Ephesians 5:8-20 "For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as
children of light (for the fruit of the light
consists in all goodness, righteousness and
truth) and find out what pleases the Lord. Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of
darkness, but rather expose them.
But everything exposed by the
light becomes visible—and everything that is
illuminated becomes a light. This is why it is said: “Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on
you.” Be very careful,
then, how you live—not as unwise but as
wise, making the most of
every opportunity, because the days are
evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the
Lord’s will is. Do not get drunk on wine,
which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from
the Spirit. Sing and make music from your heart
to the Lord, always giving
thanks to God the Father for everything, in the
name of our Lord Jesus Christ."
My Funk and Wagnalls says this about renouncing: "1. To refuse to
acknowledge longer; disclaim; disown, repudiate (renounce as shameful). 2. To
make a formal announcement of; give up explicitly. 3. To abandon the use or
pursuit of; reject."
I just love dictionaries.... and prefer the ones with the yellowing pages.
There's nothing like a book in your hand that was written 30 years before you
were born.
So, to renounce is to not even acknowledge the wrong path we were taking,
to formally announce giving it up completely - ohhhhhhh, 'formerly announce'? Like I should probably tell
someone - not everyone, but at least one person? Yep. This is called
accountability. If we want something bad enough, don't we tell someone else
'hey, I would really like to have (fill in blank) and I'm going to work towards
it'? Sure, that other person may at some time come back and say 'hey, what ever
happened to our wanting this or that'? Or the we may feel like it's
unattainable after a while of working towards it and want to give up. Our
friends says 'yeah, you could do that, or you could continue it's not as far out
of reach as you think. Or maybe our friend would even see it themselves and say
'wow, they actually did work towards it and got it... good for them.' That's
some good accountability. Our friend helping us along.
Same with renouncing, if we tell someone what we've renounce it come fully
out into the light - it's on the table' - and now someone else knows and if we
really want to give it up, we'll ask them to keep us accountable to ask us about
it from time to time.
We want to renounce any contact whatsoever with that wrong path we've been
on.... I listed all the verses that I believe are for this week's musings.
Because I'm pretty much camping here for a few days. Today, we'll stick to the
highlighted portion, but feel free to read it all everyday.! There is a lot of
meat to glean from these verses. Meat has protein - good for recovering muscles
- puts like back into them, makes them stronger and heal faster. So, we're
going to eat some meat (sorry vegetarians - I'm sure veggie burgers would count,
especially Black Bean Burgers.... ohhhh, yum. Not for breakfast though!
This portion says 'for we WERE once darkness, now we ARE light in the
Lord.' We exchanged darkness for light, evil for good, the wide path that leads
to destruction for the narrow path that leads to life. We are to live in
goodness, righteousness and truth. How in the heck do we do that... it a daily
discipline I'm learning... not just a one-time, one-size fits all time. We are
to work out our own salvation - our own healing and freedom with the Lord. If
He chooses to use others to help accept the help. If He chooses to just want us
to be alone with Him, then we cast off our fear like a dingy, grimy cloak and
come into His Presence. That's what impressed me this past Sunday (I
think) during a sermon at Community of Christ Church. Pastor Pat said that
sometimes when we're in His Presence we just want to stay there... no matter
what is going on around us. It was like, yeah, now I have permission to lay
flat on my face during worship and if the Lord doesn't want me to move... I am
not going to move. People can look at me funny all they want. If I'm with the
Lord balling my eyes out or just resting or both, then that's what I'm going to
do.... because that's where the Lord has me. Not so everyone can see 'how
spiritual' I am... but because I'm truly humbly submitting myself to the Lord
and what He wants me to do.... not man. We need to find out what pleases the
Lord - AND THEN DO IT!
Those verses then go on to say 'have NOTHING to do with the fruitless deeds
of darkness (fruit trees need light - so do we in order to bear fruit - even the
fruit of the Spirit (love, joy, peace, forbearance (patience), kindness,
goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control). Tall order, but we can
pray for this every morning.
We are to expose deeds of darkness, not hide in the darkness. Holy Spirit
is here to help shine His light into those dark places and bring new life into
our lives. Let's let him this week....
Take
Me Out of the Dark - Gary Valenciano
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