Be The Light

Reflecting on childhood-or any distant memory- is like walking down the dusty halls of a great mansion, surrounded by paintings of varying beauty, both dark and bright.

The spiritual war that rages around us cannot be underestimated, not unlike walking those hallways.


False or altered images, replications of the human face, voice, even bodies, can be lies. 


Is it real?


Evangelist and civil rights advocate Billy Graham can speak sermons he never uttered (or even thought of giving) because artificial intelligence replicates his voice.

Often those “sermons” are not even attributed to AI.

As clearly as we watch the sun rise in the morning, we can now see the shape of evil defined like a silhouette against the light.


Institutions we trusted have been revealed as unspeakably corrupt and deceitful. Controlling thought has intensified.


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The prophet Isaiah wrote that, though “thick darkness” covers the earth and its people, a light will come….and the glory of the Lord will shine.” (Isaiah 60:1-2)


What is a “thick darkness”?


The ninth plague-the plague of darkness-visited upon Egypt was an unspeakable horror. 


Yahweh instructed Moses to stretch his hand out toward the sky-so that darkness spread over all of Egypt, but not His chosen people. 


This was not night nor was it an ordinary darkness.


God says this is a darkness that can be felt, so intense that those under its thrall cannot move.

Was this a surreal forth-telling of being cast into Sheol, the pit of hell, into a darkness that can not only be felt spiritually but physically?


Is it because that plague is a harbinger—or worse—already here?
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The New Testament is filled with references to the spiritual blindness of those who will not see that, through Jesus, that the Light has come. 
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Christians view Israel as the Holy Land: the ground that was touched by the feet of Jesus is sacred space, qodesh. 


There He walked, preached, was murdered and was miraculously lifted out of the cycle of human life by living again. 


Yet it is also true that those who love Christ are God’s temple; those who open their hearts to His Word are God’s temple—sacred space—His Holy Land (1 Cor 3:6)

Examples of sacred space—qodesh—are frequent throughout the Old Testament (and well depicted in the movie War Room).


Zechariah writes that, in the future (perhaps soon) even the harness bells and Temple cooking pots will be inscribed as qodesh, “holy to the lord” (14:20).


So I ask myself: how do I set myself apart as “sacred space”?


Perhaps it is this:


1. Observe the world but do not absorb it.


2. Strengthen the spiritual skeleton by reading the Word every day—even just one verse.


3. Do not be afraid to share both His Word and what life in Jesus is.


4. Be the Light.


5. Remember that the soul is more important than the body.


Now to take my own advice. *************** photograph Maumee, Ohio