From Darkness to Light part 2

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 

The earth was, formless and void.

Darkness was over the surface of the deep…but….the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.

I got the dictionary out, darkness….having little or no light…absence of light…night…nightfall.  In the dark…in ignorance.

Hover….to remain suspended in one place in the air.

God did create, and we can all enjoy the benefits of His creation.  Whether we believe in the living God or not, we can still enjoy what He provides through His creation.

God created man because He wants us to have a relationship with Him, He longs to be our Father, what we have to do is to realise that for ourselves, and come into a Father-child relationship with Him.

In the book of Luke, we read the parable of the lost son.

The younger son decided he wanted to have, there and then, his share of the estate. The father, maybe broken hearted at his younger sons request, did as he asked of him. He divided his property between them. So then the younger son went off, determined to make his father proud of him, work hard, get his own property, go back and show his father what he had achieved……No, no, no.

We read in this parable of Jesus, that not long after he had spoken to his father he got together all he had, went off to a foreign country, and there he squandered everything.  Everything his father had given him, all his father had worked for, squandered, wasted. The sad thing is, as I see it when I read this, is that his share of the estate, what his father was giving him, appears to be more important that his relationship with his father. He didn't think about what he was doing to his father, or his older brother, he wanted what was his by right, regardless of any ones feelings. 

He finished up in a dark place.

No doubt that while he had money, he had friends. We read that he squandered his money.  Then there was a famine, and he began to be in need. He hired himself out, was given a job of feeding pigs, and he was so hungry that he longed to even eat what the pigs were eating.

What a dark place to be.

But in that dark place he came to his senses. He realised that his father’s servants were better off than he was then, and he went home, wondering what kind of home coming he would have. What have we done with the one who wants to be our heavenly Father, gladly we have received the benefits that he affords this world, but not thought about the giver?  

God gave his son, His one and only son.  Jesus came to this world as a baby, grew to be a man, a man who had a purpose, and that was to give His life for us.  All the sin of the world was on that cross where Jesus was crucified. It was dark for three hours, as though the light of the world had been extinguished. Can we imagine what it would be like in this world without the one, true, living God? 

Let those of us who know the Lord Jesus as our Saviour, brother, friend, not be afraid to show in our lives the light of Jesus. 

If you do not know Jesus as Saviour, if you do not know God as Father, then those of us who do, recommend Him to you. We all receive daily from God what He has provided for us. The younger son was quite happy to go off with what his father had given him, never mind the heart broken father.

God has so much more to give us, and as He is the one who made us, He is the one who knows us, better than anyone else. So He says, come home, just come home, and be my son, my child, I know you, get to know me, and see how so much more I have to give you.

Imagine if there were no light, if there were no Christians to give and show this light, it really does not bear thinking about. God, the Father, loves unconditionally. Jesus, the Son, stood in our place, to take the blame for our sin.

The Holy Spirit waits, waits to enter into the lives of those whose desire it is to know God, who accept that Jesus died for them. He took the punishment we all deserve that we might be free, free from darkness, and the bondage of sin, when we repent of our sin, and believe on Jesus then we are born spiritually, and our hearts and minds are made new and clean, and we have the light of life. 

And for those walking in His light, may we grow closer, be earnest in prayer, in reading His word, living daily for Him, and serving Him. 

Don’t be in the dark, walk in the light of Jesus, no need to be in ignorance of the knowledge of God, His Spirit waits, to enter the hearts of those who want to know what it is to know God, to know Jesus as Saviour, and walk in the knowledge that yes, I am a child of God.

The son went home, genuinely sorry for what he had done. Maybe at first he was just sorry for himself, but then, the word tells us that he came to his senses. He went back home, to his father and what a celebration there was.