Continuing, Michael writes: God, who created the material light (Genesis 1:3). is the Father of lights. Philippians 2:15 says, You are the light of the world among whom you shine as lights in a world of darkness. As born-again sons and daughters of God, we reflect the light of Christ. We are God’s photomultipliers shining forth the light of the truth of His word and Jesus Christ is the Word of God made flesh. A born-again son or daughter of God does not reflect the glory of the flesh but the glory of the Lord.
The devil tells the world, you’re number one. Everything is about you. You need to satisfy yourself ... you only go around once, so your purpose is to pursue and grab all the gusto you can get. You need to follow pleasure, amusement, greed and power to the satisfaction of your own body and soul. The devil shows the bait, but hides the hook. Self-centeredness and selfishness produce pride. Pride goes before the fall. Proverbs 16:18says, “Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.” Pride is the source of strife, contention, vengeance, vindictiveness, hatred, bitterness, wars, and rumors of wars. Pride focuses on self, and self-worship leads to self-destruction.
The Apostle Paul said, if you rail against the darkness, you will just make the world darker. You cannot fight darkness with darkness. No one will listen to you. Instead gently correct those who oppose themselves by shining the light of the love of God. You can’t let evil speculations make you quarrelsome. Instead love your enemies, be good to them who revile you and despitefully use you. Then when your light is shining, this will lead them to the knowledge of the truth. For the man and woman of God must not strive but instead, gently correct those who oppose themselves. Then to ones God has called, your example of the love of God will lead them to the knowledge of the truth.
Our first mission field is to our own mind and then to our own families. God made the family. To reconnect our hearts with our families, we must meet each other at the foot of the Cross, where our Savior and risen Lord paid the price for our many sins. In doing so, Christ reconciled and restored our relationship with Father God and is the Savior of the world. The humanistic world says that if you disagree with your families, then heap resentment and bitterness on top of these disagreements so that they become irreconcilable differences. Then these differences are justification for anger. However, with God’s power, there are no irreconcilable differences. In order to reconcile with our families, we must first reconcile our hearts with God’s heart through Jesus Christ, for there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. Then when we have our vertical relationship with God restored to an upright position, we can reconcile with our families through Jesus Christ ... He’s the one who unifies us together in the unity of the spirit, in the bond of peace. When we love God above all we can love the families that He gave us like Christ loved them.
The love of God is the tie that binds our hearts together in the love of God through our Lord Jesus Christ. That we may live harmoniously fitted together in the unity of the Spirit, to minister to one another in love that we may truly be the light of the world and love one another in the midst of the darkness of this world, and shine as lights holding forth the word of life to the praise of the glory of God’s grace!
Your brother in Christ, Michael
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