The Deepest Darkness

Lately I've been studying the idea of light. Not simply that it allows us to see, but that where it is, darkness can not also be. That when light is present, shadows flee.

I've been studying the idea of change, of how when a man or woman such as yourself, who is tainted with this thing we call flesh, has light shine on you and into you, it changes you. It allows you to see things you've never seen. It allows you to believe things you never considered before. My only fear is that men no longer seek the light because they've lived in darkness for so long that they don't remember what light looks like. My fear is that we are able to walk into the light and live in it, but we don't realize the full possibility and the need.

In the bible there was a man named Saul. He was not only absent from light, but delving in the darkness- dwelling in the darkness. If the normal person is just absent minded under stars in the night sky, Saul was several hundred feet in a cave. He even says about himself "Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners- of which I am the foremost." You might ponder what it was the Saul did that was so bad, and what could drive him to say such a profound statement.

Saul was a murderer.

Worse than that, he was a hypocritical murderer who believe that was he was doing was right, and that he was serving God by killing.

But God. God one day revealed His light to Saul, and it was so bright that Saul became blind. Saul became humbled. Saul became different. And God, in His infinite kindness and mercy, redeemed Saul to not only give Him life, but to use him to bring others to life. Saul was changed so much that even his name changed from Saul to Paul. This brutal man whom everyone feared became so bright and loving that God used him to write most of your New Testament.

The point is this. If God's light can shine in even this deepest darkness, He can shine in your darkness too. "The light shines in the darkness." God purposefully seeks you out so that you may no longer be blind and bound, but free to see and believe. He hopes that you will be no longer stumbling and falling in this dark world, but will come into the light where there is peace, joy, and hope. He wants this for you. I want this for you.

"And the darkness has no overcome it." The darkness only has two options when light comes- flee or dissipate. God, whose light is bright, whose holiness is pure, has no darkness at all. His light shines and it can shine in you. But you might ask how? How do I do this? First, you confess. You confess that you have darkness and you don't qualify it, you don't justify if, you simply expose it. Secondly, you seek Him. The deeper you get into Him, the less of you there is. Where do you seek Him? In bible studies, in services, in prayer, in Scripture, and in loving friends. It is my hope that this inspires you, and that darkness would have to flee. May the God who is all expansive and the source of light find you gently and move you in.