THE WAR BETWEEN LIGHT AND DARKNESS!
By Wade Martin Hughes, Sr. Kyfingers@aol.com
Matthew 5:14 Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid.
On my first missions trip to Haiti the church there had what they called The Great Convention where Preachers and Christians gathered together from Haiti and the Dominican Republic for a week of services day and night. The first night each missionary was introduced and had time for a brief introduction. When it was my turn I stood with the interpreter and I said: I AM A CANDLE FOR THE LORD… I GIVE MYSELF FOR THE LIGHT. The little man said: WHAT? So I said it again: I AM A CANDLE FOR THE LORD… I GIVE MYSELF FOR THE LIGHT. He still did not understand what I was saying? So I held up my index finger and took my other hand and made a flame. He said: OK, I GET IT, and YOU ARE A CANDLE AND YOU ARE GIVING YOURSELF FOR THE LIGHT OF JESUS!
Later that night, I heard people talking as I walked among them. I asked the interpreter what they are saying. He boldly proclaimed: THEY ARE SAYING HERE COMES THE CANDLE. Each year as I returned to Haiti I could understand that they were saying: HERE COMES THE LIGHT, HIS CANDLE SHINES BRIGHTLY.
The candle becomes and instrument. The candle is not of great importance… the CANDLE EXIST FOR THE LIGHT. When all is said and done, the candle is consumed, burned up into a ball of wax… BUT THE LIGHT SHINES INTO 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.
DO YOU THINK THAT MAN WILL EVER UNDERSTAND THE POWER ON WORDS? DO WE UNDERSTAND: WHAT WAS THE FIRST RECORDED WORDS OF GOD ALMIGHTY?
GOD SPOKE 4 WORDS… THE POWER OF THOSE 4 WORDS ARE STILL FUNCTIONING TODAY: LET THERE BE LIGHT --- AND THE POWER OF THE SPOKEN WORD RELEASED: THERE WAS LIGHT… Then God saw: “ LIGHT WAS GOOD…
Genesis 1:1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. 2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. 3 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. 4 And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness. 5 And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.
There started and ENMITY that day… LIGHT and DARKNESS cannot co-exist.
Ephesians 5:8 (MSG) You groped your way through that murk once, but no longer. You're out in the open now. The bright light of Christ makes your way plain. So no more stumbling around. Get on with it! 9 The good, the right, the true—these are the actions appropriate for daylight hours. 10 Figure out what will please Christ, and then do it. 11 Don't waste your time on useless work, mere busywork, the barren pursuits of darkness. Expose these things for the sham they are. 12 It's a scandal when people waste their lives on things they must do in the darkness where no one will see. 13 Rip the cover off those frauds and see how attractive they look in the light of Christ. 14 Wake up from your sleep, Climb out of your coffins; Christ will show you the light!
ALL LIFE AS WE KNOW IT COMES OUT OF THE GIFT OF LIGHT… Light gives us a NEW HOPE… We are prisoners of hope.
Zechariah 9:12 Turn you to the strong hold, ye prisoners of hope: even to day do I declare that I will render double unto thee;
WE ARE IN AN ALL OUT WAR, LIGHT AGAINST DARKNESS.TOXIC: COULD WE HONESTLY, SERIOUSLY PONDER ENEMYS TO SPIRITUAL LIGHT? DARKNESS RULES BY LACK OF VISION AND IGNORANCE.
**A WEALTH OF INFORMATION CAN LEAD TO A GREAT POVERTY OF ATTENTION?
ADDICTION: not able to stop, spends much time doing, habitually or obsessively surrender to, compulsive physiological need, dependence, tolerance…
Throughout the history of mankind we have seen many enemies to God’s work? There was idleness, laziness, ignorance, materialism, etc. TODAY WE HAVING SEEMINGLY FOUND A GREAT SPIRITUAL ENEMY TO LIGHT --- ADDICTION.
THE DIGITUAL ADDICTION! We would like to thank Dr. Garry Brackett for the fodder for this thought.
30 years ago a young boy came to the altar and was weeping and in earnest prayer. After a few minutes I laid down my guitar and knelt next to the broken lad. We prayed together and I asked him was there something I could agree in prayer for him. He looked up at me and said: PREACHER COULD YOU PRAY THAT MY MOMMY WOULD LOVE ME AS MUCH AS SHE LOVES THE DOG? My heart was broken for this boy.
In 30 years the story has changed: A BOY CAME TO THE ALTAR during worship time. He was uncontrollably weeping and his little heart was broken. We prayed together and I ask him if I could help? He said: PREACHER COULD YOU MAKE MOM GET OFF THE COMPUTER AND CELL PHONE AND LOVE ME?
DIGITAL ADDICTION: I knew a precious couple that had been in and out of church. They got a new computer and got on line. The next thing you knew the man found some dating sights and he began talking to women. Then somehow “HE FELL OUT OF LOVE WITH HIS WIFE? Next? He moved to Ohio and moved in with a woman? He really loved her? He left his children and wife? I did his funeral: hurt wife? Hurt girlfriend? Hurt children? An ugly court case? The addiction was terrible.
Have you ever watch DOCTOR PHIL. A lonely lady finds TRUE LOVE and it cost her hundreds of thousands of dollars?
ADDICTION COST MANY MILLIONS OF DOLLARS. OPIOID, narcotics? Sexual? Pornography? Language?
TODAY WE FACE A GIANT ADDICTION IN THE CHURCH THAT IS AN ENEMY OF THE CROSS.
THE LIGHT HAS MANY ENEMIES. Can we briefly discuss a new enemy to the light in the last 20 years? DIGITAL ADDICTIONS… Our families, our churches and our nation are facing a VERY COSTLY ENEMY. Count the cost of DIGITAL ADDICTION? Have we been lured into thinking there is no real cost for using this amazing technology? Let us low ball our estimates and say you use your technology devices 25 minutes a day, YOU HAVE INVESTED 2 YEARS OF YOUR LIFE. LET US SAY: in the USA we give at least 3 hours a day on the cell phone that will add up to 11 years of our life being attached to a digital device. How about the average of 6 hours a day, that would be 25 years invested to DIGITAL ADDICTION --- THERE IS A GREAT ENEMY OF GOD’S LIGHT.
It has been stated that a wealth of information leads to a POVERTY OF ATTENTION!
This digital addiction cost us greatly. What does it cost? Money? Yes, but more than that… it cost our time, our attention, our production, our energy, meaningful relationships… and our joy and happiness. We play with all the drama queens and kings.
Experts say it only takes 6 seconds to open an email… but the interruption will take 25 minutes to get back into the “DEEP FLOW” OF WORK. How many interruptions occur daily? Is it possible to get little to nothing accomplished in an 8 hour shift because the ATTACK ON THE LIGHT BECAUSE OF DIGITAL INTERUPTIONS…
THERE IS A TERRIBLE ENEMY OF THE LIGHT POSED BY DIGITIAL ADDICTIONS --- WHAT IS THE COST? WE FACE A CHALLENGE: IS THE COST WORTH? I was a guest speaker at a large church. All the young people sat together. As I was teaching I noticed 15 young people bowing their heads in worship? So I walked back toward the teens. I saw they had a large extension cord and they were all hooked together and they were playing a game on their I-PADS. It is sad to report to you, not one of the students came opened their Bibles, not one to the altar, not one prayed? You know: I DID NOT BLAME THE STUDENTS, I BLAME THE PARENTS. Some day as SAMSON DID, THEY WILL SHAKE AND FIND THEY KNEW NOT THE GLORY OF GOD HAD DEPARTED.
THE LAMP REPRESENT LIGHT. WE SEE THE LAMP AS A SYMBOL OF EDUCATION AND WISDOM…
Have you ever got up at night and say I know where everything is, I don’t need the light? Then all of a sudden you toe finds a new target? Your toe nail finds a new level of importance.
Psalm 119:105 Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.
When you are driving you find how important the LOW BEAM and the HIGH BEAM CAN BE. I you are really blessed when you discover FOG LIGHTS. Did you know your WORDS can be LIGHT? We need light to see where we are going?
UNDERSTAND SOMETHING ABOUT DARKNESS? DARKNESS RULES IN THE DESERT AT NIGHT TIME? FEAR TAKES ROOTS AND GROWS IN THE DARKNESS. GOD KNEW THIS… GOD GAVE LIGHT IN THE DESERT. GOD GIVES HIS PEOPLE LIGHT RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF DARKNESS…
Exodus 13:21 And the LORD went before them by day in a pillar of a cloud, to lead them the way; and by night in a pillar of fire, to give them light; to go by day and night: 22 He took not away the pillar of the cloud by day, nor the pillar of fire by night, from before the people.
HUNDREDS OF YEARS LATER, NEHEMIAH SPOKE OF THE COMFORT AND GUIDANCE OF GOD… BE ASSURED GOD WILL NEVER LEAVE HIS PEOPLE IN THE DARK.
Nehemiah 9:12 Moreover thou leddest them in the day by a cloudy pillar; and in the night by a pillar of fire, to give them light in the way wherein they should go.
Nehemiah 9:19 Yet thou in thy manifold mercies forsookest them not in the wilderness: the pillar of the cloud departed not from them by day, to lead them in the way; neither the pillar of fire by night, to shew them light, and the way wherein they should go.
LIGHT EXPOSES THE DIRT… SOMETIMES LIFE GETS VERY DISTORTED AND WE CAN NOT SEE WHAT THE REAL ISSUES AND PROBLEM ARE… THE PROBLEM APPEARS TO BE A LOST COIN. LET US TAKE THE LIGHT AND EXPOSE THE REAL PROBLEM.
Light has many benefits. Will me allow GOD’S PARTY TO SHINE BRIGHTLY?
Luke 15:8 Either what woman having ten pieces of silver, if she lose one piece, doth not light a candle, and sweep the house, and seek diligently till she find it? 9 And when she hath found it, she calleth her friends and her neighbours together, saying, Rejoice with me; for I have found the piece which I had lost.
CONCLUSION: There is a heated battle between LIGHT and DARKNESS. LIGHT AND DARKNESS ILLUSTRATE THE DUALISM OF LIFE. Light and darkness speak to good vs. evil. Light speaks of the presence of God. Darkness speaks of disobedience and rebellion. Faith speaks of light. Fear, doubt and worry speaks of darkness. Darkness 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. 20 For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. 21 But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.
His servant, Wade Martin Hughes, Sr. Kyfingers@aol.com
Next part: FAN THE FLAME OR IGNITE THE FLAME
