Tag: hope

  • Darkness in Scripture: From Egypt to the Cross

    Hope in the darkness

    dark morning just before sunrise, a sliver of light visible

    It’s almost 7:00 AM, and it’s still dark outside my window. I know that’s normal for this time of year, but I miss the summer days when it’s already full daylight, and the birds have been singing for hours. I’m grateful I no longer live farther north, where the days are even shorter. Oh, well, in just over two months, the days will start getting longer by a small margin.

    Yesterday, I wrote about the crucifixion, particularly the hyssop branch used to offer Jesus a drink as He thirsted. As I read the various accounts of the crucifixion in the gospels, I was struck by the period of darkness that preceded Jesus’ death.

    And it was about the sixth hour, and there was a darkness over all the earth until the ninth hour. Luke 23:44 ESV

    It’s just one short sentence in Luke, but the event is also included in Matthew and Mark.  Why a period of darkness in the Scripture? In the Old Testament, darkness was associated with the Lord’s judgment.

    “And on that day,” declares the Lord God, “I will make the sun go down at noon and darken the earth in broad daylight. I will turn your feasts into mourning and all your songs into lamentation; I will bring sackcloth on every waist and baldness on every head; I will make it like the mourning for an only son and the end of it like a bitter day.” Amos 8:9-10 ESV

    The plague of darkness was the final plague on Egypt before the Passover.

    Then the Lord said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand toward heaven, that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, a darkness to be felt.” So Moses stretched out his hand toward heaven, and there was pitch darkness in all the land of Egypt three days. They did not see one another, nor did anyone rise from his place for three days, but all the people of Israel had light where they lived. Exodus 10:21-23 ESV

    Darkness is also a sign of the coming day of the Lord.

    Blow a trumpet in Zion; sound an alarm on my holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, for the day of the Lord is coming; it is near, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness! Like blackness there is spread upon the mountains a great and powerful people; their like has never been before, nor will be again after them through the years of all generations.Joel 2:1-2 ESV

    The sun shall be turned to darkness, and the moon to blood, before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes. Joel 2:31 ESV

    If times seem dark or you’re going through a period of personal darkness, don’t despair. God didn’t abandon His people then, and He won’t abandon you now. His timing is perfect.

    Hold fast, my friends. The Light is nearby.

    Be blessed.

    SUMMARY

    Throughout Scripture, darkness signaled the Lord’s judgment. God didn’t abandon His people then, and He won’t abandon you in your darkness now.

    TAKEAWAY

    Luke gives the darkness at the cross a single sentence, but Matthew and Mark record it as well.

    In the Old Testament, darkness marked the Lord’s judgment, from the final plague on Egypt before the Passover to the prophets’ warnings about the day of the Lord.

    If you’re going through a period of personal darkness, don’t despair. God didn’t abandon His people then, and He won’t abandon you now.

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  • Love One Another, Even When We Disagree 

    Perhaps the hardest commandment of them all

    Two bowls of potato salad side by side on a white-covered potluck table, one in a glass bowl dusted with paprika and one in a plastic container topped with chopped egg, surrounded by a casserole, a vegetable tray, cornbread, a slow cooker, and stacks of paper plates and napkins.

    The woman in my Aquafit class asked me a simple question: “What religion are you?” I told her I was a Christian. She gave me a puzzled look. “No. I mean, are you like a Baptist, or Anglican, one of those weird ones where people fall on the floor or what?” I should have gone with my usual answer: I’m a Christian in the Baptist tradition. It tends to answer that sort of question better for some people.

    We won’t touch the idea that Christianity isn’t a religion but a relationship today, but she had a point. People often see the church as a diverse group of competing religions, known more for what we are against than what we stand for. We can be seen as harsh, unloving and bigoted. Not a pretty picture and nothing like Jesus looked like.

    Despite our differences and faults, there is only one true Church. That doesn’t seem to stop us from diving over theological, geographic and ethnic/national lines. We argue about key doctrines, minor differences in practice and the color of the walls or carpet. We disagree on music, how the pastor should dress and church government. Should we belong to a denomination, be non-denominational, or start our own denomination? Should we ordain those in ministry, and if so, how and who?

    Which Bible translation is “really” God’s Word? Churches split over the COVID vaccine. I know of a church that burned out pastor after pastor for 40 years because, way back when, two church leaders’ wives both brought potato salad to a potluck.

    Now, there are plenty of legitimate differences, some even worth dividing over, but Jesus never commanded us to be known for the things we differ over or our hatred of certain people groups or sins. Sometimes the church’s actions must cause the Lord incredible heartache.

    A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” John 13:34-35

    For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. 1 John 3:11 ESV

    Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins. 1 Peter 4:8 ESV

    We all know the way we are called to act, but our flesh gets in the way, and we become poor ambassadors of Christ. We can’t always agree, nor should we, but we can handle the disagreements in love.

    Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. Ephesians 4:15 -16 ESV

    We can’t live this way under our own power; we need the Holy Spirit’s help. We need to remember how Christ loves us and forgives us. We need to recall His mercy and grace, even when we have been at our worst.

    We have been given two wonderful places to practice. These are the Sunday morning gathering and our own families. We have plenty of opportunities to both give and receive grace and forgiveness. We also have opportunities to love the unlovable (and sometimes we are the unlovable).

    We are never going to get it right 100% of the time, but we can be forgiven for our mistakes. Let’s remember who we are and are called to be in Christ. Let’s make a conscious effort to start loving one another today. I know I could do better. How about you?

    SUMMARY

    We won’t always agree, but Jesus said the world would know we are His disciples by our love for one another. Let’s ask the Holy Spirit to help us start loving one another today, beginning at church and at home.

    TAKEAWAY

    Jesus never told us to be known for what we differ over or who we oppose. He said all people would know we are His disciples by our love for one another (John 13:35).

    Some differences are legitimate, and some are even worth dividing over, but we can still speak the truth in love and handle our disagreements in a way that builds up the body.

    We can’t love like this in our own strength. We need the Holy Spirit’s help and a fresh memory of Christ’s mercy toward us, and Sunday mornings and our own families are where we get to practice.

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