Zebra Ministries

Good morning Zebras,

I helped Gary carry things to his car yesterday morning.  It was still dark outside, so I told him, “No one will see me.”  As soon as I said it I was reminded of a very old z-mail.

I don’t know what year it was, but the kids were still in high school and they didn’t yet have their license because I was driving them to school.   One of them had a zero-period class so we needed to be there early.  In the winter I had gotten in the habit of driving them to school in my robe because it was still dark, and no one could see me.

Then one morning as we headed to the car the neighbor across the street called out “Hi Jill.” And I, realized winter was ending and it had gotten light without me noticing.  I thought I was walking in darkness, my pajamas hidden from the world, when in fact the sun was up, and everyone could see what I was wearing. 

At the time I wrote about the fact that we think no one can see the things we do because we do them behind closed doors, but God still sees.  We think we are walking under the cover of darkness but there is no such thing to God. Which is still true

Psalm 139:11–12 If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me,” even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you.

But equally true is that sometimes we think we are walking in the light of Christ, but our actions and attitudes show we are still in darkness.  So here for your enjoyment is a “Light check.”

Love,

Jill

Matthew 6:19–24 “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. “The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness! “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.

1 John 1:5–10 This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.  If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.  If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

1 John 2:9–11, 15-17 Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness. Whoever loves his brother abides in the light, and in him there is no cause for stumbling.  But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes…Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.  For everything in the world—the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does—comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.