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One evening a little boy was looking out into the gathering darkness. It was back in the days before electricity and the lamplighter was moving from pole to pole. His mother called out from the kitchen,
"Robert, what are you doing?" And the little boy replied, I'm watching a man knock holes in the darkness.
You know this is what Jesus offers when He says, "I am come as a light unto the world." He offers to knock holes1n your darkness. He offers you a new opportunity in life because by Him you now have a new attitude toward it. He offers to the darkness of your sins the light of His forgiveness.
He offers to the darkness of your grief the light of His comfort. He offers to the darkness of whatever is your weakness His light that you might be strong.
Someone put it this way, "When I found the Lord I aspired to higher things. I perspired for better things. I substituted the power of prayer for the shrug of a shoulder.
Things aren't always good nor always kind. In fact, things sometimes are pure hell. But remember your Lord is pure heaven, pure power, pure perfection and understanding. So how about you? Is your faith a prayer uplifted or a shrug of the shoulder?
Some years ago, a famous minister made the following statement, "The world can be saved from chaos by worship."
At first hearing, without his definition of worship, this sounds like a sanctified pipedream. But listen to the definition and think about it. "When you worship; you quicken your conscience with the holiness of God, feed your mind with the truth of God, pure your imagination with the beauty of God, open your heart to the love of God, and devote your will t6 the purpose of God."
That's knocking a hole in the darkness now, isn't it?
But it isn't that easy. It's poetic to talk about lamp lighters knocking ho1es in the darkness and Jesus being the light of the world, but outside this moment you get trapped between the immediate and the ultimate.
There are religious books you feel like you should read but there's that good murder mystery you've been trying to finish for three months.
There's a lot of living to be done; earning your daily bread, scrubbing the daily pile of dirty clothes, fixing three meals....and religion, the Lord of life, the Light of the world.•.. it's important but where do you fit it in.
Maybe that's the beginning of the answer. You don't fit it in. You put it first. You don't look for a time that's convenient. You proclaim it a part of life that's necessary. Maybe morning is busy -busy?- it's a madhouse! Baby's screaming, papa's rushing, mama's yelling and the children can't find a thing.
So the Lord...how do you fit-the Lord into this? You don't! You place the Lord above all this. You put His picture where you can see it. You shut your mouth so you hear His word.
You sit down and you worship. You've got a busy morning already and a busy day ahead of you so you put first things first and. you quicken your conscience with the holiness of God, feed your mind with the truth of God, pure your imagination with the beauty of God, open your heart to the love of God, and devote your will to the purpose of God.
And before your day even gets a good start, you've knocked a hole in whatever darkness may be with you or lie before you.
Yes, God loves you the way you are but he loves you too much to let you stay that way.
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Click on the URL below to WATCH NEIL IN HIS WORLD FAMOUS ONE MAN DRAMATIZATIONS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN, BEN FRANKLIN, CHARLES WESLEY AND MARTIN LUTHER
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QUOTES ABOUT THIS WONDERFUL INSPIRING INFORMATIVE book
STILL RECEIVING RAVE REVIEWS 8 YEARS AFTER IT'S PUBLICATION.
"Positive, powerful utterances...skillfully enhancing our understanding and appreciation of Lincoln while revealing the Divine source of his strength."
Lt. Colonel C.A. Olsen (Ret.) Asbury College (Professor Ret.)
"The Spiritual Abraham Lincoln is an extremely well written book that investigates what might be termed the spiritual side of President Lincoln. It's both scholarly and very readable. I came away impressed at Mr. Wyrick's portrayal of the President and with an altered and enlarged vision of the man:'
William Hoffman, Award winning fiction writer; author of Blood and Guile, and Wild Thorn
"Wyrick has authored a wonderful examination of the spirituality of one of American history's most devoutly religious leaders...a pleasant and readable book that has a rich depth of information."
Maynard Pittendreigh Presbyterian minister
"When it comes to invoking religion in support of any of their decisions, politicians need to sit at the feet of Abraham Lincoln. Reinhold Niebuhr once called him 'America's greatest theologian.' Why so great? Because he invariably distinguished between human works and the works of the Almighty. As Wyrick says, 'He wore the mantle of humility easily: because he was more impressed with what God was doing in the world than with what he, president of the United States in the midst of an awful crisis, was doing. That is why in his last major speech he distinguished between both human causes in the Civil War and the Almighty's 'own purposes.' Lincoln would have agreed that it is better to leave God-talk out of politics than to decorate human proposals with divinity. This is a book for our American time. Through his careful study of Lincoln's career, Wyrick compels us to remember that piety belongs in politics only when piety transcends politics."
Dr. Donald W. Shriver
Emeritus professor at Union Theological Seminary in New York. Author of An Ethic for Enemies: Forgiveness in Politics
"v. Neil Wyrick's fine work allows the reader to appreciate Abraham Lincoln's Christian commitment and his prophetic role in American history. Should have a wide readership."
James H. Smylie Professor of Church History (Ret.) Union Theological Seminary, Richmond, Virginia
"Neil Wyrick's The Spiritual Abraham Lincoln should be read by anyone attempting to understand the man who was probably the most complex person to ever hold the office of president of the United States. Dr. Wyrick is intent on demonstrating that the spirituality so often expressed in Lincoln's writings and speeches was not merely lip service to a Deity, but rather expressions of a profound faith in a real God. It was this faith that provided the wisdom, compassion, insight and sometimes steel that Lincoln would need in full measure as he led the United States through the Civil War. Dr. Wyrick's clear and unpretentious style of presentation is very much in keeping with the character ofhis subject, and in so doing, Wyrick makes his point very well that Lincoln, his beliefs, and the faith that formed them, are as relevant to a troubled America in 2004 as they were in 1863."
Daniel Allen Butler, author of "Unsinkable"; The Full Story of the RMS Titanic, The Lusitania and The Age o f Cunard
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