“You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness… For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) and find out what pleases the Lord” Ephesians 4:22-24, 5:8-10
THE DC CHURCH CELEBRATES THE TEARFUL RESTORATION OF OUR BROTHER ANTHONY BASDEO!
BEFORE COMING TO CHRIST, we all learned to live according to the patterns of our past. We groped around in the darkness, often trying to live in a right way, without the power to carry it out. We allowed our desires and the hurts of our past to drag us into the darkest places of sin and false doctrine. Then true disciples came into our lives, got their hands dirty digging into every area of our lives, serving us, and teaching us a new way of life with Jesus as Lord.
THOSE DISCIPLES gave us a sacred teaching, a pattern of life (Philippians 3:17) created to “be like God is true righteousness.” We gained the purpose of living like Jesus and the mission of getting these teachings out to a world of people, who are still lost in those dark places.
OUR LIVES and standards must be so different from those of the world that we stick out like a bright star on a moonless night. I’ve always loved star gazing. When I was young, I thought there were more stars out in the country. Of course, there weren’t more stars simply because we were in the country, it was that away from the city lights, the stars were the only lights around and LIGHT SHINES BRIGHTEST IN THE DARKEST PLACES.
TOO OFTEN we lose opportunities to reach people or we allow people to drift back into their former ways of life because we are afraid of the dark. We need to be wise and not place ourselves in situations that will lead us into sin, but we must also become strong enough and mature enough to be a friend of sinners without being influenced by our friends’ sin. Are you willing to get your hands dirty from digging into the dark corners of people’s lives to help them out of the sin that has trapped them? We must also be willing to face the “black light” of false teachings. We must understand that without Jesus and his disciples in the 1st century, many would have thought that their darkness was really light. The darkness of false religion is a most deceptive darkness because people think that they are really in the light and doing God’s will, even when they admittedly are still unable to live out the commands of Jesus. It took Jesus shining the true light of God to expose the false teachings and hypocrisy. How bright does your light shine? Does it shine bright enough to outshine even the black light of religious falsehood and security? Our light must shine so that all people in all different forms of darkness can see their way out.
ALL OF OUR PREACHING and teaching will do no good unless our lives are filled with love, service and good deeds to those around us. Jesus said in Matthew 5:16 that we must “Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.” For many years, I thought that my good deeds were the light. But now, I see that light merely exposes the good deeds and causes praise to go up to God instead of the people doing the good deeds. Without sharing our faith and the eternal saving power of Jesus, our good deeds are really no better than a benevolent organization, who provides temporary assistance, with no lasting effect.
AS CHILDREN of the Light, we must be focused so we can effectively help others see the darkness they are in and the way out of it. To do that, sometimes we will have to venture into some pretty dark and scary places. With Jesus as our help, we can just “Let it shine” and bring others into the beauty of the light.
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