Walking in the Light
John I 1:7 But if we walk in the light, as he
is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus
Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.
John I
1:8 If we say that we
have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
John I 1:9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us
our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
John I 1:10 If we say that we have not sinned,
we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.
As a way
of illustrating my understanding of us as fallible beings and subject to the
cares of this world and all it pertains as we make our way in it, I present
this poor illustration.
Back when I was a little boy my uncles used to gather up the dogs in the fall
to go coon hunting in the thick forested hill’s of
So after swearing up and down to them that I would be able to keep up, off we
went about sun down.
We would carry one Kerosene lantern, one of my uncles leading would carry that
lantern and it was dark as a dungeon in those woods after dark. So I would try
to position myself right behind whichever uncles had that lantern, I was fairly
afraid of the dark.
But as the hunt wore on and we climbed thru those steep hills I would grow
tired and my short legs would begin to fail me and I would fall behind and out
of the light of that lantern, I would thrash around in the brush, run into
limbs and by the time I caught up to my uncles I would be a mess, all scratched
and bruised up and wishing I was back home safe.
But my uncle’s foot would never falter, he would stop and listen for the dogs
and then go on, he knew what it was about and where he was, but I was totally
lost without the light of that lantern.
It is that way with walking in the light of the Spirit, we grow tired soon and
we begin to look around and our footsteps falter and we get out of the light
and then we get scratched up, bruised and tattered by this world and the sin in
it, so we run to catch up to Jesus our blessed redeemer.
Sometimes I would get
out of that lantern light and fall into a hole in the ground because I could no
longer see clearly and I would fall prostrate and just end up fighting the
bushes and I would get desperate to reach that lantern light.
Have you ever seen a
Christian thrashing around in a hole? Have you ever been in one yourself?
We are not to judge those people whom we see staggering in darkness it may be
us that get out of the light next.
If we walk in the light as he is in the light we are well, unfortunately we lag
behind, so we get in and out of that light and that is when we get all bruised
up dirty and bleeding spiritually speaking.
When I would go stumbling around and get in too big of a mess one of my uncles
would pick me up and carry me on his broad shoulders for awhile, then after a
while he would set me back down and say “there now” and it made me feel better
because he cared.
That is sort of like it is with Jesus; he sometimes just picks us up and
carries us.
If I could always just walk in the Spirit, walk in the light as he is in the
light, it would be great, but I don’t always do that and so I get bruised,
scratched up, worn-out, tattered and torn by the sins that so easily beset me
while living in this flesh. Oh, my Spirit is all too willing, but the flesh is
all too weak.
So before we pass judgment on those Christians that do seem to have fallen in a
hole we best ask ourselves what hole we are subject to falling into. We are all
just big children and we are subject to falter, some just more than others. So,
I believe it was Paul who said “walk in the Spirit and you will not fulfill the
lust of the flesh” he knew he we would not always do that.
So to those that are walking in the Spirit let’s pray for those who falter, we
need to encourage one another to “run and catch up to Jesus our light in this
dark world”.
There are so many
precious promises in his word, words of encouragement and he made us the
promise that he would never leave us not forsake us and friend I have found
that to be true in my thrashing around thru the mountains and valleys and the
bushes and brambles of this life.
I would like to leave
you with this one final scripture.
Jude
Jude
Jude
Jude
We need to
watch over one another in love, know how to make a difference between the weak
and the willful and act accordingly.
