Don’t Let Your Darkness Grow

 This week a man we knew, who served with us for a number of months several years ago, carried out unexplainable evil by taking the lives of his wife, his mother, his father, and then himself.  In the process he orphaned four children and left a community in shock.

 

What can we learn from a situation where no matter how hard we try it remains beyond our understanding?  What would possess someone to take such actions?  One Scripture came to mind for me and I will use it to make an appeal to all of us.

   ““The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are healthy, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eyes are unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!”    Matthew‬ ‭6:22-23‬ ‭NIV‬‬

   How we view our world is important.  In the midst of talking about the power of things, Jesus says that if you keep a healthy, a singular, focused view of life, understanding your world in a good way, light will radiate in your soul.  You understand His love for you,  His provision for you, His purposes for you.  But when your eye is unhealthy, literally evil, things get dark.  The word can also mean growing with complications. Relational challenges, compounded with financial challenges, compounded with social challenges, compounded with……  The darkness grows and grows to the point where it is so deep and so dark that it leads to depths of unspeakable evil.  It is evident that this is where our friend went this week, all because he allowed his darkness to grow.

   My appeal to us all, because this can happen to us all, is that we don’t allow our darkness to grow.  The moment the light begins to dim, pause.  Ask for help in understanding what God has to say about the issue, shining light on the darkness.  Don’t isolate with your thoughts, your fears, your doubts.  That is how darkness grows.  And hell is described as a place of outer darkness.  

Job, who lost his ten children, his business and his health all within hours, all without explanation as to why, went to a very dark place.  Here are  his words at one point:

““Why then did you bring me out of the womb? I wish I had died before any eye saw me. If only I had never come into being, or had been carried straight from the womb to the grave! Are not my few days almost over? Turn away from me so I can have a moment’s joy before I go to the place of no return, to the land of gloom and utter darkness, to the land of deepest night, of utter darkness and disorder, where even the light is like darkness.””   Job‬ ‭10:18-22‬ ‭NIV‬‬

That is dark.  But by crying out to and truly seeking the Lord, light began to shine.  And his attitude went from deep dark to this:

“I know that my redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand on the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God; I myself will see him with my own eyes—I, and not another. How my heart yearns within me!”    Job‬ ‭19:25-27‬ 

A glimmer of hope broke the darkness.  And by the end of his book, he saw God in a way and to a depth he had never known Him before.  The darkness was dispelled and light filled his life once again.

Please do not allow your darkness to grow.  Our darkness, no matter how deep, is never beyond the light of Jesus.  Satan breeds darkness to destroy and bring death.  Jesus brings light and that light is life!

Reflections

Building over the cave where John received the Revelation

 History is a wonderful teacher when we take time to sit at its feet.  In fact, Paul wrote to the Romans that “For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through the endurance taught in the Scriptures and the encouragement they provide we might have hope.”   Romans‬ ‭15:4‬ ‭NIV‬‬

   So as we have returned home from our trip to Greece and cruise of the Aegean Sea to Ephesus and Patmos and Crete and Rhodes, I am trying to sit at the feet of what we saw and heard and learned.  Here are a few of my reflections.

   First, when people lack a true understanding of God, they continually seek to appease or engage the forces that are shaping their lives.  We call that idolatry.  When Paul arrived at Athens, he walked around and was distressed by what he saw.  So he engaged people in conversation, in order to bring light to them. He eventually was invited to address the influencers among them and he said, “People of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: to an unknown god. So you are ignorant of the very thing you worship—and this is what I am going to proclaim to you.”    Acts‬ ‭17:22-23‬ ‭NIV‬‬

   It was not an accusation; it was an observation and they received it as such.  I’m praying I (we) may be as observant as Paul, willing to engage people like Paul, and our observations received like Paul’s.

    Second, people are discipled best by doing life with their mentor and watching.  Paul picked up Timothy, a timid young man who was spoken well of, while traveling through Asia Minor.  He brought him onto his entourage, and Timothy watched as Paul struggled where to go next; was beaten and jailed for no reason; miraculously was freed from that jail and led his guard to the Lord; was threatened in a couple more towns before being sent to Athens by boat in a covert escape.  He heard Paul reasoning with people. He watched as Paul used his Roman citizenship as a tool to guarantee the local church would not be under the same scrutiny when he left.  He got to see it all.  And later experienced it all. You can read about it in Acts 16-19.  Later Paul wrote to Timothy, “You, however, know all about my teaching, my way of life, my purpose, faith, patience, love, endurance, persecutions, sufferings—what kinds of things happened to me in Antioch, Iconium and Lystra, the persecutions I endured. Yet the Lord rescued me from all of them. In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, while evildoers and impostors will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it,”   2 Timothy‬ ‭3:10-14‬ ‭NIV‬‬

I want to be a mentor, a parent, a pastor, a teacher, who does life intimately with those around me and be a constant reminder of the grace, the power, the provision, and the glory of our Lord.

   A final thought is that history is His Story, and our lives are but dots on the line of eternity.  So the only thing that truly matters is pointing people to Him. Statues to men will crumble but the eternal Word of God stand firms, and the heavens declare His glory throughout ALL generations.

As John was told to write in the Revelation as he received it on the island of Patmos:

“To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood, and has made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father—to him be glory and power for ever and ever! Amen. “Look, he is coming with the clouds,” and “every eye will see him, even those who pierced him”; and all peoples on earth “will mourn because of him.” So shall it be! Amen. “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty.””    Revelation‬ ‭1:5-8‬ ‭NIV‬‬

AMEN!