Washington Conference of Seventh-day Adventists

By Doug Bing, Washington Conference president

When I served as a pastor in a rural district in Kansas, I volunteered to serve with two different fire departments. One was for the small town where we lived and the other was for the surrounding countryside.

One moonless night our fire pagers sounded the alarm for a grass fire in the countryside. The fire chief and I arrived at the fire station first and took the truck. As we headed towards the fire with our red lights and siren blaring, the radio started to crackle with other fire units that were also responding. The fire chief was driving and trying to answer the radio calls that were coming in. One call came in asking for the location of the fire. The chief responded with the information.

The radio transmission must have been garbled. So, they asked again a second and then a third time! The fire chief finally responded with some exasperation as he looked towards the night sky fully glowing from the large fire and said, “Just go to the light!”

We are drawn to light. When we wake up at night, our eyes are drawn to whatever dim light may be in the room. When we see any light in darkness we are drawn to that light. In reading about the sanctuary in the Bible this morning it is encouraging that there was a lamp stand where the light was to never go out. It was always to be filled with oil and kept burning. Exodus 27:20 states that they were to bring the oil for the lamp stand so that it could burn continually.

As we think about what that means for us today we can draw several conclusions. Firstly, each of us is to seek the Holy Spirit’s filling each day as we grow spiritually. And secondly, each of us is to bring the light of the Holy Spirit in our own lives together with others in our churches and communities so that the light of God is continually shining through all of us.

May God’s light continually shine through you today as you seek to grow in Him each day and may everyone be able to say to others that are wondering where to go, “Just go to the light.”