Thursday, January 25, 2007
A Matter of Light and Darkness
And the judgment is based on this fact: God’s light came into the world, but people loved the darkness more than the light, for their actions were evil.
—John 3:19
I have always been amazed at how upset and completely irrational some people can become when the subject of Jesus Christ comes up. You can be talking about anything, even politics, and they will be relatively nice—even considerate. But just mention Jesus Christ, and you will see veins pop out of the foreheads of otherwise rational and considerate people.
We wonder, What’s with this? It is a matter of light and darkness. It’s a different dynamic altogether when you talk about the things of God. There is something about the name of Jesus that arrests a person’s attention. Why else would people use it for effect when they take the Lord’s name in vain? There is power in that name. Even the unbeliever, in a warped sense, recognizes that.
Jesus said, “All who do evil hate the light and refuse to go near it for fear their sins will be exposed” (John 3:20). They hate the light for fear that it will expose their darkness.
The same is true of the Bible. When I travel, I will occasionally wind up in the middle seat, which I try very hard not to get. I am usually seated between two big guys who spill over their seats a little. As we are talking, I sometimes will reach into my briefcase and take out my Bible. They look at it. They see the gold pages and the ribbons. And at that point, I might as well have pulled out a live skunk. It represents truth to them, and deep down inside, they know it is the truth.
There is power in the name of Jesus and in the Word of God.
For more relevant and biblical teaching from Pastor Greg Laurie, go to www.harvest.org.
Copyright © 2007 by Harvest Ministries. All rights reserved.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Bible text from the New King James Version is not to be reproduced in copies or otherwise by any means except as permitted in writing by Thomas Nelson, Inc., Attn: Bible Rights and Permissions,