Cooling off a bit, although
still like an oven outside. However,
Carla is pleased with the way the garden is enduring all of the heat.
In the field near her garden we
have alfalfa growing. As a ‘joke’ and as
a Christmas present for Deed’s goats, Carla has been chopping it out and drying
it – there isn’t very much but it tickled her to do it. She even wrapped it in bailing twine.
Yesterday, when the men came up
to weed the property they weeded around the alfalfa so Carla could harvest it
later. She is already to do her second
cutting!
We are both surprised it was
still out there, the deer are not bashful about eating it and have for several
years, but not this year for some reason and we haven’t seen as much of them
this year as in years past – okay by me.
We will enjoy some small
tomatoes and cucumbers from her garden this evening. But good’ens are blooming, just not ready
yet, so my favorite sandwich is going to have to wait.
John
3:19 And this is the condemnation, that light
is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their
deeds were evil.
It is interesting to note that
we define darkness as the absence of light, but we do not call light the absence
of darkness.
Light is positive, darkness is
negative.
Jesus, of course, has been
called the light of the world; because He is.
Light illuminates things; it is
much more difficult to hide if a light is on.
Darkness, on the other hand, does hide things and makes them more
difficult to see – just ask your shins where you barked them on something at
night when you didn’t see it.
When the Holy Spirit shines the
Light of Christ on our hearts it shows us that we are not perfect, we have many
things in our heart that need to be removed.
Love of self, love of money,
love of anything that interferes with our love of God needs to be eliminated and
the Light of Christ makes those sins stand out.
It can be painful to face our
sins. We have enjoyed some of them, very
much, and to be made aware that their place in our heart causes us to sin
against God can be hard.
We begin to think, as the world
thinks, that we sacrifice our fun and happiness when we accept Christ and let
Him remove sin from our lives.
We are told that Christians are
not fun loving, they can’t let their hair down and truly enjoy themselves. That may be true from the world’s
standpoint.
Christians have a responsibility
to God not to sin, to avoid sin at all costs.
In so doing they give up carousing, drunken behavior and other activities
that are not only displeasing to God, some of which are specifically forbidden
for His believers to participate in – we are no longer ‘fun’ to be around our
former friends and families complain.
While many sinners participate
in their sins with open glee and often wave their sins in the face of God,
Christians try to hide their sins from God and other Christians – they know
better and don’t want to be seen.
Those sinners that are pleased
with their sinful behavior as an affront to God think that, since they are not
hiding their sins it is okay – but there is still darkness about their behavior,
when they deliberately sin and openly enjoy it they diffuse the light that
Christ is trying to give them.
The sinner eventually finds out
that there is a God; there has been a sacrifice for their sins through Jesus and
His resurrection and the Holy Spirit has been working hard to bring Christ’s
Light to bear on them.
There is a saying, whatever goes
out on the internet, stays on the internet.
Someone, somewhere at some time can access it.
Our computers can process
trillions of pieces of material in seconds.
They retain millions of pieces of material in their memory. While some things can indeed be destroyed
from the computer, if anything has been sent out those things can still be
accessed.
We know God is far more powerful
than anything, ANYTHING, man can devise.
His memory is far more accurate and contains every person’s activity from
the time they were conceived.
Christians have an advantage,
once we accepted Christ not only does God forgive us, but He no longer holds us
accountable for those sins.
Psalm 103:11-12 For as the heaven is high
above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear
him.
12 As far as the east is
from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from
us.
When we stand before God with
our advocate Jesus Christ, we stand pure with no blemishes because the Blood of
Christ’s sacrifice has washed all our sins away.
Those that have not accepted
Christ, stand alone. I believe God will
start showing them their lives on a second by second, hour by hour basis.
Nothing will be hidden, it will
all be illuminated for them.
He will show them how He sent
people to share His Word with them.
He will show them every sin, no
matter how small, they ever committed.
He will show them every
opportunity they had to accept His Son, but rejected it.
They will have a bright light in
front of them, but darkness behind them and they will be cast into that darkness
and will remember everything God showed them throughout eternity.
It will be shown, over and over
and over again – without end. They will
see the light at that point, but it is far from them and doesn’t illuminate the
darkness they are in.
We do not take seriously enough
the need of others to find Christ; to allow His Light to shine in and through
them.
We have that light, as any light
is meant to be seen and shared, let us do so with Christ.
Later, Art :-)
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