Scandalous Lies

“For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save…This is the verdict:  Light has come into the world…But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly…” John 3:17, 21.

I’m not a big television person but this past week I was sick with the flu.  Between extreme boredom and being tethered to my bed I watched multiple episodes of this one show.  It was a show on Netflix so I was able to have a marathon viewing one of the days.   It’s a show where every character walks in the darkness of deceit, corrupt power, sin and narcissism.  Watching it once a week was one thing, but allowing it to infiltrate my mind when I was physically sick was quite another.  It was so disturbing that I changed the show to a sitcom so it wouldn’t be the last thing I watched before I went to sleep.  The next morning I was convicted to remove the show from my viewing list so I wouldn’t be tempted.  See, Jesus came into the world not to condemn us but to save us from evil…and sometimes even from ourselves.

The more closely we live with God we get the privilege of living and walking in that light.  ‘God is light; there is no darkness in Him at all.  If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie’ 1 John 1:5-6.  By watching that show I was walking in darkness, giving Satan a small opening to my mind.  I am thankful that God shed His light of conviction onto me and revealed it for what it is...darkness meant to do damage to my spirit.  When we walk with Him in the light, His light will reveal our darkness, that is, anything we open ourselves up to that is contradictory to God.  We must stay in tune with the Holy Spirit and not silence His voice of conviction.

We are not naïve when dealing with darkness.  Deep in our spirit we all know what is contradictory to living the spirit-filled life.  God will be faithful in making it clear when darkness is lingering as He did with me this morning.  I was watching a video that accompanies my Bible Study and the speaker actually talked about the same show and episode that made me turn off the television.  Her point was that culture does everything it can to redefine the light.  The world tries to shine the light of approval onto the darkness of sin.  I was amazed that God was so clear on pointing out the dangers of darkness.

‘But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship’ 1 John 5:7