Overflowing Light

    True worship.  What is it?  Jesus defines and prescribes worship in many places in the Gospels, not the least of which is the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5-7.  Listen to Christ in Matthew chapter five verse sixteen:  "Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven."  I love how the New American Standard translation reads "in such a way".  That is to say "your light", namely Christ's light, should reflect through our lives in a manner that reveals the value and worth of our God.  In other words, true worship is an overflow of the light of our Lord Jesus Christ that shines so deep and bright in our hearts as believers.
     How we are as His poor-in-spirit, meek, sin-mourning, pure, hungry for His righteousness, persecuted people is displayed as light in this dark world by the good works in which we walk (Ephesians 2:10).  Oh Jesus, help our lights to be placed brightly on the mantles of our homes, workplaces, recreation and every other context of our lives. May they NOT be hidden beneath the baskets of sin, shame, doubt, complacency and every other light-hiding source that tries to distort the view, and thus the worth and value of the one, true God!

Overpowering Light

As I write my first post, my first attempt ever to blog, I am pondering one of the greatest truths in all of Scripture.  Listen to John in the opening of his gospel. "The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it" (John 1:5 ESV).  The English Standard Version (ESV) accurately translates the Greek word "katalambanō" as the phrase "has not overcome it".  The ESV gives rich and relished meaning to the understanding that no matter how hard Satan and his evil forces may spread and grow their darkness; it can never overcome the Light of Life, Jesus Christ.  

This brings me to the heart, the center and core of our being. Jeremiah says our hearts are  terribly wicked.  Paul says we are spiritually dead in our trespasses and sins, in our "darkness" in other words.  So, the burning question is how can this deep, infective and total darkness of the heart be overcome?  Paul gives us the answer in his second epistle to the Corinthians with the following statement:  "For God, who said, 'Let light shine out of darkness,' has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ" (II Cor. 4:6). 

 As Christ's light shines in on the darkness of the heart, it brings with it creative and redemptive power.  Paul's quote within this verse is taken from Genesis chapter one where God speaks to the earth that was without form and void.  Darkness was over the face of the deep and the Spirit of God, Sovereign of the Universe, hovered over the waters and said, "Let there be light" and the light had no choice but to shine!

In the same way, the Spirit of God hovers over a dead, void, and dark heart of a sinner.  He speaks light, and the glory of the gospel of Jesus Christ shines in such a way that it overpowers and overcomes the darkness of the heart. This light creates a new heart and thus, changes every aspect of a person. This truth and reality is one of the sweetest in the entire Bible.  Praise God for His overpowering light!