We were once darkness...
Illustration
Object:
We were once darkness before we gave ourselves to the Lord. Now Jesus is our light if we don't block him out. We can turn on light in a room -- even a small light can light the whole room, but there is nothing darkness can do to take away light. We can't switch on a "darkness" lever. It is just the absence of light. When we do evil we are pushing God's light out of our lives. We only bring darkness into our lives by pushing away God's light.
My mother (and my wife) may complain about how dirty a room (or plate or shirt, and so on) may be, but if the light is not turned on, we can't see it. We only see the dirt when the light is turned on. Then we can see to clean it.
Lent is a time when we call on our Lord to show us where we went wrong and push out what the deeds of darkness have done to us.
The text says "fruitless" seeds of darkness. Nothing will grow from evil deeds (except prison or death). No fruit! The trouble is that we won't know until the harvest what kind of seeds we have planted. So make sure we are planting good seeds! Church is one place where we can see the light and receive good seed to plant!
Most people resent it when someone points up their sins! They want to keep them hidden, for one, and also it can destroy their dignity and pride. If we are in darkness we may feel pretty good about ourselves. We have to decide if we want a few days or years of earthly comfort -- not seeing the sin in our life -- or whether we want to dwell in the house of the Lord forever!
It is through the light of Jesus that we find out what pleases God. Compare our lives to Jesus' life, and we can see how far we have fallen from pleasing God. Turn on his light, and we will be able to look into our hearts and souls and see what Jesus needs to clean up for us.
One reason we may be afraid of God's light is then we will see all the cleaning we have to do, but we forget that God is our cleaning "lady." Jesus will clean us if we only ask him. We just have to be humble enough to admit and confess our failings and ask him to forgive us and only then will be happy to live in the light.
My mother (and my wife) may complain about how dirty a room (or plate or shirt, and so on) may be, but if the light is not turned on, we can't see it. We only see the dirt when the light is turned on. Then we can see to clean it.
Lent is a time when we call on our Lord to show us where we went wrong and push out what the deeds of darkness have done to us.
The text says "fruitless" seeds of darkness. Nothing will grow from evil deeds (except prison or death). No fruit! The trouble is that we won't know until the harvest what kind of seeds we have planted. So make sure we are planting good seeds! Church is one place where we can see the light and receive good seed to plant!
Most people resent it when someone points up their sins! They want to keep them hidden, for one, and also it can destroy their dignity and pride. If we are in darkness we may feel pretty good about ourselves. We have to decide if we want a few days or years of earthly comfort -- not seeing the sin in our life -- or whether we want to dwell in the house of the Lord forever!
It is through the light of Jesus that we find out what pleases God. Compare our lives to Jesus' life, and we can see how far we have fallen from pleasing God. Turn on his light, and we will be able to look into our hearts and souls and see what Jesus needs to clean up for us.
One reason we may be afraid of God's light is then we will see all the cleaning we have to do, but we forget that God is our cleaning "lady." Jesus will clean us if we only ask him. We just have to be humble enough to admit and confess our failings and ask him to forgive us and only then will be happy to live in the light.
