The Light of God

As I sat reflecting one morning I was brought back to a very early time in my life.  I couldn’t have been more than five or six years old and the Christmas season was upon us.  I remember receiving a gift from my parents then that I had become fascinated with.  I believe it was called a View-Master.  It came with a small number of disks, each one containing pictures all along the edge of it.  The disk you would insert into the View-Master.  You could then go from one picture to another simply by pulling down the lever on the side.  And so I recalled a day that I stood on the front porch of the old three story building we lived in then.  It was a mild winter morning as I remember it, and I had brought my View-Master outside with me.  I wasn’t out there very long when I lifted it up to look through.  Suddenly I was amazed.  The pictures weren’t as I had seen them before.  The children, their clothing, their smiles and their sleds - these were all the same.  But the light that shone all around them was different than I saw it at other times - so different that it was like no other light that I had ever seen.  Prior to this I was taught about God and about heaven at the Catholic school where I attended.  Also I’d heard grown-ups speak on these subjects every so often.  However, now there didn’t seem to be any doubt in my young mind that presently I was experiencing something from that world above.  With all my heart and soul I wanted to somehow make my way into the picture that I was so captivated by; and if I could have I would have. 

As the years passed I would every now and then remember that day.  By the time I came into my early teens I believe I had put it behind me; but by the time that I had reached my mid to late teens I fell into the kind of company that wasn’t very interested in a Light not of this world.  In fact, this is what they chose to hide from.  But I would be lying if I told you that I hadn’t become of the very same mind as them.  We all felt the same itch - an itch that we believed needed satisfying.  And so alcohol, gang fights with rival neighborhoods, illicit sexual activity and sins of all sorts were the kind of things that colored our dark world.  To add, it was the sixties - a decade of more change and confusion than young people knew what to do with. 

But time does fly, like they say.   And so it wasn’t long and I was out of the army and into my early twenties.  This meant that all of my buddies and I could now hit the local taverns and lounges instead of drinking illegally at Hale Park.  But none of us seemed to really know what we were doing, or where we were heading, back in those years.  There was a terrible lack of vision among us.  I believe that was the reason we asked each other this question from time to time.  Hey, (the word that proceeded almost every line we spoke) if you had one wish what would you wish for?  You wouldn’t want me to tell you some of the answers that were given, usually followed up by drunken laughter from everyone within earshot.  Now understand that back in those days I was as wild and full of adventure as the best of them.  But if ever that question came my way, I would always give the same answer, drunk or sober, and meaning every word of it.  I simply told them that I’d wish I would go to heaven when I died.  The drunken laughter never followed, but there would always fall a hush.  As sinful a life as I lead, it was spiritual matters that seemed to be rooted in the deepest parts of me; it was that way as long as I could remember.  I just never knew what to do about them. Quite possibly the light that I had experienced as a young boy had anchored itself in the pit of my soul, with no intentions of loosening its grip.  All that I know for sure is that my thoughts were often far above this world. I loved my friends and enjoyed their company.  Yet on the other hand, it was as though I had my own secret life apart from them. 

Then there came the day - April 21st, 1973, the day before Easter Sunday.  There was a knock at the door in the early afternoon.  Two friends stood on my front porch.  I had already known about their conversion to Christianity.  When I stepped out they went on to tell me - and in no uncertain terms - that the Lord had sent them to get me.  Prior to this they gave me a book to read; it was a book about biblical prophecy.  I was impressed with what I had read and told them so.  But I also let them know that I still had questions.  They told me that they had come to bring me to their pastor, who they believed could answer my questions.  I went with them, hoping with all my heart that they would be right, seeing that I was in desperate need of a true spiritual awakening.  And thanks be to God, it was on that day that I got what I had hoped for.  At the end of the evening the four of us dropped to our knees and I was lead in the sinner’s prayer. 

On the very next morning I went with my friends to the church where they attended.  It was Easter Sunday.  I remember it being a beautifully bright and sunny day.  The people that I met that morning had to be the nicest and friendliest people that I had ever been introduced to.  Aside from certain movies I’d seen at one time or another, I never thought that anyone could actually be the way these people were.  From that day on my life had become a changed one, and I was attending my newfound church every Sunday.  Taverns, lounges and loose women had no more place in me.  For the first time since I was a child I felt clean again, as though I were washed with waters not of this world, and that in fact was exactly what was happening.  The light that I had experienced as a boy had now returned.  But it was different; it was within me.  And as the weeks and the months and the years went by, I could sense the increase of It. 

To the best of my knowledge the scriptures declare that God is but two things.  In the fourth chapter of  1st John we are told that God is Love.  And in the first chapter of that same epistle we are told that God is Light.  Love is the attribute that we believers play up; nothing wrong with that.  Though seldom if ever do we hear that God is Light.  Speaking for myself, I can’t help but seeing the Love that God is, and the Light that God is, as being a part of one another - Love being of the Light, and the Light coming from His Love. 

The Light of God!  What can be said about it from the lips of us lowly mortals?  Can we come near to doing it justice?  I’m sure we cannot.  But we are His children, filled with His Spirit, one may say.  Truer words were never spoken.  But in a letter that Paul once wrote to the Corinthians we are told that this Treasure, as great as It is, rests in earthen vessels; this being so that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us.  And so we can never speak of the Light that indwells us with words that can truly capture its greatness.  If we could, would it not then be us who would receive the glory for it?

Great is the Light of God.  But presently the world is so dark.  If a list was to be written of all of the troubles that have come upon the earth today, then surely the writer would become so disheartened that they would have to set down their pen after not too long a time.  Yet here is the Good News!  As children of the Creator we do not have to let ourselves be overtaken by the darkness, or shaken by the thought of it - not when our inheritance is Light.  And it is a Light for us to walk in and to revel in, so that even in these times, the fears that are all around us, and those that are yet to come, will not have their way in us.  For the Light that God is will raise us high above this earth, if we will only keep our vision raised unto the heavens. 

Paul once told the Philippian believers that in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, they shined as lights in the world.  But why likened unto lights?  It is because they were born of The Light - the Light who is God.  It goes all the way back to the creation story.  Here it is repeatedly said that all things - be it plant or animal - brought forth after their own kind.  And so even with the Creator of all that has been created does that law apply.  For it is by His Spirit that He who is Light gives birth to light - even to the spirit of a man - bringing him forth in the likeness of Himself. 

In the epistle of James 1:17-18 we read, “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.  Of His own will He brought us forth by the word of truth…”.  I would have to say that one of my very favorite titles for God is the Father of lights.  But exactly what type of lights is James speaking of?  I have no doubt that he is speaking of the lights that all of God’s children are.  Either this or he is speaking of unintelligent lights, such as the stars.  But we all know that the Father only gives birth to what long ago He created in His image. 

Once, many years ago, while I sat before the Lord in silent meditation, I believe that He showed me something.  I believe that He showed me His Spirit being as a vast, even infinite ocean - an ocean filled with Light.  There were no shores; neither was there a floor to It.  There was only the surface.  These are the waters that the believer is baptized into.  Gifts are given at this time; they are given in accordance with His will for our lives.  But His baptism of us goes not far beneath the surface of the waters.  However, from there He desires to bring us further down.  He longs for us to visit Him in the depths of the waters.  The depths that we come to in Him will always be in direct proportion to how we pursue Him on earth.  At some point the believer can become abandoned to Him.  Some will descend further still, where their lives become hidden away in His own.  Still, the waters never end.  Even as eternal life has no barriers before it, nor does a kingdom everlasting, it is like these that the waters continue on; the further that we descend into them, the greater the Light becomes.  But do not imagine the kind of light that we are familiar with on this earth.  Is God of this earth?  And one day we will not be of an earthly makeup any longer; this is of necessity, so that the Light will never become too great for us to behold.  And so in that Day we will be like the Son, according to John the Revelator who the Son greatly loved.  But to try to imagine what the Light will be to us in that Day will do us no good, since we will be using the mind of our earthly man in an effort to bring the vision to pass.  Though we can be certain of this.  Love is always going to be of the Light that God is.  Joy will always be of that Light.  Peace and Goodwill are going to come from It; and along with these there will be a wisdom, a knowledge, and an understanding surpassing that of angels.  But to see it as it will appear to us then is not for we who yet walk upon the soil of a fallen world; though I know that at times He brings it to us in glimmers. 

Oh, for the Light that God is.  As a very young boy He opened my eyes to it through a simple child’s toy.  So captivated was I with what I saw that I longed to be in the picture that I was beholding.  But in the years that were to follow, my life would become invaded by the darkness.  Still somewhere in me I knew there was light; though it may have only been a spark.  Then came April 21st, 1973.  I thank God for the day - the day I started to live. The spark that was in me began to be uncovered and little by little it grew.  Today the Light that I saw as a boy has returned, and at times it runs over me like a flood.

“This is the message that we have heard from Him and declared to you,” writes John the beloved, “that God is Light and in Him is no darkness at all.”  Walk in the Light.  For we who believe, there is no other path to pursue. 


J. Pecoraro

My Gratitude To The Great I Am For My Journey In Christ Jesus

I would have to say that I could never thank my God enough for the doors that He has opened for me, by which I have been able to teach and preach His Living Word.  I thank Him for Lonnie Blakeny, my dear friend, brother, and mentor in Christ.  It was Lonnie who first instilled confidence in me upon becoming born again.  This good man took me under his wing, bringing me along with him on visitations to the homes of some of the church people.  Not too long afterwards he felt that I could teach young boys the fundamentals of the Christian life.  But I had never taught anybody anything; and that was what I had told him.  He asked me if I would give it a try.  He said that he didn’t think he was missing God on this.  I stepped out, and lo and behold I was successful. 

In the latter part of the decade to follow I found myself leading a new converts group and also doing home bible studies.  But in February of 1991, under the direction of a great brother, Mark Hausfeld, the biggest door of all would open.  I was certain that I was being called to an itinerant preaching/teaching ministry.  Pastor Mark confirmed this and helped to get me started.  Now I would visit numerous churches, expounding on the theme of a deeper life in Christ.  For fifteen years this went very well, and how I loved visiting with the people while coming to know many of them.  As if this wasn’t enough, it was in February of 1996 that the Lord made a way for me to be able to teach at Teen Challenge Ministries on  a part-time basis.  For seven years I was active in this - a seven year stretch that fell within the fifteen year period that I itinerated.  With all of this going on I worked a full - time job and did not grow weary.  This I attribute to no other but to God on high.   Not only did I not wear out but I look back on that period of my life with nothing but fond memories. 

It all came tumbling down.  In 2003 the Teen Challenge building caught fire.  The program had to move to Peoria, Il.  There was no way that I could move with them.  It was then three years later that I had to put an end to the itinerant ministry also. This was due to Assembly of God churches cutting down heavily on guest speakers, all because they had begun dropping Sunday evening services.

I guess it was for about a year that I was idle in ministry.  Then somewhere around the beginning of 2007 I was asked if I would like to lead a men’s bible study on Thursday evenings.  Where?  In one of the most impoverished and dangerous ghettos in Chicago.  I didn’t take long to give my answer.  Not only was it affirmative but I was excited about it.  For some reason that I’m sure God only knows, I always had an attraction to the inner city neighborhoods of Chicago -  or for that matter, those of any big city.  For me, there is something there. What that something is I have never quite been able to put in words.  I only wish I could.  But for four and a half years on Thursday evenings I met with a number of the men from Chicago City Church, along with some who would join us from the Door of Hope Mission, located about a mile from where we were.  We would have a study in the scriptures.  They were four and a half years that I will never forget - a beautiful time in my life.  These men were rough around the edges, true.  But I loved teaching them the Word, and they seemed to love me.  As far as I was concerned, the Spirit was with us every time we met.  Still today I miss those guys, and believe that the Day is near when we will be together again.

At the start of 2012, after being gone about six months from the City Church, I was offered a position once again at Teen Challenge Ministries.  I would be doing what I had done there before - teaching the scriptures to men with addictions.  Whether black, white or brown, believers or unbelievers, they enroll on a steady basis.  It was that way when I was first employed there; and it is still that way now.  The one thing that has changed somewhat is that there is a higher percentage of unbelievers with us now than what was there in the late nineties and into the new millennium.  I’m sure it’s the times.  Even still, a good number of these leave our facility born again. 

And so, for what reason have I written about the things that I have done in Christ? Is it an attempt to exalt myself?  Far from it. I’d be a fool.  I have done little in comparison to what most have done that have been called to ministry.  But I have written about these things because I knew that it would do my soul good to write about them.  Also I have written about them because I felt that it could do at least a handful of readers good to read about them.  I see these people being a lot like I once was - feeling they have nothing of real worth to offer anyone.  As I said in the beginning, a man by the name of Lonnie Blakeney took me under his wing after I had come to Christ.  Some months later he told me that the seventh and eighth grade boys were going to be losing their Sunday school teacher. He felt that the Lord was showing him that I should pray about stepping up in his place.  My reply was that I had never taught anybody anything.  He however convinced me to give it a try.  I did, and I couldn’t believe the results.  It was like slipping my hand into a glove made just for me.  And to top it all, I was sure that the boys had taken a liking to me.  Quite possibly,  you also have felt like you could never be a teacher to other people. Watch it! God is in the business of fooling His children on a daily basis.  And He loves it.  He too becomes thrilled when He sees how you have surprised yourself.  From cover to cover the bible is full of people who were the most unlikely to succeed; and those around them let them know it.  But they didn’t have the last word on the matter.  The One who knew their every hair would make that call.  And so they succeeded - and then some.

And now I must tell you about a man, more special to me than any other.  On May 23rd, 1999, the Lord saw fit to call his name.  I still miss him a lot today.  If it wasn’t for him I just may have lived a totally different life than what I have.  Mickey, as friends affectionately called him, told me of the gospel and my need for Christ for six years.  I put him off, and I put him off, and I put him off.  But he didn’t know the meaning of the word quit - at least not with me.  Then finally I hit my low point.  He had outlasted me.  And so on April 21st, 1973, I gave up the ghost - of the old man.  But our heavenly Father had put in me His Spirit - for the new man.  Now how do I say thank you to my good friend, Mickey?  I do not know.  But when I see him in a New world, I’m sure that the Lord will give me the words, along with a big strong hug.  What a guy; certainly not your typical everyday man.  But what a God who reigns - of which the same holds true.  Who is like Him?  Who has even come into close range?  Who has fathomed His depths?  Who has ascended His heights?  There is none.  And none shall there ever be.

J. Pecoraro

  

The Final Outpouring

Look to the Eternal Head
Upon the many members,
You who once lit up the skies,
Though now are dying embers.

Breathe o Spirit the Life of Him
Who sits on high in Glory,
So that the Fire that lights His saints
Will finalize their story.

Then it will be as He told.
His words, they will not fail.
Upon this Rock I will build my Church,
And hell will not prevail.

J. Pecoraro

A Greater Place Than First Place

 

It was back somewhere around the eighties or the nineties that there was a popular expression among believers.  It wasn’t at all rare to hear it being proclaimed; not so much the case today.  Put God First was accentuated at prayer meetings, bible studies, in cell groups, and most of all from the pulpit.  What troubled me about it, was that for some reason it never struck a chord in me.  I wondered if maybe something wasn’t wrong in my spirit.  But there came a morning when I sat myself down to enter into a time of communion with the Lord.  Before I ever got started, five words rushed through my head.  Do not put Me first, was what I heard.  I was stunned by this, now becoming quite concerned about myself.  There came more, but not audibly as did the five words.  The Lord began to show me that first was not the best place for Him to be in the heart of the believer.  But the place where He instead desires to be, is in the Center.  He then began to show me of the problem that will always arise when we simply Put Him First.  For starters, this will indicate to us that we are about to place something second.  Since there are more things of importance to us than just two things, we will then line something else up third.  In fact, if I recall it right, the sequence used to go something like this.  God 1st, Family 2nd, Church life 3rd, Job 4th.  So what’s the problem, you may ask?  The problem is that the God who the universe cannot contain should be separated from all else.  I believe this is what Peter meant when he wrote to us, “separate God in your hearts.”  Separate Him from what?  Separate Him from all that there is. 

Somewhere in the heart of the believer, there should most definitely be family, friends, fellow believers, our dreams, desires, meditations, memories and so on.  But then there should be at the heart’s core - God alone.  Does He not deserve a place in us that we have sanctified for Him and no other - a place untouched by anything and everything that can be imagined?  Surely He does.  The God of all creation must be separated from all that is within us; a place set apart for Him only; a place greater than first place - namely in the center of our being.  It is there that He must ever dwell.  As far as all of the people and the things that we hold dear are concerned, these we must place all around Him, with He himself as the Hub.  But with God ever being our focal point, will we not begin to neglect the things that we have set just outside of Him?  On the contrary, these will become even greater in our eyes, while relationships with loved ones only abound.  In fact, we will discover that the love of people in general has risen to new heights in us. 

I believe we have all seen horse races at one time or another.  If not, I’m sure that we have heard of the sport.  At the start of each race the thoroughbreds are led into their gates, one at a time.  When all are in, it is only a matter of a few short seconds and the gates are opened.  The horses are off and running.  The turf soon will be flying from their hooves while each jockey begins to vie for position.  Often there is a front-runner who sets the pace for the running.  Though this horse may be out in front for a good part of the contest, he usually does not win.  In fact, he may even be passed up by quite a few of  the other contestants before the race is over.  We are now going to stop here and I am going to ask something of you.  I am going to ask you to imagine everything that is dear to you - persons, places or things - as being like horses in a race.  Next, I’d like for you to see the Triune God as the front-runner.  After all, this is where we would normally have Him, upon being saved by His glorious grace.  Suddenly we have come to feel so new; it seems that from out of nowhere a bright new world has opened up to us.  Our mind seems to ever be on God and the things of God.  What is this miracle that has happened?  The miracle is this.  We have asked our Lord and Creator to be before all things in the new life He has given us - to be at the head of the pack; to take His position before all that we hold dear.  We have finally discovered what life is really about and how it is to be lived.  Nothing will ever be the same again.  Not true.  Nothing will ever be the same again if He remains the front-runner.  But what happens to us as believers - and more than not - is that we begin to allow other things to pass the Lord up on our racetrack.  Then one day our eyes become opened to the fact that family has ran right by Him; our job has done the same, and even long ago; dreams and interests are running neck and neck with the One who once was first; soon they too will pass Him by.  No wonder we’ve been feeling down in the dumps for quite a while now. It also explains why we don’t seem to sense the nearness of the Spirit like we used to; no desire to read His Word or pray.  What is the answer?  What do we do in order to know and experience the joy of the Lord again?  The answer I am going to give, is the answer you have already heard.  You need to take the Lord off of that track altogether.  He never did belong there in the first place.  The dangers of having Him be on the same track as all of the other things we hold dear is what you have just finished reading about. 

What we can and most likely will do at times in our life, will be to allow what we had once put behind our Saviour, to now start passing Him by - the One who in His hand holds everything; and that is everything minus nothing.  And so I ask this question.  Should such a One be placed by us in the same arena with things that He is so far above?  How far above?  Infinitely above.  Isaiah saw this and wrote it down for us.  Peter instructed us on what to do about the matter.  “Sanctify God in your hearts,” he said.  To sanctify is to separate.  This tells us that the Lord our God does not belong on the same ground with other things - our work, our dreams, not friends or family.  His greatness is such that He should never have to contend with anything.  Neither will He do so.  If we would have it so that our dreams and desires pass Him by, He will always grant us our choice in the matter.  Grieved will He be, but He will not stay our hand.

There is a fundamental truth that all believers must learn.  The sooner we learn and apply this truth, the quicker we will arrive at perfect peace and in perfect agreement with the Majesty on high.  That truth is this.  He is our All in all.  King David had certainly grasped this concept.  This is why he was able to say, “Who have I in heaven but Thee, and there is none that I desire upon the earth but Thee.”  The eyes of Israel’s greatest king were ever on the Lord.  No wonder his God described him as a man after His own heart.  This would not have been true if David didn’t first separate the Lord from all that was within him.  He granted Him that special place in the very core of his being. 

What are the implications of it all?  If we lose our job, He is greater than our job.  If we lose our house, He is greater than our house.  If we lose even family, He is greater than our family.  It is why Martin Luther once wrote, Let goods and kindred go, this mortal life also.  Difficult it is indeed to not have a single idol stand before Him.  But until that is so, can we truly say that He is our All in all, the Head of the body, even the Head of all that has been created?  He is God our Maker - loving us more than we can ever begin to grasp.  First is not the place for Him, but He is at home only at the Center of who we are.  It is the place to which no number will ever become attached, a secret place, created for none other but you and the Lover of your soul. 

Praises eternal, to the High and the Holy, to our only God and King, for all that He has done for those who have been made in His image. 


-J. Pecoraro