Needful light

The dark nights are now with us for the next five months. Many of us prefer our waking hours to be in daylight rather than in drawn out dark evenings.

In the beginning God said, ‘Let there be light’ and he, seeing that it was good, separated it from the darkness. As we move through the biblical story and onto Jesus and then the teaching of his apostles, the theme of light and dark becomes a spiritual concept of great significance.

We enjoy stories about the forces of light overcoming the powers of darkness or good prevailing in the face of seemingly overwhelming evil.

So you’d think we would want to hear more about Jesus who said, ‘I am the light of the world’, but then we read in the gospel, ‘Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.’

It is this which causes us not to want to get too close to God, because we fear that the pure light of his very being will expose some parts of our lives which he may want to alter and we don’t.

Are we in an impasse then? No, darkness is simply an absence of light.

Three of Jesus’ recorded healing miracles involved encounters with blind men. Before meeting Jesus, each had lived their lives in darkness. He opened their eyes and in came light. From that point forward their whole lives were very different.

God is still in the business of coming to individual men and women, and shining his light into darkened hearts, and when he does two things happen: We perceive something of the desirable possibilities of being in relationship to the personal, pure and all-powerful God; at the same time we instinctively know that our lives will change if this engagement with God is welcomed. Are we prepared for this?

Those three blind men didn’t hesitate when Jesus came near, because their desire was to walk in the light rather than stumble around in their personal dark world. Jesus tells us, ‘I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness’ and again, ‘…Put your trust in the light while you have it, so that you may become a person of light’ (John chapter 12 v35-36 and 46).

A right understanding

Many of our young people will now be settling in to university life, some for the first time. In the 19th century, ‘higher criticism’ of orthodox Christian faith within academic circles was in vogue. As a result, some today may still think that the orthodox Christian faith cannot be held by people with above average intellectual ability.

The fact is that intellect and faith are not at opposite poles, each exclusive of the other; rather it is unbelief not intellect that is set against faith.

Quoting the Anglican theologian Jim Packer: "Our own intellectual competence is not the test and measure of divine truth. It is not for us to stop believing, because we lack understanding or to postpone believing till we get understanding, but to believe in order that we may understand. Faith first, sight afterwards is God's order.”

How often in life's experience have things happened which we cannot make sense of and faith in a good God has been sorely tested? Yet later, sometimes much later, we can see that perhaps the hand of a loving God was in it after all.

Time and again I am brought back to that part in John's Gospel where Jesus says, ‘If anyone chooses to do God's will [that’s faith], he will find out whether my teaching comes from God [that’s understanding].’

May God bless our young people at University and protect them from making an idol of their learning.

Our intellect is part of what it means to be ‘made in the image of God’ and so we are meant to honour God with it and not to use it to besmirch him.

A closed book

Still standing on my bookshelf is a lovely pocket sized edition of the Bible (King James Version). Inside it, my grandmother had written an inscription to me on the occasion of my 21st birthday. When, all those years ago, I opened the gift, I turned to my mother with disappointment saying, ‘What do I want this for?’ I was far more interested in the jumbo folk guitar that my parents had paid for! The golden edged pages of that Bible were to remain unturned in their zipped-up, leather case for many years.

When I first came to hear about the person of Jesus and experienced the conviction that his claim upon my life could not be ignored, I needed help, advice and guidance. Initially, I turned to the Christians in the church where I had first heard the message about Jesus. I was savvy enough, however, to realise that having given my mind, heart and soul to this ‘faith in Jesus,’ then I needed something more concrete than simply what the well-meaning folk in this local church said. I soon recognised that what I wanted was the word of God himself, which is what the Bible’s pages are said to reveal. From it, I saw quite quickly how Jesus is also called the Word of God. So, we have the word of God in written form and then what it says is personalised and lived out in the man Jesus. This is summed up by the gospel writer John when he says, ‘the Word became human and lived among us’. intrigued? Open the Bible for more.

In the first instance, I don’t recommend starting at page one and working your way through the 1200 or so pages of the Bible. Perhaps the Gospel of John could be a way in for you. Here’s the thing though: don’t read in such a way as to sit in judgement of what you read but let what you read examine you! Through it, like a good physician, Jesus may make a diagnosis which isn’t to your liking but he remains a fine healer. Trusting him is what Christian faith is.

That folk guitar, my parents 21st birthday present to me, was traded in just a few years later. Grandmother’s Bible and, more especially, its message is still with me.