"Live Into the Light"

“This is the message we have heard from Him and announced to you, that God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all.”  1 John 1:5

After Terry and I were married we began to look for a place out in the country to purchase and make our home.  Living in the country has its plus and minuses, but we do love where we live.  One of the minuses of country life (or at least where we live) is that there is no cable or internet service.  So in 2004 we decided to go the satellite TV route and see how that would work for us.  Well, it is 2017 and we still have the same satellite company providing our TV service.  

One of the pluses to satellite TV is all the Pay Per View channels that are available.  We don’t watch them, but they are available.  What we do is this though, about once a month we allow the kids to choose a movie on PPV that is appropriate to watch and we purchase it for a 48 hour period for them to watch.  We did that this past Sunday evening.  The movie we rented on PPV was “Trolls.”

I’m sure if some of you have younger children or grandchildren you have seen this movie.  Let me say as an older adult, I thought the movie was silly and was so glad I did not pay $13.50 per ticket for each member of my family to see this movie in the theater.  $5.99 was pushing it once I saw it.  Ok, enough criticism.

Trolls is a movie about, of course Trolls, that live in a Troll tree in a town where the Bergens live.  The Bergens are characters in the movie that live in despair, have no happiness in life, and are dark with no color.  On the other hand the Trolls are colorful and happy and have a positive outlook on life.  So the Bergens believe that once a year, if they eat a troll, they will become happy.  Of course this is not very enticing to the Trolls, so they run away from Bergen Town to save their life.  Unfortunately one of the Bergens find them and take a number of the Trolls captive.  The Troll Princess, Poppy, sets out on a mission to find and save her friends from the Bergens.  But she needs help and solicits Branch one of the strong male Trolls.  Branch has no color though.  Why?  He has no happiness.  I won’t go into why he has no color here, but he is as dark as the Bergens.

During the rescue mission, Poppy and Branch get caught and all the captured Trolls are put in a pot to be served as a meal to the Bergens.  Here is where I said to my wife Terry, “Well, that would preach!”

Poppy had all her color and all her wonderful positive outlook on life, in that moment, leave her.  She found herself in despair and sadness.  As you saw the sadness come over her, you saw her color turn to darkness, just like Branch and the Bergens.  As her color left her, so did all of the other Trolls who flourished with color.  Now all the Trolls lived in darkness until Branch stepped up and began to sing (the movie is filled with some great songs).  As Branch began to sing, the color in him and in the other Trolls began to return and their happiness, their resolve to move forward and not remain in this darkness and despair came back to life.

I could not help but think about this verse from 1 John, “God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all.”  In the darkness we can hide.  No one will see us.  In the darkness most of the crime happens and sin runs rampant.  In the darkness of our souls, anxiety, depression, and despair can take over and we can loose all meaning of life.  But when God is our focus and we don’t loose sight of His presence in us as believers, His Light shines.  Branch started with a song that brought hope in a dyer situation.  For us, we see the Light of God in Worship, in His Word, in a friend or family member.  We see God’s Light in the Christians music we sing, the fellowship we enjoy, the hugs and kisses of loved ones and fellow believers.  We see the Light of God in His creation around us.  None more so than this time of the year, Spring Time, as creation comes to life with flowers and leaves.  Just begin to look around you and you will see the Light of God, that is if His Light is in you.  With out Him, we tend to have the attributes of a lost world, those of darkness.

So my question to you today is “Have you tapped into the Light of the living God?”  I can tell you that the more you allow HIS Light to shine in you and through you, the less the darkness of this world will taint you.  The more you live into His Light, the less darkness people see in you.  The more you let your LIGHT shine, the more people around you will be effected by it.  The more you live into the LIGHT, you can begin to kiss the darkness good by.

Branch and Poppy were able to save the Trolls and even more, show the Bergens that they could have Light in them without eating a Troll.  Light comes from the soul and its source is from God, for “God is Light and in Him there is no darkness at all.”  AT ALL folks.  Live into this Light!

Blessings my friends,

Pastor Marty                   

Worship, Grow & Serve