Subtitle: Take a look within your heart with a different sort of light. Go in search of the darkness which is disguising itself as light.
Excerpt: Take a look within your heart with a different sort of light. Go in search of the darkness which is disguising itself as light.
Scripture
Our verse for today comes from Luke 11:35, “Therefore take heed that the light which is in you is not darkness.”
Background
When I was growing up, black lights were a big thing. They may still be now and I’m just oblivious because of being much older, but back then they seemed to be everywhere. Kids would have them in their bedrooms, and their walls would be covered with posters that glowed when the black light was turned on, giving off that familiar purplish glow. They would wear shirts with prints on them, and the printed design would glow, too. When you went to a party, a black light would be glowing in some part of the house, and people would just hang out there because of how cool everything looked. There was even a store at the mall that seemed to specialize in this particular sub-culture, and it was nearly impossible to go to the mall and not walk through this store, if only to simply see what you looked like in the black light. But the interesting nature of the black light is that the light which causes the appealing fluorescence is actually not the violet light that we see coming from the tube. That light is the ordinary visible light being filtered out by the dark blue filtering material. The light which causes the fluorescence is ultra-violet (UV) light, and it is invisible to the human eye. But when it strikes certain materials, it produces a brilliant, glowing fluorescence. The purple hue draws us in, but the UV light is actually working its magic.
Application
And until I thought about the black light, Jesus’ warning about the light within us being darkness didn’t make much sense. How could light be dark? But that’s the deceptive power of our sin. The lovely violet is its lure, but we cannot see what is actually going on within us. We think we are full of light, when actually our light is full of darkness. That’s why we need to examine ourselves, to keep looking at His lamp which belongs on the lampstand. We have to remove the dark blue filter and let our darkness be exposed completely. It may bring back some unsightly or unnatural images, but seeing them is when we know we are finally stepping out of the darkness and into His glorious light.
Charge
As we seek Him today, take a look within your heart with a different sort of light. Go in search of the darkness which is disguising itself as light.
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