Out of the Darkness
Ken Stegall reflects: “When I was a boy I spent a week at my
Granddaddy and Mamaw’s house each summer. They didn’t have running
water or indoor plumbing. The water wasn’t a problem because I thought
it was neat to use the hand pump and the gourd dipper at the well, AND…
best of all, you only had to take a bath once a week!
However, the lack of indoor plumbing was another matter. Not so bad in
the daylight, but the path to the outhouse was fraught with danger in
the dark! Bears, lions, snakes, wildcats, panthers – they were all out
there… waiting. Moonlight helps a little, but the shadows can be even
spookier than the dark – especially if the wind is blowing a little
bit. You wouldn’t believe how many times I barely made it back to the
house in a dead heart-pounding run, one step ahead of whatever-it-was
that was chasing me!
With those vivid memories in mind, Stegall makes the following
applications:
“The Bible talks about ‘walking in the light’ [cf. John 11:9-10;
12:35-36; 1 John 1:7].
It indicates that ‘light’ is always available to me if I choose to walk
in it [cf. Ephesians 5:8]. I don’t ever have to walk in the dark
again. The Bible also indicates that the lion in the darkness of this
world is real. And he really is stalking me. But he’s only powerful in
the darkness; the light robs him of his power, because in the light, you
can see him for what he is. In the darkness, he can conceal himself.
We’re almost blind in the darkness, but he’s not – that’s his world.”
Jesus said, “I am the light of the world. He who
follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the
light of life” (John 8:12).
Jesus is the Light that leads us out of the darkness
of sin and death into salvation and eternal life. He
died on the cross for our sins to open and
“illuminate” the way to God (John 14:6). Those who
choose to follow Jesus, God will rescue “from the
dominion of darkness” and bring them into “the kingdom
of the Son He loves, in whom we have redemption, the
forgiveness of sins” (Colossians 1:13-14).
To “walk in the Light,” we must
place our
faith and
trust in Jesus (Acts 16:30-31), turn from sin in
repentance
(Acts 17:30-31),
confess
Him before men (Romans 10:9-10), and be
baptized
(immersed) into Christ for the forgiveness of our sins
(Acts 2:38) Then, “if we walk in the light as He is
in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and
the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all
sin” (1 John 1:7).
Jesus said, “He who walks in darkness does not know
where he is going.”
And he does not realize that he is lost in the dark
and headed for destruction! So Jesus pleads,
“Believe in the light, that you may become sons of
light” (John 12:35-36). Then, we can come out of the
darkness into the light!
In sin, there is darkness, despair, and DEATH. In
Christ, there is light and LIFE!
Won’t
YOU
allow Christ to deliver you out of darkness into
the light of life by trusting and obeying Him today?
David A. Sargent,
Minister
Church of Christ at Creekwood
1901 Schillinger Rd. S.
Mobile, Alabama 36695
*
“Blinded by the Darkness” by Ken Stegall, minister of the
Woodland Oaks church of Christ, The Woodlands, TX. Article shared in
PREACHER STUFF (10/23/14), edited by Dan Williams of Harding University.
To
Subscribe to "Living Water"
send a blank e-mail to:
HTML version: subscribe-livingwater@lyris.dundee.net
TEXT version: subscribe-livingwater-text@lyris.dundee.net
Follow
this link to locate the church of Christ nearest you: www.churchzip.com
Archived issues of "Living Water" can be accessed from our website
at: www.creekwoodcc.org
