Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Night lights


Till ye be left as a beacon upon the top of a mountain, and as an ensign on an hill (Isa 30:17).

There’s a paradoxical relationship between light and darkness. Light drowns out light while darkness discloses light.

You can’t see a beacon in daylight. Sunshine drowns out the beacon. The beacon can only been seen at night, even if it was shining day and night.

Many unbelievers lead sunshiny lives. Natural light blinds them to the heavenly light.

The lives of many believers are darkened by hardship and heartache. Yet as their life grows outwardly darker, that is when heaven’s beacon burns more brightly in the distance.

It’s only because their lives are darkened by affliction that they can more clearly see the guiding light, as it leads them and beckons them onward and upward to Mt. Zion. 

4 comments:

  1. Excellent. I tried shining the light of truth with my local Christian radio station, and they didn't want to hear; and in fact told me when i would send and e-mail, they would all cringe. My goodness, why would they cringe from my thoughts on the Gospel?

    And so i am sharing with a Secular radio station, and they seem to invite my light, and some even give me a thumbs up. I suppose sharing the Gospel should be different for different folk.

    That would be a good subject wouldn't it? How do i share the truth with unbelievers, who say they are not Christians, and Christians, who are so shallow, even the "souls" of their feet are barely damp.

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  2. There’s a paradoxical relationship between light and darkness. Light drowns out light while darkness discloses light.

    What's "paradoxical" about it? Light is photons; darkness is absence of photons.

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  3. Try not to be dense. I'm commenting on the figurative connotations of light and darkness.

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  4. Interesting, though, that God is sometimes said to dwell in darkness, or to have His glory enveloped by darkness.

    See Exodus 20:21, I Kings 8:12, Psalm 97:2, among many other verses.

    I've always thought these Scriptures point to the fact that we can know God both logically and mystically, both as plain proposition and as pure experience.

    Indeed, as Saint Gregory of Nyssa pointed out, the more Moses knew God, the further he proceeded away from light: from flame to cloud to thick darkness.

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