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Three Dog Night and “Black and White”
I was a young man with three pre-school age children in 1971 and I loved “Rock and Roll” music. I just accepted the melodies I heard as “normal”, but didn’t really appreciate the music for what it was- simply wonderful! Yesterday, I was listening to YouTube videos and then a Three Dog Night song ( Black and White ) began playing. Now, I hadn't heard this in years, but I enjoyed it so much that I played it over and over again.
Later that day, I remembered a picture of the moon showing the terminator ( the point where darkness becomes light ) and thought about how individuals turn from sin to God is similar to crossing the terminator from darkness to light.
The Bible says...
John 8:12 ( World English Bible )
12 Again, therefore, Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. He who follows me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the light of life.” note: see also John 9:5
Acts 26 ( WEB )
1 Agrippa said to Paul, “You may speak for yourself.” Then Paul stretched out his hand, and made his defense.
2 “I think myself happy, King Agrippa, that I am to make my defense before you this day concerning all the things that I am accused by the Jews,
3 especially because you are expert in all customs and questions which are among the Jews. Therefore I beg you to hear me patiently.
4 “Indeed, all the Jews know my way of life from my youth up, which was from the beginning among my own nation and at Jerusalem;
5 having known me from the first, if they are willing to testify, that after the strictest sect of our religion I lived a Pharisee.
6 Now I stand here to be judged for the hope of the promise made by God to our fathers,
7 which our twelve tribes, earnestly serving night and day, hope to attain. Concerning this hope I am accused by the Jews, King Agrippa!
8 Why is it judged incredible with you, if God does raise the dead?
9 “I myself most certainly thought that I ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth.
10 This I also did in Jerusalem. I both shut up many of the saints in prisons, having received authority from the chief priests, and when they were put to death I gave my vote against them.
11 Punishing them often in all the synagogues, I tried to make them blaspheme. Being exceedingly enraged against them, I persecuted them even to foreign cities.
12 “Whereupon as I traveled to Damascus with the authority and commission from the chief priests,
13 at noon, O king, I saw on the way a light from the sky, brighter than the sun, shining around me and those who traveled with me.
14 When we had all fallen to the earth, I heard a voice saying to me in the Hebrew language, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.’
15 “I said, ‘Who are you, Lord?’ “He said, ‘I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.
16 But arise, and stand on your feet, for I have appeared to you for this purpose: to appoint you a servant and a witness both of the things which you have seen, and of the things which I will reveal to you;
17 delivering you from the people, and from the Gentiles, to whom I send you,
18 to open their eyes, that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive remission of sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in me.’
Luke 15 ( WEB )
11 He said, “A certain man had two sons.
12 The younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of your property.’ He divided his livelihood between them.
13 Not many days after, the younger son gathered all of this together and traveled into a far country. There he wasted his property with riotous living.
14 When he had spent all of it, there arose a severe famine in that country, and he began to be in need.
15 He went and joined himself to one of the citizens of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed pigs.
16 He wanted to fill his belly with the husks that the pigs ate, but no one gave him any.
17 But when he came to himself he said, ‘How many hired servants of my father’s have bread enough to spare, and I’m dying with hunger!
18 I will get up and go to my father, and will tell him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in your sight.
19 I am no more worthy to be called your son. Make me as one of your hired servants.”’
20 “He arose, and came to his father. But while he was still far off, his father saw him, and was moved with compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him.
21 The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in your sight. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’
22 “But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring out the best robe, and put it on him. Put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet.
23 Bring the fattened calf, kill it, and let us eat, and celebrate;
24 for this, my son, was dead, and is alive again. He was lost, and is found.’ They began to celebrate.
God is the light of the world and we understand that light best as exhibited by the son of God, Jesus. And what does light do? Guides us, prevents our stumbling, helps us see the right way to live our lives. While in this world, Jesus gave us a perfect example of how to live, how to follow the heavenly light which leads us to God and helps us truly live.
Many people actually enjoy living in darkness; doing whatever they like and think this is genuine living; they are wrong. The apostle Paul was a perfect example of this and then he came to his own personal terminator ( point a which darkness and light intersect ). The heavenly vision began a change that completely changed him from a persecutor of “The Way” to one of its most prominent advocates. The “Prodigal son’s” terminator was when he realized how foolish and futile his hedonistic life style was and returned to his family in humility. Two different stories, but both with a change, a change from darkness to light.
I wonder, what event in your life will cause you to realize that you genuinely need the light that only God can supply. When you eventually reach this point, things will become crystal clear, as clear a Black and White. I pray that you never cross the terminator in the wrong direction; stay in the light!