Through the power and grace of our God and Father, we have been delivered from the power of darkness and translated into the kingdom of His dear Son, and made meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light; not only so, but we are seated in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus. We are not of this world, but we are in it. (John 17) And though a long-suffering God is still lingering over this scene of increasing corruption, violence, and enmity against Him, waiting to be gracious, and though the light of His gospel still shines, yet, darkness is daily thickening around us, "darkness that may be felt.”
What about the light in our houses amidst the growing darkness around us? Have we, like those Israelites in Goshen, "light in our dwellings?" And is that light shining brightly, "giving light to all that are in the house," and is it "seen by them that come into the house?" It is true that we "are light in the Lord," but what comes next? "Walk as children of light." The light has not been given us to be hidden under the bushel of commerce and worldliness, or under the bed of idleness and self-indulgence, but to give light to every inmate of the house, and to those who come in. Thank God, we know that "the night is far spent, and the day is at hand," but for this poor world, it is far otherwise: "The day [of salvation] is far spent, and the night is at hand." As in the natural, so in the spiritual world: the last hour before daybreak is the darkest and coldest. And that hour has arrived. But it only proves that for us, the night is almost over. The star is in the sky. He, who is "the bright and the morning star," our Savior, is coming to take us up to Himself.
But how will He find those of us, in whose hearts He has made the corresponding day star arise? Will He find that blessed hope shining upon our path, and our hearts and feet in the light of it? Will He find the light of that hope shining in our houses, and turning them into tents like Abraham's? The Lord could not hide from Abraham that thing which He did, knowing that Abraham would command his children and his household after him, (three hundred and eighteen servants at the time), so that they should keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment, that the Lord might bring upon Abraham that which He had spoken of him.
Beloved, let us remember that we are not only to be light bearers, as to the glorious gospel of God and His truth, but that we are to "walk in the light, even as He is in the light," who has called us from darkness unto His marvelous light. This light, it is true, is to shine in the walk of every individual Christian. He is called, not only to announce, but to adorn, by his walk, the gospel of God and the doctrine of the Lord Jesus Christ. "The path of the just is as the shining light that shineth more and more unto a perfect day." May the light of our own individual walk, and the collective, more intensified light of a well-ordered Christian household shine brightly for His honor and glory until He comes. J. von Poseck