Wednesday, January 14, 2015
Isaiah 60:1-3 Arise, shine; for your light has come! And the glory of the LORD is risen upon you. For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and deep darkness the people; but the LORD will arise over you, and His glory will be seen upon you. The Gentiles shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising.
THE LIGHT SHINES IN THE DARKNESS
Have you ever come into an unfamiliar room that's pitch black? You come through the door and you feel all around the wall looking for the light switch. When you find it, you turn on the light and it becomes easy to move around the room. If you're not able to find it, you probably take little baby steps across the room with your hands groping in front of you, hoping that you don't trip and fall, or bang your shin on something.
But if there's even a little light in the room from a nightlight or a window, it becomes fairly easy to find the light switch. Or the nightlight may provide enough light that you are able to move about the room without turning on the overhead light.
At this very moment there are millions, even billions of people stumbling around in the darkness, trying to find the way to heaven. By nature man knows that there is a god. He knows this just from looking out the window at the creation. Man knows that there is something after death, for his conscience tells him that he is accountable to someone. God put this natural knowledge of God in man, as the apostle Paul says, " ... that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us ..." (Acts 17:27). But this knowledge does not reveal who God is; it does not reveal the way of salvation. So man knows that there is a light switch, and this knowledge leads him to stumble around looking for the light. And man would never find that light except that God reveals it to him. Like the shining star that guided the wise men to the cradle of the baby Jesus, God's Word shines in the darkness of a sinful world, calling sinners to come to the Savior and to find in Him the forgiveness of sins and the only way to eternal life in heaven.
