Post 18-The Light

                                   

John Writes

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November 10, 2016

 

Hey Dana

            I was thinking about this on my way home from work today. I had on Christian radio and one of the hymns or contemporary songs was dealing with Jesus being the light of the world. I began to think about that.

            Three scriptures come to mind:

            2 Cor 4:4 (NIV) The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

            John 1:1-5  (NIV) In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

            Matt 5:15 (NKJV) ¹⁵ Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. 

            Surprisingly, when I was in the U. S. Coast Guard, I used to get seasick. For nearly three of my four years I was stationed on ships. While in the Gulf of Mexico, the ship might be out three or four days and I was seasick the entire time. But I had to work through the sickness (that's for future post). In the Pacific, when we were out for more than three or four weeks at a time, thank goodness that after the 2nd or 3rd day, I would get over it. But I digress....

            How often have we seen a Snoopy cartoon where he's sitting on top of his dog house, typewriter in front of him and the caption read, "It was a dark and stormy night."? Because I was in the Coast Guard, and their motto is "You have to go out, but you don't have to come back," many times my ship would be out on dark and stormy nights. The night would be black, often with rain beating down. The wind would be literally howling through the mast's rigging. Because I was on buoy tenders, they were round bottomed ships and they would roll. Oh, how they would roll. They would often lean over to a 45 degree angle (and sometimes more) on one side, and then roll to 45 degrees on the other. From port to starboard and then back from starboard to port, for hours on end,...rolling. Going outside was often forbidden because if you went overboard, you'd never be found. Walking inside down a passageway was a struggle to keep your balance even while holding on and to keep from being tossed hard into the steel bulkheads.

            On nights like that when I was an underway watch stander, sometimes something would happen. I would be looking out into the pitch blackness, often trying to shield my eyes from the wind and rain beating against me. Suddenly in the inky blackness, there would be an instant pin prick of light. Or, was there? It wouldn't come back so I'd think I was imagining something. But then, there it was again. Yes, it was a light, somewhere out in the howling blackness. As the ship struggled to make headway, in time, the light would take on character, that is, it would regularly flash a pattern and in time, a rotating shaft of light would seem to proclaim to the stormy darkness, "You can't shut me out! I'm the lighthouse light and this is the way home, or to safety." No amount of all encompassing storm and darkness could curtain the light. It just plain overpowered the darkness. Maybe at first when the light beam was just a pin prick, the storm might hide it...temporarily. But the closer we'd get to the harbor, the brighter and stronger the light shaft became.

            I like the way The Message Bible does John 1:2-14, but especially the section on Light.

 

_1-2 The Word was first,
the Word present to God

God present to the Word.
The Word was God,
    in readiness for God from day one.

_3-5 Everything was created through him;
    nothing—not one thing!—
    came into being without him.
What came into existence was Life,
    and the Life was Light to live by.
The Life-Light blazed out of the darkness;
    the darkness couldn’t put it out.

_6-8 There once was a man, his name John, sent by God to point out the way to the Life-Light. He came to show everyone where to look, who to believe in. John was not himself the Light; he was there to show the way to the Light.

_9-13 The Life-Light was the real thing:
    Every person entering Life
    he brings into Light.
He was in the world,
    the world was there through him,
    and yet the world didn’t even notice.
He came to his own people,
    but they didn’t want him.
But whoever did want him,
    who believed he was who he claimed
    and would do what he said,
He made to be their true selves,
    their child-of-God selves.
These are the God-begotten,
    not blood-begotten,
    not flesh-begotten,
    not sex-begotten.

₁₄ The Word became flesh and blood,
    and moved into the neighborhood.
We saw the glory with our own eyes,
    the one-of-a-kind glory,
    like Father, like Son,
Generous inside and out,
    true from start to finish.

            Dana, God is trying to tell us, this is Jesus. "...the Life-light. He (John) came to show everyone where to look, who to believe in. John was not himself the Light, he was there to show the way to the Light."

            When I think of the scripture above, 2 Cor 4:4, how the god of this world, Satan, has “blinded the minds of unbelievers so that they cannot see the light of the gospel....”, I could easily get discouraged.  But then through faith, when I think of family, friends, neighbors, co-workers, or others who are blinded by Satan, I know that God’s light can overcome any blindness. I keep looking to God through prayer, interaction when possible, and His word to bring in the Light. Just yesterday, I talked with someone who has a family member they have been praying for for about 30 years to see the Light. That person was continuing to trust that God’s light would in time break through the darkness and their loved one would turn to Christ.

            Or, I think of Matt 5:15 and I am convicted when I think how long I’ve been hiding God’s lamp under a basket. Whatever the reasons (excuses?) I’ve been doing this, it is time to draw upon God’s love and then step out and begin letting the Light shine while there is still time. 

            Oh God, help me to stop hiding Your Light under a basket. You're giving us (the Church in America) and me another chance. Help me, us, not to squander this, but to take the Light to as many of those around us as possible so that it can light the way to the Safe Harbor.

            The light from the lighthouse could not be overcome, no matter how terrible the storm. Once I saw it, I knew that that shaft, or beam, of light cutting through the darkness was not just the way home, but my way home, and the way to safety and refuge of the harbor. Unfortunately, many once vital and significant lighthouses have been abandoned by the Coast Guard and turned off because of more modern electronic means of navigation. Today's mostly non-seagoing populous just doesn't understand the significance of what I've written. Even I had almost forgotten how all powerful light is because of the darkness Carol and I've been going through both recently and for the past several years. Perhaps I can explain the power of the light this way. (Warning: Kids—DO NOT try this at home.) Get a box of stick matches and take one match out. At night, go into an inner room in your home with no windows or light of any kind. Put a rolled up towel across the bottom of the door so no light can enter. Try to get total darkness. And then, strike the match. It flares up and then burns. LIGHT. And the darkness can't shut it out.

 

            Once again, Jesus spoke to the people and said, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows Me will never walk in the darkness, but will have the light of life." Jn 8:12 BSB

 

Yours for the Harvest

John

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John Adds an After Thought

 

            Some years ago for The Rotarian Magazine, I interviewed Jennifer Smith for an article. At that time, the 28 year old was building an amphibious plane she could use to fly missionaries and their supplies around the Amazon. What initially caught my attention about this woman was she was a graduate from a Midwest Christian college, who went into the Coast Guard upon graduation. Not only that, but she was stationed as an officer on the very same ship I was on  while I was in Alaska. When I was in the CG, women had very limited active roles, and were never assigned to a ship. When asked why she would do such a thing, she answered, “I wanted to know if my faith was real.” 

 

           But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin. 1 John 1:7 NIV