|
LEAVING THE DARKNESS
"'I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in
darkness.'" (John 12:46, NIV)
We would think little of a golfing friend who, after receiving the lesson we know they have long
needed, ignores the instruction they have been given and returns instead to their old habits. This may be the comfortable thing to do, but it would also be crazy.
In the same way, we would have to say that one of the most tragic figures in humanity is the one who
has been given the ultimate truth—that God offers forgiveness and freedom through Jesus Christ—but who persists in living the old life, replete with its secondary pursuits.
There is a stark difference, oft-repeated in the gospels, between light and darkness. But many
people, even those who say they believe and follow Christ, cannot see clear to this difference. That is partly because their image of darkness is of something heinously sinister and wicked. Surely, there
is gross evil in the world, but darkness is usually far more subtle in the way it keeps us from Christ. Consider, for instance, the statement of a Chinese cab driver to pastor and author Alistair Begg on
a trip to Beijing. The taxi driver had no knowledge of the Bible or Jesus Christ, so when asked to explain what he did believe, he said that "anger was what controlled the city of Beijing, and that
the only hope for the future was power, and the key to power was in money, and if he could get money in the way Americans have money, then he would have the answer to life."
You see, darkness is not so much about living amidst wickedness as it is about not being able to see
the light of life. We are blinded by the pursuit of money and power and entertainment—the stuff of earth. This fatal blindness keeps a person from seeing the abundant life that comes from fully following
Christ.
If, after offering our lives to Christ, we "should remain in the darkness," we have made a
most unfortunate choice. Given the greatest of all gifts, we then casually set it aside and return instead to the glitzier gifts of our former life—childhood toys, if you will.
There is no sense in this, of course, but worse still there is pain in it and loss, for in God's
kingdom, lukewarmth never wins the prize.
--
Jeff Hopper
January 19, 2007
Copyright 2007 Links Players International
The Links Daily Devotional appears Monday-Friday at www.linksplayers.com.
|
