Light During Dark Times
Psalm 18:28 - For thou wilt light my candle: the Lord my God will enlighten my darkness.
Psalm 118:27 - God is the Lord, which hath shewed us light.
Psalm 97:11 - Light is sown for the righteous, and gladness for the upright in heart. {My thought: Like seed strewn upon the face of the ground, so God intersperses light in the fields of darkness.}
Psalm 112:4 - Unto the upright there ariseth light in the darkness: he is gracious, and full of compassion, and righteous.
John 3:19 - And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.
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Darkness, spiritually speaking, is the absence of God’s light.
For the believer, the light of God may grow dim, but it will never go out.
For the unbeliever, the light of God gets rejected because the natural inclination of man’s fallen nature is towards darkness.
Sure … there are varying shades of darkness. Not everybody, for example, is as dark as Hitler or Judas. But whether a Hitler or a Judas or somewhere in between: a little darkness is enough to cause the unsaved to be cast out into outer darkness for all eternity.
Matthew 8:12: But the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
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Unless you’re purposely trying to hide your head in the proverbial sand, you’re increasingly more cognizant of the incremental encroachment of darkness spreading its tentacles over the landscape of this world. I don’t want to think about that anymore than you do, but we must come to grips with it.
The powers of darkness (Satan and his demons) are exerting themselves on a global scale that, perhaps, hearkens back to the equivalent of Noah’s day. If that is the case, and I believe it is, Yeshua told us what to expect at the beginning of the end.
Matthew 24 —
38 For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark,
39 And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
It’s not just that everybody will be having a supper good time. It’s the idea of giving over to a life-style of hedonism —
An abandonment of God and a love for darkness that, personally and individually, eclipses the light of God.
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That doesn’t sound good, right? I know.
However …
The good news is: God has promised us His light in the midst of the world’s darkness.
But …
We must take a fresh, honest look at our priorities and expectations if we’re to survive in the midst of global darkness.
Folks —
The good ‘ole American God-and-Apple-Pie days are over. They are never - I repeat - never coming back.
That does not mean, though, that God won’t bless us. He will, as He always has, bless His people in times of light or in times of darkness. We just need to readjust our understanding of what God’s idea of a blessing looks like.
*God’s blessing might not be a palace but rather a prison.
*God’s blessing might not be deliverance from but deliverance through.
*God’s blessing might be your dead get brought back to life —
Hebrews 11 —
35a Women received their dead raised to life again:
{While at the same time} —
35b and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance; that they might obtain a better resurrection:
36 And others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment:
37 They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword: they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented;
38 (Of whom the world was not worthy:) they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth.
39 And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise:
40 God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect.
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That’s always been the reality for God’s people. It’s just not been our reality. But if we are to trust and believe the Book of Revelation (and we can), then at some point in time somebody is going to have to face the end. That’s what we’re, quite possibly, beginning to face: The beginning of the end.
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So, like never before, we’re going to have to learn to start looking for the light of God in the midst of darkness.
We can take heart because:
Job 5:19 - He shall deliver thee in six troubles: yea, in seven there shall no evil touch thee.
Psalm 91:10 - There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling.
Proverbs 12:21 - There shall no evil happen to the just: but the wicked shall be filled with mischief.
Proverbs 24:20 - For there shall be no reward to the evil man; the candle of the wicked shall be put out.
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Whatever “bad” thing God allows to happen to us … it’s not evil. It’s part of His providential path and plan that He is bringing to fruition in us and the world around us.
Let’s live in the blessed promise of our Saviour, shall we? Yeshua Himself promised us light in the darkness —
John 8:12 - Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.