Light or Darkness
In the Gospel of 1 John1:5-6 (NKJV), it says “… God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.”
We cannot serve two masters. Matthew 12:30 (NKJV) tells us that “He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters abroad.”
“We cannot hunt with the hounds and run with the hares”
The adage goes like this: "We cannot hunt with the hounds and run with the hares". We are either going to walk in the light with Jesus Christ or we will be walking in darkness. Now, this is where the big test comes, because often it is very offensive to those in the world when you are in their presence. You will unintentionally make them feel very uncomfortable. I can hear you say: "But I just want to be with my friends" - but they cannot continue with their immoral lifestyles if you are standing in their presence.
I remember clearly as a newly born-again Christian, wanting to still carry on with my old friends. I remember saying to the minister: "The one thing I don’t want to do is lose my old friends." A smile came across his face and he said: "You will not have to worry about losing them, because they will, unfortunately, lose you".
You see, light can have nothing to do with darkness, just like oil and water cannot mix. If we walk in the light with the Lord Jesus Christ then we are different from the world, as hard as it might seem. You’ll find, even yourself, after a while, not being able to listen to dirty stories or talking about immoral things and practising an immoral lifestyle - things like trying to dodge the taxman, not paying your accounts, or honouring your promises. These things can no longer be when you become a follower of Jesus Christ.
I remember a beautiful story told many years ago when a very rough man became a believer. He was a guard on the railways. He would direct the driver when it came to shunting the carriages up and down the railway line. One day, in the shunting yards in the station, he was directing the driver with his one hand to reverse the train up against another carriage that he wanted to couple up. His other hand got caught in between the reversing train and the stationary carriage and it crushed his hand into a bloody pulp. With excruciating pain, this tough old railway worker let out a terrible blasphemous word. His friends gathered around him and tried to hold him up while they called the ambulance. As they were going to put him in the ambulance, he told them to stop and he got on his knees in front of all of them and he asked the Lord Jesus Christ to please forgive him for his foul language. Then he proceeded to get into the ambulance and go to the hospital for the amputation. This man who was walking in the light, even amid all his pain, knew that he could not be part of any kind of darkness.
Today, make sure that everything you say and do match-up with God’s call on your life.
Jesus bless you,
Angus and Jill Buchan