Daily Meditations on the Bible / We stand with Israel
Live as children of light …
Summary: God’s realm includes the physical world we live in, but it is much more that we can’t see. To understand what it means to live in God’s house, Paul uses different metaphors to show us what we can’t see.
Continue reading “Ephesians 5:8b – Living In God’s House”For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord.
Summary: Paul has the unenviable task of explaining realities that we cannot see with our human eyes. To give us a picture of what he is talking about, he uses an illustration of light and dark.
Continue reading “Ephesians 5:8a – Spiritual Light and Dark”
I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness.
Why would anyone want to stay in darkness? I can think of one reason: They don’t want to be seen.
And why would someone want to avoid being seen: Maybe because they don’t want to get caught doing what they are doing?
To believe in the light is to want to be in the light. Not everyone who wants to be in the light can be. In Jesus’ day, slavery was rampant. The Jews themselves were subject to the Romans. Lives were difficult and physically demanding. Achieving wealth was possible only for the very few. Today we live in a deeply divided world. Not only are we divided by wealth into the haves and have nots, but we are divided by our fears.
Those who live in the darkness of their fears are sometimes trapped by those fears. Some want to get out. Some believe in the fear.
Jesus offers us an alternative to fear. It is as simple as believing in Jesus. When that happens, the light breaks in and the darkness starts to fade.
Continue reading “Fear – John 12: 46”
Then Jesus told them, ”You are going to have the light just a little while longer. Walk while you have the light, before darkness overtakes you. Whoever walks in the dark does not know where they are going. Believe in the light while you have the light, so that you may become children of light.” When he had finished speaking, Jesus left and hid himself from them.
At night, if I have to get up to use the bathroom, there are all kinds of visual clues that help me navigate the dark room. The green glow from my wife’s digital clock. The pale light from the nightlight in the bathroom. The gentle yellow light peeking out from my alarm clock that says the alarm is “ON.” There is also a power strip on the floor beside my bed. I always know I am past the sharp edge of our bed frame when I can see the red light from the power cord switch.
All in all, there is a lot of light in our bedroom at night. If the power goes off, it is a very different story. Then all the lights in the house go out, and there is utter darkness. Not even any light from the street lights out front. Just blackness.
Walking around in that kind of dark is dangerous and slow.
Continue reading “Children of Light – John 12: 35-36”
There is a story in the Old Testament about a man named Naaman. He was an important man in his time as he commanded the entire army for the kingdom where he lived. He suffered from leprosy which in those days was a death sentence.
One day he heard about a prophet in Samaria who could cure leprosy, but when he heard what the cure was, he balked. What he was told to do was beneath his dignity. Eventually, he chose to humble himself, and his reward was that he was healed.
After saying this, he spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man’s eyes. “Go,’ he told him, “wash in the Pool of Siloam’ (this word means “Sent’). So the man went and washed, and came home seeing.