Kingdom's Keys Fellowship
Where God's Kingdom Meets Man's Heart.
I’ve Fallen and I Did Get Up
It’s absolutely fascinating to experience the way Scripture works on your mind. As you open its pages and you glance across a verse it seems as though there is an invisible spark that ignites the engine of thought into action. In that moment different charges of energy erupt ideas about that verse into being. Sometimes you can’t get all the energized thoughts out. There are too many. The Holy Spirit zooms ahead. If I could only catch up with Him.
For example I was just returning to Ps.119:105, “Your word is a lamp to my feet
and a light for my path (NIV).” I intended to use it in a Bible study for a coming session. As I was reading it I was prompted to divide it up into two sections, the first being ‘the lamp for my feet’ and the second ‘the light for my path.’ That got me started. I recalled my recent fall while I was jogging here in the mountains. I had started out in the dark on about a four-mile stretch and was really feeling good after making it up a long hill. The last mile started with a half-mile downhill, which I felt was a kind of gift. It was still pretty dark.
As I got half way down the hill I hit a hole in the pavement, the only hole on the hill I discovered later (It only takes one). I felt myself going down so I rolled on my side, slid on my right arm and shoulder, hit my head and lay there for a moment. I knew I was bleeding and I could feel my eye swelling. I got up, felt the blood running on my arm and leg and over my eye. I decided to run home and got down the hill but realized I had lost my glasses. Going back up I found them in pieces, picked them up and jogged home.
After a shower to clean off the dirt, it was still early, I began to feeling a little woozy, broke out in a cold sweat and sat down. About an hour later we went to the emergency room at the local hospital and, after a nurse’s clean-up and a Cat-Scan, the doctor declared I was fine but not without a comment about running in the dark. While the scan was negative (that was good, PTL) he didn’t think my choice of running time was very positive (that was bad, still PTL) which his stern expression underlined.
I have promised no more running in the dark except in lighted areas which brings me back to the verse about lamps and lights. Street lights, street lamps, whatever you want to call them, show you where your feet are and where you are at any moment as you walk or run. The light in general gives you the perspective of terrain, the general layout of the environment, your starting point, the path you have chosen to take through the area, your best pace and your destination.
So when it’s dark you need a lamp, a specific source of light for every next step to see where your feet are landing, and you need an all-inclusive light for the overall landscape, to get a fix on where you are. If you don’t have these specific and general lights,--- and by the way, both are the same, light is light whether localized or all pervasive, ---you will chance a real fall.
What the Psalm says is that the world in general is a dark place. Not only is there a general darkness but also you are never sure of where and what your next step should be. The psalmist knew God. He knew His Word. He knew that when He related to God he had light in a dark world. He knew that when he needed to plant his foot in the right place the Word of God would direct his steps and give him the right view of the world around him.
Jesus was very clear on the issue of light. He was the Word of God in the flesh. He declared Himself to be the light of the world. He would be that general light to identify the overall landscape for His followers. With Him you have insight and outsight. You see a picture of yourself and a picture of the world. Both of them in His light, real light that reveals real truth and real life and the real way through it all. He brings light to see it in detail, light to analyze it and light to know the way to go.
John 8:12 "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life." His life lights up everything from what it means to live like a fulfilled human being to the false and superficial that parades in false light. And note---false light flickers and dies out. That is the kind of light the father of lies brings, “…for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light (2Cor.11:14).”
John 11:9-10 “Jesus answered, "Are there not twelve hours of daylight? A man who walks by day will not stumble, for he sees by this world's light.
It is when he walks by night that he stumbles, for he has no light." (I got that one really good.)
Jesus also declared He was light in very specific ways not only personally but interpersonally through His followers.
Luke 15:8 "Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins and loses one. Does she not light a lamp, sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it?”
Mt.5:16 “In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.”
Lk.11:33 "No one lights a lamp and puts it in a place where it will be hidden, or under a bowl. Instead he puts it on its stand, so that those who come in may see the light.”
Paul continues in his letters with the theme of light.
2Cor.4:6 “For God, who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.
Eph.5:8 “For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light.”
Eph.5:14 “…for it is light that makes everything visible. This is why it is said: "Wake up, O sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you."
In this world we need a lamp for our every next step into every next moment for every next thought and action. But the Lord lets us know that in the Kingdom to come we have something to look forward to because “There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light. And they will reign for ever and ever (Rev.22:5).”
So wherever we are from the bad times to the good, from the dark of night to the early dawn and from confusion to clarity, the Word is always the lamp for your feet and a light for your path. You feel King David’s heart in his words. The Message concludes the Psalm 119 passage this way,
“Everything's falling apart on me, GOD;
put me together again with your Word.
Festoon me with your finest sayings, GOD;
teach me your holy rules.
My life is as close as my own hands,
but I don't forget what you have revealed.
The wicked do their best to throw me off track,
but I don't swerve an inch from your course.
I inherited your book on living; it's mine forever—
what a gift! And how happy it makes me!
I concentrate on doing exactly what you say—
I always have and always will.”
For example I was just returning to Ps.119:105, “Your word is a lamp to my feet
and a light for my path (NIV).” I intended to use it in a Bible study for a coming session. As I was reading it I was prompted to divide it up into two sections, the first being ‘the lamp for my feet’ and the second ‘the light for my path.’ That got me started. I recalled my recent fall while I was jogging here in the mountains. I had started out in the dark on about a four-mile stretch and was really feeling good after making it up a long hill. The last mile started with a half-mile downhill, which I felt was a kind of gift. It was still pretty dark.
As I got half way down the hill I hit a hole in the pavement, the only hole on the hill I discovered later (It only takes one). I felt myself going down so I rolled on my side, slid on my right arm and shoulder, hit my head and lay there for a moment. I knew I was bleeding and I could feel my eye swelling. I got up, felt the blood running on my arm and leg and over my eye. I decided to run home and got down the hill but realized I had lost my glasses. Going back up I found them in pieces, picked them up and jogged home.
After a shower to clean off the dirt, it was still early, I began to feeling a little woozy, broke out in a cold sweat and sat down. About an hour later we went to the emergency room at the local hospital and, after a nurse’s clean-up and a Cat-Scan, the doctor declared I was fine but not without a comment about running in the dark. While the scan was negative (that was good, PTL) he didn’t think my choice of running time was very positive (that was bad, still PTL) which his stern expression underlined.
I have promised no more running in the dark except in lighted areas which brings me back to the verse about lamps and lights. Street lights, street lamps, whatever you want to call them, show you where your feet are and where you are at any moment as you walk or run. The light in general gives you the perspective of terrain, the general layout of the environment, your starting point, the path you have chosen to take through the area, your best pace and your destination.
So when it’s dark you need a lamp, a specific source of light for every next step to see where your feet are landing, and you need an all-inclusive light for the overall landscape, to get a fix on where you are. If you don’t have these specific and general lights,--- and by the way, both are the same, light is light whether localized or all pervasive, ---you will chance a real fall.
What the Psalm says is that the world in general is a dark place. Not only is there a general darkness but also you are never sure of where and what your next step should be. The psalmist knew God. He knew His Word. He knew that when He related to God he had light in a dark world. He knew that when he needed to plant his foot in the right place the Word of God would direct his steps and give him the right view of the world around him.
Jesus was very clear on the issue of light. He was the Word of God in the flesh. He declared Himself to be the light of the world. He would be that general light to identify the overall landscape for His followers. With Him you have insight and outsight. You see a picture of yourself and a picture of the world. Both of them in His light, real light that reveals real truth and real life and the real way through it all. He brings light to see it in detail, light to analyze it and light to know the way to go.
John 8:12 "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life." His life lights up everything from what it means to live like a fulfilled human being to the false and superficial that parades in false light. And note---false light flickers and dies out. That is the kind of light the father of lies brings, “…for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light (2Cor.11:14).”
John 11:9-10 “Jesus answered, "Are there not twelve hours of daylight? A man who walks by day will not stumble, for he sees by this world's light.
It is when he walks by night that he stumbles, for he has no light." (I got that one really good.)
Jesus also declared He was light in very specific ways not only personally but interpersonally through His followers.
Luke 15:8 "Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins and loses one. Does she not light a lamp, sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it?”
Mt.5:16 “In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.”
Lk.11:33 "No one lights a lamp and puts it in a place where it will be hidden, or under a bowl. Instead he puts it on its stand, so that those who come in may see the light.”
Paul continues in his letters with the theme of light.
2Cor.4:6 “For God, who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.
Eph.5:8 “For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light.”
Eph.5:14 “…for it is light that makes everything visible. This is why it is said: "Wake up, O sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you."
In this world we need a lamp for our every next step into every next moment for every next thought and action. But the Lord lets us know that in the Kingdom to come we have something to look forward to because “There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light. And they will reign for ever and ever (Rev.22:5).”
So wherever we are from the bad times to the good, from the dark of night to the early dawn and from confusion to clarity, the Word is always the lamp for your feet and a light for your path. You feel King David’s heart in his words. The Message concludes the Psalm 119 passage this way,
“Everything's falling apart on me, GOD;
put me together again with your Word.
Festoon me with your finest sayings, GOD;
teach me your holy rules.
My life is as close as my own hands,
but I don't forget what you have revealed.
The wicked do their best to throw me off track,
but I don't swerve an inch from your course.
I inherited your book on living; it's mine forever—
what a gift! And how happy it makes me!
I concentrate on doing exactly what you say—
I always have and always will.”
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