Friday, December 2, 2011

The Light Along Your Path


Reprint from a newsletter published by Water of Life Church in Coon Valley, Wisconsin, Summer 2011
by Norm Hiebert's Gems From My Reading

 "Your Word is a lamp to my feet and 
a light for my path."   

God's Word is represented as a lamp for the feet.   It is a "lamp"--not a blazing sun nor even a lighthouse--but a plain lamp or lantern which one can carry about in the hand.

It is a lamp "for the feet" not throwing its beams afar, not illumining a hemisphere--but shining only on the little bit of road on which the pilgrim's feet are walking.

The law of divine guidance is "step by step."   One who carries a lantern on a country road at night sees only one step before her.   If she takes that step, she carries her lantern forward and thus makes another step plain.  At length she reaches her destination in safety without once stepping into darkness.  The whole way has been made light for her, though only a single step at a time.   This illustrates the usual method of God's guidance.  

If this is the way God guides, it ought never to be hard for us to find our way.  God's guidance is never inaccessible to us.   God never puts our duty where we cannot see it. 

The thing that we think may be our duty--but which is still lying in obscurity and uncertainty is not our duty yet, whatever it may be a little further on. 

The duty for the very moment is always clear--and that is as far as we need concern ourselves; for when we do the little that is clear, we will carry the light on, and it will shine on the next moment's step.

Jesus said, "He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness."  (John 8:12).  Prompt.   Unquestioning.  Undoubting.   Following Christ takes all the perplexity out of Christian life and gives unbroken peace.  There never is a moment without its duty.  If we are living near to Christ and following Him closely, we shall never be left in ignorance of what He wants us to do.


"Order my steps in Your Word:  
and let not any sin have dominion over me."   
(Psalm 119:133)

Reprint from a newsletter published by Water of Life Church in Coon Valley, Wisconsin, Summer 2011.....taken from Norm Hiebert's Gems From My Reading

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