Light

“So we have the prophetic word made more sure, to which you do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star arises in your hearts.” 2 Peter 1:19

This fallen world, even for the Christian, is so often “a dark place”, is it not? The culture in which we live is shrouded in a godless midnight of unbelief and idolatry. Our own circumstances, when we are in difficulty, can be like dark clouds looming over our heads. Depression, too, can be like a dreadful series of gloomy, sunless days. And then there is, of course, the darkness of our own sin, ever lurking in our hearts, and breaking onto the surface far more than we would like. And so we can identify, I think, with Peter’s reference to “a dark place.”

And yet praise God that we have “the prophetic word” – the Bible – which serves us as “a lamp shining in a dark place”! Praise the Lord for the lantern of the Scriptures! And let us be sure that we use them as such; that we “pay attention” to them! Let us hold the lantern up above our lives, so that we can actually say with the psalmist, “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path” (Psalm 119:105). Dark as things may be, we don’t have to grope around in that darkness! Praise God, He has provided us with a lamp!

And praise Him, too, not only for His provision of light, now … but also for His promise of light, later! For the days will not always be dark, says Peter. They will only be dark “until the day dawns”; until Christ, the Light of the world, shall return to this earth like the morning sun, and shall dawn upon His people with the brightness of His glory. In that day, the midnight of our godless culture will give way to a bright morning sun! And for the Christian, the light of Christ’s presence will, in the words of Henry Van Dyke*, ‘melt the clouds of sin and sadness’ and ‘drive the dark of doubt away’!

So let me urge you, Christian friend – to make use of the provision, and to bank on the promise, of light from the Lord! Open the written word and let it be, for you, “a lamp shining in a dark place.” And look forward to the coming of Jesus, the incarnate Word, who is “the Light of the world”, and who will soon dawn on His people like the glory of the morning sun!

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*From the hymn Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee. Van Dyke, it seems to me, rightly employs the words quoted above as a prayer for present light from the Lord (which light the Lord often gives!). I make use of his phraseology, however, as also being an apt way of describing the future dawning of Christ’s light.

Post Tenebras Lux

Or in English: ‘After Darkness, Light.’ This became a motto the Protestant Reformation. For, after centuries of unbiblical, superstitious, soul-destroying Roman Catholic darkness … God, through the reformers, made His gospel light to shine clearly once more. Post Tenebras Lux.

But this phrase, famously connected with the Reformation, could equally be described of other great periods in the history of God’s dealings with mankind, could it not? And it could be written as the caption beneath many lesser-known interventions of God, as well.

We might hang this beautiful Latin phrase as a banner over the great reformation and revival that took place under King Josiah of old (2 Kings 22-23), when God’s book was (literally) rediscovered, and God’s worship was rightly restored. Post Tenebras Lux.

We might also inscribe these lovely words on the record-books of the great Evangelical Awakening that overspread Great Britain in the 18th century. The clouds had grown dark, spiritually and morally, by the early 1700’s. But, through the preaching of men like Whitefield, Wesley, Rowlands, and others, the light of Christ dawned once more. Post Tenebras Lux.

Your own story, too (if you are in Christ) is an example of this same theme, is it not? Your sins left you shrouded in darkness. But God, in the gospel of His dear Son, “called you out of darkness into His marvelous light” (1 Peter 2:9). Post Tenebras Lux.

And, of course, the greatest bursting of light into darkness came when Christ Himself, “the Light of the world”, entered into the darkness, not only of “Galilee of the Gentiles” and Judea of the Pharisees, but of an entire world fallen into sin … so that “the people who walk in darkness” (the Galileans, in Isaiah 9:2; but not limited to them, in the grand scheme of things) would “see a great light.” Post Tenebras Lux.

‘After darkness, light’ is God’s modus operandi, you see! He loves to rescue, redeem, restore, and revive. And the Reformation, whose 500th anniversary is nearly upon us, is one of the greatest examples of this love! And there are many more examples, too – each of which should add to our confidence in the Post Tenebras Lux God! Each of them should urge us – when we think of the spiritual night that seems to be descending upon our land, or the deep darkness in which some of our family or friends continue to walk – “to pray and not to lose heart.” God is still the God of Post Tenebras Lux!

Light Pollution

A few days back I saw a fascinating video entitled “Lost in Light” at vimeo.com (via challies.com). The idea was to demonstrate how all the light that we produce on earth affects how well we can see the lights that glimmer nightly in the heavens. ‘Light pollution’ is what all this human dampening of the night sky is called. And it was astonishing to see on film … and saddening for those of us who live in city, where all our earthly lights so effectively drown out the heavenly ones.

The videographer began by filming the night sky above San Jose, California, with a light pollution level of 8. A few faint stars can be seen, but I literally had to lean close to my screen to see if I was seeing stars, or just dust or imperfections on my computer monitor! At level 7, numerous stars pop into view. And it gets better and better until the camera finally takes us all the way down to a mere level 2 light pollution rating near Mt. Shasta, CA and then level 1 in Death Valley National Park … where it looks like someone emptied out a significant portion of a salt shaker onto a navy blue table cloth! The stars are just everywhere.

Furthermore, as the film maker points out in his description, some people have never actually seen the Milky Way. Count me in that number! But in this film, when you get out to a light pollution level of 5, you can begin to see it … with the naked eye! And when the level drops down to 2 and 1 … wow! Go and look at the video! It may make you want to move to Montana, or some such place!

And it occurs to me that there is a parable somewhere in all this … about how much more difficult it can be to see and appreciate Jesus, “the Light of the world,” when we so constantly live our lives in the haze of so many competing ‘lights.’ Busyness is probably one of the biggest sources of spiritual light pollution. So are the big and little screens that we all find ourselves staring at far too much. The light of Christ can also fade into the background if we find ourselves needing always to do something, talk to someone, listen to something, watch something. Blaise Pascal may have been overstating it when he said that “all of humanity’s problems stem from man’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone” … but he makes a good point! The constant hum of activity and stimulus under which we often place ourselves can have the same effect on our vision of God as the lights of downtown have on our ability to see the glory of the Milky Way (which is out there, but which we cannot see for all our competing lights)!

And so I just urge you to find plenty of seasons in your life in which you turn out and push far to the side all of the spiritual light pollution in your life – the TV, the phone, the tablet, the computer, the Sudoku puzzle, the headphones, the din of your own voice, etc. – and just look up at the night sky, so to speak … turning out all the competing lights so that you can open the word, and open your eyes to the world that God has created (like the stars, the tree bark, the sparrows, and so on), and clear your mind to meditate on these things, and to see and hear and love the glory of God!

Lost in Light from Sriram Murali on Vimeo.