LIGHTS IN THE DARKNESS

    LIGHTS IN THE DARKNESS are shining as the traffic heads through the cities and twist its way to where home may be.   As we head into the New Year, let us think about Lights in the Darkness and how it fits into our walk along Life's Road.
    Many people, perhaps one of you, travel many hours on the road each day just to go to work, and come home.   Others are on the move because their work is doing just that.   
    This time of year, Christmas lights are still up, and glistening in the dark.     
    How can I walk in the road of life if I can not see ahead of me?
I cannot.   Even a car or truck has to have both rear lights and front lights...as the driver heads into the night, or gets up in the early morning hours to head into the day later on, has to have its lights on.
     Jesus said "Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven."
        Again Jesus said "I am the Light of the world.  He that follows me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life."
    Again Jesus said, in his last hours, praying to the Father "Father, the hour is come, glorify thy Son, that thy Son may also glorify thee: as thou has given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him.  And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent."   John 17.1 - 3 
     The tragedy of darkness is the inability to see one's way.  Jesus is that Light to light up the darkness as we travel on Life's Road.  I encourage you to let Him become your Light.   
     John 3.16  Jesus said to Nicodemus one night long ago "for God so loved the world that He gave His only Begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life."  
     

HOLY DAYS A TIME OF REFLECTION

WITH THE HOLY DAYS OF CHANUKKAH AND THANKSGIVING, AND CHRISTMAS, WE SEE A TIME FOR REFLECTION. There are so many things that contribute to the times in our lives when we gather with others to think about and mull over who God is, and what He has done. Let us use the time wisely, and well. Let us remember to be grateful for the chance to reflect. In loneliness and sorrow, a person often feels lost and apart from others if a Holiday begins. Let us remember that the memories of that dear loved one is only special because we did celebrate together on those days. It is an honor to them, and to God, then, to take on the celebration of these Holy Days and make them a memorable and meaningful time for ourselves, in the midst of loss. My dear husband is now in the presence of our God Our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. God is a Spirit, Jesus said, and must be worshipped in Spirit and in Truth. The only God we shall see when we die, or when Jesus comes to take us home in the Rapture, will be Jesus, for Jesus Himself told the disciples, to see Him was to be seeing the Father, and to know Him is to know the Father. We are to abide in Him, and His Words are to abide in us, and so then we can ask what we wish, and it shall be granted. Don't lose the J O Y of Christmas, or the J O Y of Chanukkah, or of Thanksgiving. Take your loss, and let God be your comfort in your time of need. Psalm Twenty Three tells us "The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want." So let us hold to that. He will fill our loneliness and loss with Himself, as we celebrate the Holy Days. He is God, and God knows and cares and understands our sorrows. He loved us and sent His Son to buy us out of the slave market of sin, and set us free to live and to live in the abundance of Joy. Walk as God would have you walk, in faith that even as Enoch walked with God, and was not, for God took him - so too you can. Walk as Noah walked, in faith that God was going to keep His promise to him. Walk as Abram walked, knowing God would provide as He promised. Most of all, for those of you who are believers in Y'SHUA, WALK AS JESUS WALKED, knowing God is our comfort, our peace, and our strength.

PRAYING AND PRAISING AS WE WALK ALONG

   Praying and Praising as we walk along, God will give us His Presence in the Dear Holy Spirit.   Always the Holy Spirit is with us.  John 14.26 "But the Comforter the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my Name, shall teach you all things and bring to your remembrance whatever I have said to you." 

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    Here we have the Promise Jesus gave the Disciples that He was going to go and be with the Father in the Father's House, and while He is gone, the Spirit would be the Comforter.   In the Greek it is rendered as "the one who comes alongside".   How true that is.   The Disciples probably were overwhelmed by the prospect of Jesus - Y'shua - leaving.    How would they remember everything they were supposed to remember?  What if they would forget His words?   So here they received His sure word that the Holy Spirit would remind them of the Words - the very words - Jesus - our Y'shua - gave them.   And today we can make this application for ourselves to some degree.   It is true that the Holy Spirit protected the Words and life of Jesus as they wrote out the Gospels, and proclaimed His words through the letters they sent to the Believers in the early Church.    God's Word is now Complete, and we have His Promise that these Words are what Jesus said, are what God Himself wanted put down in record, and are exactly what the Holy Spirit wants us to hear.   

     Our task today along our Journey is to pray and praise Him who is Worthy, to be digging into His Word, and mulling over the Words that He spoke, and the things that are set down for our instruction.   The Spirit is the One who "bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God."  Romans 8.16   It is the Spirit that is in us, and we no longer belong to ourselves, but to God.  I Corinthians 6.19 tells us this "Don't you know that you are the Temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?"  In the old Testament - the first Temple was in a Tent - a Tabernacle - and then when Israel arrived in the Land, at first the Ark was in Shiloh for quite a while.   Then King David brought the Ark to Jerusalem.    He placed it according to God's wishes in the Tabernacle there.     But until Solomon built the Temple, it was not the Tabernacle we usually think of when we mention the Temple.    

      One way to think of it is that a "saint" is someone in whom the Holy Spirit has come to live and dwell.  When we confess that we are a sinner to God, then the Father dips us into the Vat of the Holy Spirit and we are forever identified with the Lord Jesus Christ - our Adonai Y'shua Meschiach  - and our lives have been changed.    John 5.24 says "Verily, Verily [Amen, Amen] I say to you, he that heareth my word and believeth on him that sent me, hath [has] everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but is passed from death to life."   

       Ephesians 1.12 - 14 "that we should be to the praise of His glory, who first trusted in Christ, in whom you also trusted, after that you heard the Word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also after that you believed, you were sealed with that Holy Spirit of Promise who is the earnest [down payment] of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of His glory."

       So we can see that here God immediately dipped us into the Spirit and like a piece of cloth in the ancient Eastern countries was dipped into a large vat of DYE coloring for it, when they pulled the cloth out, it was "BAPTIZO"  or what we call "identified" with that color.   When I became a Believer in the Lord Jesus then His dear Spirit came to live in my life, and I was "immersed" into the Spirit that I always ever to God am known by Him as belonging to Him and Him alone.    I am not righteous nor good of myself, but in Jesus blood I have been cleansed and washed and purified, and His Spirit now lives in me, so that makes me a Believer.   In the New Testament, the letters of the Apostles were sent to specific people whom they called "saints"...   Romans 1.6,7  Paul writes saying that he is writing to "to all that be in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints, Grace to you, and Peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ."  Again, in chapter 16 of Romans, Paul names specific people and tells them to include "all the saints who are with them"... In I Corinthians 1.v.2,3  Paul writes saying he is writing to"the church of God which is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord, both theirs and ours: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ."  The book of II Corinthians has in chapter 1 verse 1 - 2 this to say "Paul an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God and Timothy our brother, unto the church of God which is at Corinth, with all the saints who are in all Achaia: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ."

Ephesians 1.1,2 tells us the same thing - "Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God to the saints which are at Ephesus, and to the faithful in Christ Jesus; grace be to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ."

    In other words, a SAINT is not a sinless person, but who is a sinner SAVED...in whom the Holy Spirit now dwells and abides and in whom God individually "temples" Himself in that person.   

     As you go through Scripture you will find this again and again.    

     Romans 3.23 tells us "For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God."

     Romans 6.23 tells us "For the wages [salary] of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."

     John 1.12, 13 tell us that anyone can become a child of God "As many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the children of God, even to them that believe on His Name, who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God."

      Praying and Praising is a result of the Spirit living in my life, for I am no longer the same.   I have been set apart by God for Himself now, and through the Once and For All SACRIFICE Jesus made by offering Himself as our PESACH  - our Passover Lamb - we have peace in our hearts, and grace in our hearts which can never be taken from us.   

        Because He has saved me from Past Sin - I have no fear of God's Judgment, for "He has passed over me" in Jesus the Lamb of God.

        Because He is presently helping me each day to take my Sins to Him, and confess - agree with Him that sin is wrong - I can daily have victory and cleansing power to become "more each day" set apart for Him.   Sanctification simply means that every day I am becoming more and more set apart for Him - It is an ever ongoing process that will continue until the Day that I either die, or am taken to Heaven to be with Him.

"If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."  I John chapter 1.verse 9.

        Finally, some Grand Wonderful Day when Jesus either takes me home by death, or by Coming To Meet Me in the Air as He Promised, I shall be presented PERFECTLY RIGHTEOUS because of What Jesus did on the Cross.   My Sin was nailed on that Cross.   The Holy Spirit was the "guarantee" or the "downpayment" that MY INHERITANCE IS SURE, AND THAT MY HOME IS IN HEAVEN WITH JESUS.   I WILL BE WHERE HE IS.  

        Let us be praying and praising as we walk along Life's Road, for life is fragile.   We never know who will be the next one to leave us, nor do we know how long we have.   Let us take each day for what it is, do what we can, however we can, with God's Grace for whomever we can, and as He leads and guides.