God of Light

God of Light

1 John 1:5

This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.

               Without the light and Spirit of God we would still be in state of the earth and the heavens when they were first formed and created.  Genesis 1:1-5 says, “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. 2And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. 3And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. 4And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness. 5And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.“  In John 1:1-5 gives us the spiritual interpretation of the natural creation.  “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.”

               This morning, as the Lord had impressed upon my heart this scripture from 1John, I was studying through some of the scriptures on light.  I began to get a little drowsy so I got up to stretch my legs.  I walked over to the back door and looked out, it was dawn and the light was beautifully illuminating the clouds at the end of the mountain range.  There were a couple of small cloud beneath the others that were like little floating flames of fire as they caught and reflected the light of the rising sun.  Quickly, I walked back to my office and grabbed my camera to take a picture.  As I hurriedly tried to set the exposure and I took a couple of pictures, I looked down at the display and it was informing me that I didn’t have a flash card in my digital camera. I had to make a dash back to the office to get a flash card.  While the scene was still pretty I had missed the climax of its beauty. 

               I began to think about the analogy of how God created man to capture and reflect His beauty and nature, but like John 1:5 the light shined in the darkness, but the darkness comprehended it not.  You might say we are all like a bunch of cameras, but without film or a flash card we can’t fulfill our destiny and the reason for which we were created.  We can go through the motions, but we can’t comprehend or capture the light of God unless we have received Christ into our hearts and been quickened in our spirits.  He is the film in our cameras.  He is the one that gives meaning and purpose to our being.   Cameras without film or a means of capturing the light are of no use to us.  God needs a people who are able to capture and comprehend by His Spirit their reason and purpose for being and then start becoming the image of the light that they see and capture in their spirits.  2 Samuel 22:29 says, “For thou art my lamp, O LORD: and the LORD will lighten my darkness.”  It is only the light of God that gives us understanding and comprehension of who and what we are in Him.  Psalms 36:9 says, “For with thee is the fountain of life: in thy light shall we see light.”  God has given us His torchbearer to manifest and demonstrate His life in the world through Christ.  The Church is like the candlestick that maintains and bears that light. 

               Exodus 25 tells us how God commanded Moses to make the golden candlestick, which is a type of Christ and the Church.  “”Make a lampstand of pure gold and hammer it out, base and shaft; its flowerlike cups, buds and blossoms shall be of one piece with it. Six branches are to extend from the sides of the lampstand—three on one side and three on the other… “Then make its seven lamps and set them up on it so that they light the space in front of it.””  Here we get a picture of a golden candlestick beaten out of one piece of pure gold.  It is telling us that the Church is of one substance in Christ, that pure holy nature being like the gold.  It is formed by being hammered out; “…we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God (Acts 14:22). “ The lamp stand has six branches, three on each side, six being the number of man, but it has seven lamps.  The base and the center stem make up the seventh, like Christ who is the chief cornerstone of our foundation of faith, the six branches come out of the center-supporting candlestick.  The purpose of the candlestick was to illuminate what was in front of it.  Likewise the Church in Christ is to illuminate each generation with the light of the gospel and the Spirit of Christ.  Exodus 27:20 goes on to inform us, “And thou shalt command the children of Israel, that they bring thee pure oil olive beaten for the light, to cause the lamp to burn always.”  The pure beaten olive oil is like the Holy Spirit that keeps us burning continually.  Again, we see the beating and the processing involved in getting each thing to a usable state.  The candlestick illuminates a glorious realm of the Holy Place in the tabernacle, but in this place there are still shadows and areas of darkness. 

               The Holy of Holies is where God Almighty resides and in that place the illumination is His Light.  While mortal sinful man can not approach this light, the perfect high priest, Jesus Christ can and we are told that we are in Him.  1 John 5:20 tells us, “And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know him that is true, and we are in him that is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life.” Are we comprehending and capturing where our position is?  It is in Christ.  And where does the Christ dwell.  Colossians 3:3 puts it all in perspective, “For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.”  We have been brought into the Most Holy Place, in Christ.  It is in Christ that we have been told that we can approach His throne boldly.  Hebrew 4:14 –16, “Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. 15For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin. 16Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”  In Christ we are being brought into the Light that will dispel every shadow and darkness in us.  We have been called to be light bearers, capturing the light of God in our Spirits and presenting that image before men.  For we serve the God who is Light and in whom there is no darkness or shadow of turning.

Blessings,

#kent