May you be filled with joy, always thanking the Father. He has enabled you to share in the inheritance that belongs to his people, who live in the light.

For he has rescued us from the kingdom of darkness and transferred us into the Kingdom of his dear Son, who purchased our freedom and forgave our sins.

People who live in the light. Ah, doesn’t that sound splendid?

We have been rescued. I like that word. It especially speaks of our helplessness to move into the Son’s kingdom on our own strengths. It is impossible to escape the darkness in which and with which we have all lived unless … unless … we are rescued by One who has the power to move us out of the darkness and into His kingdom of light.

Does it also sound a bit like pie in the sky? Wonderful, oh yes, but impossible? But God says a kingdom of light does exist, and His children have been moved into that kingdom, out of the darkness, to live in the light. Do you believe Him?

And how does this happen? We all know that we were once far away from God … his enemies, separated from him by … evil thoughts and actions. (v.21) We all know how much darkness lurks deep within us.

And you may even be feeling that way today, feeling as though you’re living in darkness, all too aware of those things within you that keep rising up from your old nature. Or maybe you still have many regrets about things you’ve done in the past; maybe you wonder how those things can ever be forgiven, how you could ever be free of that darkness. Or maybe you’re just wondering how you could ever be … good enough to live in a kingdom of light.

The good news is that we can’t ever be good enough, but we have been rescued! The death of Jesus Christ makes reconciliation to God possible. And that reconciliation isn’t limited to Jesus taking the punishment for our sins. Look! There’s so much more:

Yet now he has reconciled you to himself through the death of Christ in his physical body. As a result, he has brought you into his own presence, and you are holy and blameless as you stand before him without a single fault.

We are brought into God’s presence as holy and blameless … without a single fault!

Now that, my friends, is a rescue.

Regardless of what is going on in the world around you, be filled with joy today. You, child of God, have been rescued and now are a part of the Son’s kingdom of light.

Scripture: Colossians 1:11b-14, 21-22