TENTACLES OF DARKNESS

I Was Just Thinking About – TENTACLES OF DARKNESS.

Most Church attenders have heard John 3:16  about God so loving the world for most of their lives. What they fail to acknowledge or consider words Jesus uttered following the words of God’s love. It pertains to how one responds to those words and why they ignore them. Jesus went on to say – John 3:19-20– “And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darknessrather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed.”

During the National Day of Prayer Program yesterday in the Rose Garden of the White House, a unique moment occurred when an unscheduled participant was invited by the President to come forward and say a few words. Rabbi Yisroel Goldstein spoke briefly and shared: “Mr. President, when you called me, I was at home weeping. You were the first person who began my healing  (Rabbi Goldstein had shot in both hands in the attack).” He went on to say: “I faced evil and the greatest darkness…One of my Mentors had instructed me about days of darkness…that I should let the light shine no matter how dark the darknesswas. He told me that we cannot control what others do, but we can control how we react. The way we react in darkness is with light…”

Intellectually, the majority of church attenders agree with the words of the Rabbi. Actuality and Realistically what one knows intellectually is not implemented in any practical way. It seems as though two factors are relevant at this point. A First factor is Second Corinthians 4:3-4, “If our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing.  In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.”  A Second Factor is Ephesians 6:12,  “We do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.”

One way to understand the dichotomy between the Intellectual and Actual is to observe the stand a church/denomination/person is willing to take to properly represent The Light. I suspect that the prophet was somewhat frustrated with this issue when he wrote about the permeation of darknessthat successfully blocks the light from piercing and penetrating. In Micah 7:8– “Though I dwell in darkness, the Lord is a light for me.”We can also understand the frustration of Almighty God when He observed the behavior of the human race in Genesis 6:5-7, “The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually…It led to The Flood. Only Noah and his family was spared”  One would also do well to do a prayerful consideration of the words spoken by Jesus Christ to the 7 Churches in Revelation 2 and 3. Jesus is explicit in terms of what He observes and what The Church should do – not intellectually but actually – to more fully live in the light rather than in darkness.

Prayerfully – Consider these things with me.