Showing posts with label darkness. Show all posts
Showing posts with label darkness. Show all posts

Monday, December 17, 2012

If We Give Up On Christmas?

In the wake of these December school shooting in Connecticut, USA, some are asking if Christmas should just be cancelled? Should we turn off the decorative lights associated with these year-end Holy Days?

I say, "Please don't cancel Christmas. And please don't turn off the lights, because right now our dark world needs all of the light it can get."

If we give up on Christmas, we give up on Faith, Hope and Love.
And we will sadly give in to hate, violence, and darkness.

Father God, thanks for giving to us Your Son and for giving through Him Your Peace that is not of this world, but is for this world.


 Grateful

Thursday, November 1, 2012

The Manhattan Rescue - "Daddy, Can You Come?"

If you read my blog earlier this week, you know that our daughter and son-in-law live in Lower Manhattan, New York City. The Lord recently saw them through the mega-storm, Sandy, as the tropical storm surge brought 14-feet of tide waters along the Battery Park neighborhood where they live. That's the highest tide in New York City since 1821.

Well, still days after the storm, there is still no power, gas, water, or transit in Manhattan. So, about noon yesterday, I texted my daughter to see if she would like me to drive the 350-plus miles and attempt to get into the city and bring them home for a few days just to get their bearings. She replied humbly, "Daddy, can you come?"

A few minutes later I was on interstate 81 north in my Ford making my first trip ever to New York City. As night was falling, I reached the outskirts of the Big Apple. I had heard Mayor Bloomberg was limiting cars through the Lincoln Tunnel, my only way in. It took some time in traffic gridlock, but finally after a few attempts, I came through the tunnel into Midtown and made an immediate right on 34th Street (Yes, it's "The Miracle on 34th Street" street.) to drive towards Lower Manhattan.

After a few blocks of driving through lighted sections of the city, without warning total darkness engulfed me. All traffic lights were out. The skyscrapers were in blackout. It was Halloween.  A full moon moved in and out of the clouds to my left. It was eerie. (I never felt such deep emotion entering a city for the first time, except for my first entry into Jerusalem in the year 2000 and those emotions were much different than these emotions.)

As I made my way through the financial district, the full moon gave me hope as it kept reappearing between the tall, silhouetted, steel structures. Though I was not able to really read the road signs very well, my GPS eventually said "arriving at destination". I called my daughter's cell phone and said "I am close." The joy in her voice was unfathomable. In the dark streets we finally found each other. The journey out of Manhattan was much more delightful for the three of us, simply and profoundly because we were all together and we were all leaving the darkness in the rear view mirror while looking through the windshield towards the welcoming lights.

It was a long and wonderful ride back to Virginia. I was the only one awake for most of the trip. At 5 a.m., we pulled onto the driveway at our home. I was so humbled and grateful.

Today, has been a good day so far. And, yes, I am humbled speechless. In case you are wondering, I do indeed sense a message from God's Holy Word working through my mind in light of this experience. It feels an awful lot like The Christmas Story, actually, in that, Father God (in the Person of His one and only Son, Jesus) left his home of comfort and light and came into our dark dilemma to rescue us, His children, by bringing us out of our darkness and back home with Him.

This song is echoing in my heart as well:

Keep praying please, because in the next day or so we need to make a return trip to NYC so our daughter's and our son-in-law's life together can hopefully begin to get back to some sense of "normal". Today's news is still discouraging, saying it could be weeks before power is restored to some of the buildings in their neighborhood. However, they do have to get back to work. I rest in knowing that God is already at work.

And please pray for all the precious souls at risk in the northeastern United States. That's really what I was so emotional about when I drove into New York City for the first time last night.

Grateful

Saturday, July 16, 2011

Add Singing To Your Praying

Are you discouraged in darkness? Do you need prison doors to open in your life? Why not add singing to your praying? They go together. In fact, they work wonders together!

(25) About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing praises to God, while the other prisoners listened. (26) Suddenly a strong earthquake shook the jail to its foundations. The doors opened, and the chains fell from all the prisoners.
-- Acts 16:25-26 (CEV)

Satan's seeds of discouragement can never thrive in the heart of a grateful believer who will not quit praying and singing.

By Faith! In Faith! (Hebrews 11)
Grateful

Friday, April 29, 2011

Psalm 88

Some believe that Psalm 88 is a prophecy psalm of our Messiah, to be read imagining our Savior suffering in a dark dungeon beneath the house of the high preist following His mock trial by the religious leaders in the early morning hours just prior to His appearance before Governor Pilate.

Psalm 88 (NLT) -- A song. A psalm of the Sons of Korah. For the director of music. According to mahalath leannoth.[b] A maskil[c] of Heman the Ezrahite.

1 LORD, you are the God who saves me;
day and night I cry out to you.
2 May my prayer come before you;
turn your ear to my cry.
3 I am overwhelmed with troubles
and my life draws near to death.
4 I am counted among those who go down to the pit;
I am like one without strength.
5 I am set apart with the dead,
like the slain who lie in the grave,
whom you remember no more,
who are cut off from your care.
6 You have put me in the lowest pit,
in the darkest depths.
7 Your wrath lies heavily on me;
you have overwhelmed me with all your waves.
8 You have taken from me my closest friends
and have made me repulsive to them.
I am confined and cannot escape;
9 my eyes are dim with grief.
I call to you, LORD, every day;
I spread out my hands to you.
10 Do you show your wonders to the dead?
Do their spirits rise up and praise you?
11 Is your love declared in the grave,
your faithfulness in Destruction?
12 Are your wonders known in the place of darkness,
or your righteous deeds in the land of oblivion?
13 But I cry to you for help, LORD;
in the morning my prayer comes before you.
14 Why, LORD, do you reject me
and hide your face from me?
15 From my youth I have suffered and been close to death;
I have borne your terrors and am in despair.
16 Your wrath has swept over me;
your terrors have destroyed me.
17 All day long they surround me like a flood;
they have completely engulfed me.
18 You have taken from me friend and neighbor—
darkness is my closest friend.

Holiness Unto the LORD!
Grateful

Friday, March 11, 2011

What Are You Thinking?

From that time Jesus began to preach and to say: "Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand." -- Matthew 4:17 (KJV)

And so, the commencement of Jesus' ministry as the public cryer was well underway, and He broke the silence by continuously crying out: "What are you thinking? Reconsider how you think. Turn around from the darkness and walk in the light. The King of the Heavenly Kingdom is here and now."
-- Matthew 4:17 (An Amplified Paraphrase from the Original Greek)

Lord, I want to be among "The Repenters!" Those who desire the mind of Christ. Amen.

By Faith! In Faith! (Hebrews 11)
Grateful

Sunday, February 6, 2011

Keepers of The Lighthouses

A friend of mine, Keith D., found the words in italics below on a page of a book titled, "Leaves of Gold". He sent the words to me because our local church's annual men's retreat to The Outer Banks of North Carolina (now in its seventeenth year) is called "Keepers of the Light". Being raised along the coastline, it's a moving piece of literature for my heart, mind, and soul:

Keepers of the lighthouses do not launch any ships, it is true, but they keep many a good ship from going to wreck. The light shines farther than keepers of the light can see, and brightest when they cannot see at all. Two things they have to remember -- to keep the light burning, and never to get in between the light and the darkness they've been set to lighten.

You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. -- Words of Jesus in Matthew 5:14 (NIV)

Lord, I want to be a keeper of Your Light, that is, I want to keep the light of Your Hope that burns within me shining at all times. Also, help me not to block out the light, lest those lost in sin's dark night would not see the shine of Your Presence and tragically not find their way Home to You. In Jesus's name. Amen.


Be Light. Go Shine.
Grateful

Friday, January 21, 2011

Who Lights Your Lamp?

In Psalm 18 (ESV) these words rise up from within the passage to warm my heart today:

With the merciful You show Yourself merciful... for You save a humbled people... for it is You, Who lights my lamp, the Lord My God lightens my darkness...

Let us now as lantern wavers... Be Light! Go Shine!
Grateful

Sunday, December 5, 2010

Who Lights Up Your Life?

Jesus said to the people, "I am the light of the world. If you follow me, you won’t be stumbling through the darkness, because you will have the light that leads to life." -- John 8:12 (NLT)

ALL JOY TO YOUR WORLD! (ALL LIGHT, TOO!)
Grateful

Sunday, November 28, 2010

The Son's Light Destroys The Devil's Darkness

The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work. -- 1 John 3:8 (NLT)

John 8 and 1 John 3 tells us that Jesus is the Light of the World, Who came to destroy the devil's works of darkness! That's why God the Father sent His Son to Bethlehem -- to turn the Bright Light on so that the dark deceptions of the devil in our lives could be forever exposed and erased. INDEED, THE SON'S LIGHT DESTROYS THE DEVIL'S DARKNESS!

Heather Headley's sings "Light of the World -- Here I am to Worship":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVj1unWwlSk

ALL JOY TO YOUR WORLD!
Grateful

Thursday, February 25, 2010

Pure Light

1 John 1:5 from the Message Paraphrase of the Holy Bible contains these eternally bright words:

God is light, pure light; there’s not a trace of darkness in Him.

Lord, let Your pure light come and shine in and through me. Yes, that I might BE LIGHT! GO SHINE! ... Your pure light to Your world. Amen.

IF MY PEOPLE... WILL? I WILL! God's Promise in 2 Chron. 7:14.
Grateful

Thursday, October 22, 2009

Witnessing the Glory and the Agony of Jesus

Today in my devotional reading I was reminded that the three, inner-circle disciples of Jesus --Peter, James, and John -- witnessed not only the glory of Christ during His Transfiguration, but they also witnessed His agony in Gethsemane.

Surely, because our Lord is present, whether we are surrounded by light or engulfed by darkness, we are blessed. As the Psalmist said in Psalm 23, Yeah though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for You are with me.

ALL JOY!
Grateful

Monday, October 5, 2009

Shine Like Beacon Lights

Consider these words from The Living Bible, Philippians 2:14-16a...

(14) In everything you do, stay away from complaining and arguing (15) so that no one can speak a word of blame against you. You are to live clean, innocent lives as children of God in a dark world full of people who are crooked and stubborn. Shine out among them like beacon lights, (16) holding out to them the Word of Life.

ALL JOY!
Grateful

Sunday, September 27, 2009

We Don't Belong to Darkness

1 Thessalonians 5:5-6 (NLT) (5) For you are all children of the light and of the day; we don’t belong to darkness and night. (6) So be on your guard, not asleep like the others. Stay alert and be sober.

ALL JOY!
Grateful

Friday, July 17, 2009

Pray Don't Pry

This thought came to me this morning in my early saturation time with the Scriptures.

If we have reason to believe that people we know or even strangers we encounter are walking in darkness that is destructive to their souls, let us trust God and be devoted to pray their eyes open rather than trying to argue with them in an attempt to pry their eyes open.

Afterall, James 5:16b (NIV) declares: The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective!

ALL JOY!
Grateful