Luke 11:36 (NLT) “If you are filled with light, with no dark corners, then your whole life will be radiant, as though a floodlight were filling you with light.”

When my children were young, my wife and I used to take them camping every year. One of the things that was exciting about the experience was sleeping outdoors (albeit, in a tent) at night. Having grown up in New York City, we really never experienced being outside at night without any help from a streetlamp or some other light to light the way. Because of the darkness around us, we needed good flashlights to navigate the terrain. After moving from New York City, we came to live in Maryland, and the area where we live has no streetlight near us, so it gets very dark at night. But the house that we live in has a light that is greater than a flashlight or a regular light and that lights up the way when it senses movement of some kind. It's called a floodlight. A floodlight lights up an entire area, not just the area in front of you like a flashlight does. It makes everything visible and safe.

In light of that (pardon the pun), the verse above comes to life in a new way. The Bible tells us that we are not just supposed to be filled with light as from a night light, a flashlight, or just a regular light bulb. Those lights leave dark corners around and in the same way, any light in you lesser than a powerful one that lights up everything around it will leave some dark corners in your life. The floodlight filling us with light is none other than Jesus Christ Himself! Why is this verse, then, stating the obvious? After all, Jesus is none other than the Light of the World and if He lives in us, then we will be flooded with light. It's because we can deceive ourselves into thinking that we have the Light when we may not have it at all (see Luke 11:35). Or perhaps you have the Light somewhat, but you have done what Luke 11:33 says: you have lit a lamp and placed it under a basket. That means that you have attempted to receive Jesus as your Savior, but not as your Lord. That is the Light hidden and as with a lamp under a basket, you can see a little bit of light trying to shine through the bottom of the basket, but it is not lighting up anything.

Jesus, the Light of the World, lives in us. That is more than a floodlight! It is uncontainable Light! It is the Light that people around you who live in darkness need to be exposed to so that they will be able to see the truth and come to the safety of a relationship with Him. Be filled with Jesus, the Light, and be a great floodlight that causes the darkness to retreat and that brings people who don't know Jesus into the saving knowledge of who He is. Flood the world around you with the awesome Light of Jesus. It's the only way that those that are lost will be able to find Him.

Pastor Joey Vazquez