John 8:12 ESV
“Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, ‘I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness but will have the light of life.’”
What is light? It is the opposite of darkness. And what is darkness? It is all that is evil in this world. It is all that is morally impure (unclean), filthy, lewd, indecent, improper, crude, licentious, wicked, corrupt, dishonest, and unfaithful, i.e. all that is sinful. It is adultery, sexual immorality, sensuality, lust, lying, stealing, slander, inventors of evil, hate, idolatry, drunkenness, orgies, and the like. These are things we are to put out of our lives.
Light is all that is opposite of darkness. First of all it is Jesus Christ, the gospel of Christ, the Word of God. It is God-given faith in Jesus Christ and submission to the will of God. It is truth and righteousness. And it is moral purity, uprightness, godliness, holiness, love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, faithfulness, kindness, self-control, decency, and honesty – what’s proper, respectful, and obedient to God. These things we are to put on in our lives.
Put Offs and Put Ons: [Matt 5:27-30; Matt 7:21-23; Rom 1:18-32; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14; 1 Co 6:9-10; Gal 5:16-24; Eph 4:17-32; Eph 5:3-6; Col 3:5-11; 1 Thes 4:1-8; 1 Tim 4:7; Titus 2:11-14; Heb 12:1-17; 1 Pet 1:14; 1 Pet 2:24; 1 Jn 1:5-10; 1 Jn 2:3-6; 1 Jn 3:4-10]
And what does it mean to follow Jesus Christ? It means to obey him and his word (his commandments under the New Covenant). It means to deny self, die daily to sin, and follow him with our lives in living holy lives, pleasing to him. It means to emulate him and his character, becoming like him in his death and resurrection. And all that involves us forsaking our former lives of living in sin to now follow him in surrender to his will for our lives.
And this isn’t just about obeying the written word of God. For when we believe in Jesus Christ with God-given and God-persuaded faith in him, we now become his possession. He owns us. And he is the one who is to be directing our paths. And he has given us his Holy Spirit to live within us to speak the Lord’s messages to us and to counsel and guide and direct us in the ways the Lord has for us to go day by day by day.
And he has gifted each one of us specifically with the Spiritual gifts he has for us to use for the Spiritual edification and Spiritual growth of the body of believers in Jesus Christ. And we are to use these gifts according to the will of God, and in the power of God’s Spirit, according to the specific body parts assigned to us by God, too. And we can only know these if we are listening to the Spirit of God within us directing us in what God wants us to do.
In other words, I do what I do, not just because it is the right thing to do, and because we are all to be his witnesses in taking the gospel of our salvation to the people of the world, but because this is my specific calling from God which he made known to me through his word and through the witness of his Spirit in my heart. For the Bible is not going to say, “Sue Love, write down your devotions and put them on the internet,” exactly, right?
So we need to not only be studying the Scriptures in their context so that we know and so that we do the written will of God for all of us, but we also need to be listening for that still tender voice of the Holy Spirit within us saying, “This is the way I want you to go. Walk in it.” And for each of us it is not going to be all the same. Even for all of us who are bloggers, our blogs don’t all look the same. God has gifted and called us in all different ways.
The main thing about this is that whatever he has called us to do, it must agree with God’s divine character and will for us, his people, and it must not be what is contrary to his written will for our lives. For example, one of the qualities of the fruit of the Spirit is “self-control.” So the Holy Spirit is not in it if you have lost control and you are under the control of another spirit and you feel as though you have no control. That would be a different spirit.
But we are not going to be “cookie-cutter” Christians. We aren’t all going to look the same or act the same or do everything in all the same ways. Now we must all live holy lives. We must all walk in obedience to our Lord, and not in sin. We must all be sharing the truth of the gospel and not the lies. But we aren’t all going to be bloggers or singers or song writers or poetry writers. Right? For God designed us all different for his purposes.
So, the point of all that I just shared is to say that following Jesus Christ is more than just obeying his commandments under the New Covenant. It means to follow him all throughout each day wherever he leads us in doing what he has called us to do and in saying whatever he gives us to say to others, maybe just for that particular person, or that particular subject, or that specific situation in the world at the present time, and for no other.
And when we follow him with our lives in all that we are and do and say, we will not walk (in conduct, in practice) in darkness (sin, wickedness, evil), because we have the light of life (Jesus Christ and his Spirit) living within us guiding and directing our lives and empowering and strengthening us to do what is right and to not do what is wrong. But if we start following the flesh and not the Spirit, then we are vulnerable to giving way to sin.
For Our Nation
An Original Work / September 11, 2012
Bombs are bursting. Night is falling.
Jesus Christ is gently calling
You to follow Him in all ways.
Trust Him with your life today.
Make Him your Lord and your Savior.
Turn from your sin. Follow Jesus.
He will forgive you of your sin;
Cleanse your heart, made new within.
Men betraying: Our trust fraying.
On our knees to God we’re praying,
Seeking God to give us answers
That are only found in Him.
God is sovereign over all things.
Nothing from His mind escaping.
He has all things under His command,
And will work all for good.
Jesus Christ is gently calling
You to follow Him in all ways.
Men deceiving: We’re believing
In our Lord, and interceding
For our nation and its people
To obey their God today.
He is our hope for our future.
For our wounds He offers suture.
He is all we need for this life.
Trust Him with your life today.
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