STREAMS OF LIGHT IN DARKENED CORNERS

Greetings Children of the Light...

"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.  The earth was formless and void (waste and empty) and DARKNESS was over the surface of the deep; and the SPIRIT OF GOD was moving (hovering) over the surface of the waters.  Then God said...LET THERE BE LIGHT...and there WAS LIGHT.  And God saw that the LIGHT was good; and God separated the LIGHT from the DARKNESS."  (Genesis 1:1-5)

NOTE:  The first picture of the bright orb is one I took in a photography class at Smyrna Assembly (now Springhouse). It is a macro shot of a paperweight on my desk... and I framed it and called it...FROM CHAOS TO ORDER...LIGHT BE.
"Therefore..if any man/woman/human is in Christ, they are NEW (light)  creations.. the OLD(dark)  things past away...behold NEW (light )things have come."  (II Corinthians 5:17)

When I read this verse I thing of my life B.C. (before Christ) and my life A.D. (Anno Domina Nostri Iesu Christi...aka In the year of the Lord Jesus Christ).  God looked down upon my sinful life...and as I received, accepted, believed, confessed Jesus as Lord and believed in my heart that God raised Him from the dead...that God said..."LIGHT BE!"  Back in the fall of 1970...I stepped from DARKNESS into the LIGHT...from CHAOS to ORDER.  Larry Norman has an album entitled...STREAMS OF LIGHT IN DARKENED CORNERS...and I think about Jesus coming into a dark world...needing a Saviour...needing a light.

"In Him (Jesus...the Word) was life; and the life was the LIGHT of men...and the LIGHT SHINES in the DARKNESS; and the DARKNESS did not comprehend it.  There came a man , sent from God, whose name was John.  He came for a witness, that he might bear witness of THE LIGHT, that all might believe through him.  He was NOT THE LIGHT...but came that he might BEAR WITNESS OF THE LIFE." (John 1:4-5)

As Adam and Eve fell in the Garden (Genesis 3:1-24) and sin/darkness was introduced into the world and throughout the ages up until this current writing (Romans 2:10; 3:23; 5:12)...we see more and more the need for a LIGHT.  Jesus came to be a LIGHT in the DARKNESS...and then take us from the DARKNESS INTO THE LIGHT. "For He (Jesus) delivered us from the DOMAIN (authority) of DARKNESS...and TRANSFERRED us to the KINGDOM OF HIS BELOVED SON (a kingdom of light)...in whom we have REDEMPTION...the FORGIVENESS OF SINS."  (Colossians 1:13-14)


We are living in what some call "The End Times"  We have Mayan keepers of time with their calendar that is coming to and end in December 21, 2012...on top of over the years since the days of Jesus...that the end of the world is coming and people with all kinds of time lines and predictive dates for this end to take place.  Back in the day...people were so sure the Lord was coming back...they would stop living and just wait.  One thing for sure...He is coming back...and the world as we know it will come to an end...but this Rambling is not going set a timeline for this to take place.

I know this...these are the LAST DAYS...and people (not all) will be acting a certain way.  In I Timothy Chapter 3 Paul warns Timothy of certain people in the last days filled with difficulty time.

"But realize this, that IN THE LAST DAYS....DIFFICULT TIMES WILL COME." (I Timothy 3:1)  What follows is a litany of those characteristics of "last days...difficult times"...people. 

-lovers of self
-lovers of money
-boastful
-arrogant
-revilers
-disobedient to parents
-ungrateful
-unholy
-unloving
-irreconcilable
-malicious gossips
-without self-control
-brutal
-haters of good
-treacherous
-reckless
-conceited
-lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God
-holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power
-entering into households and captivate weak women weight down with sins
-led on by various impulses
-always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of truth
-opposers of truth
-men of depraved mind
-rejected as regards to the faith
-not making progress
-their folly obvious to all
-evil men and impostors will proceed from bad to worse
-deceiving and being deceived

The world is falling apart...it is getting worse and worse...evil is rising...and the only option is either give up...or turn into the very evil that we are worried about.  What are we to do in this DARK world.  We are called to WALK IN THE LIGHT...as HE IS IN THE LIGHT.

"An this is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you that GOD IS LIGHT and in Him there is NO DARKNESS at all.  If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet WALK IN THE DARKNESS...we lie and do not practice TRUTH; but if we WALK IN THE LIGHT...as He Himself is IN THE LIGHT...we have fellowship with one another, and the BLOOD OF JESUS HIS SON...CLEANSES US FROM ALL SIN." (I John 1:5-7)

In these DARK DAYS...we as believers in the D.B.R. of Jesus...can let/allow the DARKNESS to overwhelm us...or...LET OUR LIGHTS SHINE EVEN BRIGHTER.

"You are the LIGHT OF THE WORLD.  A city set on a hill cannot be hidden.  Nor do men LIGHT A LAMP, and put it under the peck measure, but on the LAMPSTAND...and it gives LIGHT to all who are in the house...LET YOUR LIGHT SHINE before men in such a way that they may see your good works...and glorify your Father who is in heaven." (Matthew 5:14-16)

FINAL THOUGHTS...FINALLY

Evil and unrighteousness just keep getting worse and worse....but FEAR NOT.

"For if by the transgress of the one (Adam), death reigned through the one, much more those who receive the abundance of GRACE and of the GIFT OF RIGHTEOUSNESS will reign in life through the One...Jesus Christ.  So then as through one transgression there resulted condemnation to all men, even so through one act of righteousness there resulted justification of life to all men.  For through the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of The One Man were made righteous.  And the Law came in that the transgression might increase; but where sin increased...even so...GRACE MIGHT REIGN THROUGH RIGHTEOUSNESS to eternal life...JESUS CHRIST OUR LORD." (Romans 5:17-21)

"The darker the night...the brighter the light." (R.L.B.)

"But nothing worth having comes without some kind of fight...got to kick at the DARKNESS 'til it bleeds DAYLIGHT." (Lovers In A Dangerous Time by Bruce Cockburn)

Love and Brighter Kisses
Rodney "Kickin' It" Boyd