This is part 3 of 5 in the teaching series, "Walking God's Way" by Rebecca J. Brimmer, International President and CEO of Bridges for Peace. May you be blessed by reading this teaching letter.
Light
“For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light (for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness and truth), finding out what is acceptable to the Lord. And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them. For it is shameful even to speak of those things which are done by them in secret. But all things that are exposed are made manifest by the light, for whatever makes manifest is light. Therefore He says: ‘Awake, you who sleep, arise from the dead, and Christ [Messiah] will give you light’” (Ephesians 5:8–14).
Darkness and light are contrasted here, with darkness indicating not just physical darkness, but spiritual deadness. We are to walk in light or live our lives in the light.
Paul speaks to the Ephesians as Gentiles who formerly had no access to the light of God. “Therefore remember, that you, once Gentiles in the flesh—who are called Uncircumcised [Gentiles] by what is called the Circumcision [Jewish] made in the flesh by hands—that at that time you were without Christ [Messiah], being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus [Messiah Yeshua] you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ [Messiah]” (Ephesians 2:11–13).
As Gentiles, the Ephesians did not have the rich background in the Scriptures that Paul had. When Paul reminded them that they were darkness, he was reminding them of their paganism, sin and idolatry. Without Yeshua’s sacrificial gift, they would never have been transformed from darkness to light. As Christians, we have been brought near to the commonwealth of Israel and became partakers of the covenants only through the sacrificial gift of Yeshua, our Jewish Messiah, who has brought us out of darkness into light.
This transformation from darkness to light is not passive. We have to make a decision to walk in light. Yeshua told us to be lights. “You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven” (Matthew 5:14–16). Notice again, the action required here—“your good works.” The light of our faith in God should shine out of our lives in the form of good works or action; we must walk in light.
What exactly does a light do? A light shines. When you turn on a light in a dark room, the darkness is dispelled. Our lifestyle should radiate with the light of God, and testify of His presence in our lives.
We tell our staff in Jerusalem that it is important that they take this word to heart. For nearly 2000 years, the Jewish people have not seen Christianity as a shining light. Rather, they experienced rejection, persecution, or attempts to convert them to Christianity. I have noticed that, as a people, the Jews have a great fear of annihilation. I have identified from years of observation; through conversations, written materials, and media expression, that annihilation is viewed as taking three basic forms.
1) Death: Hitler tried to annihilate the Jewish people and succeeded in killing 1/3 of all Jews in the holocaust.
2) Assimilation: If Jewish people marry outside of their faith, the chances are that children born to the mixed union, will not be Jewish, and eventually the Jewish people would cease to exist.
3) Conversion to Christianity: The rabbis teach that if a Jewish person converts to Christianity they are no longer Jewish. Some Jewish families hold funerals for family members who convert to Christianity.
Whenever we are around Jewish people, it is important that we, as Christians, allow our light to shine. God has called Bridges for Peace to help change attitudes. We work to change attitudes in our own Christian community; encouraging Christians to love, pray for, and bless the Jewish people, the family of our own dear Savior. We also are working to change the attitude of Jews concerning Christians by allowing our lives to shine, and by letting our good works be seen, for the glory of God. As we walk in light, the darkness will be dispelled.
The world we live in today, is attempting to merge light and darkness. Actions declared sinful by the Bible and unacceptable to society just 50 years ago, are now increasingly accepted by modern society. Abortion, homosexuality, sex outside of marriage were all once viewed as unacceptable and, today, are seen as the norm. Television depicts homosexuals in nearly every program as normal, nice people who live an acceptable alternative lifestyle. Standards of holy living in the Church have also seen compromise. Christians today watch movies and afterward describe it to their friends, as a good movie, by saying something like, “There were only a few cuss words, and no nudity.”
When “Gone With the Wind,” first aired, Christians were scandalized by one curse word; today that movie would not cause any heads to turn. It seems that, instead of trying to stay as close to God and His ways as possible, many Christians try to stay as much in the world as possible and still remain a Christian. But, this is not God’s way. We are to walk in the light! “This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth” (I John 1:5–6).
By Rebecca J. Brimmer
International President and CEOPhotos
www,israelimages.com/Karen Benzian
All Scripture is taken from The New King James Version unless otherwise noted.
© 2010
Bridges for Peace holds the copyright on this material. We encourage pastors, Bible teachers, and lay people to use these articles for preaching and teaching, and we hereby grant permission for a limited number of copies for such educational purposes. However, any other reproduction or transmittal of this material in any form—including reprinting, republishing, recording or use with any information storage and retrieval system—requires written permission from BFP International.
Bridges for Peace holds the copyright on this material. We encourage pastors, Bible teachers, and lay people to use these articles for preaching and teaching, and we hereby grant permission for a limited number of copies for such educational purposes. However, any other reproduction or transmittal of this material in any form—including reprinting, republishing, recording or use with any information storage and retrieval system—requires written permission from BFP International.
For the full version of this teaching letter please visit www.bridgesforpeace.com or click on the link provided http://www.bridgesforpeace.com/pics/TLWEB0506.pdf.
