Brave Light - Carriers Part Two
**If you haven’t read (or listened to) last week’s part 1 of Brave Light-Carriers, here’s your cue to click pause on this reach-for-more of Jesus — and drink that one in first.**
Remember that big black king-snake from last week? The one in my dream who surprisingly had good motives, good intentions, and never hurt anyone. I called him the “cleaning” snake as I tried to explain to the frightened bystanders the value of having a good king-snake around. I remember once in my childhood, when my grandfather found a king-snake in the woods behind his pasture. He caught it and released it into his big barn. He said, “That’ll take care of my rat problem — he’s about to have a feast.”
Those rats could not hide. No rodent or poisonous snake can hide from a king-snake. The king-snake goes into the darkest places to find things that cause harm. Breathing things that hide in the corners of barns or basements — usually carry germs and bring illness. How many lives have been helped by a cleaning king — snake.
Now, if you’ll indulge me a rewrite on those last few lines — let’s look at it morethrough Spirit-led eyes and not only through our human lens. The re-write, for spiritual purposes, goes something like this:
Evil can not hide. No sin or wrong can hide from the King. The King of Kings goes into the darkest places to find things that cause harm. Things that hide in the corners of our souls or closets of our hearts — usually carry shame and toxic thinking that bring emotional illness to the hearts of His children. How many souls have been saved by the Holy King.
Have you ever had something in your life you wanted to hide?
Something you didn’t like about yourself or your story that you wanted to just put in a closet, close the door, lock it tight and toss the key into a deep well?
Or here’s another way of asking — have you ever realized something about yourself, something you never really knew was in you, but then came the day you realized you were “that way”. You were the very thing you had perhaps even criticized others for being; you had become the person you actually didn’t like?
If you’re nodding your head up and down to any of those questions — then if it helps at all, I’ve been in that seat too friend.
But if you’re secretly, agonizingly, still refusing to acknowledge the dark corners of yourself, then you might have already quit reading…..or you might now……or MAYBE you’ll stay with me and keep reading. For I know the feel of that seat too. It’s a seat that gets harder as time passes by.
When we reach for more of Jesus in our lives, He loves us enough to walk with us, wherever we are. He doesn’t shrink back from the darkest, hardest, most gruesome places — because He knows we need His help — and He also knows exactly what to do. He knows how to bring light into dark places; just watch the morning light rise and darkness disappear. Light defeats darkness. His Light does the same within us. Amazing that our Jesus does not walk closer to us only after we’re all polished up; He walks closest when we’re honest. Dirty or sparkling — Jesus reaches for the honest heart.
It’s been true in my life.
Jesus brings LIGHT into darkness.
In the book, “66 Love Letters” by Larry Crabb (a must read if you haven’t already done so) — Larry writes as if God is speaking to the reader, based on what He (God) wants us people to understand when reading the 66 books of the Bible. Larry does a masterful job of depicting a written conversation between himself and God — asking tough questions about the books of the Bible, which he calls God’s love letters. Bless yourself — and get the book. :)
On page 24, conversing about the book of Joshua, in this theologically accurate yet fictionally created conversation between Larry and God, God says something that we all need to ponder — He says, “ Loving Me and being faithful to My plan requires hating everything in you that is opposed to Me, everything about you that wants someone or something besides Me to have first place in your life. You’ll need help discerning what that is.”
Then on page 25, Larry works to help us grasp that the book of Joshua is much more personal than we might realize. Joshua led the Israelites into the Promised Land, Canaan, but leading them in was only the beginning of the intense work.
I accepted Jesus as my Savior when I was 11 years old. In a sense, we could say, I was an 11 year old girl when I crossed my Jordan. I set foot on the path that would lead me closer and closer to what GOD had for me. As He came into my heart, I stepped into a “territory” that is actually a battleground. You see, as long as I stayed in the wilderness of wondering….I was no threat to the occupants of the territory GOD wanted to give to me. And yet, God had said, that territory was actually m-i-n-e. It is my l-i-f-e. God had already given it to me……and when I invited Him into my soul…..HE walked across a “Jordan River” with me and said, “Now, there you go daughter. Everywhere you put your foot in this life I’m giving to you, that is in-line with my will for you, I will give you that ground!”
But I’ve come to understand so much more since that day when a little girl knelt at a scary altar in a little Baptist church. I’ve come to understand that my Canaan, my life, given to me by GOD, has enemies lurking about who want to rob me of the gift of my life. God has opened my eyes to see and my heart to understand, that HE wants to grow me strong and courageous so I will obey Him and defeat the enemies that are in my territory.
So God says to me and you, “This life, this territory I’m giving you is yours and I am with you everywhere you go. I will never leave you. However, you must set your foot on the ground and you must root out the enemies that are lurking in your territory. You will need ME to help you — and I WILL. But you must open your eyes to see the enemy that is hiding. Look to Me for guidance, resist the ways of that enemy and darkness loses. I will guide you and strengthen you. You will not fail against any enemy you stand against and resist as long as you follow My lead and obey My word. I know the enemies you will face and I know exactly how to defeat them — I will guide and coach you step by step. But, you must do it, and you must do it My way. For as you obey and defeat the enemies lurking in your land — you will grow stronger and you will provide a safer land for your children to grow in. You will overcome giants you never imagined you could defeat. But first……you must set your heart, mind and soul on following MY battle strategy for your life.”
All these words are scriptural in origin; arranged here for an intimate understanding. Let’s make it personal between us, and God, and what HE says.
“The territory of your life is yours. You get to choose if it is cleaned out and healthy — or not. I, GOD, want you to live in green pastures beside still waters. But first, you must understand that green pastures are only green because they have been cared for. They have been identified, owned and marked off with fences (boundary lines), protected from marauding invaders (evil), watered well (by Me, God), and the caretaker of that pasture (you) is attentive and watchful over it. But if you allow weeds to grow, moles to invade, wild animals to ravage, and grass to wither and die — I, God, will not override your choices. You will have to live with the desolation your choices bring. You will wonder why you don’t have green pastures. You will want to ignore the responsibility that is yours, and sometimes even blame it on others or even on Me. I will not force you to obey me. I will love you enough to allow you to choose which way you will go. But always, if you turn to me and ask…I am willing to bring the Light that will shine into the truth of what causes harm and destruction.”
When I was 11 years old, I stepped across the Jordan river of my life. I looked at the territory that would become mine, by the goodness of God. But I had no idea HE was beginning a work in my life to build me up and fit me well for the battle that would rage around me and in me. He wanted me fitted and strong for the battle in front of me against an enemy that would work to invade my camp. Oh but I have learned so much for these 4 decades now.
The territory is ours friend. But the enemy is ever lurking. We are in battle. Waking, sleeping, working, resting — we are in the middle of the battlefield between Heaven and Hell, good and evil, darkness and Light, God and satan. We are to own and care-for the territory God has given us (that is ourselves). But the enemy of God is ever and always working to invade, hide out, in the darkest of corners, and wait until the storm clouds of life are at their heaviest. Then he crawls out; his horrific goal is to destroy.
Oh but God guides us just as surely as He guided Joshua. Through His Word and the Holy Spirit, God shows what needs to be done, how to do it, and when to do it. As we obey the sweet language of our FATHER GOD — HE will give us green pastures in the territory He has invited us into. He will bring the healing rains.
Never mind if a giant king-snake makes its way across your green pasture.
Remember, he’s “on duty”, for the KING.
