Christmas Has Come Early! – EP36
John 3:19
This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.
Welcome to the One Thing Podcast! I speak with excitement today, knowing that Christmas is just a couple weeks away. That’s right— we're in the month of December, and I know that we all get so excited about the season of Christmas, not just because of the food and the family and the gifts, which are all wonderful; but, I believe, truly, that when we recognize what the real message of Christmas is, it really brings an excitement and a joy.
"Christmas has come early today. For today is the day of salvation."The message of Christmas truly is that God had looked down upon this world— He had seen men and women in darkness, the darkness of their understanding of God, the darkness of their sin, where man goes about their own way, where we all have just done our own thing without recognizing that God is the king, that the Lord Jesus is the Lord of all. And, as God looked down and saw the darkness, He decided in His great mercy that He would send the light: the Light of the World, the Lord Jesus Christ.
So, Christmas has come early! Even today, we can come to God and receive the wonderful gift of the Lord Jesus when we recognize that we are in darkness, when we see, and we look at our lives and see that we are desperate without Him, that we are desolate without the light of the world, in unending darkness.
But, God today says, “Turn. Turn from your sin. Turn from the darkness, and come into the light.”
The Word of God says in John 3:19, “This is the verdict: light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed.”
"May you cry out to God and allow His light to shine."That is man without the lord Jesus: walking in darkness, loving it, and never wanting to come into His goodness and His light for fear that they would be exposed, exposed of the fact that their lives aren't about the Kingdom, exposed that our lives are covered in sin and separate from God.
I love this one part because it says, “Everyone who does evil hates the light...” What does it mean, “everyone who does evil?” It really means everyone who continues to do evil. If you find yourself today constantly in the same rut, constantly going through the same motion of darkness or sinfulness, maybe you can't get your mind clear of impurity, maybe you can't stop lying, maybe it seems as though you keep going back to the same old way of walking away from God and getting caught up in the things of the world.
Whatever it may be, may you come out of the darkness today. May you cry out to God and allow His light to shine.
Jesus is the light of the world. In that same chapter, John chapter 3, we can go back just a little bit to verse 16: “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
"What a wonderful gift in God that I don't have to continue in darkness..."That eternal life is the light of the Lord Jesus that comes into the darkness of our minds and our hearts, but it is to those who believe. What does it mean to believe? We believe that, yes, we are wicked and dark and desolate without God. But when we believe in Him, we believe that He is the Lord of all, that he is the King of Kings, and we believe that if we turn to Him— if we turn from our darkness, if we turn to his light— we shall be saved and we shall find eternal life in Him.
What a wonderful gift in God that I don't have to continue in darkness, that I don't have to continue in my own path that leads to the road of Hell! I don't have to continue down my own path that leads away from God, but truly be brought close to Him by the light of the world.
Christmas has come early today. For today is the day of salvation.
Will you turn to God? Will you receive the light and may you take this time to rejoice, to take joy in this holiday season, and really think about the message of Christmas? Light has come into the darkness and those who turn to Him shall receive that light and also be a light to others.