The Fear Of The Absence of Light

Being afraid of the dark isn’t really the issue.

We naturally prefer a lit room because the light exposes obstacles and unknown variables. We tend to enjoy being able to see where we are going.

But when the lights are turned out, we tend to freeze up. If we move at all it’s with great caution and care. It’s not the dark we’re afraid of; it’s the unknowns that lurk in the darkness. Our imagination can run us wild with a combination of our worst fears, mind tricks, and the power of suggestion. Scream, ‘Spider!’ in a room filled with people and darkness, and you’ll hear screams and shrieks from every corner.

We huddle in the darkness, not moving about, sometimes holding hands and arms, whispering and talking, mostly just to hear someone else’s voice because we don’t want to be alone, and it’s in utter darkness when we feel most isolated.

Vin Diesel stars in a movie called ‘Pitch Black’, a sci-fi flick about a world whose carnivorous flying inhabitants thrive in darkness. If you’ve seen it, then you know the bloodthirsty predators in this gory thriller die when exposed to prolonged sunlight. The hero, a renegade convict, leads a dwindling band of frightened and virtually helpless individuals back to their ship, and ultimately off the planet to safety.

Here’s the funny part – he’s blind. Actually, he can ‘see’ in the dark, but he’s still considered blind because he can’t see in sunlight. What makes it funny to me – in a twisted sort of way, I suppose – is the fact that everyone in the troupe but a teenage girl and a priest are killed trying to get home. Matt. 15:14 says: “…If the blind lead the blind, both will fall into a pit."

If we stay still long enough, not move around very much, we can grow accustomed to being in the dark, to a point that we can believe we don’t need the light.

Sunday mornings are the only morning that I awaken before the rest of my family. I like to be at the church early in order to prepare, so my alarm is set for six o’clock. Since my eyesight is poor anyway, my Sunday morning rituals are usually done in the dark; I shower, shave, and dress (I’ve usually laid my clothes out the previous night) without turning on the lights. I have grown accustomed to having no lights on.

There have been a couple of mornings when I would turn on the bathroom light to put my contacts in and do my hair and realize the outfit I’ve put on – and quickly change.

The People of Israel were cut off from God’s sovereignty, and left destitute, leaderless, and without a country. They were, in fact, in utter darkness - and they had managed to grow accustomed to it.

But they had not forgotten that God, through Isaiah, had made a Promise: “The people who walk in darkness will see a great light—a light that will shine on all who live in the land where death casts its shadow (Isaiah 9:2 NLT).

About eight years ago, I remember a thunderstorm knocking the electricity out at our house. It was about 10:30 at night, and I spent the next couple of hours frantically looking for candles and matches and flashlights – anything to dispel the darkness. When I found the lighter and held it to the wick, I remember the power of that small flame as it kept the darkness at a distance. There was a somewhat euphoric sense of peace, even in a ravaging thunderstorm, which exuded from that small candle.

When a candle is lit in a darkened room full of people, you will find that the mass of bodies tend to want to gravitate to the candle, to bask in its warmth and to be able to see.

That ‘Great Light’ that God promised to the People of Israel came in the form of the Christ Child, and during the life of Jesus, people gravitated to Him to bask in His Warmth and often found that when they were close to Jesus they could ‘see’ because of the Light that shone from His teachings and His character.

Jesus was, and is, the Promise Kept.

Here’s something to ponder: Is there ever a moment when you have no shadow? The answer is ‘yes’, and in only two situations.

When we are literally bathed in light, immersed in beams from every angle and direction, the shadows are seemingly burned away because they can’t exist where light is. Interesting, however, is the fact that shadows exist BECAUSE of the light.

The second is when we are swallowed up in utter darkness, and no light is in our presence to ward away the shadows. Everything around us is darkness, and we, ourselves, become shadow.

It would be pretty stupid to hear someone in a pitch black room say, “I can see perfectly,” or “there’s plenty of light” or “I am NOT standing in a dark room.”

How many fingers am I holding up?

John said, “…God is light and there is no darkness in him at all. So we are lying if we say we have fellowship with God but go on living in spiritual darkness. We are not living in the truth. But if we are living in the light of God's presence, just as Christ is, then we have fellowship with each other, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from every sin.” – 1 John 1:5-7 NLT

The birth of Jesus made it possible for any and all who ask for God’s grace and forgiveness to escape the darkness, the void. He lived, taught, loved, then died, then battled death ‘to the death’, rising victoriously, all for the sake of Redemption, to bring us out of the dark.

It’s an either/or. Either you’re living in the light of God’s presence, or you’re swallowed up in darkness. And it’s when you’re standing next to the light, your own shadows are revealed.

So whoever has God's Son has life; whoever does not have his Son does not have life. – 1 John 5:12 NLT

One of my former teens who is now in college texted me about the seemingly vacated status of the campus during finals week. No one was walking around, in the Student Commons Building, horsing around. He said it was kind of eerie, making him wonder if this sense of eerie-ness is what it would feel like after the Rapture.

His text made me ask the question: “Which would be worse – the Wrath of God, or the Absence of God?”

We tend to think that the wrath of God would be the worst of all, when in reality, God’s absence is the absence of light, and thus, the epitome of Hell.

Happy Holidays!

Someone sent me the link below. It’s a video of still photos of a threesome called ‘Go Fish’ singing a song called “It’s Called Christmas”, and it’s very good. There are three or four snippets from comedian Brad Stine interjected throughout the clip. I watched the clip, watched it again, and then decided to try something for this next year.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IAckfn8yiAQ

It may sound totally redundant, petty, and even stupid, but, hey, it’s America, and I don’t care.

We’re officially eleven days from Christmas, the day we either accidentally or on purpose celebrate the birth of Christ. It’s not known for a fact that the 25th of December is Jesus’ birthday; that day was picked because it fell in line with another pagan holiday hundreds of years ago, and it just got stuck there.

But people today get their panties in a wad because you wish them a Merry Christmas as you pass on the sidewalk or spend your life savings at Wal-Mart or give a gift to a fellow employee. You say, “Merry Christmas,” and they look all sour in the face and pucker back, “I don’t believe in Christmas…” as they unwrap the gift you just gave them!

So this is what I’m going to do: For the next eleven days, I’m going to make it a point to say ‘Merry Christmas’ to everyone I come in contact with. I’m going to wish everyone a “MERRY CHRISTMAS!”

Then…

Next year, every holiday, EVERY holiday, I will wish people as I come in contact with them, ‘Happy Holidays’.

New Years gets roped in with Christmas, so saying ‘Happy Holidays’ isn’t that big a deal, but Valentine’s Day…? Oh yeah, it’s a comin’. St. Patrick’s Day, Memorial Day, Labor Day – yes, each and every one.

For Independence Day, I’m going to red-white-and-blue shoe polish my truck with the words ‘Happy Holidays’ and little firecrackers painted in the corners of the window.

Wait a minute –

There’s one holiday other than Christmas that I’ll respect with the proper greeting, and that is Easter, the holiday for which we celebrate the Risen LORD.

And when someone tells me how they’re offended that I say, “Happy Holidays” on Veteran’s Day or Memorial Day, I’ll ask them, “What’s the big deal? It’s a holiday, yes? And we’re supposed to be festive at this time, yes?”

Of course, they’ll reply with, “Yes, but you’re only supposed to say, ‘Happy Holidays’ at Christmas time,” to which I’ll fire back saying, “actually, I’m offended that Veteran’s Day can be celebrated for what it truly is – a Day of reflection and remembrance for those who have served, fought, and died for the liberties that we, as American Citizens enjoy – while Christmas – the celebration of the Christ Child who served, fought and died, AND rose from the dead for the liberties that anyone can enjoy - is offensive?”

I’m not out to make enemies… just a point.

What's next?

Usually, I attempt to put a lot of thought, choosing my words carefully when I construct a blog to post.

Not today. I'm feeling kind of, I don't know, 'soapbox-ish'?

I listened to talk radio today as I travelled from Haskell to Muskogee, and then later from Muskogee to Tulsa. Good ol' Rush Limbaugh was pretty entertaining, if you're into that kind of crap.

But Rush isn't the only one with a poop scooper and an energy drink: Most media is slinging it just as fast and just as badly, while members of Congress are wearing greased body suits, standing in the middle of the firing line, firing across the line.

I heard today that Obama's ratings are hitting 'record lows'. Okay, I guess. He accepted the Nobel Peace Prize today, while explaining why he was sending more troops to Aghanistan. I probably don't need to say anymore.

And George Stephanopolis (sp?) is going to Good Morning America as Diane Sawyer's replacement, who is going to replace Charles Gibson on 'World News Tonight'. More spin.

We're not far from life on the Moon or an alternate fuel source or a cure for cancer or space travel.

But if you look at how we've improved the quality of life over the past one hundred and fifty years, only to rip each other's to shred with the sharp words off our tongues in a matter of seconds, it makes you wonder: What's next?

We're not far from televised executions, or acceptable vigilante outbursts or required euthenasia or great-grandparents that are just fifty-years old.

Are we?

God

At the end of every wedding, the officiating minister usually says something like this: “What God has joined together, let no man put asunder.”

I’ve attended many weddings in my life, both as a simple guest and a musician. I’ve been to weddings that were extravagant, some simple, some very informal. My wife’s cousin married his wife in an outdoor chapel overlooking Lake Texoma, wearing Bermuda shorts and sandals on a hot summer day. Twas a beautiful wedding, but hotter than the dickens, and I was so happy to head for the reception in an air conditioned car.

Marriage is, in a sense, an act of physics, the merging of two cells, the mixing of chemistry and biology. It is synergistic, expecting the outcome of its union to be greater than the sum of its parts. There is an unadulterated presentation that takes place as bride and groom face each other, vowing to love, keep, and cherish their mate until death parts them.

“For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh.”

One flesh.

There are a handful of references to the ‘Bride of Christ’ found in the New Testament, most referring to end times, how the Groom would come for the Bride, the church. Particularly, in Ephesians 5:25-27, which reads:

“Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.

Modern day approaches to marriage have shifted from biblical teachings, structural beliefs, and family values. No longer is marriage considered, nor protected as a holy union, a scientific phenomenon.

Yesterday, I was in the home of a couple that has been married for 65 years. Talk about chemistry! Both are in their eighties, but the ‘super powers’ that they possessed was incredible. She could read his thoughts, he finished her sentences, and there was an energy field that seemed to surround and connect them, making them virtually invincible.

The Golden Anniversary page of the local newspaper is under attack, and fewer and fewer celebrations are taking place of long lives together. Instead, the column that displays the ‘Court Records’ grows, evidence of divorces requested and granted, while children are born to two individuals with different names.

But, believe it or not, this paper is not about the demise of marriage in the world today, and I ask forgiveness from you, the reader, for my side-track – ‘chasing bunnies’, I call it. This paper is truly about the connection between the bride and the groom, both as they make their vows, and as they live to carry them out.

This paper, in fact, is about the connection between God, the Groom, and me, the Bride.

Such a sentence can be sure to cause alarm - if all that is imagined is the thought of the author, a man, dressed in white linen and lace, carrying a bouquet down the aisle to wed another man. Such an imagination is one of the controversial topics of society today, and shallow thinking, at that, if the reader doesn’t press to go deeper into the meaning of the sentence.

The Union between God and man is easily construed if taken out of context and the intention of Scripture. In a sense, you could say that there came a time in my life when I encountered God for the first time, whether through the reading of Scripture, the preaching of Scripture, or the testimony of others. At any rate, I met Him who loved me greater than I’ve ever been loved, even in spite of my flaws.

This is the pattern by which we all encounter God, as Paul explained to the Thessalonians in 2 Thes 2:13-14:

As for us, we always thank God for you, dear brothers and sisters loved by the Lord. We are thankful that God chose you to be among the first to experience salvation, a salvation that came through the Spirit who makes you holy and by your belief in the truth. He called you to salvation when we told you the Good News; now you can share in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.

But the mere encounter of God is not the basis for ‘salvation’, which is a hard word to swallow for those who don’t understand what it is they must be saved from. Just by knowing there is a God doesn’t procure security. Simply referring to God as one of your ‘friends in high places’ isn’t going to cut it.

I watched Dan Brown’s book-turned-movie entitled, “Angels and Demons” this morning. From the standpoint of entertainment, five stars in my books. I’ve read the book some time ago, and what I remember seemed to be fairly accurate with the movie – but my memory alludes me sometimes.

The point that kept coming up for me over and over and over again was how God was portrayed to need our help, almost as if He were a retarded sibling, incapable of absolute sovereignty without assistance, and we were charged with caring for Him, to help Him in the responsibility of being God.

What struck me was that relationship with God was never brought up, but the work of God, however fallible it was, was the purpose of the Church.

One of the greatest statements that I ever heard came from a fellow minister, my friend Jim, who said, “We ministers often times excuse ourselves from true God-encountering time, placing our sermon preparations and our course studies in its place. What would happen if we focused on our relationship with God to the point that the ‘ministering’ that took place to our churches would happen as an overflowing of what God was doing in us? (paraphrase)”

What would happen if I sat down, sat still, and looked at my relationship with God from the standpoint that He and I were one, unified through the marriage that He invited me into? What if God became the most important reality in my life, surpassing all other responsibilities and relationships?

What if my marriage with my God became so impassioned that I found it easy to obey the Greatest Commandment, which says to “Love the Lord Your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength; and love your neighbor as yourself.”

What if, at the end of my life (and I pray, selfishly, that it’s a long one!), I see my relationship with God as the couple in their eighties, reading each other’s thoughts and finishing each other’s sentences?

And you, the reader, may at this point of this paper, be concerned with the idea of heresy, because God is God and we are not, and to consider the idea that we can be unified with God to the point of becoming one flesh… well, what is it that we call ‘being filled with the Holy Spirit’ then? Is it not, in essence, one flesh?

‘But we can’t comprehend God in His entirety, nor can we devote all of who we are to Him without sacrificing other responsibilities and relationships…’

Oh, really?

If that is your stance, then I challenge you to re-address your relationship with God. Not ‘is it’, but do you want it to be shallow or intimate? Superficial or genuine? Effort or over-flowing abundance?

If you are married, now consider your marriage to your spouse: Do you want it to be shallow or intimate, superficial or genuine, effort or over-flowing abundance?

Now, pull out your dictionary, study the word ‘synergy’, and determine if you and your God share it together.

And I close with this Scripture, for I don’t wish to lead you to believe that I’ve got it all together:

“I once thought all these things were so very important, but now I consider them worthless because of what Christ has done. Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the priceless gain of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I may have Christ and become one with him. I no longer count on my own goodness or my ability to obey God's law, but I trust Christ to save me. For God's way of making us right with himself depends on faith. As a result, I can really know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised him from the dead. I can learn what it means to suffer with him, sharing in his death, so that, somehow, I can experience the resurrection from the dead!

I don't mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection! But I keep working toward that day when I will finally be all that Christ Jesus saved me for and wants me to be. No, dear brothers and sisters, I am still not all I should be, but I am focusing all my energies on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I strain to reach the end of the race and receive the prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us up to heaven.” – Philippians 3:7-14 (NLT)

Oh, Baby It's Cold Outside!

“Oh, the weather outside is frightful,

But the fire is so delightful.

And since we’ve no place to go,

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!”

I was on my way to work yesterday morning, grateful for a working heater in my pickup. The thermometer registered a brisk thirty-six degrees – though not freezing, it’s still cold. The sun was out, the clouds were sparse, and from the cab of my truck, it seemed to be a warm day outside. Amazing.

I thought of how the day is slow to heat up, usually hitting its peak between three and six o’clock in the afternoon. As the day gives way to darkness, the temperature drops, and the only source of heat is what rises from the earth.

Then there’s the wind factor. A cold day can actually be comfortable if the wind isn’t blowing. On the other hand, a strong wind on even a cool day can seem to slice through your jacket. The dead of winter in the dead of night is absolute with strong winds pounding the earth and all that rests on its surface.

In that moment, I thanked God for my heater, my jacket, and my pickup.

I don’t really think about how cold it is outside until I have to go out into it; and the colder it is, I’m less apt to go out.

I get to the church parking lot, pause, then open my pickup door, feeling the wind outside roughly slide across my face and through the gaps in my coat around my collar and cuffs. I get out of my pickup, grab my bag and move quickly toward the front door. Once inside, I shake the cold off like a menacing gremlin, appreciating the building that keeps the outdoor climate conditions at bay.

I walk back to my office, turning up the thermostat a little bit as I walk past.

Human nature, I think, tends to like to stay where it’s comfortable. Minnesota homes don’t usually have air conditioning, did you know that? When it’s too cold, we complain. When it’s too hot, we complain.

And I should clarify the word ‘we’. A lot of speakers and writers use the word ‘we’ more with the definition of ‘you guys’, and I don’t want there to be any question that I do bunch myself into the whole ‘we’ crowd.

It’s just my opinion, but I think we are comfort driven to a fault, choosing our own comfortability over the needs of others. It’s easier to stay in our nest; it’s more work to get up and out and over to… someplace that’s not comfortable.

My mother used to like her house to be cold; around 65 in the summer, with the ceiling fans on high. When we would go visit, we could see our breath as we tried to sleep at night next to the sides of beef hanging from the ceiling. Okay, maybe a slight exaggeration.

And don’t you dare touch the thermostat without permission. Man, you’re just asking for a verbal ruler across your knuckles.

We protect our comfort zone as well. We train our bodies to require a small window of variance, mostly somewhere between 65 and 78 degrees in order to be physically comfortable. Any more or less, and we’re sweating or shivering.

My boss, whose wife is a pediatrician, was telling me yesterday about how he’s heard many middle-of-the-night phone conversations between his wife and the parent of one of her patients, which would go something like this: “Her temperature is what?... 104?... Yes, that is warm, but fever alone isn’t something to worry about. That’s how the body fights infection. Give her Tylenol and maybe a lukewarm bath in order to make her comfortable. Now how much does she weigh?...”

Can you imagine what life would be like if the sun’s heat wasn’t as hot as it is, even by five degrees?

Or, what if the earth stopped in mid-rotation for an entire day, say, on the other side of where we are? They would get an extra day of heat, while we sit in darkness, the cold getting deeper.

That’s what happened in Joshua 10. Joshua asked for home court advantage over the enemies of the Israelites by stopping the sun, and the LORD did just that.

But what if God shut the sun off for a while? Just pretend there wouldn’t be any global ramifications for a moment. By not having a sun, it would be dark and cold outside. No sun means no light, which means confusion. No sun means we’d stay close to what ever means of heat and light that could be found and maintained.

In a sense, God did shut off the sun for the Israelites. Coming into Advent, we remember the coming of the Christ child, and celebrate in the promise of the Second Coming.

The word ‘coming’ has an understood word attached to it – ‘back’.

The coming ‘back’ of God happened through the birth of a baby.

The ‘coming back’ of God was the beginning of the end of darkness and cold.

The ‘coming back’ of God was the beginning of the redemption of all who call Him LORD, the reclamation of His people, the re-instatement of the Holy Nation, whose citizenship is now open to all who confess Him as Savior and King.

As Christmas is coming, I hope to spread joy, sharing Christ with as many as possible. I do not wish to be one of the ‘we’ that is referred to in James 2:16: “If one of you says to him, "Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed," but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it?”

I want to say, “Hey, why don’t you come in out of the cold?”