I AM THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD

Then Jesus again spoke to them, saying, “I am the Light of the World…”

Can you remember the way you viewed the world before the light of Christ burst into your life? I can, even though it was many, many years ago. I remember looking at church as the most boring hour of the week, I saw preachers as charlatans just in it for the money. I saw authority as the enemy and rebellion as cool. Intoxication on booze or drugs was entertainment and a lifestyle and rock and roll stars were like gods. All of that changed in what Paul called “the twinkling of an eye”. Light burst into my world and exposed all the darkness. Jesus became my friend and my Lord and I could never see anything the same again. Church became the highlight of my week, preachers were my role models, submission to authority was my way to freedom, and drugs and alcohol were exposed for the sorry counterfeit that they are, leading people into captivity. Here is how Jonathan Edwards describes this light.

“…when light comes, then things are made to appear; then things may be seen distinctly as they are in their various forms, figures, and colors. So Jesus Christ enlightens the soul that comes unto him, makes glorious things manifest to him that he never saw before. When a man is enlightened savingly by Christ….He sees then that he was in darkness before; though he was not sensible of it till now, he is like one that was born and brought up in a cave, where is nothing but darkness, but now is brought out into the lightsome world, enlightened by the beams of the sun, and greatly admires and wonders at those things which he never saw before, looks and gazes with sweet astonishment on the pleasing variety of things that are discovered by the light unto him….He now sees plain enough the glory of Christ: he, while in his dark cave, had been often told what a glorious thing [the] sun was, but he had no notion of it till now. But now he sees with his own eyes, how doth he delight to behold the beauties of this light of the world!”

The light exposes all the lies and deceptions that cluttered and enslaved my life. Jesus is the light of the world, follow Him and you will never live in darkness again.