Jesus, the light of the World

Imagine that you are lost. Make that: Imagine you are lost in a dark forest at night with no spotlight, no torch, not even a match. Just imagine that you are lost in the dark. That's pretty scary, and not just for those people who are afraid of the dark. But then you see a light in the distance. Anyone who is in that situation would walk towards the light. It gives you direction. The light symbolises safety, warmth and comfort, so we walk towards the light.
In the same way, Jesus is the light of the world. As he says in John 8:12 "I am the light of the world. He who follows me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.". As sinners we were stumbling in the darkness of the world with no knowledge of where we were going, or what we were doing. But Jesus has placed direction in our life. As the light of the world he has given us purpose and drive into what we are doing and where we are going.  Jesus said again in John 14:6, "I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me".

Jesus guides us on our path through this life here on earth. He guides us towards our eternal destination. Because of Jesus our sins are forgiven us and through him we receive eternal life. He has also been there and experienced our trials and tribulations. He has provided the perfect example for us to follow.  If we "fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith" (Hebrews 12:2), his light will show us the way through this life and into the life to come.

Fix your eyes on Jesus

I slept in this morning. As in, I slept through my alarm and woke up an hour later when I was supposed to be leaving the house. 25 minutes later when I was actually on the road it was extremely tempting to speed all the way to uni so that I might just get to class on time. But, instead, in a weird attempt to wake up, I sat back, cranked to music and sang along. To tell the truth, I am a bit of a hoon. It is an extremely difficult task for me to keep the speed limit and for some reason, I regularly find myself going 90 to 100 in a 70 zone (kilometers that is). Yep, that's right. I am a hoon. But I have recently invested in a great way to keep the laws of this country and keep the speed limit. I listen to music. By listening I mean really concentrating on the music and taking it all in. Instead of my car trips being a means to get from A to B, they are now a wonderful opportunity for me to listen to and soak up the music. Now instead of speeding all the time, I am so absorbed in what I am listening to (and sometimes even go under the speed limit).

Many people see Christianity as a list of dos and don'ts. Even as Christians we can focus on what we can do and what we cant do in our life of service to God rather than dedicating our whole life to the service of God. We do what we have been taught is right but often it is like we go through the motions. Sometimes it could almost be like the people Malachi is talking to in Malachi 1, the people who are still bring their offerings to the temple of the Lord but the offerings are defiled, and their heart is not in it. When we are focusing on what we can and cannot do it is very easy to leave our heart out of it. no one wants a list of dos and don'ts. But, if we fix our eyes on Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith (Hebrews 12:2), the focus shifts and our thankfulness to God for what he has done overflows. Then, we will think more about doing everything to the honour and glory of God, rather than what we can and cannot do. If we develop a hunger and thirst to know more about God and what he has done for us, if we fill our hearts and minds with Christ and his saving work, then the things which we do will be because they bring us closer to God. In our desire to learn more about God we will be doing our personal Bible study, we will go to Church each Sunday, we will attend weekly Bible Study sessions. We will be doing things which bring us closer to God and teach us more about him.

Keep cranking that music in your car. Instead of thinking about what you can and cannot do in your service to God, focus on Christ and in your desire to learn more about him and in doing so the way we live our life will not be seen as a burden, dictating what we can an cannot do, but rather we will be a joy because we want to do everything to the honour and glory of God.