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… So if the light in you is darkness, how terribly dark it
will be! Matthew 6:23
In the late 1980s, the
McKamey family
released a song titled “Were
getting used to the dark.”
The words of the song are further down below in this writing.
I recall teaching a lesson,
while we attended an Institutionalized church, in which I closed the
classroom door and turned off the inner lights. It was pitch dark! The only residual light
coming into the classroom was through the vent holes on the door. I
continued to teach on the importance of walking in the light, while
we yet have light. For, when one fails or refuses to walk in the
light of the Gospel, the light is soon overtaken by darkness, and as
the scriptures teach, “how great is that darkness.”
After some time, our eyes
had acclimated to the dark such that we were able to clearly see one another and to
comfortably move around the room, as though the light were yet
brightly shining. In fact, my eyes adjusted to the dark such that I
could even read my outline notes with little to no problem at all.
Yet, we were in gross darkness!!
With that in mind, I fear that all
too many people who once saw light and are yet in a religious
institution or spiritually dead church may be doing the same thing.
Many have testified to having personally witnessed the many wrongs
that are within the religious system (or their particular church or
denomination)
and the spiritual decline all around them, yet today, they continue
to stay in the system, and in some cases are now even promoting its
cause.
What has happened? They have gotten
used to the dark. The things that once bothered them now have become
accepted as the norm. The cries against wrong doing and blatant sin in the camp,
have been drowned out or hushed by the noise of religious activities and
fleshly entertainment. It is a very serious condition to be in when
“men love darkness rather than light.”
Little by little, ray by ray, the
light has been replaced with darkness. Yet no one seems to notice.
Peter said “For it had been better for them not to have known
the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn
from the holy commandment delivered unto them.” 2 Peter 2:21
If you are
such a person, what is your hope of deliverance? Similarly. as Saul
was confronted with a bright light on the road to Damascus, you must get a new revelation of
Jesus Christ. As described in Acts 26:16-19, you must:
1. Arise and
stand on your feet
2. Get
delivered from the people
3. Turn your
eyes upon Jesus
4. Turn from darkness to light
5. Turn from
the authority of Satan to God
6. Confess and
receive
forgiveness of sins
7. Be obedient
to the heavenly vision
Nothing short of these steps will bring deliverance from darkness
and bring one into the light of the full Gospel.
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