Children of Light

"Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. " (James 1:17, ESV)
Change is inevitable. All living things experience change, whether animals or plants or fish or humans. When change stops it seems life stops, too. In a world of constant change, the human spirit longs for that which doesn't change. And that would be Our Father in Heaven. Nothing in this world is perfect, nothing purely good. But every gift from Our Father is both perfect and good. Everything from the evil one is both imperfect and doomed to destruction. It is as simple as that. The verse in James is beautiful in its simplicity. Firstly, God is the Father of lights. In the beginning He spoke light into existence before He created anything else. He is the Source of light. In the book of Revelation it says that in the New Jerusalem, there will be no need of sun or moon because God will shine on it and the Lamb shall be its lamp. God is light and in Him there is no darkness.
Secondly, God doesn't change. There is no dark side to God, there are no gray areas. James says there isn't even a bit of variation. God is so solid that you can stake your life on Him. He doesn't lie, break promises, or even tempt Christians to do something that they shouldn't do. God is straightforward, a Rock. In fact, if you check the word Rock in the Old Testament, you will find that word used many, many times to describe God.
God intended for those who love Him to be His children, and thus to be children of light. "... for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light (for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true), and try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord." (Ephesians 5:8-10, ESV) The entire first half of chapter five in Ephesians compares those who walk in darkness with those who are the children of light. It's quite clear that God intended His children to be like Him, light.
God intended that the children would be proactive in this world, light shining in darkness. "You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven." (Mat 5:14-16, ESV) God intends for Christians to be noticed in order that others will glorify Him. Our good works are not for show to bring glory to us, but to be seen so that people will give God the praise.
Do you know the difference between actual light and darkness? For instance, you probably know how light can be measured, but do you know how darkness is measured? When I was very young, my father bought his first SLR camera. That would have been about fifty-five or six years ago. I remember that he had a light meter. He would hold the light meter up near a person's face or in a certain area, take a reading, and then set his camera accordingly. He wanted to have the right light in order to produce a good photograph. He measured the light. You measure darkness by measuring the absence of light. Darkness has no properties of its own; light has many properties that scientists can actually measure. When we remark how dark the night is, we are really saying that there is so little light shining in the night. A room is dark due to an absence of a certain amount of light that is visible to the eye. Simple.
The world is full of darkness. That is not the way God intended for things to be, but once sin entered the world through Adam, death followed. Darkness returned. When God created the earth, the earth was formless and there was a great void. There was a great darkness. God simply said, "Let there be light," and light entered the world. That was for the material world as we know it. Before sin entered the world, bringing darkness, God had already planned to send His Son, the Lamb who is the Lamp, to bring light into the world. In order to keep light in the world, the Son died on the cross of Calvary so that He might return to the Father and send the promised Holy Spirit. As the Spirit works in us, the Light of the Lamb shines through us. We give off the Light that He is.
How then, shall we as Christians live in this world? We need to take seriously the call from Jesus to be light shining in darkness. Even now the darkness seems to be increasing all around us. In subsequent articles, I would like to explore in depth how Christians should live to increase the light we give off. Or rather, how we can cooperate with God to give off His light. Suffice it to say, the Son gave off the greatest Light when He died for all of us. He lived His life in order to give His blood. Let us live our lives incarnadine, blood-colored, covered with the blood of Christ, that others may see the blood of Christ through our actions. That is how we can truly be children of light.

Jesus, the Artist, the Poet

"Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?"(Matthew 6:26-30, ESV)
God is such a wonderful Being. He not only created us and everything in the world and the universe, He also gave us emotions of love and an appreciation for beauty. Even when Jesus was teaching the people, He used things from nature, to be sure, to emphasize His teachings, but He did so with a choice of language that was at once beautiful and poetic. He called attention to the beauty that was around Him. Why? Did He do this merely because of the teaching value of the scene He describes, or rather, did He use the beautiful expressions to also give peace and comfort to the hearer? Do not the words of the Lord bring joy to the reader or the listener? Remember that the Lord has called us to love Him with all our hearts, not just our minds or even just our minds plus our strength. Those are necessary, too, but God wants us to love Him and Him onlyThere is a natural beauty to the Bible, the Word of God. It is not there just to inform us or instruct us. It does that quite adequately. But the Word of God was given to us as a great treasure to be read over and over again, that we might listen to the majesty of the words, to see the beautiful scenes that God describes to us. Consider the lilies, the beautifully fragrant lilies of the field. I have seen wild iris flowers in lonely places along the highways of northern Japan. I have seen the beautiful California poppies covering the hillsides, lasting for only a few days and then gone. I have seen the thick cherry blossoms on so many beautiful Vancouver streets, only to fall in a few days and fill the gutters with pink mounds of petals. God is artistic and God is poetic. Consider your life, the beauty that He created in you, and then you will want to share His love with others. The greatest thing in the world was God dying on the cross for all of humanity that ever lived or ever will live. That is truly an expression of love but it is also an expression of the greatest Poet that ever lives. If you are bored with reading your Bible or think that it isn't interesting, pick it up again and rediscover the words of the Poet. Your heart will sing with Him, you'll see the beauty that is around you, and your worries and your cares will suddenly regain their proper proportions. When you live your life under the blood of Jesus, you will become a person who loves the beauty that He loves and your heart will be filled with that beauty.