Light up the Darkness

Imagine with me, a dark, room. This is not a dim room, it is a heavy and weighty black.This heavy black, this weighty darkness is what covers our world, and the enemy wants to keep it that way. Looking into our world and seeing nothing but dark is depressing and hopeless at best, but in the middle of the room there is a small Light. Suddenly there is a direction, a goal, and a vantage point. Suddenly there is hope. As you walk to the Light, candle in hand, your anticipation grows. You get to the flame and light your own candle, but now a new challenge awaits. This candle is now producing light but how much? Can others see this Light? Will it stay lit? People are all around us looking for the the Light but have such a troubled time finding it. We are now light-bearers, and are responsible, no privileged enough to be shining the Light for those searching. Some of us move, completely unaware of our dwindling flame in hand. We rush to and fro, dimming the light for ourselves and those around us. We skew the perspective of those searching, and lead them astray. What may look like truth ends nothing more than a lie clever placed by the one who prowls around like a lion waiting to devour us.. Others of us hide our Light afraid the flame will be blown out. We are finicky and tossed at sea like waves when the winds of transgression start to blow. This is no light to be hidden! We must learn to have faith in this flame, in this Light, for it is the Light of the world, the Light of life.!

This Light is an eternally burning flame that has been ablaze long before we were created and will be burning long after this earth is gone. It is a flame that exposes what is hidden in the darkness and brings sin to light. In the same fire that exposes this sin it burns it up leaving room for grace to intercede and transform us. This flame is the fuel for life. Not a life lived in darkness, where one can wander lost, scared and completely alone; but a life exciting and new and un-tamable like a wildfire, burning everything in its path. We should pray for this fire, for this life! It should be our desire to seek out how to feed this fire, and how to encounter and spread it daily. I want to be on fire! I want to light up the darkness!

Here are some verses that deserve some attention and meditation, concerning this entry...

"And Jesus spoke to them, saying 'I am the Light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the Light of life.' " John 8:12

"for at one time you were darkness but now you are light in the Lord.Walk as children of Light (for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true)" Ephesians 5:8-9

(We were darkness and God still loved us. We were not just walking the darkness, we were contributing to the problem and standing as adversaries to God. Despite this, He saved us and desires a close, and intimate relationship with Him...leading us to the next verse...lol)

"but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." Romans 5:8

Mute

Recently one of my friends was in prayer, and looking up verses in the Bible and going over prayer requests for a really long time. During this time I was working and waiting for a reply to one of my texts and assumed she had gone to bed. She texted me back at around 3:30 in the morning...yeah kinda weird how God keeps such late ours. It's almost like He doesn't sleep or something. Anyway, she tells me she has no voice and at this point something just clicks and I realize something that I knew but didn't know I knew, or maybe it was something I knew I should have known. Either way it was pretty cool. When we seek God and want to hear Him, the cost is sometimes losing our voice altogether.

Physically we should lose our voice when we are seeking God with our whole being. In worship our vocal chords should become strained in exclamation in the love for our Savior. We should talk until we are blue in the face, as we give thanksgiving for all that He does for us. In our adoration of He who set us free, our praise should be loud enough that we should leave wherever we are with our ears ringing and our throats in need of something warm to drink, and in our back pockets we should have a ticket from the police for breaking a noise ordinance.

In submission we should lose our voice. When we really surrender to the Almighty, we realize it is no longer our voice. " I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who lives but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me" Galatians 2:20. When words come out of our mouths, they should be "cross-filtered". We have been crucified on the cross with Christ and risen to a new life and so the words that flow from our mouths should be controlled and filtered by that same cross we were on.

In prayer we should lose our voice. Not in all cases should we have no voice when we are in prayer. So often we desire to hear God but don't close our noise-boxes long enough to listen to something God is trying to say to us. Why would we talk over our perfect all-knowing, loving and merciful God, when we are nothing more than vapors? It is in the stillness, the quiet that God speaks; in fact, I think God whispers sometimes, so we have to really trey to hear Him. "How bad do You want to hear Me? I AM, at your service, I AM, speaking to you right now? Can you hear me?" When have I missed Him or when have you missed Him. Maybe He has to whisper to get our attention. We have constant noise around us, so we might not even recognize His voice.

I am indebted to Allie for inspiring this post. It is through her friendship with me and in her relationship with God that i found my "muse" for this post. May others be so blessed to encounter another, who has such an appetite for God.

Awaken

"Awake, O sleeper

and arise from the dead,

and Christ will shine on you"

I was reading through Ephesians Chapter two and an important repetition started to play out in the writings of Paul. It's hard to put into words without just showing you, so here is an example:

Ephesians 2:1

"And you were dead in your trespasses and sins"

We are called to die to ourselves and sin on a daily basis ( 1 Corinthians 15-31, Romans 6:11).

In this death to sin we are called to be alive in Christ. We are either dead to Christ and alive to sin or we are alive to Christ and dead to sin. We cannot serve to masters (Luke 16:13). Being dead to sin means we are no longer slaves to it.

Romans 6:14

"For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace"

Sins power is lost!

Okay, so I should probably warn any readers that I tend to get excited and maybe even of track, assuming it is possible to do so when discussing God and our freedom in Him.

...I digress; next verse

Ephesians 2:2

"...following the prince of power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience-"

We are no longer sons of disobedience, we are sons (and daughters of course) in God's family. We are fellow heirs, to share in the Kingdom of our most High God because of the blood Christ shed for us on Calvary (Ephesians 1:11-5)

We are not sons of disobedience but children of light and called to live as such, seeking out and discerning what is pleasing to God (Ephesians 5:8-10)

Ephesians 2:3

"among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body, and mind, and were like children of wrath, like the rest of mankind."

Many may take this verse and think that passions and desires are inherently evil but this is not so. We are called to love God with all our heart soul and strength. Now don't miss this because, not only do we find it in Deuteronomy 6:5 but it is a verse that Christ reiterated later in Matthew 6:22-37. If we commit our selves, our whole selves to the serving and living in Christ we sill be transformed. Our transformation will come from the renewing of our minds as Paul teaches . We are to be different from the rest of mankind.

Romans 12:2

"Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect."

When we undergo this transformation, our desires change (Psalms 73:24-25)

I could continue for the rest of the night, in awe and wonderment of the writing in God's Word. Every time I open up my Bible in an earnest and honest search I am shown something more, but it takes me effort and lots of it. If we seek we shall find; sometimes it may not be what we thought we were looking for. God really does make us glad with his presence and, for me it is never more evident than when he reveals something spectacular to me.

Father, I come to you humbled by Your grace and Your constant outpouring of blessings and knowledge. i thank you for the undeserved wisdom you give me and all other who call on You and recognize You as their ever-present Father, Redeemer, Avenger, Sanctifier, Lover, Friend , Creator, Judge, and Holy, Righteous, Almighty Lord of all! I am so unworthy to even be able think your name or receive the grace you and forgiveness you granted me all those years ago and that you continue to rain on me on a daily basis. Thank You for the sacrifice you made for me in Your Son. Thank You for allowing me to be reborn to live in Christ and die to my transgressions and sin. Father, let me always understand how completely dependent on You I am; souls are at risk and I pray that would be a burden on my heart every day, and through that I would remember that You have chosen me as a light. Help me to shin e bright and put myself in a place to reflect Christ!

Awaken me, daily God,

let me be dead to sin

and Christ will shine on me