WHEN THE DARKNESS IS ALL AROUND US

It has been awhile since I have written in my blog, but this morning I thought I would try to get my thoughts organized. We all look around us and see the evil that is being spread throughout the world, wars, beheadings of Christians and even Muslims by ISIS, we see terror all around us and threats of terror. But then here in the United States, we continue to see how the people and government are falling away from the Word of God. This just didn't begin yesterday or even the past few years, it began in the 1960's. First of all came the removal of prayer and then the teaching of the Bible from our public schools, then came the passing of the law that gave women a right to abort their unborn babies. Colleges began to hire liberal professors that would promote the liberal ideology into the minds of our nations youth. Remember the how during the Vietnam war Americans began to burn their draft cards, burn the American flag, fled to Canada to avoid being called to war. A new slogan came in "Make love not war" and women were burning their bras, and love feast were occurring; many times in open places, pot smoking and drug abuse began to spread openly. A deterioration of moral and family values began.  Though I might not have exact dates and time frame I believe that we see the start began when God was removed from our young people through our schools. Everything I mentioned above was a byproduct of the result of removing God and the youth began to act as if there was no God. They had no Standard to judge themselves by; that Standard that we have is the Word of God, therefore they lived life as if there was no tomorrow, no respect for those in authority and no love for our country.

Lets fast forward to 2015, and these same young people are now holding positions of authority, some are even in government positions, some have become lawyers, judges, business owners. Some have not remained with the mindset they had as a youth and some have continued that same path they were on in the 60's and 70's. Homosexuality is not a new thing, why we saw it in the scriptures in Genesis with Sodom and Gomorrah (just a side note history tells us that it was the judges 4 to be exact in the cities of the plain that legalized homosexuality) because it has always been a part of the world's perversion of a man and woman's relationship; God even gives us instructions in His law on sexual morality:

Leviticus 18:22-23 You shall not lie with a male as with a woman. It is an abomination. Nor shall you mate with any animal, to defile yourself with it. Nor shall any woman stand before an animal to mate with it. It is a perversion.

In my lifetime and I am 67 years old, there was never any pride in anyone who practiced homosexuality, they kept it a secret because even to them it was a shame. Years later they began to come our of their closet (as the say) and open declare "I am gay", many in Hollywood revealed their secret and now in this year "Gay Pride" is promoted and encouraged. And now our judges on the Supreme Court of the United States of America have legalized gay marriage, and have attacked our religious freedom by declaring it doesn't matter what we believe; pastors, clergy and court officials must perform these wedding ceremonies.  In many states marijuana is being legalized and I am certain before too much longer it will be legal in all 50 states. 

 

 

We see a falling away from the word of God that our nation was founded on. Lifting up of self, lifting up pride, lifting up pleasure, lifting up sin and tearing down the word of God. So now that I have made all of us depressed, lets look at how we are to behave during this time.

John 14:1 Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me.

John 15:4 Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in Me you can do nothing.

John 15:10 If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love.(He tells us in verse 12 that His commandment is to love one another)

Colossians 3:1-2 If then you were raised with Christ seek those things which are above where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth.

Matthew 5:14-16 You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.

The only way to disperse darkness is to bring in the light. Jesus when He gave us His Holy Spirit gave us His light to be seen in us and through us. He has told us to remain or abide in Him that we can bear His fruit, He has told us that abiding in Him means we keep His commandments which He also tells us is to love one another. He has told us not to be troubled or afraid when we see the darkness that abides in the world, but to keep our focus on Him and not on the world. But for the most part does the church look like the light to those who do not know Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior?( I want to point out right here there are many morally good people who know of Jesus but are not known by Jesus because they have no real relationship with Jesus.) Many times the world sees us as finger pointers and name callers, and sin pronounce-rs. I have been given this a lot of thought, and though we are never to compromise the word of God, we are not the Holy Spirit and we cannot convict a lost person of their sin. What we are to do is just share the good news of Jesus Christ, why He came and what He has accomplished for us, share some testimony of how He came and changed us, we were all lost and dying, we were without hope, we were just as much a sinner as anyone else, but thank God that is in the past, we are found, we are alive, we have hope, we are now His saints. The greatest gift ever given was Jesus Christ, and the greatest act of love was given on a cross as Jesus Christ took the wrath of sin on Himself. So wouldn't showing our love for another be to tell them about just how much Jesus loves them just as they are?

Romans 5:8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Now if we through the light of Christ have lead someone to the cross, the Holy Spirit will lay the conviction for repentance on their lives and will lead them through the cross. I have in this blog been speaking of those who are not believers and followers of Jesus Christ I have not addressed the issue of Christians who have falling away from the biblical truth of the word. 

So how do we respond to the darkness we see all around us? By being the true light of Christ and when we walk in the darkness will have to flee.