Time To Shine

Imagine with me for a moment here.

Imagine walking through your dark kitchen at 2 in the morning in an attempt to find your fridge. Imagine having to walk through tables, chairs, and all sorts of furniture that you’d put in your kitchen. Pretty chaotic right? Bumping into stuff here and there, getting yourself hurt and bruised because of every hit and bump. Adding to that, you don’t really know where you’re going. But then you discovered a flashlight lying around, the flashlight’s light now being the first thing you seek. Now because of that flashlight, things start to become clearer. You now have a guide in your walk going to that refrigerator.

When walking in faith, believe it or not, we too walk in world caught about in darkness and we too have a light to follow so that we can be guided, no longer having to walk in that darkness.

You guys getting me? No? Take a look!!

1. Called out of the dark

• Sin is just so so self-destructive. It could, 1.) hurt other people 2.) in some cases, hurt one’s self and 3.) ultimately, hurt your relationship with God. We used to walk side by side with sin before encountering Christ and though this verse doesn’t explicitly state it, it could be seen in John 8: 12 (“… I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.”). The word ‘follow’ suggests that there’s an invitation to be guided by His light because question: Would He ask us to follow Him if we’re already walking with Him? He offers Himself as a constant guide and calls us out of darkness. As His followers, we no longer walk in the dark, but in His light.

2. Repelling the darkness

• So we heard that with Christ, we no longer walk in darkness. But what is a light’s function in the dark? Going back to that play of imagination we had just a while ago, we saw how a flashlight’s light acted as our guide to find our way around the kitchen. But what is this darkness that the Bible speaks about? Just as the flashlight’s light repels the darkness, so does Jesus’ light repel the darkness of sin (“… He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.” -John 8: 12). Like how the sun is our natural light, He is our spiritual light that enables us to see and exposes sin.

• But so now what that we now see? Let’s use the imagination game awhile ago for another analogy. Because of the flashlight, we now are able to see the way towards the fridge and the obstacles (e.g. furniture) are exposed. Since the furniture are exposed because of the light, we now know what to avoid so that we don’t bump into anything. Same way with sin. Now that Jesus has enabled us to see, we now avoid ways of sin and now seek and follow righteousness (“… He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.” -John 8: 12).

3. We are also light of the world

• Jesus’ light repels sin in our lives so that we may not walk in darkness and in turn, he gives us the light of life. Now what does that mean? It means that we too should be light of the world and should be able to reflect His light to other people. Again. Flashlight example… Once you shine a flashlight into a mirror, that mirror reflects the flashlight’s light for other people to also see. The main function of the mirror now is to reflect the flashlight’s light. Same way with us. Now that we have the light of life from Him, we are then called to reflect His light to other people for them to see how we move about this world as we give God glory. It was probably said best when Jesus called His disciples the light of the world (“You are the light of the world… Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.” -Matthew 5: 14, 16).

Try doing this at home. This time, instead of lights out, finding the flashlight, your life exists in this broken dark world. Now, find that flashlight. Where do you think it is?

-Yji Cataluna