Looking to the LIGHT

 

Thursday, February 17, 2022

Can anything ever separate us from Christ’s love?  Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death?  (As the Scriptures say, “For your sake we are killed every day; we are being slaughtered like sheep.”)  No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us.  And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love.  Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love.  No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.  Romans 8:35-39

Apostle Paul was convinced beyond the shadows of circumstance, that light was not gone, but was just getting started.  In the physical realm, the presence of shadows is only possible if there is light.  When light shines on something, a shadow must be on the other side.  This tells us we must look to the light if we are not to stumble in the darkness of the shadows. 

This analogy holds-up in the transfer from physical to metaphysical.  God is light, the essence of goodness and truth.  If we look away from God, we will be facing the darkness.  Paul declared that no force on earth, or in the heavens, can ever truly separate us from God, not demons, fears, nor even death.  But we can choose to look away from God, and the result is living in darkness. 

In the aftermath of two years’ grappling with COVID-19, and now OMICRON, and the associated darkening realities of life in the not-so-roaring 20’s, with resources reducing in an anemic economy resembling storm clouds, face coverings hiding smiles (if there are any), and social distancing pushing us further away from social fellowship, it is more difficult than ever to imagine there IS light to which we can look.  

Just as Darth Vader (the representative of evil in Star Wars) beckoned his estranged son, Luke Skywalker (representing naïve humankind) to follow him to the dark side, the dark times of 2022 would have us cave-in to our lower nature, becoming children of the shadows. 

These are dark times, indeed.  But Scripture constantly urges us to keep our focus on the light of God’s truth, because living in darkness is so much below what God has planned for us.  And that plan is for His love to have us walk in truth and light, the source of all hope, filled with glorious, inexpressible joy.[1]

For You Today

Christ declared that He is the light that came to dispel the darkness.  He taught us it would be an inside-job, a light that dwells within you, so you can reflect His glory.  So…look to the light, Christian.  No matter the circumstances, criticisms, or changes that come…turn-away from the shadows and look to the light of He who will lead you home to glory.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!  

[1] Title and other images:  Pixabay.com    Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©   

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[1] See 1 Peter 1:8

Rivers of Living Water

Wednesday, March 25, 2020

On the last day, the climax of the festival, Jesus stood and shouted to the crowds, “Anyone who is thirsty may come to me!  Anyone who believes in me may come and drink!  For the Scriptures declare, ‘Rivers of living water will flow from his heart.’”  (When he said “living water,” he was speaking of the Spirit, who would be given to everyone believing in him.  But the Spirit had not yet been given, because Jesus had not yet entered into his glory.)          John 7:37-39

Our dear friends, John and Anne live in Waynesville, North Carolina, a place close to the hearts of many North Carolina Methodists, right next to Lake Junaluska’s campgrounds.  Anne writes about their life in the mountains.  This past week they were (once again) on the Blue Ridge Parkway enjoying the falls:

[Grandson] David and I enjoyed Sunburst Falls. I said we had silent worship there with the falling water. I always think of living water welling up to eternal life and paused to thank God for what He does for us.[1]

Elizabeth and I have travelled some of the Pisgah National Forrest’s trail of waterfalls, and I’ve stood near them many times.  Somehow the idea of silent worship (as Anne called it) never entered my mind.  But so it is. 

Sometimes the silence invoked by the overpowering noise water makes crushing against ageless stone overwhelms a soul.  Anne’s timely piece on how life can be tossed upside down in a week – her word picture is Viral Pan-Panic – is a stark reminder that our days are looming, threatening any sense of normalcy. 

In such a world it’s easier to wander into fear, loathing the darkness.  It’s totally counter-intuitive to stop and thank God amidst the news media’s onslaught of disaster piled on calamity concerning the Covid-19 virus.  We are so conditioned lately to what the next morning’s game changing event will bring, you almost hate to turn on the TV.  One Facebook friend, whom I’ve known since kindergarten, posted that her husband is currently in the hospital with a bacterial infection, in isolation.  She was very quick to point out he did NOT have the Corona Virus.  A month ago none of us would have leaped to that conclusion of pandemic in a high school buddy.  Now, everything’s changed!

And that is the point for the church, and every follower of Jesus Christ; everything has changed.  No longer is there an inviolability of same ol’ – same ol’; no footsteps are heard in the Sanctuary on Sunday mornings at 11am.  It isn’t business as usual, and the waters are highly uncharted as to what that means for the future. 

And, if this pandemic viral bug can toss everything on it’s ear, grabbing the whole world’s attention and economic stability in two news cycles, think what the antidote of living water can accomplish for eternity if we who believe and follow Jesus Christ see that opportunity before us to interpret to 21^st century culture that whatever it is that kills the body is to be feared much less than He who holds our souls in his power.

“Don’t be afraid of those who want to kill your body; they cannot touch your soul. Fear only God, who can destroy both soul and body in hell.  Matthew 10:28

For You Today

The current crisis may or may not be a judgment of God, or simply a genetic evil cooked up in a petri dish.  But it certainly should help us focus on the only real center for disease control!  Two thousand years ago it was set up on a hill that looks like a skull.  And it was set up to battle the virus of sin – the ultimate pandemic crisis for humanity’s eternity. 

And Christ beat the stuffing out of the Lucifer virus!

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!

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Title Image:  Anne Mehrling original work, used with permission             Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation©

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[1] You can catch-up with Anne at Mehrling Muse – Life in the Mountains