Goodness and Light

Jesus came, died and rose again so as to bring us goodness and light.

Now think about that for a minuet. Goodness and light. We are commanded to be the light of the world. We are to have our lamps full of oil, wicks trimmed and lighted.

You will find nowhere God commands us to have our lamps put up, stashed somewhere in the back of some overstuffed closet. God Himself told us that those who do not carry the light are going to miss the boat.

The other side of the coin, or the constant pattern that anyone watching will observe, is this:

When it comes to things of God, the answers are simple, not easy.

You come to Jesus and hand Him all the trash, the awful things we have done in our lives that Jesus had to bare so that we might be worthy to see God. We have to hand over all of those hidden things we keep buried behind that locked closet door of our lives. Denial will do no good here. The Lord knows what's in there. But He will not make you. He will not do it for you. It's your closet, you clean it.

He does this thing for us so that when we pick up our lamp what others see is God's love.

Too often folks who are filling America's churches are just lost souls, yelling in the dark. They seek others to affirm that even though they are feeling around in the dark, they are heading in the right direction. Afraid to take the lamp which Jesus freely gives us all, because admitting (confessing, if that works better for you) is too painful to bare.

I can speak from personal experience that when you walk into a dark room full of hyper-religious people with your lamp way up high, it is going to push many of these folks out of their comfort zones. When that happens, stand by. You will hear voices coming from the dark, with weak attempts to invalidate your relationship with God.

Remember, there is always going to be more of them than there is of you. Satan loves stoking up the fires of peer pressure. No light here but lotsa heat!

If you find yourself in this position, rejoice!!