Specific Light

Jesus answered, "Are there not twelve hours in the day? If anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world. (John 11:9)

The circumstances surrounding this statement were pushing both the disciples and Jesus' friends Mary and Martha beyond their comfort zone as far as their trust in Him. From their perspective they believed that Jesus cared about their feelings and needs and trusted that He would respond quickly to their request to heal their brother. They specifically reminded Him that the one they were asking Him to heal was a very special friend of His, not just another stranger asking for a favor. So they were confident that their closeness to Jesus should give them even more pull to compel Jesus to come and heal one of His closer friends.

Was Jesus ignoring this relationship and snubbing His friends? Was He spurning their request, wanting them to suffer more? Was He insisting that they have more faith before He would answer their request? All of these emotions and questions come up repeatedly in our own hearts whenever we request something we feel is very important and it seems that God pays no attention to our needs. And I'm sure that Mary and Martha could not help but go through the gamut of doubts and questions in their minds as they waited day after agonizing day watching their brother die right before their eyes with no response from the One they knew could have prevented his death. All their claims about Jesus' love for them were now ammunition that was being used against them by the many enemies of Jesus looking for opportunities to discredit Him.

But how did the disciples feel as they observed up close Jesus' reaction to the request from His friends? They were well aware of the special bonds shared with Jesus by these three siblings and they must have wondered how their own relationship with Him might similarly suffer if they needed Him in a similar situation. They had assumed that because they had given up everything to follow Him that they would be richly rewarded in many ways because of their loyalty to Him through thick and thin. Now they suddenly saw Jesus treating some of His closest friends with seeming indifference and it was likely alarming to them. They must have begun to question, at least in their hearts, how much pull they really had with Jesus when push came to shove.

As I have been meditating on these verses over the past few days about walking in the light to keep from stumbling, I came back again this morning to see what else the Spirit might bring to my attention about this. It was then that I noticed something a couple verses back where light was actually offered to the disciples specifically for them to take hold of for this situation. Jesus was not asking them to have blind faith in Him as many people propose we should do. God wants us to have an intelligent faith, a trust based on solid evidence though not beyond the possibility for doubts. Jesus had made a statement designed to give them something to hang onto in this time of extreme stress for their confidence in Him and if they had meditated on it and taken hold of it they would have had a much different attitude when a couple days later He proposed returning to Judea.

But when Jesus heard this, He said, "This sickness is not to end in death, but for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified by it." (John 11:4)

It is not that the disciples had forgotten what Jesus had said necessarily. But they, like us so many times, had failed to keep their minds open to allow flexibility in just how Jesus' words might be interpreted. Upon hearing this statement from Jesus they had immediately assumed that Lazarus would not die before Jesus got back to heal him. That would be the logical thing most anyone would have assumed after hearing a statement like that. But Jesus does not often operate within the assumptions of this world and His kingdom is not rooted in the logic we are used to using. Because of this many things He says can be misunderstood because we fail to seek clarification from Jesus on what He intended to mean for us. We fail to give Him opportunity to explain what He means and thus we walk forward assuming we have the truth while all the time walking right into situations where we are sure to stumble over our assumptions about what He meant.

We have a harder time seeing the stumbling block here because we already know the outcome of this story. Many stories in the Bible lack the punch for us that the participants felt in the story because we don't allow ourselves to experience the emotions that are naturally aroused from not knowing the end of the story. But that is just the point. God has given us records of His dealings with people over thousands of years to make the point repeatedly that even when we don't know how things are going to turn out, it is His heart towards us that we need to trust, not our knowledge of how He is going to resolve our particular situation. Our faith must be grounded in trusting His heart rather than just His hands.

This statement of Jesus about this sickness not ending in death sometimes troubles people even today because it is so easy to make the same assumption that the disciples did, that Jesus was saying Lazarus would not die from the sickness. But after the whole story is understood it is clear that Jesus had something very different in mind when He said these words. But then the question naturally arises as to why Jesus didn't just explain up front what He planned to do, that He intended to let Lazarus die but that would not be the end of the story, that He was going to solve that problem by raising him to life.

That is what we would much prefer even in our own relationships with Jesus. We want Jesus to explain to us clearly just how He plans to solve our problems so we don't have to stretch our faith in the dark. The kind of light we prefer is a clear explanation of how God intends to rescue us from our pain. We want the kind of light that makes things clear well ahead of time so we don't have to worry about unknowns. We want God to come down and speak plainly to us and not in riddles. We really don't care for this arrangement of learning to listen to a voice that is so still we often can't even seem to discern it at all. We would much prefer that God speak a bit louder and more distinctly and in language easy to understand so that we can know what He really means.

But God seldom uses such methods to convey His will to us, though at times He does do so. Why is this? I believe it is because if God clearly spelled out just what He was going to do to resolve all our problems we would seldom have opportunity to build a deeper relationship of intimate trust in Him. We think we could, but in reality our confidence would be very shallow because we would never be stretched to trust Him at a much deeper level of our heart when we don't know how things can ever possibly work out. It is not just the good times when our emotions are high, when our worship and praise services exhilarate our senses and we think we feel the presence of God very close that our bonds with Him are formed. In fact, these experiences can often become diversions that the enemy can exploit to lead us to assume false ideas about our relationship with God and lead us into subtle deceptions that can even ruin our souls without our realizing what is happening.

Saving faith must also go much deeper than the good feelings we experience when we first begin to catch a glimpse of the goodness of God and see Him working mightily in our lives. Yes, it is vitally important to frequently see clearly how good God is and that He is faithful and loving and forgiving and compassionate in situations that make sense to us. But God knows that we also need much deeper roots than good feelings to help us remain faithful and loyal to Him in times of emotional storms and troubles. So He allows situations to develop and says things that may seem initially confusing to offer us opportunities to choose to believe that His heart is always faithful towards us even when evidence seems to suggest something very different.

What I see now in this passage is that Jesus had specifically said what He said in front of the disciples about the situation with Lazarus to give them opportunity to think about what He was saying and then choose to believe that whatever happened or whatever appearances might suggest, Jesus already had plans to bring honor to His reputation through whatever was going to develop. Jesus wanted them to believe and anchor themselves in His word to them, not in a foreknowledge of how He was going to unravel this most difficult and seemingly tragic set of circumstances.

Indeed, this sickness did not end in death. But that did not mean that death was not to be experienced along the way. The disciples had assumed from Jesus' words that Lazarus was guaranteed to not die from this sickness, which is certainly one way of interpreting His words. But how often do we read into the Word of God what we desperately want to hear rather than choosing to trust that His Word is immutable but that He has multiple ways of bringing it to pass which often may not be our initial preferences. Most of the time our top priority in life is to avoid experiencing pain. But this is not God's top priority for us and thus we are set to come into frequent conflict with God's better plans for us.

God knows that for us to grow in our relationship of trust in Him (which is the ultimate objective each of us should be focusing on), that it is unavoidably necessary that we get out of our comfort zone which means we are most likely going to experience pain in the process. If we insist on living life without ever allowing God to take us through painful situations, then we are insisting on remaining babies in maturity and we are even in serious danger of endangering our souls because of our selfishness and stubbornness.

God is too wise to allow us to form our characters without the tough experiences that must happen to shape us and prepare us to live in the highly charged, even dangerous atmosphere that pervades all of heaven. God will not artificially or arbitrarily change anyone's character to make them fit for heaven. To do so would be to violate the most important part of who we are – our freedom to choose. And our freedom to choose is the most essential element in our ability to love which is the very atmosphere the permeates all the rest of the universe. If we refuse to allow God to transform us into people who have learned to love selflessly and honor each other's freedom to choose, then we will never be fit or safe to live around other beings who enjoy the bliss and joys of selfless, perfect love all the time.

Jesus gives us light ahead of dark times, times when it seems nothing makes sense, just as He did for His disciples in this story. He gives us a specific word for our situation, but we must be careful not to jump to conclusions about His word to us strongly influenced by our desires as they did and thus set ourselves up for the entrance of fear and doubt. If the disciples had simply clung to Jesus' statement that this would all work out to His glory, they would have not been terrified a couple days later when Jesus talked about returning to Judea. Rather than focusing on the threats and hostility of the Jewish leaders toward Jesus, they could have rested in His words that this was going to bring more glory to His name and they could have encouraged Him along the way instead of despairing in their assumption that they were all marching off to their deaths with Him.

I know I certainly need to learn this lesson for myself. It is easy to criticize the blindness of the disciples and wonder how dull they could remain after seeing so many miracles from the hands of Jesus. But miracles to not change the heart as is evident in the case of many of the Jews. What is needed far more than external evidence for real faith to take root is a willingness to believe in the heart behind the miracles. Until a person chooses to trust God's heart more than what He can deliver, they cannot really enter into that transforming relationship with Him that is required to make them safe to save in the end.

If these disciples had chosen to hang onto His words and give His word priority over what they thought was solid evidence of danger back in Judea, they would have found faith springing up in their hearts and their response to Jesus going back to Judea would have been very different. Even though they had little clue as to how Jesus planned to handle the sickness and then the death of Lazarus that appeared to damage His reputation as a healer and bring into question His love for His friends, they could have grown greatly in their own relationships with Him if they had chosen to trust His heart rather than lean on their own evaluation of circumstances.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight. (Proverbs 3:5-6) And as we choose to do this we will discover that faith springs up spontaneously and our bonds with the heart of God will become more secure and stable. We will find that the light that always can be found in the Word of God can be within us and will be effective in shedding light on our path to keep us from stumbling in the inexplicable situations that come into our lives. Rather than stumbling over our assumptions about God's intentions or messages to us, we will learn to rest in His love no matter how confusing His ways may appear at times. And when we choose to do this our confidence in Him under such circumstances also will bring honor to Him and allow others to see the benefits of living in faith rather than in fear.

Stumbling Close to the Light

The disciples said to Him, "Rabbi, the Jews were just now seeking to stone You, and are You going there again?" Jesus answered, "Are there not twelve hours in the day? If anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world." (John 11:8-9)

What is stumbling?

The act of stumbling is connected with walking which itself is an action of constantly falling forward but catching one's self by moving each foot forward in turn to keep one's balance. Stumbling is when something or some action causes resistance to normal forward movement of the feet and legs causing one to lose balance and start to fall out of control. It may be something in the path that has not been avoided that gets in the way of the foot so it cannot move forward quickly enough, or it could be caused by a person not picking up their feet high enough to avoid dragging them on the ground.

Stumbling is related to several things that create conditions for it to happen. Stumbling may occur because it is too dark to see things that need to be avoided or stepped around or over. It may occur because one is tired or doesn't have the strength to pick up their feet sufficiently. It can also be a result of intoxication where the brain is not able to think clearly enough for good coordination, or it can happen because one is too excited or has focused on something more interesting and is not paying attention to where they are walking. That last cause can include a focus on either something very interesting in a positive way or something very frightening.

Stumbling is something that creates danger of personal harm not to mention slowing down a person's forward movement when that is important to maintain. Generally stumbling is something viewed as a negative problem in the Bible and is often associated with sin. Stumbling is also closely linked with offenses which is an extremely important but under-emphasized topic in the Christian life. Jesus talked about the feelings of the Father about anyone who might cause one of His little ones to stumble and His intense displeasure with that kind of situation. (see Matthew 18:6)

As I meditated on this passage I wondered why Jesus brought up this issue about stumbling in this context. Why did He feel it important to warn the disciples about stumbling just then? They were walking with Him and clearly He was always walking in the light of truth. But apparently it does not just follow that because they were with Him that they too were walking in the light. He says to them that a person stumbles when they walk in the dark and apparently they were either about to stumble or were already beginning to stumble and He wanted to keep them from falling, whatever that meant.

The scene for this story is set up in the first few verses of this chapter in the context of previous chapters. All through this book John keeps reminding us that the way Jesus views things is almost always upside-down to the way we usually view things. What frightens His disciples and us does not seem to disturb Jesus at all, yet what grabs His attention and prompts Him to give us warnings often seems to be something we don't perceive as necessarily being a problem. So what was going on here that prompted Jesus to suddenly insert this strong statement about the need to walk in the light and avoid trying to walk in the dark?

Jesus had just made the statement that they should all go back to Judea where they had recently come from. This statement raised serious concerns and fears in the hearts of the disciples given the threats and treatment they had recently encountered there because of Jesus' actions and words. In the disciple's minds, the most important thing about life with Jesus was staying safe, protecting Him and themselves from harm and trying to help Him establish His power and authority as their Messiah. They viewed His role among them through the perceptions of the traditional assumptions and expectations about a Messiah who was to come and resist the Roman occupation and eventually establish a Jewish empire that would rule over the whole world. The whole Jewish nation had cultivated and nurtured deeply held beliefs that the promised Messiah was to come to elevate the chosen people of God (the Jews) and subjugate all their enemies to their control. This was the yearning of nearly every Jewish person and the disciples were no exception.

Given these deeply entrenched assumptions about the role of a Messiah and their hopes that Jesus was indeed that Messiah, everything that happened and everything that He did was interpreted to relate to the accepted scenarios that had been nurtured for generations. All the disciples were keen to be a part of this new kingdom they were sure Jesus was going to set up on this earth and they were willing to sacrifice everything in order to secure favor with Jesus and receive positions of honor and power when He finally would decide to assert His power and throw off the Roman occupation.

These disciples viewed everything from a political perspective just as the Jewish leaders did and most people do yet today. The main difference between Jesus' disciples and the unbelieving Jewish leaders in their minds was that the leaders had not yet been convinced that Jesus was the right Messiah to bet on. During those days there were many people claiming to be the promised Messiah and used various means to try to raise up insurrections or launch pious religious groups in an attempt to perfect themselves enough to please God so He would come and rescue them.

The disciples believed that the problem with the Jewish leaders not accepting Jesus had more to do with lack of evidence or not being able to see what Jesus was really like. But in reality the disciples themselves did not perceive what Jesus was really like precisely because they shared so many of the same false assumptions about the role and purpose of the Messiah that the leaders believed and indeed had taught them from childhood.

Jesus saw clearly these false assumptions about what a Messiah was supposed to look like and how He was supposed to act based on desires for power and glory and He described them as darkness. When people operate under false assumptions they cannot perceive what is true because they are so confident that their opinions about truth are the right ones. There is no one so difficult for God to reach as one who is confident that they have the truth and there is very little left for them to learn. Such people isolate themselves from any new light that God may try to bring to them and they lock themselves into a cocoon of stubbornness, pride and prejudice. Yet those very people are fully confident that God is on their side and all the problems lie with others not accepting their version of what they insist is reality and truth.

Jesus' disciples were reacting to His statement about returning to Judea where His life had been threatened, but they viewed this proposal through the eyes of how all of us have grown up viewing reality. Their attention was primarily on the politics of their situation, on the threats of the enemies of Jesus and they failed to perceive how the Spirit was leading Jesus or to view things through the eyes of heaven as Jesus always did. It was not that it was impossible for them to see properly, for Jesus had been seeking to groom them and mentor them for quite some time to learn how to view things in heaven's light. But their hearts still so tenaciously clung to their own desires for earthly glory and recognition and power that these were still obstacles in their path that threatened to cause them to stumble in their walk with Jesus.

Jesus desired for His disciples to learn how to walk differently, to walk by faith and be led in the light by the Spirit just as He was doing. He daily was demonstrating to them how to walk in the Spirit and perceive things from God's perspective rather than human perspective, but they were very slow to accept what He was seeking to teach them. So once again they were stumbling over their fears of what could happen to them if they went back to the region where their enemies were so hostile rather than perceiving an opportunity from an awareness that the Spirit had plans to glorify Jesus in a most stupendous miracle through circumstances that currently appeared most discouraging.

Jesus was demonstrating how to walk in the light of day while at the same time His disciples were still walking in the night. The reason they were stumbling over the idea of returning to Judea was because they had not yet grasped what it meant to walk with the light of the truth about God inside their hearts as Jesus did. Without having the real truth about God as a source of inner illumination that would change one's perspective about everything around them, they were still stumbling over things that they could not see because they were still clinging to false beliefs and feelings and assumptions about how God operates and how He relates to His children which gave place for fear in their hearts.

For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. (2 Timothy 1:7 NKJV) When I find myself reacting to any situation in a spirit of fear, I am reminded that my decisions and perceptions are not in harmony with heaven's view of reality. If I do not first deal with the issue of my own spirit first and allow God's Spirit to bring me back into His perspective of reality, then any choices I make no matter how well informed or sincere are likely to result in some sort of stumbling. It is vital that I learn the lesson Jesus is seeking to teach me here about keeping the light of the truth about God in my mind and heart and stay in tune with His Spirit so I can avoid the pitfalls and the obstacles that may seem so right religiously or logically to me but are in fact not really part of heaven's perspective of my situation.

Are there not twelve hours in the day? If anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world. But if anyone walks in the night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him. (John 11:9-10)

Father, please keep my attention on the Light of this world – Jesus – and help me to make and keep my heart as a welcome sanctuary for You to live inside me. Shine the light of Your truth both into me and out of me so that I will perceive all my circumstances and all those whom I relate to in the light of reality as You see it. Fill me with Your light, Your love, Your mind of humility and grace and joy so that I may be free of fear and rest in Your presence all my days.

What Sort of Love?

The sisters sent word to Him, saying, "Lord, behold, he whom You love is sick."

Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. (John 11:3, 5)

I began wondering a few days ago why John placed this last verse into this story. It seems like stating the obvious – of course Jesus loved these friends of his. Why did John have to tell us that Jesus loved them? So I decided to look into the Greek and see if there were any clues. Sure enough, I discovered that these two verses were actually saying quite different things which is exactly why John took the effort to write it this way.

The word translated 'love' in the quote from the sisters is phileo. This is the kind of love that we are most familiar with, a sibling kind of love or brotherly love. This is the affectionate love that is most common between friends but comes far short of the superior kind love that God has for us. But phileo love is certainly an important kind of love that God designed for us to enjoy with each other.

The second reference to love, the love that John says here that Jesus had for His three special friends is far beyond the kind of love that they said they believed He had for Lazarus. This love is the agapao love, the selfless, deep, self-sacrificing kind of love that originates with God. I believe that John here intentionally wanted to make the strong point that the assumptions that Mary and Martha had about Jesus' feelings toward them fell far short of the reality of how Jesus truly felt about them.

It is also very important for John to mention this fact because of how this story progresses. Those reading this story would begin to have the same kind of serious questions about how much Jesus really loved these friends as they did based on the strange way in which He chose to respond to their request. If He were to be judged by His immediate reactions to their request to come and heal their brother, it could be very easy to assume that maybe He didn't really care nearly as much as even a good friend would be expected to care. In fact the very next verse launches into the story from the basis of this declaration of Jesus' love by saying, So when He heard that he was sick, He then stayed two days longer in the place where He was.

If Jesus had only had the kind of love, the brotherly love of an average or even special friendship that these sisters assumed He had for them, it would be expected – and they did expect so – that Jesus would immediately respond to their request and come to their aid to heal their brother as soon as possible. When He did finally arrive later in the story they both in their own unique ways expressed their confusion and disappointment that He had not acted very responsibly in their opinion like one who really cared about them as they thought He should.

Those familiar with this story know the tension that builds as these sisters struggle with how to relate to their intense disappointment with Jesus. It appeared to them that He had given occasion to His enemies to gloat over this apparent defeat, for everyone seemed quite certain that once a person had been dead past three days that there was absolutely no chance of them being brought back to life again. Given this apparent failure on the part of Jesus to look out for some of His closest friends, the Jewish leaders and other skeptics had begun to circulate like vultures insinuating doubts about the validity of Jesus' love and His claims of Messiahship that challenged entrenched beliefs of their culture. Pretending to come to comfort the sisters, some were actually coming to reinforce the apparent defeat of Jesus' power and love in their lives. In this context it was a very strong temptation to slip into hopelessness and despair.

So right at the outset of this story John establishes explicitly that Jesus' love for them was far deeper than they or anyone else had assumed. In the face of circumstances that seemed to reinforce their doubts about His care for them, in the face of His choices to seemingly ignore their pleas for help, He was actually cooperating with heaven to orchestrate the crowning miracle of His whole ministry for their behalf. In doing so He was putting their assumptions and their faith under great strain, but was also offering them an opportunity to experience far greater glory and joy than if He had responded in the kind of love they believed He had for them.

The application for this seems clear, yet it is also very easy to miss under the stress in similar circumstances. When God does not answer our prayers in the time we expect and seems to be ignoring us, it is vital that we cling to the truth that His love is far superior to the kind of love we expect from Him, that it is His heart we must trust rather than His sometimes strange responses to our petitions.

If we keep judging God by how effectively He answers our prayers the way we want them answered, we will live in confusion, sorrow and frustration and our doubts will have plenty to feed on and will readily multiply. We must be extremely careful about basing our opinions about God's love for us on what happens to us (just ask Job). To do this is to play into the accuser's trap and we can easily become offended with God. Jesus is seeking to cultivate and encourage a faith in us that is not based on answered prayers customized and expedited for our benefit and comfort. Rather, Jesus desires that we come to trust His heart and believe in our own heart that His love for us runs infinitely deeper and stronger than anything we have ever before experienced or known.

Yes, that is easy enough to say, but I am painfully aware that I too struggle many times to believe in the goodness of God and trust His heart when things get tough. Yet this is the stuff that living faith is made of and I want to have much more of it. Of course, asking for increased faith is also asking to be taken through experiences potentially like that of Mary and Martha that can be very trying and painful. But that is exactly why these stories were written, to encourage me to base me faith on the end of the story, to remember the far greater joy that Jesus wanted to share with them that was exponentially more thrilling than anything they had ever hoped for themselves.

Father, help me to more firmly believe in Your heart of love for me personally. Increase my faith that trusts You whether things are going good or whether everything seems to be collapsing and I can't feel You close to me. You know I always want to feel Your comforting presence and enjoy Your peace and joy of having You close. But I know You want me to have a much deeper, more mature faith than just a phileo relationship with You. Fill me with confidence in Your agapao love for me so You can work miracles in my life that will result in far greater glory for You than anything I have imagined.

What Makes It Day or Night?

If anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world. But if anyone walks in the night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him. (John 11:9-10)

What determines whether it is daytime or nighttime, the presence of external light or the presence of internal light?

It appears from this and other references throughout the book of John that both day and night, light and darkness are not necessarily sequential but likely can be simultaneous. While some people are living in darkness and stumbling others are choosing to walk in light and are not stumbling.

Following are all the references in John using the words 'light' and 'world'.

There was the true Light which, coming into the world, enlightens every man.

This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil.

I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life.

While I am in the world, I am the Light of the world.

Are there not twelve hours in the day? If anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world.

I have come as Light into the world, so that everyone who believes in Me will not remain in darkness. (John 1:9; 3:19; 8:12; 9:5; 11:9; 12:46)

In the immediate context of this story Jesus' disciples seem to be in the dark. Their perspective on the circumstances were viewed through their own perceptions of reality as they had not yet learned to rely on how radically different Jesus' perspective would be. They had not yet learned to distrust their own analysis of situations and trust that Jesus would have light on everything that would make things appear very different than how they would see things.

Because of their dependence on 'normal' perceptions of what was going on, the first thing they thought about when Jesus said they should return to Judea were the threats against His life they had just experienced only recently. They were walking in the dark, so what they perceived were only threats and gloom and bad things about to happen to them. They could not discern the glory of heaven, the protection of heaven and the plans of heaven both for Jesus and for their own lives. All they could imagine was what bad things might happen to them based on the hostility and threats of the religious and political leaders who increasingly hated Jesus and everyone who sympathized with Him.

Jesus on the other hand, was not only living in constant connection with heaven and looking at things from heaven's perspective, but Jesus Himself had come to be the light of the world, reintroducing to humanity a completely different concept of reality than what they were used to. Rather than a spirit of fear and viewing circumstances through that perspective, Jesus was being led by the Spirit from His Father and He had implicit trust in the goodness and trustworthiness of His Father. Because He was in constant reliance on the original Source of light, love and life for all creation, Jesus saw things very differently than did the disciples. He used this occasion to point out to them their need to rely on His perspective rather than believe that their interpretation of their circumstances was the most valid.

This is a vital lesson for all of us to learn. It is so easy for me to forget to check with God and ask for His perspective before plunging into fearful expectations and scenarios whenever some unexpected threat appears in my life. Like so many others, I have grown up with the habit of assuming negative things about life, of allowing threats and forces of evil to intimidate me into believing the worst is likely to happen to me. Yet Jesus keeps reminding me that His perspective is radically different than what I normally assume about situations and that if I am to avoid stumbling (taking offense) I must view things from the light of His perspective rather than view life the way I typically perceive it.

Night and day are not sequential in this instance but are parallel options that I can choose. My choices will determine what I experience and how I will view life. Jesus is the light of this world and has promised to always be with me and to never forsake me or leave me alone. But even though He is with me, I must choose again and again to turn to Him and seek His perspective if I am to perceive reality and circumstances with the light that will make them suddenly appear very different than the dark forebodings that my own mind will naturally produce.

A few verses after this Thomas fatalistically declares that they all might as well go back to Judea with Jesus to their inevitable death. That sounds all too much like what I often say when faced with threatening circumstances. They were living in the dark because they had not yet learned that Jesus was a source of light that could empower them to view all of life totally differently than they were used to seeing it. Because they only noticed the evil and tuned in to the intimidations of the world's powerful who were seeking to suppress the light of Jesus, their scenarios of the future were shaped by the evil threatened against them rather than through the glorious view of heaven's perspective and plans.

What made the difference between Jesus' outlook and plans and those of the disciples? Because Jesus was filled with the Spirit and perceived that Lazarus' death was a signal for the greatest miracle God had planned for Him during His ministry on earth, He was then filled with anticipation and excitement about returning to Judea. In contrast, all the disciples could think about were threats of stoning, the hostility of the Jews in Judea and the tension that would fill the hearts of all the friends and family of Lazarus because Jesus had failed to meet their expectations and had not come in time to heal him.

It seemed very hazardous in the minds of the disciples for Jesus to venture back to where He was not welcome and also to face the grief and intense frustration produced by His failure to heal Lazarus before he died. Yet in heaven's perfect plan this very frustration and the shame induced by the scoffing and derision of the unbelieving leaders in this situation actually created the greatest opportunity to display the real truth about the divinity of Jesus and produce irrefutable proof that He was indeed the promised Messiah. The difference between these two perspectives was whether circumstances were viewed from normal human perspective or through the light that Jesus came to bring to this world.

These verses assembled from the book of John that refer to the light and the world bring incredible insight to the much deeper meanings of what Jesus is trying to convey here. They also carry great importance for me personally to teach me how to walk in light rather than continue stumbling about in the dark as I have for so long. I pray that God will continue to impress these truths on my heart, bring them to my mind repeatedly and keep reminding me to access the Light of reality that has promised to always be close to me and available if I will just choose to utilize it when things look dark.

I have also been learning that it is important to keep accessing Light even when things are not necessarily dark and foreboding. It is equally dangerous to think that I have no need to seek Jesus' perspective when things are seemingly going well for me but to only turn to Him when I feel threatened. In fact, depending on my own perspective about reality when things seem to be wonderful in my life could be even more dangerous because it can cause me to think I can trust my perspective part of the time. The only safe way to live both in good times and bad is to rely on the only reliable Source of light to interpret all circumstances in order to discern things from heaven's perspective.

The only way I can avoid stumbling and offense is to keep the Light of the world ever-present within my own heart. I need to make sure Jesus has a safe sanctuary within my soul from which He can illuminate circumstances from heaven's perspective as well as demonstrate His glory through my life. By having Jesus' perspective on circumstances and being filled with hope rather than lurching from one crisis to another in fear or despair or self-depenence, my life can become an example of the peace that everyone needs to experience in their hearts. As others perceive the peace and joy that I can enjoy in the face of any and every circumstance they will want to know how to have that kind of light dwelling in them too. In this way God will be able to use my witness in His favor and my life can become a magnet to attract others to also live in the light and become free from their fears and darkness.