The Light of Life

                                                                                                                                      

Aloha Dear Family,

When I was a boy, my older brother Wayne and I went on an amusement park ride called the "Haunted House". This was the type of ride where you sit in a little car which sits on a rail that takes you, in total darkness, to certain areas where, at certain times, something would pop up and scare you. Well, on this day the ride wasn't working quite right. We would be moving along slowly then the ride would stop for a while, then the ride would go again a before too long, it would stop again. After about fifteen minutes of this stop-and-go action, the people who ran the ride turned on all of the lights. When they did this you could see everything. You could see the path of the rail that the cars were on, you could see all of the things that were going to pop out and scare you, you could see all of the other people on the ride with you. With the lights on nothing was a mystery, everything was clear and plain. After a while my brother turns to me a says, "What a crummy ride." (I laughed my head off).

Life for a lot of people is like an amusement park ride. Plenty of scary stuff that, at any given time, could pop up and surprise you. The reason life can be scary to many is they live in darkness and cannot see what is really going on. God's Word can be a light to those who live in darkness. I don't know how many times in my life I have gotten up in the middle of the night and stubbed my toe on something I could not see because the lights were turned off. As Job 12:25a says, "They grope in the dark without light...".

 Now, some may say, "I don't walk in darkness. I've gotten life figured out." But I say to you that unless you come to God's Word for your answers, and see life from God's point of view, you do and will continue to walk in darkness. I offer to you the following scripture, 

"Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path." (Psalms 119:105) 

This verse contains a figure of speech comparing two separate ideas. The instructions from God's Word are as a lamp or light to the path that we walk so that we do not stumble through life. We need God's Word to light the way. Once we start seeing life through the light of God's Word with God's perspective, our understanding will become enlightened and our lives will finally make sense. For centuries man has searched for the meaning of life not knowing that the answers they seek lie in the pages of the Bible. God does not want us to be ignorant, He wants us to know the score, so He gave us His Word and He sent His son as the light to the world.

"Then spoke Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that follows me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. "  (John 8:12) 

Wouldn't people love to have the light of life? People today do not need to walk in spiritual darkness. Jesus Christ is the way, the truth and the life. If we follow him and learn of what he made available to us, we will always walk in the light and we won't stumble over the obstacles in life.

Now, there is someone who does not want people to come to the light of God's Word, 

"In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them." (II Corinthians 4:4) 

In this verse the "god of this world" refers to the devil. He does not want people to come to the light of God's Word and be saved. The devil wants people to continue to walk and live in darkness. Furthermore, he will try to deceive the children of God into following philosophies and the wisdom of this world in order for God's children to be less than what He has called them to be. There are many people around today who think that are "enlightened" by some knew theory or idea, but they don't know that this is the way of death, and not life. Only by following the precepts set forth in God's Word can we avoid being tricked into believing the things that will keep us in darkness. 

"The entrance of thy words gives light; it gives understanding unto the simple." (Psalms 119:130)

Looking back at my amusement park ride story leads me to consider that, in life, it is a much better "ride" with the lights on. With the lights on we can see where we have been in our lives, we can see where we are right now and how God truly sees us, and we can see where we are going because of the bright future that awaits us. We can also see the obstacles lying in our path, for God has enlightened our eyes so we that can see. 

"The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart: the commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes" (Psalms 19:8)

Love Always, Ray