You WERE once darkness, now you ARE light

This weekend is our annual community group/Sunday school class retreat. We get out of the heat and head up north into the White Mountains of Arizona. We always do an in-depth reading study of some New Testament book. This year we are studying Ephesians (God must really want me to get something out of this book - we just finished a ladies' study of it in April) and I have been assigned Chapter 5 verses 8-21. A couple of people are assigned to each section and we do a little talk about what we've learned with the rest of the group.

Truly, I have read this book and this section many times and there are parts that I felt like I already knew by rote study. This, however, is not the case as the Lord is teaching me, tweaking my understanding, putting it into a new perspective and asking me to apply it along with what I've learned thus far in the TW study.

Verse 8 begins (NASB): for you were formerly darkness, but now you are Light in the Lord; walk as children of Light

I am certain that every time I've read this before I've inserted my own words making it "for you were formerly IN darkness." NO! I WAS darkness. That was my identity. That was my being, my past and my future until I knew God and then HE MADE ME LIGHT. That is now my new identity and my future.

Next, in verse 11 it says: Do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but instead even expose them;

Do you know that I always used to read that as something that I should go do for OTHERS? What I mean is, I took this verse and saw it as a calling to go tell everyone else how dark they are. NO! I am to expose MY OWN DARK DEEDS. I was reading on Rev. Ken Collins' web page and he says this:

"Professed Christians who refuse to sacrifice a momentary advantage to gain an eternal advantage cannot be placing much stock in what Jesus says. What are we to make of a person who professes to trust Christ for eternity, but can’t trust Him for the stretch until five o’clock? To paraphrase John, if you cannot trust Jesus for things that are present, how can you be trusting Jesus for things that are future? My theory is that people who say they trust Jesus for heaven but live in severe anxiety about their present circumstances are deceiving themselves.
Therefore, be children of the light, not children of darkness."

Wow! Can I trust God to sustain me and overcome my addiction to gluttony? If He is able to keep my soul from the depths of hell, do I believe that He will also rescue me from food lust?

Next, verse 16 says: making the most of your time, because the days are evil.

I never understood why the use of the word 'evil'. I think a better rendering of the Greek 'poneros', given the context, would be 'perilous, difficult, laborious or painful'. Times are tough. We live in a fallen world whose ruler wants nothing more than to make us stumble and stop believing in God.

I need to make the most of my time. Let me tell you: when I binge or even just eat too big of a meal I become so wasteful. First, I've wasted food. Second, my energy is gone. Third, I've probably spent a lot of money. Finally, I've lost time. I lose time while doing so much eating, but afterwards I get so sleepy as my body is trying to handle the overload of food that I'm unable to be productive for a few hours.

I don't know how much time the Lord has allotted to me on this Earth, but I have got to get with it. I don't want to look back and see that I could have done more if my face hadn't of been in the fridge the whole time.

Next verse 18: And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit,

Everyone uses this as a call to avoid libations - rightly so, but I think there's so much more. In the footnotes of my Bible it comments that some of the pagan worship in Ephesus at this time was propelled by drunkenness. Maybe they became euphoric, ecstatic and worshipful to their gods. Paul, however, urges the believers in Christ to be filled (read: controlled) by the Holy Spirit.

This morning on my way into work I was pondering this and I came to realize that I am often under the control of food rather than the Holy Spirit. I think about food, I read about it, I watch cooking shows on TV. Sometimes I already start dreaming about the next meal when I haven't finished the current one! I deal with some serious food lust (I love to cook and bake for others, as well). What will I be controlled by? Who will be my master? I can't serve both God and my stomach.

My last comment is on verse 20: always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father;

I know that if I were in constant prayer, Bible study or other communion with God I wouldn't feel deprived of food or insanely compelled to go find some. Give thanks for ALL things. Even gluttony because it show me my utter need for the Lord.

Whew! That's a lot of stuff to work on! The Lord never lets us get bored!