Do you want to be with the IN crowd? How about being IN sync with people you’re trying to impress? I know what you really want – you want to be IN the driver’s seat, don’t you? Or maybe you just like to be IN good standing with others? Well, let me tell you the best place IN which to be – the best place is IN the light. What?! What does being in the light do for me? I’m glad you asked.
Jesus said, “I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life” (John 8:12). Follow Jesus and you will be in good shape – much better than walking IN the darkness. The apostle Paul told the Philippians, “…so that you will prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear as lights in the world, holding fast the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I will have reason to glory because I did not run in vain nor toil in vain”. (Philippians 2:15-16).
Walking in darkness is a bad place to be. The short-term pleasure of sin is not worth the pain of being out of our relationship with Jesus. We feel dirty, rotten, worthless, ashamed, guilty, depressed, afraid of getting caught – I could go on. But to be IN the light is awesome. It is clean, honest, true, secure, bright, joyful, peaceful – I could go on. The apostle John writes, “But if we walk in the light as He Himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin” (I John 1:7). IN the light = continual forgiveness, eternal life, fellowship with God and one another – it’s all good.
I love the lyrics from the song entitled IN the Light:
Tell me, what’s going on inside of me? – I despise my own behavior,
This only serves to confirm my suspicions – that I’m still a man in need of a Savior.
I wanna be in the light as You are in the light – I wanna shine like the stars in the heavens
Oh, Lord be my light and be my salvation – cause all I want is to be in the Light.
Read I John 1:5-2:2 and listen to In the Light by Storyside B.
1 John 1:5-2:2
This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.
If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word is not in us.
My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.