In a dark room, the absence of light can be scary, but even just a crack of light draws our eyes to it in anticipation and eases fear. In the dark night sky, the stars and moon demand our attention. In the light of the Gospel, Christ draws us to himself. We are not the light; the Light shines for our benefit.<\/p>\n
From the Scriptures, God makes himself known. We can see the evidence of God around us by what he created, but only in the Scripture does Christ reveal himself to us, hence faith is then created. Romans 10:17 says, \u201cSo faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.\u201d<\/p>\n
Life can be difficult. Without my faith, I would crumble from hard times. But God gives me hope.<\/p>\n
I like this Bible verse, Exodus 20:24b: \u201cWherever I cause my name to be honored, I will come to you and bless you.\u201d It\u2019s in his church where he\u2019s remembered most. We receive his gifts of the Holy Spirt, mercy, grace and forgiveness. Numbers 6:24-27 says, \u201cThe Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you; the Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace.\u201d \u00a01 John 1:5 says, \u201cThis is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.\u201d<\/p>\n
In John 3:12, Jesus speaks to Nicodemus about earthly and spiritual things. It\u2019s as if Jesus is saying, \u201cMy dear Nicodemus, you\u2019re not thinking deeply enough about the earthly things that you can see, so how can you understand spiritual things you can\u2019t see?\u201d Jesus often uses earthly things that are seen to describe the mysterious spiritual things that are unseen. I\u2019ve learned to keep this lesson from Nicodemus in mind whenever I hear of earthy things described in Scripture.<\/p>\n
Psalm 23 in whole is a favorite of mine, but in particular verse 4: \u201cEven though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death\u2026\u201d When I think about a shadow, this means that something is blocking the light, casting a dark shadow. And if something is blocking the light, the dark shadow itself is actually evidence that there is light present. In the case of Psalm 23, the shadow is cast from being in this valley. It\u2019s so low, it\u2019s as dark as death; light is absent. But it also says I\u2019m walking through it, so I need to move. It\u2019s temporary and I have no need to fear, \u201cWhy?\u201d The verse continues; \u201cI will fear no evil, for you are with me.\u201d There\u2019s that crack of light: \u201cfor you are with me.\u201d Christ continues to shine his light even when I\u2019m stuck in that shadow. The light does not stop shining, though I can\u2019t see it. Christ defeated death and darkness. He creates a path for us to follow, draws us into the light, and walks with us, so the darkness flees us.<\/p>\n
Example: I was driving in my car and a thick puffy black dark cloud covered the sun. There was light all around me but the shadow of the cloud covered me while I was driving. I was in a darker place and couldn\u2019t see as well. I could see the edge of the shadow, the light on the road ahead. Eventually the cloud moved (or maybe I moved far enough to get into full sunlight). The darkness fled from where I was; everything that was hidden by the darkness was now visible. The sun had never actually stopped shining – there was just a cloud blocking the light.<\/p>\n
Death can be looked at as a temporal thing, but it\u2019s also a spiritual thing. This is especially true when we think about Scripture where it talks about being dead in our sinful life and alive in a new life in Christ (see Col 2:13-14 or Eph 2:1-7).<\/p>\n
Back to Psalm 23. Verse 4 continues: \u201cyour rod and your staff, they comfort me.\u201d The rod of his Word corrects and defends me, and the staff guides and directs me. Why? To bring me comfort. If all I\u2019m ever looking at is my old life, all the time, life can look pretty dark (the rod-correct and defend). When I look forward (the staff-guidance), I\u2019m being guided into new life. Luke 9:62 says, \u201cJesus replied, \u2018No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.\u2019\u201d \u00a0If we really believe our sins and failures are gone and covered by the blood of Christ, then we can say it\u2019s behind us and we are guided into a new life which we now live. By faith we are born again by the Spirit. Something dead cannot make itself alive, but God can – all things are possible with God (see Matthew 19:26b).<\/p>\n
My circumstances have nothing to do with what God does in me. I\u2019m a new creation no matter what happens. And I\u2019m able to walk a new direction in a new light.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s another earthly truth, that points to a spiritual one. Back to John 3. Jesus continues in his discussion with Nicodemus, along the lines of, \u201cYou had nothing to do with being born here on earth – it was your mom and dad\u2019s doing. Likewise, you are spiritually born of the Spirit by the Spirit. It\u2019s not your \u00a0doing.\u201d The evidence\u2026The Holy Spirit gives us an epiphany: if I believe in Christ, then that means God drew me to himself by his Word. How wonderful! He loves me so much, to come after me to bring me to belief. In Matthew 18:12-14, Jesus tells the parable about how a man will leave 99 sheep to search for the 1 that wandered off. God searched the world and found someone like me. Then he carried me back into his flock and celebrated. This Isaiah prophecy then becomes true for me personally – Isaiah 9:2: \u201cThe people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone.\u201d<\/p>\n
In John 15:5, Jesus talks about vines and branches. Think about branches on a tree: how does the branch get its nutrients to form leaves or fruit? And Jesus continues, \u201capart from me you can do nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s very important to me to keep a practice of reading Gods Word daily. His Word is a light unto my path (see Psalm 119:105). He feeds me when I\u2019m hungry. Gives me drink when I\u2019m thirsty. \u00a0He takes me in when I have no one. Clothes or covers me when I\u2019m exposed. Visits me when I\u2019m isolated. Heals me from my sin. And loves me and you<\/em> very much.<\/p>\n I pray you will look up the Scriptures posted here, and seek deeper ways to know God. Like a tree sucking up sap from its roots, so you can stay connected to Christ. I believe you will gain many blessings if you do. Christ\u2019s disciples walked with him every day for 3 years on this earth and still didn\u2019t understand everything. Don\u2019t let that be an excuse. We are changed, growing, being guided and producing his fruit, one step at a time.<\/p>\n Do you believe or not? Jesus help my unbelief! Isaiah 55:10-11: \u201cFor as the rain and snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.\u201d<\/p>\n God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. \u00a0Keep yourself in the light.<\/p>\n About the Author:<\/em><\/p>\n Bob has been an aircraft technician for over 40 years and has walked closely alongside loved ones as a caregiver. Through a series of dreams and life circumstances, God stirred in him a deep curiosity for Scripture. With the guidance of faithful people who pointed him in the right direction, Bob believes he discovered his purpose: to reveal God\u2019s love, grace, mercy, and forgiveness to those\u2014like himself\u2014who don\u2019t feel they deserve it. Bob can be contacted at: bvandyke123@gmail.com<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In a dark room, the absence of light can be scary, but even just a crack of light draws our eyes to it in anticipation…<\/p>","protected":false},"author":786,"featured_media":18540,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[21,42,34],"class_list":["post-18539","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hope-and-encouragement","tag-faith","tag-hope","tag-mental-health"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n