By Elizabeth Prata
SYNOPSIS
This reflective essay explores the biblical truth that “God is light,” examining its spiritual meaning and divine implications. Drawing from Scripture, Greek definitions, and commentaries, it reveals how God’s light signifies purity, holiness, and life itself—illuminating believers, exposing darkness, and promising eternal brilliance in His presence.
Continue reading “In Him There Is No Darkness: A Meditation on Divine Light”By Elizabeth Prata
Normally I write about a little-used word but one that we as believers need to know. I’ve written about aseity, omnipotence, and justification, for example. But this week’s word will be Light.
It seems like it is an easy word, and it is, but as with all things in the Bible, there are layers of meaning.
The word Light is used in the Bible in several different ways. There is created light, as when God said “Let there be light”…and He separated the light from the dark. This is literal. There is miraculous light, as in the glory light of Jesus when He transfigured. And there is figurative/symbolic Light, as in the Word is a light or when we are ‘in the light’ as opposed to those sinners who are ‘in darkness’, or ‘don’t hide your light under a bushel’.
In the ATS Bible Dictionary, we read,
One of the most wonderful, cheering, and useful of all the works of God; called into being on the first of the six days of creation, by his voice: “Let there be light;” and there was light. No object better illustrates whatever is pure, glorious, spiritual, joyful, and beneficent. Hence the beauty and force of the expressions, “God is light,” 1 John 1:5, and “the Father of lights,” James 1:17; Christ is the “Sun of righteousness,” and “the light of the world,” John 1:9 8:12. So also the word of God is “a light,” Psalm 119:105; truth and Christians are lights, John 3:19 12:36; prosperity is “light,” Esther 8:16; and heaven is full of light, Revelation 21:23-25. The opposite of all these is “darkness.”
The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia explains
The word “light” is Divinely rich in its comprehensiveness and meaning. Its material splendor is used throughout the Scriptures as the symbol and synonym of all that is luminous and radiant in the mental, moral and spiritual life of men and angels; while the eternal God, because of His holiness and moral perfection, is pictured as “dwelling in light unapproachable” (1 Timothy 6:16). Every phase of the word, from the original light in the natural world to the spiritual glory of the celestial, is found in Holy Writ.
The ISBE even goes on to further separate the different concepts of Light into Natural Light, Artificial Light, Miraculous Light, Mental, Moral, Spiritual Light; and explores its symbolism, expressive terms, and more. Check it out!
We first read the word light in Genesis 1:3 and the Bible closes with it in Revelation 22:5. Light. It’s such a simple word, but such a complex theme.
Further Resources:
Q&A: What Does it Mean that God is Light?
Devotional: Walk in the Light
Study: Light and Darkness
Blog post: Light of the World
By Elizabeth Prata
Many verses are about the darkness:
to open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God (Acts 26:18).
Did you see the parralellism there? Dark v. Light, Satan v. God. Also the darkness is representative of satan, and the light is representative of God.
Then Jesus again spoke to them, saying, “I am the Light of the world; the one who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life.” (John 8:12).
Light vs. dark again, and implied is that SINCE the light is life, THEN darkness is death.
For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, (Colossians 1:13).
The word transfer here is important. We dwell in a world of darkness. It’s the unredeemed, sinful world. It’s dark. It’s represented by darkness. We cannot transfer ourselves to the world of Light, which is the world of God in heaven of which we are citizens of but not yet residents. It’s not like we can stop off at the airline agent’s desk at the airport and ask for a transfer from our intended destination to a new one. The airline agent will help us do that. But our transfer from the domain of darkness to the one of Light is handled by Jesus only. There is a great gulf fixed, between which no man or women may travel.
In the end, hell will be thrown into outer darkness in the end of the end. (Matthew 8:12, Matthew 22:13
Sinners love the dark. Because they love the dark and because their worldview is only dark (though they don’t know it), and because sin only worsens as succeeding generations emerge, everything IN the world darkens too.
Romans 1:18-32 shows the progression of darkening due to sin. We can apply that section either to individuals, or to whole societies, but either way, each generation gets worse. The spiritual darkness increases.
The things we see in this darkening world are also darkening. Art, architecture, language, conversation, movies, television, print media, literary plots- darkening. Thigs are way darker now in 2024 than they were in 1970.
People frequently ask ‘Why is architecture so ugly now? Why aren’t we building beautiful buildings anymore?’
I hear people wondering ‘Why is art so ugly now?’ A particular street art installation in Athens GA raised a ruckus because it was nearly uniformly deemed ugly. The Martin Luther King statue recently erected in Boston Massachusetts was likened to a large fecal log. We used to have this:
Now we have this:
I wrote a piece 12 years ago about the Vatican sculpture “The Resurrection”. It is supposed to depict Christ rising from the tomb alive, while the earth is shaken by a great storm. Its sculptor was Pericle Fazzini and it was installed in 1977. The piece looks more demonic to me, of a devil rising among crows. Ugly.
Another piece of art is making news these days, and it’s the first official portrait of King Charles III. The description is:
The portrait, which stands over 6 feet tall, features a striking red background and shows Charles wearing the uniform of the Welsh Guards, of which he was made Regimental Colonel in 1975, according to the palace. According to a new description of the portrait shared on [artist Jonathan] Yeo’s website, the artist chose the “vivid” red background, in part, to bring a “contemporary jolt” to the painting.
The ‘jolt’ that people got was thinking that the King looks like he’s in hell. A professor at the Rhode Island School of Design said all he could think of was blood. “The instant I saw it, having no idea what to expect, I literally heard the word ‘blood’ in my head. It was a bit of a shock — all that red, dripped here and there and scrubbed on and scrubbed off,” Brinkerhoff says.“
Ugly…brutal… art and architecture. Now let’s talk movie posters and TV covers. Same thing. They are literally dark. The colors depicted in the digital and print advertising for film and television are dark colors, scary scenes, and blood. It’s dicey for me to view an array of movies or TV shows because of the scenes depicted. They are not pictures I want to stay in my head. The plots are darker nowadays. Crime shows show everything, medical shows show everything, so much gore.
So when the Bible says that the world is dark, it means it metaphorically, spiritually, AND literally. As sin increases, so does the darkness. Foul language, brutal behavior, media constantly presenting to us with dark colors and scary depictions of brutal acts… and it will only get worse.
We are the LIGHT. Though the darkness may affect us spiritually as we wrestle against the ‘the cosmic powers over this present darkness’, we need to maintain a light shining from us. We are the beacons, we are the lighthouses, shining in the darkness (which has not been overcome) showing the darkened sinner where true glory is. Keep praying. Keep reading the Bible. Keep going to church. Keep listening to podcasts. Keep good hymns on rotation in your streaming service. Keep allowing His light to pour into you so that it can shine out of you. The people dwelling in darkness need it. Other Christians need it too!
By Elizabeth Prata
Did you know that you can look straight at something, and not see it? Ask any customer who was ever in a grocery store and asks the clerk where the Del Monte canned tomatoes are, when they’re staring you in the face. Or when you ask your wife, “Hey, where’s my plaid socks?’ and she points to them in the drawer you’re looking in.
Oops. You can see, but not see.
The unsaved really are blind like that, but worse. They cannot discern spiritual things. The unsaved are not given the mysteries of the kingdom to know. (Matthew 13:11). They are blind because the god of this world has blinded them. (2 Corinthians 4:4).
‘Now hear this, you foolish and senseless people,
Who have eyes but do not see,
Who have ears but do not hear.
Jeremiah 5:21
Therefore I speak to them in parables; because while seeing they do not see, and while hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. Matthew 13:13
You can see, but not see.
The time I went to Italy with my husband and my father, we visited the Colosseum. My father had always wanted to see the famous arena, and we were pleased to take him to Rome one year. We stood at the entry point for a long time, looking and looking. We talked of the cunning construction. We marveled at the myriad of rooms under the floor. We sighed at the size of it. We looked at all the levels, the many exits, and the thickness of the walls. The one thing I did not see was the cross in the middle of the floor. See it?
After I was saved, I was sorting through all my hard copy photographs. I picked this one up and my eye was drawn to the cross. I spotted it immediately. Had that been there all along? It had. I was just spiritually blind, literally not seeing it though I saw all the things around it. If my mind had, unknown to me, registered that there was a cross present in my field of vision, it had not discerned it and so, encountering an unknown object, simply dismissed it from my mind without further ado.
It is the Lord who gives eyes to see (and ears to hear). Deuteronomy 29:4, Yet to this day the Lord has not given you a heart to know, nor eyes to see, nor ears to hear.
Rather than mock or deride or ignore those who cannot see, pity them. I remember others who took pity on me before I was saved, and I’m sure when I get to glory I’ll meet others I did not know about.
The Lord has pity for the helpless sheep, so lost. “Seeing the crowds, He felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and downcast, like sheep without a shepherd.” (Matthew 9:36)
The spiritually blind truly cannot see the truth that is staring them in the face. They see the world, but suppress the truth that God made it (Romans 1:18-20). They can’t understand the logic with which you reasonably share the truth of sin. They are blind, deaf, dumb. The level of darkness in which they dwell is an oppressive, inky, gloomy dark that presses down every cell in their body. They stumble about, not knowing where they are going and not understanding the pit that lay before their next step.
We pray for those who are in the dark, for the Light to come and open their eyes, mind, and heart to the truth of the Gospel. In one sense, the darkness of the lost is a glorious contrast to that moment when Light has come! It is so bright! It illuminates the shadowy corners of the soul with warmth, brightness, and the promise of glory.
Pray for that Light to illuminate their life and for the scales to fall.
The Light of the World (devotional, Ligonier)
By Elizabeth Prata
People don’t refer to cardinal directions of north, south, east, west very much any more. If someone asks for directions and you tell them to go north three blocks, they look at you like you just lapsed into Hindi.
In the days before we were too reliant on GPS, people traveled by using the sun, moon, and stars. They spoke of cardinal directions.
In the Bible there is a lot of talk about the east and the west. (Of course, north and south is also spoken of but I’m concentrating on east-west today).
East is a major direction in the Bible and not just for the directions, but for the symbolism. Let’s look at a few examples.
The Garden of Eden was planted toward the east. (Genesis 2:8).
The scriptures specify the LORD placed cherubim at the eastern entrance of the Garden, to protect it and the tree of life.
After God drove out the man, He placed a cherubim with flaming sword to protect this eastern entrance. (Genesis 3:24).
The tabernacle faced east. (Numbers 3:38).
When God’s glory comes/came to the Temple, it comes/came from the east:
Then he led me to the gate, the gate facing east. And behold, the glory of the God of Israel was coming from the east. And the sound of his coming was like the sound of many waters, and the earth shone with his glory. (Ezekiel 43:1-2).
The wise men followed the star which had risen in the east.
Saying, Where is he that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him. (Matthew 2:2 KJV)
The Lord will return from the east. (Matthew 24:27):
For as the lightning comes from the east and shines as far as the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.
The sun rises in the east and its rays shine from that direction. John 1:5 says God is Light, in Him there is no darkness at all. The west is where the sun sets, bringing darkness. The east is where the Light is.
When the sun rises, the light comes from the east. When the Son returns, His Light comes from the east.
There is much more that can be studied on even so mundane a topic as cardinal directions. The wonder of the Bible is that you can take practically any topic, any word, and explore. And do you know what you will come up with?
Jesus.
That’s why the Bible is so great. All scripture points to Jesus.
Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me. (John 5:39 KJV)
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| Graphics Fairy |
By Elizabeth Prata
But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; Avoid such men as these. (2 Timothy 3:1-5).
We are in the last days. We have been since Jesus ascended. The last days will end when Jesus returns. The last days have lasted so far over 2000 years. They may go another 2000 years, or they may end tomorrow with the rapture of the church and the last 7 years of fulfilling the decree. (Daniel 9:24).
The verse in 2 Timothy next speaks of “difficult times.” It’s always helpful to go the Greek and read the original language the New Testament was penned in. The word for ‘times’ is kairos. It doesn’t mean chronological time, that word is chronos. It means a suitable time, or an opportunity. When Satan finished tempting Jesus, he left Him until a more opportune time, (Luke 4:13). The word there is the same, kairos. GotQuestions explains more:
Continue reading “What does it mean that “In the Last Days, Perilous Times Will Come?””By Elizabeth Prata
Glory Light shepherds, star wise men, then the light
The LORD in His wisdom sent John the Baptist as forerunner to Jesus. John shone the light of truth onto the coming LIGHT.
He was a burning and a shining light: and you were willing for a season to rejoice in his light. (John 5:35).
Jesus is born in a manger, borrowed, no place to call His own or lay His head. The heavenly host came to proclaim the Good News, in light-
In the same region there were some shepherds staying out in the fields and keeping watch over their flock by night. 9And an angel of the Lord suddenly stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them; and they were terribly frightened. 10But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people; 11for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. 12“This will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.” 13And suddenly there appeared with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, 14“Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased.” (Luke 2:8-14).
The Wise Men were guided by a light of a ‘star’ to visit the boy child and worship Him.
“Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we saw His star in the east and have come to worship Him.” (Matthew 2:2).
Simeon was blessed to see and hold the Consolation of Israel, a consolation Simeon also called the Light-
“Now, Lord, You are letting Your bond-servant depart in peace,
According to Your word;
For my eyes have seen Your salvation,
Which You have prepared in the presence of all the peoples:
A light for revelation for the Gentiles,
And the glory of Your people Israel.” (Luke 2:29-32).
Jesus has come! He is the LIGHT!
Jesus Is the Light of the World
Then Jesus again spoke to them, saying, “I am the Light of the world; the one who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life.” (John 8:12)
Jesus was heralded with light, He is the Light. He gives light of revelation to the Gentiles, lighting our path via scripture illuminated by the Spirit, toward bright holiness as believers. I hope this Christmas season you see Jesus as light, glory, purity, brightness, and our marvelous future.
And there will no longer be any night; and they will not have need of the light of a lamp nor the light of the sun, because the Lord God will illuminate them; and they will reign forever and ever. (Revelation 22:5)
By Elizabeth Prata
During this Pandemic time, I’ve had opportunity to go through and look at and scan some of my old 35mm photos. I went to Italy a few times in the ’90s. I’d always heard that the light in the region of Italy called Tuscany was unique. My grandmother was from Lucca. Tuscany is deemed by Italians to be the “best” region. One reason is that it’s considered the cradle of Italy, since the Etrucscan Civilization was founded there in 900 BC.
Another reason is its light. It’s diffuse, soft, ethereal. It is as if the entire region has an Instagram filter over it. I can’t describe it, but if anyone looks up ‘Tuscany’ and ‘light’ there will be a lot of articles about it.
When I went to Italy myself, I saw what the fuss was. It heightened my own sense of appreciation for the different qualities of light. The light trying to shine through fog in Maine, the diffuse, gentle light in Italy, the light here in my yard in the morning as it shines through all the leaves, separating it into beams, light at the beach as the sun goes down, the high bright clear light of noon.
What will the light of heaven be like? Revelation 21 has so much to tell us about what is coming, like this –
“The wall was built of jasper, while the city was pure gold, like clear glass.”
Can you imagine the sparkle? Imagine Jesus’ glory light shining everywhere, undiminished, unhidden, unshielded. Bright and sparkling off the jewels he has built the city of. And Isaiah 60:19-
“The sun shall be no more your light by day, nor for brightness shall the moon give you light; but the LORD will be your everlasting light, and your God will be your glory.”
In the New Jerusalem God continuously gives us light, spiritual as well as natural. What a refreshing time that will be. The yoke we feel is so heavy now will be gone. The weight of sin we strive against will be absent. Disappeared will be the heaviness of darkness of our world and that weighty stain on our souls.
Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” (John 8:12)
Where is light is life, and where is Light is LIFE!
By Elizabeth Prata
We are experiencing the 4th wettest February in our area ever, and that was last week’s stats. It has continued raining and the rain totals might be broken by now. It’s been a wet one all right, and with all the rain, it’s been dark, too.
We have had one day or so of sun this week. We joke, walking around muttering, ‘what is that strange orb in the sky? What is that weird yellow hue above us?’ Lol.
I have a window that faces west. In the afternoon in seasons when it’s positioned just right, the rays shine straight in and illuminates my hallway. It makes a wonderful glow from the bedroom into the living room. Continue reading “Sunlight changes everything”
By Elizabeth Prata
With all this darkness in the world and around us, where is the light? In Jesus! He is ALWAYS there, present and a very real help to us! His burden is easy and His yoke is light. But we must stay close to Him, and not drift away.
For this reason we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away from it. (Hebrews 2:1)
How do we not drift? Chris Rosebrough answered this way:
HOW TO HEAR GOD’S VOICE 100% OF THE TIME
Are you struggling to figure out if those whispers that your pastor has told you to listen for are really God’s voice or a case of gastrointestinal hallucinations caused by a bad batch of pepperoni pizza?
Are you tired of going through the whole rigamarole of filtering those voices in your head through a six point ‘discernment grid’ to try to ascertain if that’s the Holy Spirit speaking to you or proof that you need to make an appointment with a shrink?
Have you read and reread Blackaby and still haven’t got the foggiest notion as to how to tell where God is working in the world so that you can join Him?
If you’ve answered yes to one or all of these questions then I’ve got great news for you! I have discovered a simple and sure fire way for you to hear God’s voice. The best part is that its 100% guaranteed and totally Biblical.
Here it is.
1. Acquire a Bible. If you do not have a Bible then you can read it for free on the internet at BibleGateway.org. I recommend the English Standard Version for both readability and translational accuracy.
2. Open the Bible.
3. Begin reading it. Read it with your mind engaged. Pay close attention to grammar and context. Take notes. Set a goal to read 3 to 10 chapters per day.
That’s it. If you do those three things then you will be hearing God’s voice every single time that you open the Bible. No guess work, no need for six point ‘discernment filters’ and no nagging uncertainty about whether your hearing God’s voice or something else.
How can I be so sure and certain that this works?
I’m glad you asked. One day, while I was reading my Bible I read 2 Timothy 3:16–17. Here’s what it says: “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.”
Let’s break this down.
1. This passage says ALL scripture is God breathed. That means that God, The Holy-Spirit, personally inspired every one of the Biblical authors. In other words, you can know with certainty that every word of scripture contains God’s thoughts and when you’re reading the Bible you’re hearing God’s voice.
2. This passage says that the man of God would be COMPLETE through the reading, learning, knowing and applying of scripture. Notice that this verse doesn’t say that the man of God would be incomplete through his reading of scripture and that he’d need to augment the scriptures through whispers, subjective feelings, internal voices, direct revelation, dreams or visions. No!
It literally says that the man of God would be COMPLETE. The Greek word that is used here is ἄρτιος and it means “complete and/or fully qualified”. There is nothing else needed for the man of God. The scriptures are totally sufficient.
3. If point two wasn’t clear enough, 2 Timothy 3:17 drives the point home by stating that through the written word of God the man of God is equipped for EVERY good work.
There are no good works that God would have you do that would require you to rely on anything other than His word to make you complete and fully equipped for the task. The Bible is sufficient to make you complete and fully equipped for every good work. You don’t need whispers.You don’t need dreams. You don’t need visions. You don’t need trances. You don’t need a glory cloud. You don’t need to figure out how to ‘experience God’. You don’t need contemplative mysticism. All you need is the written word of God. The Bible is sufficient to make you complete and fully equipped for every good work and because every word of scripture is God breathed, you can know with confidence that you’re hearing the voice of God.You may be asking yourself if it could truly be that simple.Yes, it really is that simple!”
It is not only simple, it is necessary. Because the stronger we are, the more we can help those who speak of suicide, the more we can be a help to those who are stumbling, the brighter we can be to those who have no hope, or who just need encouragement. Jesus is THE HOPE.
The ladies of our church are working through a Bible Reading Plan called #KeepTheFeast. You read a few chapters from the Old Testament and a few from the New Testament each day. It’s demanding but worth it. What could be better than feasting on the bread of life? Plus, I need it. I am a terrible sinner, prone to wander.
Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost. (Romans 15:13)
The Holy Spirit is clear in His inspiration, so the Bible is not rocket science. We don’t need to hear Him on a prayer rug while magically reciting the Prayer of Jabez. We don’t need to empty our minds so we can listen to whispers. Whispers can lead to desperation and drifting away! We don’t need those things because, you know what? Once we are in Jesus, inside the Lighthouse, The Spirit illuminates the lighthouse and shows us the way with His light!
the-end-time.org 