God’s light came into the world, but people loved the darkness more than the light, for their actions were evil.   John 3:19  NLT

Jesus announced that He was the Light of the world, yet Scripture says we loved darkness rather than light. Christ was glorious, but we did not find His glory desirable. Light exposed what darkness allowed us to hide, so we turned away from the very One who had come to save us.

Then how does anyone believe? God opens blind eyes to see “the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” And that call is personal. The voice that created the world becomes intimate enough to speak to one human heart.

In Genesis, His voice broke into chaotic darkness and every dead thing responded and came to life. And one day, in a way just as miraculous, that voice reached me.

No one knows whose name God will speak next. That keeps me praying for people who seem unreachable, resistant, even hostile to Christ. Saul was not inching his way toward faith on the Damascus road; he was traveling in the opposite direction. Then Jesus called his name, and the man who was zealous to oppose Christ was undone by Christ Himself. I know something of that undoing. The longer I stay near Jesus and let His Spirit search me, the less familiar my old self becomes. Sometimes I read my old journals and wince at the woman I used to be. Grace has not merely grazed my flesh. It has dismantled it.  New birth begins with foundations.

So if you sense Christ pressing against the door of your soul, do not treat it casually. Do not assume you will always hear it and have time to respond. Run to Calvary. The One calling your name is calling you out of the tomb into resurrection life.

Lord Jesus, for those who are resisting You, arguing with You, or trying not to hear You, speak with the authority that stopped Saul in his tracks. Call them by name until resistance gives way to surrender. Amen.