Monday, October 10, 2016

LIGHT OVERCOMES DARKNESS


            In 1948, after numerous defeats and imprisonments, Mahatma Ghandi failed to survive the last of 6 assassination attempts. While never holding an elected position, he is still considered the liberator of India from a century of British rule.
            In 1994, Nelson Mandela was elected president of South Africa after serving 27 years as a political prisoner for his actions against apartheid.
            In 1989, Vaclav Havel was elevated from ten years as political prisoner to becoming the first elected president of present-day Czech Republic, leading that nation just out of communism for 14 years.
            Each of these three leaders was acclaimed as a person who "brought the light to places in deep darkness," as former Secretary of State Madeline Albright said at Havel's funeral.
            What these world leaders did for their nations, Jesus of Nazareth did for the entire world. He brought light into darkness at the dawn of creation. At His birth He brought light into a world darkened by sin and evil. John 1:4-5 tells us, "In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it."
            John the Baptizer came to prepare the way of the Lord and to bear witness to Jesus as the Light of the world. In John 8:12 Jesus says, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”
            Like John, we, too, can bear witness that Jesus in the Savior who brings light into the darkness of peoples' souls and also into the hearts of nations when its people turn from the darkness of sin to following the Light of the world.
            In our world today, where good is often considered bad and bad is seen as good, where good and evil are interchanged and mingled, people are seeking direction and light for the darkness. Perhaps today you can be the one who shines the light of Christ into someone's heart.

Rev. Bob Tasler, www.bobtasler.com

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