Light or Dark?

This is a passage from my prayer journal, archived from September of 2006.

“From reading Psalm 4;

God, you hear me when I call. You answer when I knock. You see my weary face after a long hard day of sinning. Why is it tat you do not give up on people like me? I deserve nothing. Sin is around the corner, yet you look at me and see me no different than Daniel of David. I am a sinner just as they were. Use me, Father. Use me in great ways. Help me to stay level headed and on track with what you want for me. Lord help me to put others first. I have more than so many do. Lord, help me to have a giving heart. Lord, the nations need you! Open their ears! Let revival come! Have us, Lord. Take us! We are a fallen planet. Do not forsake me or this sinful place. Forgive us. Embrace us, Lord. Help us to be like you. Amen.”

I encourage you to lift a pray like this to Heaven. To examine your motives. Find your place in the kingdom. The work is great and the workers are few. Where are our eyes? Fixated on that righteous calling, or are we hiding in our cave of darkness?

Jumping ahead now to the Sandals sermon from 2/22/09:

This is based from the first chapter of John and simply my free verse as I listen to the message. Pastor Matt described Jesus as the Life Light. I encourage you to find some darkness. I mean pure, spooky dark. The closet with no lights, and something stuck under the door to let even less light in. I’m talking, “I can’t see my hand an inch from my face” darkness. Don’t stay there long. Just long enough to realize you are lost to what seems as endless amounts of pure dark. Then, hit the lights. Notice that the smallest amount of light will DOMINATE the darkness. Now it might not make it all go away, but you can see enough to navigate. Why? Light, even the smallest amount will cancel out the dark. As Pastor Matt said, it’s not 50/50 ratio here. On to my real point.
We get scared when Jesus turns on the lights. Why is it that we run from the good and straight back to the bad, or darkness? Ashamed of wrong doing? Somehow we find comfort in the shame and embarrassment. It seems contradictory. Why are we scared? Is it the consequences? Our sins are forgiven! Punishable, but forgiven. God knows what we are doing. He can see it. God’s prerogative here is to show us the Light. For us to embrace it. Run to it. Hold fast to the warmth. Are we light cockroaches and demons, scattering at the first sign of light? My challenge to you is to come to God, the Light, warmth, comfort, and friend. He is there to take us to a lit road to righteousness that we can navigate. We need to stay out of the darkness. Its too easy to get lost. Period.