Thought for the month....
November
As the cooler weather begins to arrive we start to wrap up warm in an effort to insulate ourselves from the cold.
Most of the trees have lost their canopy of leaves as nature braces for the hardship of winter.
With the nights darkening earlier each day we spend more time inside to separate us from the darkness of the world outside.
Cold, darkness, death; This time of year can be depressing and lonely as we see the world around us prepare for the winter ahead.
We do what we can do to shut off from the darkness of the world;
we try to make ourselves comfortable, warm and do things to make us feel good.
But everything we do to manage the situation we are in can fall over in a moment.
We may not be able to afford to put on the heating and perhaps have to endure power cuts due to the energy crisis.
Life, it would seem, at the moment is harder than previous years.
We all face these issues in our lives at this time, but as a Christian I see the above as a picture of what is affecting the eternal lives of people.
Sin has affected the world in ways that people cannot comprehend or may not even want to.
It has affected nature
"For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now."
Romans 8:22
It has affected mankind as it tries to do things its own way in order to make itself feel better and more comfortable. People lighten their lives with things that are temporary and not willing to see the darkness that they are actually in. Mankind as a whole has turned away from the things of God, revelling in activities and acts that are abhorrent to Him.
Mankind needs the Light,
The Light that was sent down to this earth 2000+ years ago.
The Light that Christendom remembers at Christmas.
This Light is the Lord Jesus Christ.
"Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life."
John 8:12
"In him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not."
John 1:4-5
Mankind rejected Him and condemned Him to death, but in doing so enabled a path of redemption. This path enables anyone who believes in Him to find deliverance through Him from the judgement to come. We don’t preach to folks to secure our own place in heaven, we preach because we want those who are lost in the darkness of sin to find the light.
Just like the Apostle Paul was commissioned by God to do in Acts 26 we preach in order,
"To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me."
Acts 26:18
The only way we can live in the light is to put our trust in the Lord Jesus Christ.
"That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved."
Romans 10:9
AT