. God was its creator (Amos 4:13).

2. It dominated the earth immediately after creation (Genesis 1:2).

3. Thick supernatural darkness lasting three days was one of the plagues on Egypt (Exodus 10:22-23).

4. Untimely darkness marked Jesus' crucifixion (Matthew 27:45).

5. "Darkness" is how Paul describes our pre-conversion state (Ephesians 5:8).

6. Dark activities include claiming to be Jesus' followers but living lives that don't back it up (1 John 1:6), hating others ( 1John 2:9,11), and cursing parents (Proverbs 20:20).

7. Darkness is frequently connected with judgment.
- Those who reject Jesus are cast into it (Matthew 8:12).
- It is the fate of rogue angels (Jude 1:6).
- Apocalyptic final judgments often include darkness (Joel 3:15; Amos 8:9; Revelation 6:12).

8. But when we come to Christ, we escape its clutches (Colossians 1:13)!

The use of the word "comprehend" in "The darkness did not comprehend it," is interesting. A word study article in my Bible delves into how that word enriches the meaning of this passage:

["Comprehend (katalambano) has three shades of meaning:
1) To seize, lay hold of, overcome. As such vs. 5 could read, "The darkness does not gain control if it."
2) To perceive, attain, lay hold of with the mind; to apprehend with mental or moral effort. With this meaning the verse could be translated, "The darkness is unreceptive and does not understand it."
3) To quench, extinguish, snuff out the light by stifling it. "The darkness will never be able to eliminate it."

Light and darkness essentially are antagonistic. The Christian's joy is in knowing that light is not only greater than darkness but will also outlast the darkness." - "Word Wealth," New Spirit Filled Life Bible, p. 1443.]

John declares Jesus to be "the true Light" (John 1:9) that is incomprehensible to (controls, mystifies and quenches) darkness. 

"The the Word became flesh and dwelt among us and we behold His glory..." (glory = splendour, radiance, majesty.)

 We avoid darkness and live in light as we stay close to Jesus.

PRAYER: Dear Jesus, Thank You for coming to bring light. I want to live in Your light. As I expose my life to Your scrutiny help me to deal with any dark places. Amen.

MORE: "Here I Am to Worship" by Tim Hughes

Recognizing Jesus

TODAY'S SPECIAL: Matthew 25:31-46

TO CHEW ON: " ' And the King will answer and say to them, "Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me." ' " Matthew 25:40


One of the popular motifs of the Christmas dramas we used to put on in Sunday School was the poor, beggarly misfit becoming a type of the Christ child. It turned out that the person who noticed and served this unfortunate one amid the hustle and decorations, the shopping and food preparations, was the one who had the true Christmas spirit.

Recognizing Christ in unusual places and people is the theme of our reading today. Seeing and caring for His needs in those around us—the hungry and thirsty, the lonely stranger, the forsaken prisoner, the person who needs warm clothes ("naked") and sick—brings not only the King's commendation but the label of "righteous" and escape from eternal punishment (Matthew 25:34, 45-46).

Jesus talks in other places of coming in disguise:

• In Mark 9:41 the person who serves Christ's disciples with as little as a cup of cold water gets a reward.

• " 'Whoever receives one of these little children in My name receives Me; and whoever receives Me receives not Me but Him who sent Me' " says Jesus in Mark 9:37.

• At another time, Jesus answered a question about how to inherit eternal life with the parable we call the Good Samaritan. In it, the person (Samaritan) who helps his needy neighbour (a beat-up Jew) is the one who loves his neighbour as himself, fulfilling one of the conditions for inheriting eternal life (Luke 10:28-37).

I look at these examples and ask myself—do I recognize Jesus when He comes to me disguised as a child, or a needy stranger, or a sister in trouble? Or am I more like those "goats" in our reading, who will someday appear before the King with 'Duh… Lord, when did I see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison?'

PRAYER: Dear Jesus, please take the scales off my eyes. Help me to recognize You however  and wherever You appear. Amen.

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Unless otherwise noted all Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

A sword separating families

TODAY'S SPECIAL: Exodus 32:19-35

TO CHEW ON: "And he said to them, 'Thus says the Lord God of Israel, "Let every man put his sword on his side, and go in and out from the entrance to entrance throughout the camp, and let every man kill his brother, every man his companion, and every man his neighbour."'
 
So the sons of Levi did according to the word of Moses. And about three thousand men of the people fell that day." Exodus 32:27-28


We are all no doubt familiar with the imagery of God's Word as a sword. Hebrews 4:12 tells how it cuts into and exposes us to ourselves:

"For the Word that God speaks is alive and full of power [making it active, operative, energizing and effective]; it is sharper than any two-edged sword, penetrating to the dividing line of the breath of life (soul) and [the immortal] spirit, and of joints and marrow [of the deepest parts of our nature] exposing and sifting and analyzing and judging the very thoughts and purposes of the heart" - Amplified

God's words also cut in other ways. In our story today, God commanded the loyal Levites to kill their idol-worshiping family members, neighbours, and friends. What a gruesome, wrenching, horrible day that must have been—humanly speaking at least.

The power of faith to divide families should not surprise us. We have all heard of belief traditions in which, if one defects to another faith, that one is no longer considered a family member but an outcast. And such cutting apart will be characteristic of the end times. Jesus prophesied that children would betray parents and parents children because of faith in Him (Matthew 10:21-22, Mark 13:12-13).

If faith in Jesus has cut your family apart, know that it's not an unusual thing—though no less painful because it's common. A comfort for people of faith in such families is 1 Corinthians 7:14 which speaks of an unbelieving spouse being sanctified by the believer.

[Sanctified - hagliazo  - means: 1) To render or acknowledge or to be venerable or hallow; 2) To separate from profane things and dedicate to God a.) consecrate things to God, b.) consecrate people to God; 3) To purify.]

Can we claim this promise for other family members as well? I think so. I don't believe "sanctified" means they have salvation per se. Whether or not to believe in Jesus is a decision each person makes for him- or herself. But I do believe it means that they are marked as God's own, and consecrated or set apart for Him. We continue to pray and believe that in due course, He will draw them to Himself.

PRAYER: Dear God, it is painful to think that members of my family could be eternally separated from You. Please draw them to You. Amen.

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Unless otherwise noted all Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked AMP are taken from the Amplified® Bible, Copyright © 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission." (www.Lockman.org)

Jesus the winnower

TODAY’S SPECIAL: Matthew 3:1-12

TO CHEW ON: “‘His winnowing fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly cleanse out His threshing floor and gather His wheat into the barn; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.’” Matthew 3:12


As we enter the month where we celebrate Jesus’ birth, John the Baptist’s cry alerts us to the fact that Jesus came not just as a baby, meek and mild. The actions John describes Him doing (for we come to see that John here refers to Jesus) are “winnowing”—a harvest activity that separates the valuable (grain) from the worthless (chaff).

[Winnow: blow a current of air through grain to remove the chaff; remove chaff from grain; remove (people or things) from a group until only the best ones are left; find or identify (a valuable or useful part of something).]

Winnowing was the action Jeremiah described God performing on Judah as a result of King Manasseh’s sin:

“And I will winnow them with a winnowing fan in the gates of the land;
I will bereave them of children;
I will destroy My people,
Since they do not return from their ways” - Jeremiah 15:7.

Isaiah predicted Israel would be God’s tool to thresh and winnow the nations:

“Behold I will make you into a new threshing sledge with sharp teeth; …
You shall winnow then, the wind shall carry them away” - Isaiah 41:15,16.

Malachi speaks of a day of when, after the winnowing is done,  the extraneous parts of the harvest (stubble) will be burned in judgement;

“For behold the day is coming,
Burning like an oven,
But all the proud, yes all who do wickedly shall be stubble.
And the day which is coming shall burn them up …
But to you who fear My name
The Sun of Righteousness shall arise
With healing in His wings…” Malachi 4:1,2.

So let’s remind ourselves—as we prepare to celebrate Jesus’ birth—of John the Baptist’s image of Jesus the winnower (predicted in the apocalyptic literature of the Old Testament hundreds of years earlier). Yes, Jesus came as a vulnerable, innocent, soft and cuddly baby but it was to fulfill a mission that was going to disrupt life and even prove deadly.

PRAYER: Dear Jesus, thank You for coming as a baby to winnow out good from evil. Amen.

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Unless otherwise noted all Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Be afraid of the dark

Image: Jingoba / pixabay.com

TODAY’S SPECIAL: Luke 23:26-56

TO CHEW ON: “Now it was about the sixth hour, and there was darkness over all the earth until the ninth hour. Then the sun was darkened.” Luke 23:44-45a


Darkness is not a real, tangible thing. Rather it is the absence of something real, tangible and measurable – light. There can be degrees of darkness with complete, utter darkness being the complete and utter absence of any light.

God’s first positive act of creation, which began to bring order to the chaos of earth, was to create light (before He created the sun, moon and stars (Genesis 1:2,3), which brings up the question – what was that light like; did it emanate from something, or somewhere, or Someone?).

This physical phenomenon of light and darkness is used throughout the Bible in a symbolic way, where light is equated with God and darkness the absence of God. At various times (this being one of them) God sent or allowed supernatural darkness. Another such time was the ninth plague of Egypt when the darkness was so thick the people felt it, couldn't see each other, and were confined to their homes for three days (Exodus 10:21-23).

I imagine there was some of that quality of palpability and isolation to the noon to 3:00 p.m. darkness that accompanied Jesus' death on the cross. Did He feel cut off from God as He hung there?  In Matthew’s telling of this incident just after he describes the darkness, come the words of Jesus: “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” ( (Matthew 27:45,46) ). This was the utter darkness of God having withdrawn Himself completely.

It’s easy to shrug this off as a phenomenon that has nothing to do with us. But it does.
- The power of darkness controls us before we come to God (Colossians 1:13,14).
- Our preference is for darkness (John 3:19).
- When we come to God we pass into the realm of light (Ephesians 5:8-13).
- But even here we can quench light by living in darkness (1 John 1:6). 
- Jesus warned against the possibility of being thrown into darkness that lasts forever (Matthew 25:14-30).

How awesome and frightening must have been the darkness on the day of Jesus’ death with its effect on even hardened soldiers. His identification of what made it terrible – God’s absence – is instruction to us. The more God has of us, and we of Him, the more there is no room for darkness.

PRAYER: Dear Jesus, thank You for enduring the agony of the darkness of God’s absence to buy my salvation. Help me to live always in Your light.

MORE:  Today some churches celebrate Holy Saturday, others the Vigil of Easter. 

• The liturgy for Easter Vigil is HERE.

• The liturgy for Holy Saturday is HERE. It begins with this collect:

"O God, Creator of heaven and earth: Grant that, as the crucified body of your dear Son was laid in the tomb and rested on this holy Sabbath, so we may await with him the coming of the third day, and rise with him to newness of life; who now lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen."

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Unless otherwise noted all Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

That "great gulf"

The Rich Man and Lazarus - Artist unknown

TODAY'S SPECIAL: Luke 16:19-31


TO CHEW ON: "'And besides all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed, so that those who want to pass from here to you cannot, nor can those from there pass to us.'" Luke 16:26



There is an aversion in our western society to the idea that some will miss eternity with God. The thought that they will instead spend time without end on the other side of that "great gulf," "tormented in this flame" is out of vogue. Even some who label themselves followers of Jesus have gone soft on the idea of what we call heaven and hell and that some will be in and others out.

Jesus Himself was clear on the subject.

• He compared people to  wheat and weeds growing in the same field. Those who believe to salvation and those who don't will ripen side by side "until the harvest" when the weeds will be burned, the wheat put in the granary - Matthew 13:30.

• Angels are the reapers of that harvest - Matthew 13:49.

• Entire nations will stand before God for His separation judgment - Matthew 25:32,46.

• And for those who are alive when Jesus returns to earth, the separation will happen right before their eyes - Matthew 24:40; Luke 17:34.

The plea of the rich man in Jesus' story, to send Lazarus to tell his unaware family members, shakes me. For I am still on this side of that "great gulf" with the ability to speak to my family and friends of the reality of what I believe is on the other side. Have I been clear? Or will I enter eternity with blood on my hands (Ezekiel 33:7-9)?

PRAYER: Dear Jesus, the thought of eternal separation from You is unimaginable. I need a sense of urgency to warn others—especially those in my close circle—about the possibility of this. Amen.

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New King James Version (NKJV) Used with permission. The Holy Bible, New King James Version Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.

Separation

TODAY'S SPECIAL: Luke 16:19-31

TO CHEW ON: "'And besides all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed, so that those who want to pass from here to you cannot, nor can those from there pass to us.'" Luke 16:26

It is not fashionable, these days, to emphasize or even mention God's judgment. Obviously it's much more comfortable to dwell on His love and the benefits of living life under His direction. However, the Bible includes both.

Today's reading — a story Jesus told about a rich man and a poor man named Lazarus — doesn't tiptoe around the fact that the decisions we make in life will be judged and will impact our eternal destination.

The rich man was in Hades (hell), not because of his wealth, but because of the way he used it. My Bible's footnote to verse 25 says: "Wealth does not automatically condemn one to hell, nor does poverty in this life guarantee eternal joy. One's destiny depends upon one's relationship to God, which is often reflected in the attitude toward material possessions" (New Spirit Filled Life Bible, p. 1422).

One of the aspects of God's judgment that comes across in Jesus' story is separation.

Separation as a consequence of rejecting God is a theme that runs through the Bible:

• Proud sinners are banned from God's sight (Psalm 5:5).

• Ezekiel speaks of "rebels and those who transgress against Me" as being kept out of the land of Israel (Ezekiel 20:38).

• Jesus speaks of the wheat and the tares ("weeds") coexisting until harvest time when the reapers will separate out the tares to be burned (Matthew 13:30, 49).

• Jesus also predicts a time of global judgment: "All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another" (Matthew 25:32,46).

• In our focus verse, the speaker, Abraham, describes a gulf of separation between Hades and heaven.

What is the great separator? Sin. For even Jesus, the sinless son of God was separated from His Father when He took on Himself the sins of the world. Sin not covered by Jesus' blood, separates those who have committed it from God and a future in heaven (Revelation 22:15).

This separation stands in sharp contrast to the relationship that is the essence of eternal life. Mark Buchanan explains it so well in the "More" section of yesterday's devotion.

The dreadful pain we feel at the death of a loved one is only a foretaste of how horrible would be a permanent separation from God and all things good. Let's live wide awake to the reality of God's coming judgment of separation and choose relationship  while we can.

PRAYER: Dear Jesus, thank You for bridging the gap of separation between sinful me and God. Amen.

MORE: Jesus: wall-breaker

"For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation." Ephesians 2:14

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