FRIDAY FRIENDLY FOCUS: Betty Hassler

Welcome to Friday Friendly Focus.  I am happy to shine the spotlight this week on my friend and gifted writer and editor from Nashville, Tennessee, Betty Hassler.  Betty and I met last February at The Cove while attending Writer's Advance Boot Camp. It was one of those brief but "holy introductions." Now we serve together in ministry. After boot camp, Betty contacted me and invited me to write for ZooKeepers Ministries. http://www.zookeepersministries.com/ We have since talked about the lengths to which God goes to bring about his purpose in our lives. Knowing Betty is one of the reasons I am glad I  followed God's call to write. It is my privilege to feature her this week. Thank you, Betty, for being my guest and for allowing God's light to shine through you.

Live in the Light

by Betty Hassler

 

This summer my husband Sim and I sat at a hilltop café with our Hungarian friends Tamas and Reka. Beneath us the beautiful blue Danube wound between the old cities of Buda and Pest (joined together in 1872). The view took our breaths away.

As dusk descended, the lights of the city came on as if in unison. Sim whistled under his breath. “Oh, my,” seemed all I could utter.

Gradually, we returned to our meal—stealing looks throughout the evening at the thousands of points of light in a city that would otherwise have been in darkness.

As I reflected on the lights of the city (pun intended), I remembered Revelation 21:23: “The city [the new Jerusalem] does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp.”

In the beginning, the world was in darkness. God added the temporal sources of light (sun, moon, stars) until such time as they would no longer be needed. In His eternal home, we will need only the brilliance of the Son.

Jesus is also the Light of this world (Jn. 8:12). I had always thought of this title as an analogy: the “light” of Christ dispels the darkness of sin. But Jesus isn’t like a light. He is the light. Our lives aren’t like lights; they are lights pointing the way to the Source of light. We are to allow His light to so shine in our lives that others will be drawn to its Source (see Matt. 5:16, 1 Pet. 2:9).  

Tamas and Reka minister through their church to the youth of Budapest. As the first generation born after the fall of communism in 1989, these two leaders shine like stars dispelling the darkness left by decades of atheism.

Jesus promised, “Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life” (John 8:12). Today, whatever gloom may seem to obscure your path, let His light envelope you. “Walk in the light, as he is in the light” (1 Jn. 1:7).

Writer and communicator Dr. Betty Hassler has written two books and co-written nine Bible studies. She designed and edited Bible studies with such noted authors as Henry Blackaby, Joni Eareckson Tada, and Lisa Whelchel.

She has served as an editor of magazines, discipleship studies, and online devotions and has earned several writing awards, including the 2012 Selah Award for a book in the Christian life category. She completed undergraduate studies at Baylor University and earned master’s and Ph.D. degrees from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.

 

She is the wife of Dr. Sim Hassler, a minister and life coach; mother of two grown sons; grandmother of two; and an active church member in Nashville, TN. She and her husband enjoy ministering to international students.