IN THE LIGHT

"For everyone who practices wicked things hates the light and avoids it, so that his deeds may not be exposed. But anyone who lives by the truth comes to the light, so that his works may be shown to be accomplished by God." (John 3:20-21, HCSB)

It is a good thing that golf, for the most part, must be played during daylight hours. If every course were lighted, we would be a truly hopeless bunch of addicts, wouldn't we?

Then again, you might not find the dark so bad. You could hit it all kinds of sideways, and your partners would never know the difference. You could simply declare that you think it was down the middle somewhere, or up on the green--then you'd drop a ball in that spot and keep on swinging.

But oh, when the sun rises, then we would know! We would find our golf balls scattered all over the course, and probably in more than a few adjacent fields, forests and backyards.

Golf, then, is a good parallel for the way we should live our lives: in the light.

In the light of Christ, our sins are revealed for what they are. We don't try to hide them or gloss over them. In the light of Christ, we make our mistakes on the stage of eternity.

Call that exposure if you will. But this kind of exposure leads to at least two important aspects of living with Christ.

First, we are humbled before Him and led to repentance. We know that when we surrender our sin to Him in the light like this, He will treat us mercifully, with forgiveness that all can see.

Second, we are encouraged to set aside the wickedness of the dark in exchange for the righteousness of the light. We do this as the light of the world (Matthew 5:14) following the light of the world, never walking again in the darkness but having the light of life (John 8:12).

--

Jeff Hopper

May 19, 2006

Copyright 2006 Links Players International

The Links Daily Devotional appears Monday-Friday at www.linksplayers.com.