Reflections for October 3, 2011

John 12:11 Because that by reason of him many of the Jews went away, and believed on Jesus. (KJV)

In context, we know that this statement is made of Lazarus the man our Lord resurrected from being physically dead for 4 days. However, what a deep statement it is for each true follower of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I have witnessed to many people. I have also been laughed at and cursed by people who found my witness of repentance and faith in Jesus Christ offensive to them. I must admit it quite often discourages me from taking that leap again to testify to a total stranger or even to someone I know, but because I know that people will go to the place Christ describes as a place of weeping and gnashing of teeth, I open my mouth or write as I’m doing here, as Paul said, “Knowing the terror of the Lord we persuade men.”

For example, I was flipping through the channels and heard Pierce Morgan interviewing Sir Richard Branson the owner of Virgin Mobile (I believe) and at the time Branson was talking about how he believed in evolution but he wished he could believe in God, so thinking of 2 Corinthians 5:11 I tweeted him directly and enclosed a copy of a piece Christ wrote through me entitled “The Highest Form of Life” and prayed for him that he would read it and that the Holy Spirit would open his eyes so that he could see Jesus Christ and be saved. I think Paul or Peter or any of the Apostles would have done the same thing if they lived in this era of the internet and global communication. Whether he read it or not I know not but Christ knows and that is all that matters. My desire was and is to see him (and all men) not die in his sins and go to @#!*% .

I often question myself and wonder has my witness been fruitful or futile. I think has my failings and my sin kept people from believing that Christ is truly God. Nevertheless, my love for Christ keeps me talking and especially writing knowing that He died for all and if any man be in Him he is a new creature. Will many believe by reason of me? Maybe, I won’t get my answer to that question until I see my Lord face to face; reforethe, for now I keep speaking and writing as He gives me utterance.

John 12:45 And he that seeth me seeth him that sent me. (KJV)

You cannot believe in Jesus Christ and think that the God of the Old Testament is a different God. Jesus Christ is God revealed in the Old and New Testament. He is the One and only God. He is God of Love and of Justice. He is God of Mercy and of Holiness. No other man ever made the claim that Christ makes in this statement of fact and truth, therefore, every other religion or way to God is false.

John 12:46 I am come a light into the world, that whosoever believeth on me should not abide in darkness. (KJV)

Light reveals and exposes everything the darkness hides. Light removes or destroys the darkness.

Acts 16:29 Then he called for a light, and sprang in, and came trembling, and fell down before Paul and Silas, (KJV)

The Human Heart Protests Darkness

That call of the Philippian jailer is the deepest call of every human heart. It distinguishes man from the dumb beasts. Give a beast its food, it is content. It asks for nothing more; it never questions. It never tries to understand its instincts. Its farthest horizon is present satisfaction. But man is always calling out for light. What is history but the call for light? What is science but the call for light? What is philosophy, with all its groping, but the call for light in the darkness of the prison? On every problem, on every unsolved riddle, on every mystery of earth and heaven, we call for light like the Philippian jailer. Why do men risk their life to reach the Poles— what lures them to the top of Everest— why does the thought of a place unexplored draw men as a magnet draws the steel? It is the human heart protesting against darkness as something alien from its deepest being it is the call for light of the Philippian jailer. By George H. Morrison

The Call for Light Comes at the Time of Death

You will remember, too, this call was made by a man who was within an inch of death. A moment before he was on the point of suicide. Death was very near to him that night. He had been standing on the margin of the grave. He thought to shuffle off this mortal coil. He faced the grim extremity. And it is when death is near and knocking at the door, or when the open sepulchre is at our feet, that we call for light like the Philippian jailer. What mother did not call for light when her dear boy went off to war? What father did not call for light when his beautiful child was lying in its coffin? More than anything— more than the heaviest cross or the bitterest reverse of fortune— it is the fact of death that inspires the call for light. What does it mean, this silence and this darkness—this borne from which no traveler returns? Are powers given never to be perfected? Are we never to look on our dear dead again? The ceaseless questionings, the dim surmising; these, of which dumb animals are ignorant, are the crown and title of humanity. We are great because we call for light. We are better than dumb, driven cattle. We want to know; we yearn to understand; we crave to penetrate the mystery. If from darkness we came, darkness would content us. Gloom and shadow would be our native air. But God has made us, and we call for light, and so tell of the Light which is our home. By George H. Morrison

The Servant Who Brings Light

I close by noting in this thrilling story that when the jailer called for lights, he got them. Cannot you see them flashing through the corridors? Who brought them we are not informed. It is one of the ministries of nameless people. Nameless people may do far more good than those whose names come ringing down the centuries. He called, and he was given. He called, and in the darkness torches flashed. He called, and servants heard the call and answered. Now, did you never hear of One who took on Him the form of a servant? Who willingly came down into our prison-house and was among the prisoners as one who serveth? And do you think, if these Philippian servants heard the call for lights and flashed their torches, that this Servant would not do the same? He flashed His torch on suffering He flashed His torch on sin. He flashed it on the hidden heart of God and on the age-long mystery of death. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid; in My Father's house are many mansions. He who has that light wants no other light. It casts its radiance on the murkiest passages. He may still tremble like the Philippian jailer, but in that light he has the power to spring. He has light for duty and for disappointment now; light on the heart of God and on the grave. "I am the Light of the world; he that followeth Me shall not walk in darkness." By George H. Morrison

2 Corinthians 5:21 For he hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. (KJV)

I give Jesus Christ my sin and He takes it and gives me His Life (Beauty for Ashes as goes a Christian Song Lyric I have on my MP3 player).