The Light on My Path

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Monday, February 10, 2020

Your word is a lamp to guide my feet and a light for my path.  I’ve promised it once, and I’ll promise it again:  I will obey your righteous regulations.  I have suffered much, O Lord; restore my life again as you promised.  Lord, accept my offering of praise, and teach me your regulations.  My life constantly hangs in the balance, but I will not stop obeying your instructions.  The wicked have set their traps for me, but I will not turn from your commandments.  Your laws are my treasure; they are my heart’s delight.  I am determined to keep your decrees to the very end.                    Psalm 119:105-112[2]

Let’s face it, when you have some age on you the light can grow a little dim for weary eyes.  My Dad almost made it to triple digits and his eyesight was amazing.  Dad had been wearing glasses since his forties, and when he reached 70, he awakened one morning and, as older people do, the first thing he did was reach for the glasses.  He put them on, and, as he looked around everything was fuzzy.  Dad removed the glasses to clean them and the world snapped into view.  He was blessed with what his doctor termed “second sight”[3]. 

A physical blessing is a gift that is always right in front of you.  Our pain and disabilities are front-burner issues, and when one is blessed with a pain solved, or weakness dissolved, the world snaps into alignment; new possibilities are in focus.

It is much the same in the spiritual realm, only deeper.  The Psalmist describes a light in dark places.  More dramatic than the alleviation of physical pain, the enlightening of spiritual understanding is a medicine to the soul.[4]

In the book of Isaiah, the prophet laments how much his generation (perhaps like ours) was walking in darkness, but foreshadows the coming of light for our souls:

So there is no justice among us, and we know nothing about right living. We look for light but find only darkness. We look for bright skies but walk in gloom.  Isaiah 59:9

And Jesus clearly picked up Isaiah’s words and drove them home to the point:

Jesus…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.”  John 8:12

These days there’s a lot of spiritual glop that is supposed to pass for enlightenment but offers little in the way of hope.  People dabble in spiritual vacuity that is supposed to place them on a higher plane but, in the end, it is hollow and shallow.  When the bubble bursts emptiness fills the room.  

That our generation is like Isaiah’s can hardly be disputed; the world is deeply divided, and America is truly the world’s leader in that commodity.  And what it will come down to for each soul is whether there is a hunger and thirst for the true light of heaven, or the darkness of momentary comfort.

For You Today

The Psalmist’s final word to us today is his determination to walk in the light of God’s Word until the very end of his days here on earth.  In our day we talk about finishing well; this is it, to know God’s Word, and heed God’s Word.  This is the light on my path, and like the Psalmist, I’ll stick with that until these earthly lights have run their course.

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

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[1] Title Image:  Pixabay.com   Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation©

[2] For another post on Psalm 119:105-112 see God's Word; Light for My Path; Lamp for My Feet

[3] This is a medical condition known as Presbyopia

[4] Proverbs 17:22

Seeing and Following the Light - Part 1

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Wednesday, February 8, 2017

Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he.  Proverbs 29:18^(KJV)

In Proverbs 29 the writer deals with discipline and its effects.  He talks of disciplining children and employees, and also lays-out the disastrous consequences of ignoring that discipline. 

The text uses two words that open the entire train of thought, vision or divine guidance, and perish, which is a word picture of a usually tame animal running wild.  A modern day picture would be a locomotive, with all its power, off the track and headed for destruction. 

Vision comes from two basic words in Hebrew which mean to see, and restriction.  Prophets are people who "see".  In ancient times they were even called "seers".  In this case, revelation, or vision is seeing the restrictions.  It has to do with discipline. 

Paraphrased we could say:  "When the people are not seeing things that should properly restrict, then they run amok, unrestrained."  The Proverb writer knew in his heart that God requires humans to observe the restrictions placed upon them.  It is then, and only then that we can live a meaningful life. 

At one point in Alice in Wonderland she asks the Cheshire cat: Would you please tell me which way I ought to go from here?" 

That depends a good deal on where you want to get to, the cat replied. 

I don't care much where, Alice says. 

Then it doesn't matter which way you go, says the cat. 

I really think the writer of Proverbs could have ghost-written the Cheshire Cat’s dialogue.  The Proverb text declares a real human goal, to see the discipline, the restrictions of God, because without it we won’t get anywhere.

Over the next couple of days we want to see from this text some plain Axioms, eternal truths that cannot change, and which, if we apply them to life will bless our days.

Let me restate Solomon’s proverb for the 21^st century:

Where we cannot see the compelling logic, and overwhelming evidence of God's prior claim on our lives, we will scatter and not serve Him.  Proverbs 29:18

And now let me give you what Jesus had to say about seeing:

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.”  John 8:12^(NLT)

So…say it simply, preacher:  God owns us, and He expects us to serve Him.  From this main thrust we can see a few other related truths....

1.   WE ARE EXPECTED TO BE DISCIPLINED SO WE'LL GROW 

In every area of life there is a discipline in which to enter for the purpose of becoming more proficient.  A child obeys parents to learn wisdom and grow.  A worker learns new developments in his field to serve his employer.  A leader studies trends to understand the marketplace.  And in the spiritual realm, believers study scripture, worship often, give, and serve so that they will become mature parts of the body of Christ.  The alternative is staying as a spiritual infant. 

In the book All God's Chillun the author recounts when his little 2½ year-old daughter was chastised for some little wrong, she used to say:  It was not I who did that; that was another little girl in me.  Failing to accept responsibility for growing as believers is destructive.  Chaos is not a good thing in any area of life.  The word perish in Proverbs 29 could very well be translated chaos.  Discipline changes the chaos of life into stable growth for a strong body.

For You Today

Got any chaos in your life?  Any idea how to change all that?

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

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NOTES

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[i]  Title image: By Anant Nath Sharma (www.thelensor.tumblr.com), via Wikimedia Commons