For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord; walk as children of light. Ephesians 5:8
The severe storm that struck our town caused widespread damage to trees and utility poles, causing many power interruptions. Along an important roadway, all of the street lights were out, as the entire circuit was cut off, leaving the roadway in eerie darkness. After a few hours, repair crews were able to reconnect that circuit, and the street lights came back on… at least, some of them did. Several of the lights had been damaged in the storm. Where those damaged lights were, the roadway remained in darkness. Those damaged lights remind me of Christians who fail to allow the light that we have been given to shine forth around us.
Our text contains a beautiful phrase – light in the Lord. This lovely expression reminds us that God has not merely lighted us, or given some light to us. No, God is light (1 John 1:5), and you and I are temples of the Holy Spirit. So God dwells in us. We are light. How different this is from our unconverted days when we were in deathly darkness. The Word of God was a closed Book to us. The Gospel was an unwelcome message. The things that delighted the Lord’s people were meaningless to us. We knew nothing of God and had no desire to learn. Until the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, shone unto us (2 Corinthians 4:4) and we were saved. Now, the Bible is an open Book from which God speaks to our souls. The Gospel is a glorious message that thrills our hearts every time we hear it. We enjoy not only the company of the Lord’s people but also the things that they enjoy. But with the wonderful light that we have been given is a responsibility to use the light for the benefit of others.
Let’s talk about an old hymn by Philip P. Bliss that I recall from my youth, although it has been many years (too many years) since I heard it. Called ‘Let the Lower Lights be Burning’, the hymn’s first stanza goes like this: ‘Brightly beams our Father’s mercy, From His lighthouse ever more. But to us He gives the keeping, Of the lights along the shore’. And the chorus: Let the lower lights be burning. Send a gleam across the wave. Some poor fainting, struggling seaman, You may rescue, you may save.’ Pay attention to the words of the last stanza: ‘Trim your feeble lamp, my brother. Some poor sailor, tempest-tossed, Trying now to make the harbour, In the darkness may be lost’.
We are light in the Lord. Are we light that our Lord can use to shine forth His mercy? – Jim MacIntosh
Here is the link to the video of this message: https://youtu.be/nFmlMB3d3es