thoughtful Category: Religion and Philosophy
What does it mean when we say that Jesus is the "Light of the world"? 
. I know that technically speaking, the sun is the light of the world, but I am talking about a different Son.
Firstly it isn't something that I made up or even someone made up cos it sounds cool. Jesus Himself said it 
…. John 8:12 "Jesus said "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life." Good news ain't it?
Let's face it, the world is a pretty dark place spiritually, these days 
. When it comes to the one true God anyway, because there are also all of these supposedly "enlightened", "new age" or whatever else people around these days.
Even though the world is such a dark place lately there is good news … Jesus is a powerfully bright light that can shine throughout the world if we'll only let Him. John 1:4 "In Him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it." This means that the darkness of evil has never and can never ever extinguish God's light. When we follow Jesus, the true light, we can avoid stumbling around in the darkness of sin. He lights our way for us, so we can see the way and follow it. You know the song… Your Word is lamp to my feet and a light unto my path…
Now previously I said "Jesus is a powerfully bright light that can shine throughout the world if we'll only let Him." What I meant by this is that we have the light of Jesus inside of us and we need to show it to the world. John 1:8 "There came a man who was sent from God, his name was John. He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all men might believe. He himself was not the light; he only came as a witness, to the light. The true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world"…
Now you might say WHOA!? 
What now? 
He just said that we have the light of Jesus in us, but now he says we aren't the light. Yes that is right. We aren't the light, but we have it in us if we have Jesus in our hearts, makes sense doesn't it? If you have a glass bowl and put a torch in it, the glass bowl is not the torch, but the torch's light shines out of the bowl. Just as the bowl is not the source of the light, we are not the source of God's light, we merely reflect and direct it. 
Now since God's light shines through us, we need to be directing and taking it to where it needs to be. Sometimes that is a really dark place or it may be to a place where only a little more light is needed to see the way clearly… There are a couple of things that we do, knowingly or unknowingly, that dim God's light inside of us:
- Being quiet when we should be speaking
- Going along with the crowd
- Denying the light
- Letting sin dim our light
- Not telling others about the light
- Ignoring the needs of others
How many of you have ever played a tv game or a playstation game or a computer game? The game usually has some sort of point/goal/destination to reach, doesn't? Whether it is getting all the cards out in solitaire, or reaching the final boss. Now think about life for a moment…it has many goals/destinations that we should be striving for. Spend a minute and think of a couple. One of my main goals in life is to do the whole "living for Jesus" thing – you know trying to serve Him, getting to know Him more and learning to love Him more. I hope that it is one of the main goals in your lives too.
But back to the game idea of a second ago… Have you ever noticed that, even in the games it gets harder and harder to complete the tasks as you get closer to the goal/destination or end of the game. Look at even a simple game like solitaire, the more cards you get packed out, the more cards you need to shift around to get a bottom one out…The bosses in other games get harder and harder as you get closer to the final boss/rescuing the maiden etc.
Now while I have been trying to do what I call "the Christian thing" I have noticed that the more of my life I devote to God, the harder it gets to stay devoted. Sounds pretty wacked doesn't it. Now after much battling and discussion with other Christians, some more and some less spiritually mature than me; I think I have found the answer, or at least a good version of it.
I reckon it goes a little like this, for me personally anyway…While I was kind of lukewarm and kinda just going with the flow. I was just a regular guy, I wasn't really that bad a person, I even knew a little about God. I figured since I read my Bible now and then and didn't rape/murder/steal etc that I would be going to heaven one day.
Well now I know that knowing about God inside you head doesn't mean that you are going to heaven…It might be hard to hear that, but while you can still hear that, you still have a chance to change it.
So here comes the rest of my theory… I figure that as long as you are not FULLY on God's team, i.e. you are lukewarm and don't really pose any sort of threat to satan. I mean there isn't much chance of you witnessing/being God's light to anyone and causing them to decide to accept Jesus as their saviour. So satan doesn't really have to fight for your soul, cos you almost belong to him anyway.
But…On the other hand as you get more involved at your church, doing stuff like outreach, or any other ministry, you start to worry satan. You know why? Because when you are sold out for God, satan can't buy a piece of you, and satan always wants to get a piece of whatever God has, I mean that's why he ended up in hell anyway. So the more you live for God, the more you upset satan, and the harder he tries to take you away from God…So like the song says, "blessed be Your name when I'm found in the desert place, though I walk through the wilderness, blessed be Your name. Blessed be Your name on this road marked with suffering, though there's pain in the offering, Blessed be Your name." So you should actually even continue to praise God when you go through times in this world that is such a wilderness…(looks like you were right friend) Now I am not saying you should worry yourself to death if things are going well, that same song also says "Blessed be Your name in the land that is plentiful, where streams of abundance flow…Blessed be Your name."
Choose to be a light...Shine bright.
--footnote--
Wow...I actually wrote this at the beginning of this year for a talk at a camp...Now...fortunately/unfortunately I have the opportunity to live it out.
--footnote--
