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Standing on the promise of Christ, the Savior King, may your heart be filled with His Spirit, to hear His voice, and obey, to see His Kingdom come in your life, and His will be done, for, it is written those who seek the Lord, will lack no good thing. [Psalms 34:10] The goodness of God, comes into your life, as you receive the gift of salvation, that sees you blessed in every aspect of your life, salvation being the sum total of every blessing of God, in Christ, and by the Spirit in your life. And above all, you need to taste and see it, making it your experience in life. Salvation explained: It is by grace you are saved, through faith in the Son of God, who after offering purification for the sins of the whole world is now seated at the right hand of God the Father. He is now appropriating in your life and mine, all that He has already accomplished, on the Cross, and is now appropriating it into our lives. [Ephesians 2:7,8] [Hebrews 1:3]
From darkness to light:
It involves being rescued from the domain of darkness, to be transferred into the Kingdom of the Son, in whom you have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. [Colossians 1:13,14] Redemption is rescuing, and then also restoring all that was damaged by sin in your life, to be transformed to be conformed to the image of the Son of God. It is seen in the scriptures in both creation and new creation, for there is a wonderful similarity that comes through as you study it. In the beginning, when God created the heavens and earth, the earth was formless and empty, and darkness covered the face of the deep, while the Spirit of God hovered over the waters. [Genesis 1:1] There was darkness and chaos or disorder until God spoke, ‘Let there be light’. And, there was light. [Verse 3] A similar principle can be seen to be at work, even in the creation of man, and in him becoming a new creation, by the light of Christ shining in him, the true Light, Jesus, Son of God. He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him, their minds being darkened by ignorance and the power of the evil one. There was no illumination by the Spirit of God, to open their eyes to the truth of God. And why it is so, is what the apostle Paul has explained thus: They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of their ignorance and their hardness of heart. [Ephesians 4:18]
1. Darkened understanding
2. Ignorance
3. Hardness of heart
1. Darkened understanding:
This is what makes a man who is not born of the Spirit, blissfully deny any problem that is in him. He may be thinking that he is not committing any gross misconduct regularly. But it is not so in the sight of God. For, the scriptures declare that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God; and there is none righteous no, not one. It is the plain unvarnished truth. Then again, he could be worshiping, what is merely a figment of his imagination, and not the One True Living God a tall. For, a darkened understanding, leads to an erroneous concept of God who will accommodate his lifestyle choices, even if they go against the word of God, just because it makes him happy, and God wants him to be happy. But then, even an earthly parent knows that his child is left to its ways, in its growing up years, which would only spell disaster. And ‘live and let live’, ‘to each his own’, is what this post-modernistic philosophy, that we live in is all about. There are no absolutes. And only the power and truth of the gospel can deliver you.
2. Ignorance:
Also, the fact remains that the prince of this world has blinded the minds of people, and only the true Light that comes into you through the word of God, can open blind eyes, to know and experience the truth. There needs to be an overwhelming dependency on God, to walk closely with Him receiving His wisdom in making decisions both big and small. For, sin will always attempt to make you dependent on yourself, edging God out of the picture.
The empty boast:
‘We are doing good without God’, could be the empty boast of the atheist. But he, just as any other person would not be doing good if he realizes that the financial wealth upon which he had been trusting, can for one reason or the other, suddenly disappear into thin air.
True security:
It can happen to the one who is saved too. For what can be taken away from you, can never be your security. Sadly the powerful truth becomes incomprehensible to the one with a carnal mind whose reasoning is itself at fault, due to a darkened understanding. It would all seem foolish and nonsensical, as Paul writes to the Corinthians, those who are worldly or carnal, do not receive the gifts of the Spirit for they are foolishness to them, and they are unable to understand them, for they are discerned spiritually. [1 Corinthians 2:14] Only being led by the Spirit, leads you into all truth and understanding of it, to be enlightened and empowered by it, that even in your anger you may not sin, for the One who has conquered sin, lives in you now.
A righteous anger:
The Lord did get angry, as He did when He asked the man with the withered hand to stretch it forth, and it was made whole, normal as the other. It was the indifference of the people that angered Him, a righteous anger. [Mark 3:5] But today, if there may be among us, a person who has said or done something in the heat of unrighteous anger that has damaged someone seemingly irrevocably, you can find rest in the truth that you have been rescued by God, through Christ, to be filled with the Spirit, and you do not have to go back into the same problem.
3. Hardening of heart:
Sinning can also be willful ignorance, owing to a hardening of heart in you. For, Anyone who knows the right thing to do, and fails to do so, sins. [James 4:17] This can so easily be said about a person knowing that he needs to come to church, on time, choosing to come late. It is all due to the understanding of a person getting clouded, making him unable to see what is right, through the light of God’s word. Also, one ought to be aware that reading the word of God, is to hear from God concerning yourself, for addressing and becoming aware of a problem in yourself, is oftentimes very difficult, while the same problem in another person would be glaringly obvious to you.
Darkness dispelled, by the light of His word:
Let the word of God shine in you this day, to remove every trace of darkness, and His grace working in you give you the enabling and empowering, that you may be transformed to become more and more like Christ Jesus, for it is the only thing that matters in life. Father, We thank Thee for bringing us out of the domain of darkness, into a demonstration of Your love, into marvelous light, the kingdom of your Son, Lord Jesus. May the light of your word, shine in every nook and corner of our hearts, our lives, driving away all darkness, that we may live for Your glory. In the Name of Christ Jesus Amen.
