Are You Ready to Come Out of Darkness?
Good Morning Friends,
My ministry…my life…my suffering has had a central theme of striving to bring dignity to nameless people lost in the statistics. These are the poor, the least, the lost, the last, the anonymous, often despised groups of people marginalized as in-significant before society but not before God. I try to support the poor and have found that if you talk about the poor, the poor in spirit, people regard you as sensitive and generous. But if you talk about the causes of poverty or suffering, people think it from a political or religious position. The reality is that poverty is not simply a situation of deprivation and understanding poverty from a social or political or religious point of view only goes so far in addressing the issue. The reality is that the poor have a great richness to contribute and an important role in the Kingdom. What I have found is that God has a preference for the poor and has placed in us the seeds of this same preference planted in the heart of our spiritual (as opposed to religious) life. This is born in us when God first loved us. It is not born out of our compassion ultimately but out of the tension of affirming the universality of God’s love with the reality of our faith that places an obligation for us to honor what I have concluded is His preference for the poor. If we allow God to love us, a light in shown on this reality. The reality is that we have a spiritual poverty, a spiritual hunger that can only be satisfied though interactions with the poor. Here in and though our life God’s love in combination with the least and last of history charts new courses that can benefit us all. So today we explore how to look outside ourselves for light…how to reach out and be a light for others…Yesterday was the longest night of the year. Are You Ready to Come Out of Darkness?
Scripture: What I say to you in the dark, tell in the light; and what you hear whispered, proclaim from the housetops.
Matthew 10:27 (NRSV)
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all consolation, who consoles us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to console those who are in any affliction with the consolation with which we ourselves are consoled by God. For just as the sufferings of Christ are abundant for us, so also our consolation is abundant through Christ. If we are being afflicted, it is for your consolation and salvation; if we are being consoled, it is for your consolation, which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we are also suffering. Our hope for you is unshaken; for we know that as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our consolation.
2 Corinthians 1:3-7 (NRSV)
This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light and in him there is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with him while we are walking in darkness, we lie and do not do what is true; but if we walk in the light as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us. My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and he is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world. Now by this we may be sure that we know him, if we obey his commandments. Whoever says, “I have come to know him,” but does not obey his commandments, is a liar, and in such a person the truth does not exist; but whoever obeys his word, truly in this person the love of God has reached perfection. By this we may be sure that we are in him: whoever says, “I abide in him,” ought to walk just as he walked. Beloved, I am writing you no new commandment, but an old commandment that you have had from the beginning; the old commandment is the word that you have heard. Yet I am writing you a new commandment that is true in him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining. Whoever says, “I am in the light,” while hating a brother or sister, is still in the darkness. Whoever loves a brother or sister lives in the light, and in such a person there is no cause for stumbling. But whoever hates another believer is in the darkness, walks in the darkness, and does not know the way to go, because the darkness has brought on blindness.
1 John 1:5 – 2:11 (NRSV)
Message: Anger does not bring about God’s redemptive work. We may still have strong convictions and a desire for justice but we must refuse to allow the sins of others to cause us to sin. We need to love it up into the light where we realize it is just a sense of guilt and not guilt at all. Our work is to see Christ in others. To hold any sinful attitude in our hearts blinds us. The Christ like way is to discover the broken body of Jesus in everyone. I can make no excuses but only try to help sinners discover the love and the light of Christ already in them. Knowing Jesus is not an intellectual pursuit but more one of obedience to His command to love one another. It is not so much about what we say and is certainly more than a mystical experience. If our love for Him is to be perfected we must learn to love others and that means relinquishing our negative feelings so that God’s Spirit can mend our soul. Only when we love can we walk in the light. In our suffering, in outreach to the poor, we discover what God can do. In our suffering, in our outreach to the poor, we discover how we can help others in need. In our suffering, in our outreach to the poor, we learn not to rely on our self. In our suffering, in our outreach to the poor we learn that we are part of something greater in Christ.
Pray we not walk in darkness. Pray we learn to love. Pray we be in step with God. Pray we step into the light. Pray we grow in a healthy relationship with Jesus. Pray we realize that God atones for the sins of the whole world. Pray that we reach the end of ourselves so that God can work through us. Pray that in our suffering, in our outreach to the poor, we encourage others with dignity. Pray that experiences of darkness in our lives turns into thanksgiving and light. Pray that we teach others how to handle suffering and poverty (both financial and spiritual) by not relying on ourselves but by working together. Pray that we come out of the darkness and into the light. Pray that we are called from the earthly shadows of our life into the light of a relationship with Jesus….the very same Jesus who became sin so we might be saved. Pray we be unbound and encouraged to walk out into the light when darkness surrounds us.
Blessings,
John Lawson
Daily Devotionals 