You have set our iniquities before You, our secret sins in the light of Your presence. (Verse 8)
Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. For it is shameful to even speak of the things they do in secret. But when anything is exposed by the light, it becomes visible, for anything that becomes visible is light. Therefore it says, "Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you." Ephesians 5
Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you. Isaiah 60
I awoke to see it crawling on the wall beside my bed. I screamed into the dark like one about to be murdered. Malda, my roommate, had turned on the light at our dresser in the dorm room to get ready for her early class at the University of Texas at Austin, exposing the enemy. The brightness of the 60 watt bulb made the thing scurry to hide again beneath my bed. The roach. Two inches long with little feelers moving like crazy, trying to sense danger. Blinded only briefly, caught in the act of foraging our room for leftover dinner...or whatever they eat to grow so enormous in Texas. Foiled by the light. I let Malda kill him. She, much braver than I. He left a huge gut wash on the wall. That was mine to deal with. Served him right. He should've stayed in the dark. I had no idea the roach was under my bed all this time.
Things done in the dark. Where we think no one sees. Like the boss who finally took his employee to bed one night while her husband was away. Both knew it was wrong, but she could lose her job if she didn't comply. The economy is tough. She couldn't afford to try again for another six months to find other work. He? Forgot himself in the moment. An elder at the local church. A pillar of the community. Good wife. A couple of kids. Who would know? The two of them certainly wouldn't tell. Only thing is, the woman became pregnant. With this guy's kid. What to do...what to do. Her husband would know it's not his. The boss couldn't afford the bad press. Abortion. The only answer. Again. No one would know. But she didn't want one. Would keep the baby. So what of the husband? The boss paid a low life to cause a wreck, force the husband's car off the road. He died instantly. An awful accident. Such a tragedy. He would've messed everything up. The woman went on to have the child. Everyone thought it was her dead husband's and rejoiced that she now had his baby as a remembrance. Whew! All fixed.
Months passed. The boss went on with life, but there was this thing that always sat on his stomach. A secret weighing heavily, a thing he didn't look at unless awakened suddenly in the night. He is a Christian. So he says. The thing just got out of control. Until one day his pastor made a visit to the man's office. "One of our congregation is going through a pretty rough patch," the pastor began. "I wanted your take on what we should do since you are an elder in our church."
"What happened?" asked the boss.
"A prominent member of our church has been involved in an adulterous relationship. The woman is pregnant. Her husband dead." The pastor waited. Breathless.
"Who is it?" asked the boss, feigning indignation.
"You."
The boss fell to his knees in surprise and fear. Light. Brilliant light on this things done in the dark.
The rest of the story is obvious. It's King David's story replayed a thousand thousand times since Bathsheba. Oh, that David had confessed at the outset. Not compounded darkness on darkness. Fallen asleep over his own sin. Glossed over it thinking, deadly wrong, that no one would ever know. God's response to David: "Behold, I will raise up evil against you in your own house. And I will take your wives before your eyes and give them to your neighbor, and he shall lie with your wives in the sight of the sun. For you did it secretly, but I will do this thing before all Israel and before the sun"(2 Samuel 12). The sun shining on his secret sin! Ouch. Hey, everyone, look what David did! The roach exposed. God forgave his sin, but exacted punishment because the king's deed "utterly scorned the Lord."
Both stories would've played out differently if the thing done in the dark had been immediately confessed. Terrible as it was, the ramifications wouldn't have been so dire. Exposed to light by the perps instead of waiting for God to do it for them. The longer we wait, holding onto our secret addictions, relationships or habits, the harder to confess and the worse when they are discovered.
My father lived a double life until his arrest in 1985. The ramifications of his homosexual pedophilia were horrendous. A church deacon. A trusted father. All blown to smithereens with a call from jail. Just wondered over the years if my father had reached for help, shameful as his secret was, would things have turned out differently. Maybe he wouldn't have lost his reputation and his family. Certainly many children wouldn't have been so wounded. Shame keeps the cycle going. Light on shame is a blessing. Repenting before the light is the sun, brings healing. Stops shame in its tracks. No more stacking of garbage on garbage. A deep sighing, even if payment is jail, that the treadmill has ceased. No longer captive to the dark. Oh, to confess our secret sins to God while they are still a secret to everyone but Him. He always knows. Children of God can expect the sun to shine on what they do because we are children of the light. Progeny of the One in Whom there is no darkness at all.
Jesus is the Light of the world. He came to brighten it up. A floodlight on our dorm wall--our interior lives. Dare we look? Have we fallen asleep to our sin thinking: "Aaaa...no one has to know about this."? Awake, O sleeper. Arise, shine! Empty the garbage. Clean out the vessel. Walk in the light. We don't have to creep around as roaches in the dark!In fact, be as merciless with sin as Malda was with the roach! Kill it! We who are supposed to shine like stars!
...be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast to the word of life. Philippians 2
Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. For it is shameful to even speak of the things they do in secret. But when anything is exposed by the light, it becomes visible, for anything that becomes visible is light. Therefore it says, "Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you." Ephesians 5
Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you. Isaiah 60
I awoke to see it crawling on the wall beside my bed. I screamed into the dark like one about to be murdered. Malda, my roommate, had turned on the light at our dresser in the dorm room to get ready for her early class at the University of Texas at Austin, exposing the enemy. The brightness of the 60 watt bulb made the thing scurry to hide again beneath my bed. The roach. Two inches long with little feelers moving like crazy, trying to sense danger. Blinded only briefly, caught in the act of foraging our room for leftover dinner...or whatever they eat to grow so enormous in Texas. Foiled by the light. I let Malda kill him. She, much braver than I. He left a huge gut wash on the wall. That was mine to deal with. Served him right. He should've stayed in the dark. I had no idea the roach was under my bed all this time.
Things done in the dark. Where we think no one sees. Like the boss who finally took his employee to bed one night while her husband was away. Both knew it was wrong, but she could lose her job if she didn't comply. The economy is tough. She couldn't afford to try again for another six months to find other work. He? Forgot himself in the moment. An elder at the local church. A pillar of the community. Good wife. A couple of kids. Who would know? The two of them certainly wouldn't tell. Only thing is, the woman became pregnant. With this guy's kid. What to do...what to do. Her husband would know it's not his. The boss couldn't afford the bad press. Abortion. The only answer. Again. No one would know. But she didn't want one. Would keep the baby. So what of the husband? The boss paid a low life to cause a wreck, force the husband's car off the road. He died instantly. An awful accident. Such a tragedy. He would've messed everything up. The woman went on to have the child. Everyone thought it was her dead husband's and rejoiced that she now had his baby as a remembrance. Whew! All fixed.
Months passed. The boss went on with life, but there was this thing that always sat on his stomach. A secret weighing heavily, a thing he didn't look at unless awakened suddenly in the night. He is a Christian. So he says. The thing just got out of control. Until one day his pastor made a visit to the man's office. "One of our congregation is going through a pretty rough patch," the pastor began. "I wanted your take on what we should do since you are an elder in our church."
"What happened?" asked the boss.
"A prominent member of our church has been involved in an adulterous relationship. The woman is pregnant. Her husband dead." The pastor waited. Breathless.
"Who is it?" asked the boss, feigning indignation.
"You."
The boss fell to his knees in surprise and fear. Light. Brilliant light on this things done in the dark.
The rest of the story is obvious. It's King David's story replayed a thousand thousand times since Bathsheba. Oh, that David had confessed at the outset. Not compounded darkness on darkness. Fallen asleep over his own sin. Glossed over it thinking, deadly wrong, that no one would ever know. God's response to David: "Behold, I will raise up evil against you in your own house. And I will take your wives before your eyes and give them to your neighbor, and he shall lie with your wives in the sight of the sun. For you did it secretly, but I will do this thing before all Israel and before the sun"(2 Samuel 12). The sun shining on his secret sin! Ouch. Hey, everyone, look what David did! The roach exposed. God forgave his sin, but exacted punishment because the king's deed "utterly scorned the Lord."
Both stories would've played out differently if the thing done in the dark had been immediately confessed. Terrible as it was, the ramifications wouldn't have been so dire. Exposed to light by the perps instead of waiting for God to do it for them. The longer we wait, holding onto our secret addictions, relationships or habits, the harder to confess and the worse when they are discovered.
My father lived a double life until his arrest in 1985. The ramifications of his homosexual pedophilia were horrendous. A church deacon. A trusted father. All blown to smithereens with a call from jail. Just wondered over the years if my father had reached for help, shameful as his secret was, would things have turned out differently. Maybe he wouldn't have lost his reputation and his family. Certainly many children wouldn't have been so wounded. Shame keeps the cycle going. Light on shame is a blessing. Repenting before the light is the sun, brings healing. Stops shame in its tracks. No more stacking of garbage on garbage. A deep sighing, even if payment is jail, that the treadmill has ceased. No longer captive to the dark. Oh, to confess our secret sins to God while they are still a secret to everyone but Him. He always knows. Children of God can expect the sun to shine on what they do because we are children of the light. Progeny of the One in Whom there is no darkness at all.
Jesus is the Light of the world. He came to brighten it up. A floodlight on our dorm wall--our interior lives. Dare we look? Have we fallen asleep to our sin thinking: "Aaaa...no one has to know about this."? Awake, O sleeper. Arise, shine! Empty the garbage. Clean out the vessel. Walk in the light. We don't have to creep around as roaches in the dark!In fact, be as merciless with sin as Malda was with the roach! Kill it! We who are supposed to shine like stars!
...be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast to the word of life. Philippians 2
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