Looking
through the monitor, there is the appearance of one camera shining a light into
the path of the other camera. However, looking into that room with the naked
eye reveals that everything is very dark. The difference is due to the fact
that the cameras are emitting infrared light, invisible to the naked eye, but
visible to the camera.
There is a
sense in which the Bible is like the monitor to a spiritually infrared camera
system. Those who look at life without this monitor, see only darkness. They
would even deny that there is any light in the room, or on a subject,
whatsoever. The simple explanation is, “I will believe it if I see it; I don’t
see it, so I don’t believe it.”
At the same
time, those who look at life through the monitor of the Bible see for
themselves that God sheds his light on everything. God’s monitoring system
sheds light on our origins, our circumstances, moral dilemmas, world events,
issues of body, soul and spirit, the connection between the physical and
spiritual realms, and any other categories we would use to describe anything we
go through.
I appreciate
that people who do not see the light of God are understandably perplexed,
perhaps frustrated and bewildered as well, when someone claims that they not
only believe in God, but that they know him through faith in Jesus Christ.
On the other
side, I know what it is like to look through God’s monitoring system and see
the light of God making sense of everything, including God, and including me, so
I also experience a sad disappointment that others see only darkness where I
see “the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ” (II Corinthians 4:6).
It is
interesting to watch a little one waking up from a nap and looking directly up
at the camera as if wondering what the red and green lights indicate. To them,
the room they are in is dark, and yet they can see that the lights on the
camera indicate some kind of activity going on.
It is also
interesting to watch children discovering the monitors we use, and figuring out
how we see things from our viewpoint. Eventually they will begin having fun
showing off in front of the camera knowing their daycare buddies are in another
room watching from the monitor.
With regards
to the Bible as the word of God, our first association to this God-inspired
book may be that we admit that the red power light is on, and that it deserves
a place among all the other religious literature of the world. Maybe we come to
wonder if the green light could actually mean that God is conscious of us, aware
of us, noticing us, and maybe even thinking of us, and having something he
would like to say to us.
Such curiosity
is an invitation to open the Bible as the monitoring-system of God and discover
how God’s light illuminates our world so that we can actually see what is going
on, and understand how God is still at work in his world to this very day.[1]
God’s
monitoring system declares about Jesus, “In him was life, and the life was the light of men.”[2] People living without God don’t see this, but the life that is in Jesus
Christ is the light of the world, and anyone who looks at life through the
Bible discovers that there is plenty of light to see that such a thing is true.
The
same part of the Bible adds, “The
light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”[3] Just because people in the darkness cannot see the light does not
mean that the darkness has overcome the light, or restricted it whatsoever. The
light of Jesus Christ shines in the darkness, and anyone who looks through God’s
cameras can see that it is so.
In
Jesus’ own words (God’s word quoting God’s word, so to speak), Jesus said, “I have come into the world as light,
so that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness.”[4]
Believing in Jesus is looking into the monitor of God and seeing the light of
Christ that has come into the world. We experience what it means that, “The people
who walked in darkness have seen
a great light; those who dwelt
in a land of deep darkness, on
them has light shone.”[5]
Why should I
share this with you? Because I am part of, “a
chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the
excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.”[6]
With that in mind, while the world around me prefers walking
in the darkness,[7] I invite you to join me in welcoming this invitation: ”O house of Jacob, come,
let us walk in the light of the Lord,”[8]and, “Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has
risen upon you.”[9]
From my heart,
Monte
© 2013 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517,
Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8 ~ in2freedom@gmail.com
Unless otherwise noted,
Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English
Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good
News Publishers.)
[1]
“But Jesus answered
them, ‘My Father is working until now, and I am working.’” (John 5:17)
[2]
John 1:4
[3]
John 1:5
[4]
John 12:46
[5]
Isaiah 9:2
[6]
I Peter 2:9
[7]
“And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the
light because their works were
evil.” (John 3:19)
[8]
Isaiah 2:5
[9]
Isaiah 60:1
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