“Under the Veil of Darkness!” The reason for my title this week was because of Nicodemus’ visit to Jesus. Nick, a leader among the Jews of the day, came to Jesus by night. He was, shall we say, skeptical of all that Jesus had been doing with his healings and the other signs of his divinity. One of the things that makes this story so interesting is that Jesus’ ministry was never a secret, or done under the veil of darkness. Jesus, in fact, was the very embodiment of LIGHT! Let’s look at all the ministry described in this week’s passages and note how our God is indeed the God of Light!
Monday, March 21 -
I just noted above that God has never been in the “darkness” business. However, when God came to Abram (before the name-change) it must have seemed like Abram was entering a time of darkness. Sometimes it feels that way when we step out in faith! Think of the last time you were asked to do something, either individually or in the church, that required stepping out in faith. How did you feel? We know that Abraham was credited as being the “Father of the Faithful.” But, even for him it must have been a real stretch to do what God had asked and to believe what God has promised. Therein lies our problem. We feel as though we are moving through a veil of darkness when God works on us. Remember Abraham today and step out in faith!
Tuesday, March 22 -
Psalm 121 is considered one of the most beautiful Psalms in the entire book. “I lift up my eyes to the hills—from where will my help come?” The rest of the Psalm is about answering that question. We might not always lift our eyes to the hills, but we ask the last part of that question a lot! We continually look around for “help” in all the wrong places. Re-read that beautiful Psalm today and realize that when our life seems to be going through any sort of darkness, it is ONLY God who can guide us, indeed carry us through it.
Wednesday, March 23 -
In the passage from Romans 4, Paul tackles the old problem of “faith” vs. “works.” Paul noted that if Abraham was justified by works he’d have nothing to boast about before God. However, because he is known as the Father of the Faithful, he has every reason to boast ABOUT his God in whom he believed and modeled that belief for generations after to sit up and take note. While James offers some really good advice about “works” we want to dwell on faith this week because our faith in God gives us the assurance that we will NEVER need to work under the veil of darkness. If we put our faith into practice like Paul and many before and after him, we will then understand the real fruit of our labors (work) because it has been sanctioned by God, who loathes darkness!
Thursday, March 24 -
The key question for us in the Gospel text is, “If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things?” When we go through disasters like the recent earthquake in Japan, we tend to question how these things can happen on earth. And, yet we see the pictures of the devastation on our TV’s and in our newspapers. We do not even need to think that far out of our common places to be astounded by all God has done in our world. Remember Jesus’ question as you move forward in your own faith journey. Remember that our faith comes to us from God, who NEVER comes under a veil of darkness.
Friday, March 25 -
We’ve heard it said many times that John 3:16 is like the entire Bible all wrapped up into one verse. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him may have eternal life.” The verse following helps us understand that our God does EVERYTHING in pure light: “Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.” Condemnation would be a form of darkness. We can trust (that is have faith) that God would never come, for any reason under the veil of darkness.