God’s light

This Little Light

/ pastorpete51 / 8 Comments 
Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven. Matthew 5:15 KJV

One of my favorite old-time songs from church is “This Little Light of Mine. It reminds me of when our boys were small, and we lived in a tiny second floor apartment. One night my wife thought she heard a sound coming from the children’s room, and since our flashlight was buried somewhere in a kitchen drawer, she carefully worked her way through the dark in that direction. I half woke up as she got out of bed, but when I heard her voice suddenly pierce the night with “Oh! Oh!” she had my undivided attention.

“What’s going on?” I shouted sitting bolt upright, ready to rush to her rescue. By this time though the startled little scream had been replaced by peals of laughter. “You wouldn’t believe it!” Nancy said as she quickly slipped back into our bedroom. “I was standing in the middle of the kitchen, when a firefly lit up no more than an inch in front of by nose!” That tiny bug had everyone’s attention, not because of how impressive the candlepower of his light was, but because he chose the darkest place to shine it. With all the problems going on in the world around us we can easily get discouraged and feel like our little light won’t make much of a difference. But it just may be that God has called you to give just a little flash of His love to someone on the darkest night of their life!

The Lord is My Light

/ pastorpete51 / 6 Comments

The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life; of whom then shall I be afraid? Psalm 27:1 KJV

Back in my hometown of Scranton, Pennsylvania is a place called the Lackawanna County Coal Mine Tour. What makes it special is that it is a museum that is entirely underground. The only way to enter is to hop aboard a coal car, and travel hundreds of feet below the surface to where the miners once worked. To those of us who have never been in a mine, there are many interesting and amazing sights, but to me the most impactful was at the end of the tour. There, in the far reaches of the tunnel system we came to a large chamber, our guide unexpectedly came to a stop and then turned off all the lights. There in the pitch darkness he asked us to observe a silence moment and remember the miners, especially those who never made it out. Now, I have been in some pretty dark places, but in all my life I have never seen anything as black as what we experienced in that moment. It is very likely that as David was writing the words of today’s verse, he was hiding deep in a cave. Outside, as the army of King Saul was searching for him, with orders to kill him, David sat in inky blackness. But even in the darkness, David remembered how God had been with him all through the years. Whether he had faced a lion, a bear or a giant named Goliath, God had shown him what to do and David became confident that God would help him even in that cave. In that same way, God will be with us in our darkest places, when all other sources of light in our lives have been extinguished. So, let’s put our trust in our God, who had romised to shine around us, give us courage and strength and be our light forever!