SPEAKING AND LIVING IN LIGHT

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

When someone tells you to consult mediums and spiritists, who whisper and mutter, should not a people inquire of their God? Why consult the dead on behalf of the living? Consult God’s instruction and the testimony of warning. If anyone does not speak according to this word, they have no light of dawn. Distressed and hungry, they will roam through the land; when they are famished, they will become enraged and, looking upward, will curse their king and their God. Then they will look toward the earth and see only distress and darkness and fearful gloom, and they will be thrust into utter darkness.

Isaiah 8:19-22

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

The chorus of a classic contemporary Christian song by DC Talk sang out these words:

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

(listen to the song “In The Light” here with a much younger Toby Mac and Michael Tait (Newsboys) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2WlRt8z5bHA)

These words could serve as an anthem for anyone who truly longs to be the kind of Christian the Lord Jesus expects us to be. For to be Christian is to be Christ-like and anyone who is living Christ-like will be with the One, Jesus, who has been, is, and will always be in the light. Indeed, Jesus took this fact to a whole different plane when He professed to be the Light of the world (John 8:12). In turn, His disciples, who live for Him and with Him, are to let their light so shine so others may see Him in what they do with the end result of glorifying God the Father (Matthew 5:16).

In other words, those who truly live for the Lord will have it in their nature to speak and live in the light.

It’s this matter that is at the heart of the final verses of Isaiah, Chapter 8. Look now at these powerful words from the prophet:

When someone tells you to consult mediums and spiritists, who whisper and mutter, should not a people inquire of their God? Why consult the dead on behalf of the living? Consult God’s instruction and the testimony of warning. If anyone does not speak according to this word, they have no light of dawn. Distressed and hungry, they will roam through the land; when they are famished, they will become enraged and, looking upward, will curse their king and their God. Then they will look toward the earth and see only distress and darkness and fearful gloom, and they will be thrust into utter darkness. Vv. 19-22

What happens when we reject the Lord and His truth, choosing instead to place our trust in mediums, spiritists, or any other human being who claims to have the answers to life’s questions?

We end up being led into darkness because we opt to not associate with the One who is the light.

This was the main problem of the Old Testament Israelites as they marched down the path of God’s judgment, a path that would lead to their nation being routed and plundered, a path that would lead them to exile in a foreign land for seventy years. What are the consequences for deciding to turn away from the light to live in the dark? Isaiah mentions a few: distress, hunger and famish, disorientation, enragement, gloom, and living cursed. Not exactly on anyone’s top ten list of things they would want out of life but exactly what will come if anyone chooses to live separate from God and His instruction, anyone who chooses to not speak according to His word.

Why do I sit down and commune with the Lord every day to publish powerful words that He provides?

It’s simple. I yearn to speak and live in the Light (capital L).

The scriptures summon us with the call to do just that, crying out to you and me each and every day to dedicate ourselves to speaking and living in God the Father and Jesus the Son, the only Ones who can lead us to the true light in life. Look at these other words of encouragement and exhortation:

This is the message we have heard from Him and declare to you: God is light; in Him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth. But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, His Son, purifies us from all sin. 1 John 1:5-7

In his letter, John shares an important message he received from none other than God Himself. What was the message? It was short and to the point: God is light. Our Creator God fashioned light with His almighty hands and then used it to illuminate His creation. The One who has no darkness within Himself made the way for us to escape the darkness of sin and wickedness to walk in His light of righteousness.

We know this because once again, the scriptures proclaim it. Look at these words from the apostle Paul as he wrote to the Christians in Ephesus:

For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) and find out what pleases the Lord. Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. It is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret. But everything exposed by the light becomes visible—and everything that is illuminated becomes a light. Ephesians 5:8-13

God is light and He has called us to be light ourselves in and through Him. We are commanded to live as children of light, divine children who are to let His light shine through all we do, illuminating others while producing goodness, righteousness, and truth, all fruits harvested from the light. This is the kind of life that is pleasing to the Lord, a life we are to strive for, a life that will please others as well as they benefit from the fruits of light we bear, fruits nurtured and ripened by the power of the Holy Spirit who guides and leads us toward the Lord’s will and way.

So the task we’re being given from the Lord we love and serve is clear. We are to speak and live in light, to be in the light of the One who is the light, letting that light shine brightly in all we do.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.

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