Stay In The Light

Stay In The Light

by

Dr. Gale A. Ragan-Reid (May 16, 2016)

“...They prevented me in the day of my calamity: but the LORD was my stay...” (Psalm 18: 1-50, King James Version [God's manifold blessings: To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David, the servant of the LORD, who spake unto the LORD the words of this song in the day that the LORD delivered him from the hand of all his enemies, and from the hand of Saul: And he said,...).

Greetings In The Name Of Jesus,

My sisters and brothers, I come before you to stay the course of those who seek to have their way in spite of the sufferings of the people of the land, greatly endowed in God's manifold blessings yet self-oriented to death for their many sins---not believing that God will do just what he said he would do, deliver them up out of death, for it is by faith that we carry on walking in the light of Christ Jesus. There are so many good people, soldiers for Christ Jesus, who carried the blood-stained banner on the world's battle fields and even more so in the battles that they fought to win in their own hearts and in their own minds when the pressures and influences of the day weighed them down in the darkness of their afflictions, issues and turmoils so much God heard their cries. I remember the days, when my own grief, the darkness of, which plagued my heart and menaced my mind tried to weigh me down to, give up on the hope that the fathers of old spoke of in Hebrews, to let go of faith and diminish into death the enemy of man. When I reflected on the story of Job and how he did not let go---suffered through the struggles of losing each one of his family members, all of his wealth, to dwell in sickness of his body until Satan took his hands off of him, for he did not give up for within him there was a faith untold and unspoken that held him up, lifted him above the words of his friends---so-called friends that advised him to let go for they could not take it anymore watching him suffer so. Job believed more in his faith than he believed in the faith of his own children and he waited on the LORD for he knew how they would speak over his dead body:

“Man that is born of woman is of few days, and full of trouble.

He cometh forth like a flower, and is cut down: he fleeth also as

a shadow, and continueth not. And dost thou open thine eyes

upon such an one, and bringest me into judgment with thee?

Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? Not one. Seeing

his days are determined, the number of his months are with thee,

thou hast appointed his bounds that he cannot pass; Turn from

him, that he may rest, till he shall accomplish, as an hireling,

his day.

For there is hope of a tree, if it be cut down, that it will

sprout again, and that the tender branch thereof will not cease.

Though the root thereof wax old in the earth, and the stock

thereof die in the ground; Yet through the scent of water it

will bud, and bring forth boughs like a plant. But man dieth,

and wasteth away: yea, man giveth up the ghost, and where

is he? As the waters fail from the the sea, and the flood

decayeth and drieth up: So man lieth down, and riseth not:

till the heavens be no more, they shall not awake, not be

raised out of their sleep. O that thou wouldest hide me in

the grave, that thou wouldest keep me secret, until thy

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wrath be past, that thou wouldest appoint me a set time, and

remember me!

If a man die, shall he live again? All the days of my

appointed time will I wait, till my change come. Thou shalt

call and I will answer thee: thou wilt have a desire to work

of thine hands. For now thou numberest my steps: dost

thou not watch over my sin? My transgression is sealed

up in a bag, and thou sewest up mine iniquity. And surely

the mountain falling cometh to nought, and the rock is

removed out of his place.

The waters wear the stones: thou washest away the

things which grow out of the dust of the earth; and thou

destroyest the hope of man. Thou prevailest for ever

against him, and he passeth: thou changest his

countenance, and sendest him away. His sons come to

honour, and he knoweth it not; and they are brought low,

but he perceiveth it not of them. But his flesh upon him