of the Light

 

Growing up in the 1960s and 1970s as a child then teen, I was exposed to a lot of the Jesus Movement.  In fact, it was during the height of the Jesus Movement that I accepted Christ as my Savior (July 1975).  I listened to all the Christian rock bands, pop groups, etc.  One song in particular was quite popular from this group

Here's the song (keep in mind, this is from the 1970s :) ) 

So this morning, as I sat on the family room couch sipping my first steaming mug of coffee and watching the news, I was prompted to just turn it off. This world is so spiritually dead...this nation.....the politicians.....I'm not surprised....if you're not walking in the Light of God, you're walking in darkness.  We can't serve two masters (God and Satan).  I wanted to dispel the darkness of the news so when I turned off the television and focused on my devotional study on the King of Kings, an Easter devotional via the Bible app, I was happy to see the sun rising over the backyard. 

Tuesday morning around 7:15 AM

And it reminded me of how I am a child of Light. 

If we accept Jesus as the Son of God who died for our sins, and believe He has risen again to give us eternal life, and confess our sins, we are saved and become His children. We no longer live as though spiritually dead. Does this mean we will never sin?  Of course not. We are human beings, and everyone is born into sin and the enemy (Satan) will lure us in many different directions and yes we will sin at some point.  My mother used to tell us to confess our sins every night because we all sin at some point.  It might not be the  large sins (murder, adultery, stealing).  It might be something as innocuous as thinking bad thoughts towards someone, or a smaller sin like gossip or yelling at our spouse. (actually, there are no degrees on sin. Sin is sin. ) But when we  ask the Lord's forgiveness, He is quick to pardon us. 

Living in the Light comes with certain responsibilities like practicing the spiritual disciplines.  But it's not these disciplines that  give us eternal Life. Only Jesus does that.  We can do all the things.  We can read Scriptures, pray, go to church, etc and that doesn't make us a Child of the Light.  However, when we are walking with Christ, we  want to do those things...it's how we grow. 

Just like when the light of the sun shines down on the buried bulbs I have in my flower beds and begins to grow them, so too does the Light of Jesus shine on us and help us grow in our walk with God the Father. 

Shining the Light that is within us is what the world needs to see.  They need to see our love.  Our compassion for others. Our words need to match our actions. 

Are you shining the Light today? 

  Shine on!!