Last week I spent a few days at the lake. As is my habit, I awoke before daylight and headed to the living room to sit in my recliner which looks through glass doors overlooking the water. I love to watch the darkness slowly dissipate as the often fog-coated mirror of the lake grows gradually brighter. That day, I was sorely disappointed, irritated even, to find that my neighbor across the way had left on a floodlight aimed right across the water in my direction! I fumed for longer than I should have, even contemplating yelling across the sound-carrying surface, "TURN OFF YOUR LIGHT WHEN YOU GO TO BED!!!" After all, it was shining right in my eyes! But then....
...as I squinted at that light like an angry old hen, the beams became a cross, which truly took my breath (and my fury) away. You can see it faintly in the picture above, but it was very clear to my eyes, that cross, and I began thinking. Jesus, the Light of the World, the Source of all Light, shone brighter than all the stars in Heaven, and yet to most of the world He was, and still is, more offensive than any spotlight on the lake could ever be, exposing more darkness and ugliness than any human "idea" could. Like that spotlight outshining the security lights on either side of it, He hung between two hardened criminals, the very Light of the World, completely innocent of all wrongdoing, shining until His last breath and beyond, because He was there for LOVE, not guilt. He took the sins of one of those criminals, the one who believed in Him, to the grave with Him, and took the criminal to His Heavenly home with Him!
Sadly, today it seems that the name of Jesus is more offensive to the world than ever before. And that makes us, His followers, offensive as well. But that's just what He promised:
"For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God." (1 Corinthians 1:18 BSB)
Oh believer, let us never grow weary of shining His Light, the Good News, wherever we go, no matter the reception. Dear unbeliever, I beg you to let His Light in! No, it's not an easy path to follow. He doesn't promise us all moonlight and roses, pain-free days and peace-filled nights; quite the opposite:
"I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33 NLT)
"Then they will deliver you over to be persecuted and killed, and you will be hated by all nations because of My name." (Matthew 24:9 BSB)
But the reward!
"Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in Him may have eternal life. For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that everyone who believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him. Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe has already been condemned, because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son." (John 3:14-18 BSB)
"He must increase and I must decrease."
John 3:30
✝️
