Shedding Light

     My heart is so full today! It is just one of those times that you feel Jesus is so close! And He is. Always. He never leaves us or forsakes us. I had an interesting weekend. I won’t go into much detail, but simply put- the enemy launched an attack. He fired some arrows and landed a couple. I was drained. Sunday came at the perfect time. I was still feeling some aftershocks. But Monday morning was awesome. The Lord touched me and spoke to and encouraged my heart. What the enemy intended to be a curse, the Lord turned into a blessing. My tank was refueled! 

Isaiah 60:1-3-“Arise, shine, for your light has come,and the glory of the Lord rises upon you. See darkness covers the earth and thick darkness is over the people, but the Lord rises upon you. Nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of you dawn.”

     Well it doesn’t take a rocket scientist, or a prophet, for that matter, to tell you that darkness is becoming more prevalent. Darkness is becoming the norm. We were just talking the other night about how the tv has gotten so terrible. You can no longer watch the tv without seeing the effects of the perverse times that we live. Is. 60 tells us that the world will be covered in darkness, but there is good news. The glory and light of the Lord is upon us. 

     Sure darkness may ultimately be coming, but that doesn’t mean we just have to accept that. The Lord is looking to strengthen His church to push back darkness as long as possible. His eyes are searching the earth for those who are committed to shed light on the darkness. It is up to us to answer the call! We can choose to sit back and just say,” whatever happens, happens”, or we can ARISE and SHINE! 

     If we choose to arise and shine, we can be sure that the glory will follow us. No darkness can overshadow the glory. We must make this decision to come to and into the light. Jn. 3:19 says, ” Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.” Evil deeds will keep many from coming into the light because the light will expose their actions. We must be of those who walk in the light. We do this so that others will see Jesus through us. Jesus is the light of the world. We are called to be a reflection of Him.

     Unfortunately the dark will get darker. When the dark gets darker, what happens to the light? The light shines brighter. We must make our choice now to walk in light and truth. If we do not, the dark places will get even darker. What does this ultimately do? It removes the neutral position. Neutrality from this point on is ruled out. In Mt. 12:30 Jesus says, “Whoever is not with me is against me.” Are you hot or cold, luke warm is going to be spit out. 

     The body of Christ can no longer be content with sunday morning Christianity. This must be an everyday commitment. Complacent Christians will be steamrolled, literally. The heat and pressure of the coming times will suffocate many. The love of many will grow cold. 

     I don’t think we will even have the conversations of weather this person or that person, or this kind or that kind of church will go to heaven. Denominations will be old history. You will either be hot or cold. For Jesus or against Him. You will either gather or scatter. Listen to what Rev. 22:10 says; “Let him who does wrong continue to do wrong; let him who is vile continue to be vile; let him who does right continue to do right; and let him who is holy continue to be holy.” 

     Again, I emphasize that you can not stand still. You have to go up or you will go down. The bad will get worse, the corrupt will continue to get more corrupt. At the same time, we cannot be content in our righteousness. We cannot be content with our current walk with the Lord. It must increase! The flame must get bigger! Jesus must be our passion. My prayer is that the Lord continues to reveal His love to us that we might love Him more. We can only love Him because He first loved us.

     So, what is our job? To let our light shine. Matthew 5 tells us that “we are the light of the world.” It says to “let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.” We must put our light on display. It’s time to shine! It’s time for the rising of the bright and shining lamps. This life is meaningless unless we are displaying Jesus to others. Just as the moon is so visible in a vast ocean of darkness, so are we to be to this world. The moon is merely a reflection of the sun. Sound familiar….Just what we are called to be- a reflection of the Son. 

     It is time for the church to be in full moon phase. We can no longer settle for first quarter, half or three quarter phase. We must be at maximum brightness. When this happens the Word says that the nations and kings will come to our light. It is time for the church to be the answer. It is time for Jesus to be shone through His bride. The nation needs answers. The government needs help. Let us be the ones they turn to for the solutions to the problems. Not so much us, but Christ in us. 

     God, let us be counted among those that advance the light of Jesus and pierce the darkness!

Be blessed,

Jarod