Guided by the Light

 "Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path."

Psalm 119:105

Due to the orientation of our house and dining area, direct beams of sunlight shine through the sliding doors.  Light reveals what a lack of light conceals.  Glass that previously appeared, both on the sliding doors and on the hutch, were exposed as streaky with water spots and in need of cleaning.  Without the sunlight directly hitting the glass, I never would have noticed or known.

It is one thing to realise glass is streaky, but another thing altogether to do something to clean it!  Streaky glass isn't the end of the world, but it certainly is more pleasing to look through clean glass.  Was this knowledge pleasing enough to drop what I was doing when streaks came to my attention and immediately clean the glass?  No.  I believe this provides a good illustration of how the LORD can make us aware of blemishes in our lives and character we do not bother taking intentional action to clean up.  Our procrastination and inaction suggests we imagine realising we are sinners is more important than stopping what we are doing, repenting of sin and doing what pleases God instead.

The psalmist said God's word was "a lamp to my feet and a light to my path."  The use of personal pronouns shows God's word is to be taken personally ourselves--not to be used like a torch to ascertain the way others walk, to note obstacles or the direction others chose to walk.  God's word is to guide our steps because we need illumination and course-correction only the Bible can supply.  If our hearts echo Samuel who said, "Speak LORD, for your servant hears," then we must subject ourselves to God's guidance, encouragement, rebuke, correction and instruction through His written word.

Even as the orientation of our house provides opportunity for the sunlight to stream in the window during the day, there are houses sheltered by shady trees or taller structures that do not allow direct sunlight in.  Thankfully people are not like houses which cannot be moved but can turn our eyes to Jesus and open His word with the intention to hear and obey.  Neglect of opening God's word and reading it keeps us in the dark about our own sinfulness, hardness of heart and foolishness.  Reading the Scripture without practicing it tends to foster pride and self-righteousness through hypocrisy.

Reading the Bible is vital, yet obeying what God reveals is just as important.  A little sunlight shining through the window can prompt an impromptu spring cleaning session, and opening God's word and allowing it to shine upon our own paths brings personal revival when we take action to heed Him.  Being the Light of the World, Jesus does not leave anyone in the dark.  He revealed the condemnation is people prefer the darkness over the light because their deeds are evil.  May God's people walk in the light of the LORD as it is written in 1 John 1:7:  "But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin."

God Hears and Leads

Before mobile phones, once my friend and I went to his house and surprisingly, no one was home.  This posed a problem because he forgot to bring the key to the front door with him.  The prospect of sitting outside the house waiting for someone to come home potentially for hours did not appeal, so we looked around the house for an alternate means of entry.  I understood how to remove flyscreens without damage, and it turned out an open window accessed from the back yard was an easy way in.  This enabled us to open the front door from within.  Two lessons were learned that day:  always bring your house key when you leave the house, and for better security keep those back windows locked--that is, unless you choose to ignore the first lesson.

David sang in Psalm 61:1-3, "Hear my cry, O God; attend to my prayer. ² From the end of the earth I will cry to You, when my heart is overwhelmed; lead me to the rock that is higher than I. ³ For You have been a shelter for me, a strong tower from the enemy."  In times of trouble and feeling overwhelmed David called out to God, as he knew God would hear and answer him speedily.  One might think a rock higher than him or a strong tower would be easily visible from below, but unlike structures built on earth God dwells in heaven where no one can approach without His guidance and leading.  Unless God graciously revealed Himself to us, no one ever could have known Him or shared a relationship with Him.  David had a relationship with the living God, for he said God had been a shelter and refuge for him.

Unlike my friend's house that could be accessed from one unlocked window, strongholds and refuges were not meant to be accessed by anyone outside them.  There was no unlocking city gates in ancient times:  gates and walls needed to be scaled, broken down or tunnelled under to enter.  Once secure, someone inside the refuge was needed to open the gates to enter.  The lowering of the drawbridge before castle gates needed to be done by someone who was already across the moat and in the safety of the castle.  Thus it makes perfect sense David would ask for God to lead him to the rock of salvation and the strong tower of refuge from the enemy.  Would the LORD open to Him?  Based on the character of God revealed in Jesus Christ, He is indeed open to those who humbly seek Him, those redeemed by the Gospel.  John 10:7-9 read, "Then Jesus said to them again, "Most assuredly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. ⁸ All who ever came before Me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them. ⁹ I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture."

Like a door which is always open and accessible, God is a shelter and refuge for His people always by His grace.  Like chicks that seek refuge under the wings of a mother hen, so God's people flee and flock to Him when we are overwhelmed, and we learn to abide there continually.  The LORD guides and leads us like a shepherd does his sheep, and Jesus is our Good Shepherd.  Though we cannot see Him with our shortsighted vision in a world full of darkness, where confusion obscures our sight and even light dazzles us, our God is never far from us because He hears our cries and answers.  As a caring shepherd is drawn to the faint bleating of a lamb dying from exposure, the LORD draws near to us to help and save us when we cry out to Him.  Blessed is the one whose God is the LORD, for He is the open door to salvation, comfort, safety and eternal life now and forever.

Reason and Faith

I am blessed there are countless people in this world that are more intelligent and learned than I am.  My life and perspective has been greatly enriched by their contributions--even when I was not in agreement with those with different biblical interpretations and conclusions.  This has goaded me to dive into the Scripture to ensure I am convinced in my own mind concerning doctrines as well as I can and worked to sharpen my own views with greater precision.  Like a sharp blade requires maintenance to operate at peak performance, so a biblical worldview is improved by sound doctrine put into practice.  Carbon steel knives rust simply by exposure to the air, and unless we are grounded in God's word inhabiting this sin-steeped world tends to dull us.

Recently I read an abridged letter sent by Galileo Galilei (yes, THE Galileo) to the Grand Duchess Christina to defend his position from those who criticised his scientific discoveries as incorrect and heretical when they had little to no knowledge of mathematics or astronomy.  At some points I feel he articulated skillfully what I have felt at times concerning those who dismiss wholesale physically demonstratable evidence because of their own interpretation of a verse or word of the Bible.  Galileo held God and the Bible in very high esteem, yet some in the church branded him a heretic because the hard evidence he presented ran contrary to their assumptions--that he ought to abandon reason and evidence for spurious interpretations of Scripture.  He quoted an "...ecclesiastic of the most eminent degree: "That the intention of the Holy Ghost is to teach us how one goes to heaven, not how heaven goes."  Rather than being hemmed in, Galileo was free to delve into mathematics and all the sciences, giving God the glory for the order and meticulous details he came to comprehend.  He went on to write:

"It is the function of expositors to seek out the true senses of scriptural texts. These will unquestionably accord with the physical conclusions which manifest sense and necessary demonstrations have previously made certain to us. Now the Bible, as has been remarked, admits in many places expositions that are remote from the signification of the words for reasons we have already given. Moreover, we are unable to affirm that all interpreters of the Bible speak by Divine inspiration for if that were so there would exist no differences among them about the sense of a given passage. Hence I should think it would be the part of prudence not to permit anyone to usurp scriptural texts and force them in some way to maintain any physical conclusion to be true, when at some future time the senses and demonstrative or necessary reasons may show the contrary. Who indeed will set bounds to human ingenuity? Who will assert that everything in the universe capable of being perceived is already discovered and known? Let us rather confess quite truly that "Those truths which we know are very few in comparison with those which we do not know."

 We have it from the very mouth of the Holy Ghost that God delivered up the world to disputations, so that man cannot find out the work that God hath done from the beginning even to the end. In my opinion no one, in contradiction to that dictum, should close the road to free philosophizing about mundane and physical things, as if everything had already been discovered and revealed with certainty. Nor should it be considered rash not to be satisfied with those opinions which have become common. No one should be scorned in physical disputes for not holding to the opinions which happen to please other people best, especially concerning problems which have been debated among the greatest philosophers for thousands of years. One of these is the stability of the sun mobility of the earth, a doctrine believed by Pythagoras and all his followers, by Heracleides of Pontus (who was one of them), by Philolaus, the teacher of Plato, and by Plato himself according to Aristotle..." (Internet Modern History Sourcebook, Public Domain, © Paul Halsall Aug 1997)

It is evident by this letter Galileo was troubled by coming to a conclusion concerning the physical world based on factual evidence by careful observation (the movement of the earth around the sun), only to have his discoveries dismissed entirely without consideration or rebuttal by other physical evidence contrary to his theories.  As Galileo intonated, mathematics is not a matter of faith:  in a sense he said if his sums were wrong, he would be pleased to humbly receive correction.  Those who castigated him could at least confirm his errors by showing their work with the correct solution.  To dismiss his sound arithmetic with unsound Bible interpretation was problematic--and being accused of heresy for utilising his God-given skill and understanding was repugnant.  God has provided the heavens which declare the glory of God, and the natural sciences do this incredibly well with a God-honouring lens.  Our Creator has also provided the Bible to reveal Himself to us personally, and thus in matters of faith and the observable world the LORD has supplied all the evidence required to know the truth.  Reason and faith are not contrary to one another but pair perfectly in the Christian faith.  Ours is not a blind faith, for we are those whose eyes have been opened and born again into a relationship with God--who sees and knows all.

Robe Dipped in Blood

"He was clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God."

Revelation 19:13

Today at church we observed Communion together.  We ate of the bread that symbolised the body of Jesus broken for us and drank of the cup that represents the blood of Jesus shed for sinners to provide atonement.  Christ's trial, flogging and crucifixion were all bloody affairs, and He was pulverised beyond recognition as He drank of the bitter cup given Him by His Father out of love for lost sinners.  After Jesus was confirmed dead by a spear driven into His side, His body was removed from the cross, washed, wrapped with spices, and laid in a tomb.  When Jesus rose from the dead days later, He identified Himself to His disciples by the prints of nails in His hands and the mark on His side.  They were not open wounds but scars on a glorified body.

When I heard the passage in Revelation recited recently, I was struck that the robe Jesus wore was dipped in blood that was not His.  Since His crucifixion on Calvary, Jesus has never bled and will never bleed again--though He still retains physical form with flesh and bone (Luke 24:39).  He who is called Faithful and True in righteousness will judge and make war.  The bloody robe He will be adorned with does not hearken back to His sacrifice years ago but will be the blood of His enemies as it is written in Revelation 19:15-16:  "Now out of His mouth goes a sharp sword, that with it He should strike the nations. And He Himself will rule them with a rod of iron. He Himself treads the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. ¹⁶ And He has on His robe and on His thigh a name written: KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS."  Jesus has a name no one knows but He Himself, yet He has been revealed to mankind as KING OF KINGS before whom the wise will submit and reverence.

Christians do not bow before Jesus because we are afraid to be trampled in the winepress of God's wrath, but because God has demonstrated His love by taking the punishment on the cross we deserve to pay forever in hell on account of our transgressions.  The wages of sin is death, and everyone who lives long enough in this world will realise all our lives will end in death.  Walk through a graveyard and every person memorialised in that hushed place has a date their lives began and another when it ended.  Jesus does not threaten anyone with death or hell, for we are all heading there due to our sin.  Titus 3:3-7 says, "For we ourselves were also once foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another. ⁴ But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared, ⁵ not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, ⁶ whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, ⁷ that having been justified by His grace we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life."

How awesome it is God has made known to mankind His kindness and love of God through Jesus Christ our Saviour!  Even as Christ's body poured blood on Calvary, so His love has been poured out so all who repent of sin and trust in Jesus can be forgiven, cleansed and born again--justified by God's grace.  Bless the LORD for His Gospel and the cleansing flow provided by grace through faith in Jesus.  We had made our bed with sin and were lying paralysed in it without hope, and God would be justified to let us die and rot there.  Having ascended to the Father in glory, Jesus will one day return and tread the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God upon sinners, those who have rejected and rebelled against Him, those who wickedly returned evil to God for the good gift of His only begotten Son.  Unless the blood of Jesus has cleansed you of sins, Christ's robe dipped in blood is a sobering revelation--because that blood could be yours.  God's will for you and all people is for us to be among His armies in heaven that follow Him clothed in linen, fine and clean (Rev. 19:14).  By God's grace, the choice is yours.