I’m not saying I will ask the Father on your behalf, for the Father himself loves you dearly because you love me and believe that I came from God. Yes, I came from the Father into the world, and now I will leave the world and return to the Father.” (John 16:26-28)

Read: Jeremiah 49:23 – 50:46, Titus 1:1-16, Psalm 97:1-98:9, Proverbs 26:13-16

Relate: In the beginning, when God began to create all that is, God spoke out and said, “Let there be light.” It was the first thing He created. It then goes on: “God saw that the light was good, and He separated the light from the darkness.” God didn’t create the darkness. He didn’t create our darkness. He didn’t create sin. He didn’t create shame, or sorrow, or evil. In a way, darkness doesn’t really exist. All it is, is the absence of light. Darkness is not light. In the same way, all evil is, is that which is not of God. God created light and then He created separation between the light and the darkness.

A short time later, God created mankind. In order to make mankind human, God gave them a choice. Mankind chose that which is not of God. They invited darkness into their lives and their world. Humanity created separation between themselves and God.

Although we made the bed and deserved to lie in it, God is too gracious to allow things to remain that way. Jesus left heaven to come and live and walk among us. He created separation between Himself and the Father for our sake. That separation reached it’s ultimate end when he took our sins upon Himself. The Father acknowledged this separation when He turned His face, His presence from the Son. The Son cried out from that place of separation, “My God, why have You forsaken me.”

The Son then took our sins, carried them into hell, and left them there. He then rose from the grave on the third day. He walked with His disciples for a time, and then left them to return to heaven. He recreated separation between Himself and the world.

React: Now we are called to follow Him in this separation. We are called to separate ourselves from the sin that bound us through His work on that cross. We are also called to follow Him in rejecting the pull of this world and its darkness that we have created. God has called us to be holy, to be consecrated, to be sanctified… to be separate. Will we follow Him in creating such separation? Will we leave this world behind us in walking toward the Father? Will we leave the darkness behind?

Respond: 

God, I am so grateful that You left heaven and came to this earth to show us the way to follow You. I am grateful that You were willing to experience separation with the Father that we might experience separation from our sin. Give me the courage and the strength to now follow You in separating myself from the darkness of this world. Let me walk the path You blazed.