Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Darkness





The darkness of the soul. A stage of the christian journey no one wants. A stage that most assuredly happens to us all. The times where God feels removed, distant from us and we feel alone in a world of devils and temptation. Gos is most assuredly near us the entire time, but we feel withdrawn. In this time we can do one of two things. 1. We can patiently wait and persevere through the darkness knowing that God is molding us, forming us into a person who will be more intimate with Him. It is a hard path, but we know we will reach the light again and God will forge us into a stronger person in HIm. 2. We can run to the false lights we see thinking they will fulfill us or help us see again. All the time these false lights flicker out rapidly and we may be off the path and cannot find our way. We could still seek the false lights and get further and further away from the path less travelled. Choosing this option could cause us to live a defeated life with the joy sucked out of us. I think this is the point when many people become nominal christians. They are saved, yet they are allowing sin to hold them back and decide it is too hard to fight back to the intimacy they long for. The good news is that no matter how far we get off the path, God is constantly trying to bring us back. Too many times we choose the second option over and over until our lives seem so distant from God, that if it wasnt for his Grace, we wouldnt know where we are or who we are anymore. This grace pulls back to him and soon, soon, we will be back in the light of His Glory. We must sit patiently and let Him guide us through scriptures and prayer no matter how distant God feels from us. He is not gone, he is only wanting us to grow and be forged in the fires of the darkness. This may not be a short journey, and it will most assuredly be tough, but if we fight for joy, if we persevere through this darkness....we will be refreshed by the light of our Lord. The decision is: Do we choose to persevere? or Do we choose to chase the false lights? If we choose to persevere, i am 100 percent certain that this is the stage in our life that God moves in us to mold us, to revolutionize our soul and make us into a stronger person of faith who can change the world. We must decide if it is worth it to become a true and valiant servant of Christ or give up into a life of difficulty.

New Birth

The thoughts of salvation has been on my mind recently. I find that too many times people look at the new birth as a mere love of Christ and the assent to who he said he was. This is partly true. We do intellectually assent that Christ is our redeemer, but we also must sacrifice all that we were in order that this assent is not just intellectually, but also spiritually. Our lives must change at new birth if we are to have a true salvation. I know that sometimes change takes time, but the idea and desire to live a life as a follower of Christ must be there. The new birth all too many times these days seems easy. Now dont get me wrong, technically it is easy, but i feel that it is called new birth for a reason. Christ did not call it a reawakening or a enlightenment, but a new birth. Both of those other things are true, but the new birth is the aspect i want to think upon. Birthing is painful for the woman and the new birth came through pain as well upon the cross. The new birth is a time of throwing off the old and putting on the new. We realize that we are "naked" so to speak. We are totally aware that we are nothing without Christ and wonder how we ever survived in the world alone. This is a hard time as the new born christian has to leave behind things that meant so much to them. Social circles, activities, old habits, and selfish ambition to name a few. This time in a new christians life seems too easy today. I find that many people become christians, yet they do not leave the old way behind. Some may not truly be christians, while others are and just have a hard time for years until they understand they must leave it behind and focus upon Christ and the community of believers. I mainly wrote this as random ramblings upon my head. I think that we must draw new believers into the community of faith and build into them, as they are taught truth and not just feelings of faith, This balance is need in order to stay true and have a lasting faith group.