Let in the light.

Earlier this evening, we - my wife and I - arrived back at our home in Gardonne, after having spent some time with our family, and a number of friends, over the Christmas/New year period.  We arrived to a house that was in total darkness, apart from in the garage!  The problem was that some micro-switches in our brand new Circuit Board (e-mail already gone to the electrician who rewired the house, and who has already had one call-back!) had tripped.  Thankfully, the fault seems to have occurred in just the past 28 hours, as the food in the freezer appears to be okay!

Light is so important to us.  Little wonder that it was Almighty God's first act of creation (see Gen.1:3).  The Psalmist wrote: "The teaching of your word gives light, so even the simple can understand." (Ps 119:130; NLT).

In 1972 a missionary aeroplane crashed in West Irian (now Irian Jaya).  Five missionaries died in the crash and, among them, was Dr Darlene Bee, a Bible Translator/linguist for the Summer Institute of Linguistics in Papua New Guinea..  She had spent some 14 years translating the Bible into the dialect of a small tribe in the heart of New Guinea.  She wrote: "If you are able to read, and have a copy of the Word of God in your language, the truth of this Book will fill your soul with light.  The good news shines in our hearts when we expose ourselves to the printed page.  We live in darkness, not because we are buried under the mountain of an alien tongue, but because we never take down the shutters from the windows of our minds, and allow the magnificent 'sun' of sacred Scripture to shine upon our lives with its unspeakable radiance.  'Though we can dim a lantern, or turn off a lamp, we cannot diminish the light of the sun.  So it is when we read the Bible with an expectant heart."

I wonder if you have ever awakened in a darkened room and imagined that it was still night-time, or that the sky was heavily overcast?  Then, when you pulled back the curtains, or raised the blind, the room was filled with glorious sunlight!  In such a way the unchangeable, inexhaustible, incomparable Word of God imparts life to the spiritually dead; purifies the daily walk; and promotes growth in the believer.  However, as Dr Bee stated, we must "... take down the shutters from the windows of our minds ..." and allow His holy light to enter.

I imagine that anyone who reads this post has access to the written Word of God in their own language.  Let us make it a practice to read it daily, and to allow the entrance of God's Word to illumine our paths, and bring spiritual light to our spirits.