May 3,
2003
LIGHT
VERSUS DARKNESS
"The
lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is good,
your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is
bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore
the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!"
(Matthew 6:22, 23, NKJV).
"If
.. your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light..
Singleness of purpose, wholehearted devotion to God, is the
condition pointed out by the Saviour's words. Let the purpose
be sincere and unwavering to discern the truth and to obey
it at whatever cost, and you will receive divine enlightenment...
"But
when the eye is blinded by the love of self, there is only
darkness. 'If your eye is bad, your whole body will be full
of darkness'. It was this fearful darkness that wrapped the
Jews in stubborn unbelief, making it impossible for them to
appreciate the character and mission of Him who came to save
them from their sins.
"Yielding
to temptation begins in permitting the mind to waver, to be
inconstant in your trust in God. If we do not choose to give
ourselves fully to God then we are in darkness. When we make
any reserve we are leaving open a door through which Satan
can enter to lead us astray by his temptations. He knows that
if he can obscure our vision, so that the eye of faith cannot
see God, there will be no barrier against sin.
"The
prevalence of a sinful desire shows the delusion of the soul.
Every indulgence of that desire strengthens the soul's aversion
to God. In following the path of Satan's choosing, we are
encompassed by the shadows of evil, and every step leads into
deeper darkness and increases the blindness of the heart.
"The
same law obtains in the spiritual as in the natural world.
He who abides in darkness will at last lose the power of vision.
He is shut in by a deeper than midnight blackness; and to
him the brightest noontide can bring no light. He 'walks in
darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the
darkness has blinded his eyes' (1 John 2:11). Through persistently
cherishing evil, willfully disregarding the pleadings of divine
love, the sinner loses the love for good, the desire for God,
the very capacity to receive the light of heaven...
"No
soul is ever finally deserted of God, given up to his own
ways, so long as there is any hope of his salvation. Man turns
from God, not God from him. Our heavenly Father follows us
with appeals and warnings and assurances of compassion, until
further opportunities and privileges would be wholly in vain.
The responsibility rests with the sinner. By resisting the
Spirit of God today, he prepares the way for a second resistance
of light when it comes with mightier power. Thus he passes
on from one stage of resistance to another, until at last
the light will fail to impress, and he will cease to respond
in any measure to the Spirit of God. Then even 'the light
that is in you' has become darkness. The very truth we do
know has become so perverted as to increase the blindness
of the soul."--Thoughts From The Mount Of Blessing,
pp., 91-93.
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