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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.
+++++++++++++++++++++++
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
To Order and Read Neil's 9th book THE SPIRITUAL ABRAHAM LINCOLN
GO TO amazon.com
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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