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Fellowship with the Light ...

Thursday, June 2, 2016. Faith is a path with the Lord. Faith means to live with God, to live with the Holy Spirit of Jesus. It means to live in the light. But that might not be completely trivial. Usually, we tend to follow our well-known and very human reaction patterns - and they are not necessarily light, but can be “darkness”, to use a biblical language. What am I talking about?

Frustration …

For example, in a hospital there is not enough staff. The structure of the medical system leads to savings in staff numbers and payments, but leads to a lot of pressure on doctors and nurses. This creates frustration and aggressions. But doctors are supposed to be helpful and friendly to patients. Where do they put their frustration with the system? How do you manage the system? The managers in the health system are usually doctors, who have their strength in medical treatment, not in organization.

Similar frustration can happen in many other systems. I am linked to the university system in Germany and the UK, but also to a federal ministry and governmental structures. They can be extremely frustrating, since the tasks and the resources do not necessarily fit together. And frustration can rise in a Christian church, when different needs come together. Here, I ran into the letter of John, who talks about it in a very deep and sincere way:

5 This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. 6 If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. 7 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 cleanses us from all sin. 8 If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us. (1 John 1, 5-10)

My Sin …

We all have our sin, that is behavior patterns which are not strongly influenced by the Lord, but which reflect darkness. As Christians, we also have strong points, we have behavior which does fit into the kingdom of God. Both is there, and both is part of our life. We all do things which are not good, again and again, and we all need forgiveness - on a universal level as well as on an individual and case based level! John puts his fingers on a very significant wound in our life.

But we can walk in the light. We can walk in the freedom which the blood of Jesus gives us. We can hold the line. We can have fellowship with him and with one another. John clarifies that it is part of the path of light to see ones failures and to go into repentance. “Cleansing us” is a part of the fellowship. Mercy and righteousness is a part of the path of light.

As someone who is thinking about this a lot, I realize that it might not be completely clear what is light and what is darkness. When you do some performance in the church, it might make some people happy. Others are frustrated or do not like it. Some say when you do it for God it is good. But some might get the impression you do it for yourself, since you get positive feedback from it. At the end, it is the Lord who sees your heart, and who looks at you with his mercy, even if you might do it for yourself, he still loves you deeply. He is the light, and there is no darkness in him! (Roland Potthast) ... more texts