In the Light

Yesterday I was having coffee with two of my church members and we were talking about serving the Lord. One of them made a comment something to the effect that God does not want us to be as the moon and stars. I don't remember the exact context in which he said this, but a few minutes later, I said, "let's go back to that moon and stars comment you made." I told them that in reality, this is exactly what God was looking for in us. I explained that the moon had no light properties in itself, but rather only reflected what ever it was in the presence of. The moon is dark and cold. The moon on it's own reflects nothing but darkness. As the earth revolves around the sun and the moon rotates around the earth, at different periods, more or less of the sun shines on it. When the earth is in the way, less and less of the sunlight reaches the moon and we see the effects in which "phase" of the moon we see. It's sometimes hard to grasp, especially when we were younger that the moon has not really changed, it is always the same. Rather, what is effecting the moon that we see is how much sunlight is reaching it, and is therefore reflected back to us. What we are seeing is the sun's reflection.

That is the way that it is with our walk in Christ as well. The Bible tells us that in ourselves there is no good thing. Our righteousness is as filthy rags. As we serve the Lord and walk according to His Word, it is not our goodness or light that others see, it is a reflection of God. If we stay in His presence, they see the Light of God. As the world gets in the way, it diminishes how much of God's light can be seen, just as it is in the natural realm. This is why John told us: "So we are lying if we say we have fellowship with God but go on living in spiritual darkness. We are not living in the truth. But if we are living in the light of God's presence, just as Christ is, then we have fellowship with each other, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from every sin." It is only as we stay in God's presence that we can possibly reflect the light of God. This is why it is critical that we do more than "visit" God on Sunday, but that we learn the joy and strength of entering into His presence every day. The more we are in His presence, the more we will reflect His light. We have to work at getting the world out of the way so that we are fully in His presence and those around us see the full impact of His presence in our lives.

DC Talk had a song out a few years ago called: "In The Light." The lyrics said:

I keep trying to find a life
On my own, apart from You
I am the king of excuses
I've got one for every selfish thing I do

What's going on inside of me?
I despise my own behavior
This only serves to confirm my suspicions
That I'm still a man in need of a Savior

CHORUS:
I wanna be in the Light
As You are in the Light
I wanna shine like the stars in the heavens
Oh, Lord be my Light and be my salvation
Cause all I want is to be in the Light
All I want is to be in the Light

This should be our goal, our aim for every day of our lives, to be in the light of Jesus Christ, not just to soak it up, but rather to reflect His light to a world darkened by sin.