Skip to main content

How to renew a city.

For all you folk out there who live in a town or city that has lost it's lights, you may be thinking now is a good time to pack up and leave for a place where the sun is always out and the beach is just down the street. I have to admit it it would be a wonderful thing to just get up and go where the lights are. But what about the lights in your own city. It is very dark for all of us right now who are living in a town that is depressed, but like any organism, there can be light where there once was darkness. It is a scary thing to see "what once was" and still be right int he middle of darkness, but this is a call for you to shine your light. Where there used to be darkness, or where there is darkness, the light should shine as bright as it can. Not to destroy the depression, but to illuminate it.

What does a child do when they walk into a dark room? They turn on the lights. We are living in a dark world but you don't need me to tell you that..(maybe you do!) But what is most dark of all and what causes depression is the darkness in the heart of man and woman. Some times when people refuse to leave the darkness they are forced to leave, (I hope this isn't the case) but for those of us who want to see our cities and towns prosper, we can politely ask those who are trapped in the darkness to exit stage left. Because in reality, there won't be, left many of us if we let this darkness win..it may have already. So with my soap box, I will try one more time, and beg of those who are trapped in the darkness of their own making, the light is shining here, would you..could you enter in and allow it to shine in your own city. Your own town. Let the light win over the darkness. And for those of you who are trying your best to let the light shine, keep doing it. If not here, then where the light wants to be seen.

When someone is blind, they can't see. You didn't need me to tell you that, but they can feel the heat. They know what warmth is. They can hear the crackling of a stove fire, a fire in the woods. Where you are right now, send out your light, sing a song. Not for the removal of darkness where you live, but for new life to shine. New life to shine in at least one heart. Pray that the light of the gospel would ignite the hearts of many people where you live for the very first time. If not in your home, then in your friends home, and their friends home. With pen and paper in hand, write out your dream. Write out the dreams of your friends and write out the dreams of your family and hold them to the light. Hold them in your mind and in your heart and never again let the dreams of your fathers come to and end.

There were people here before us and there will be people here after us. Money won't solve the problem of darkness but love will. Stop hating your brothers and sisters and mothers and fathers. But I know, it is hard to love a person who refuses to hate you. So keep on loving them. Everyone is in the reach of a loving God, and the city that is dying needs that God to revive his people. So pray to God. Pray that he would unite his children where you live. Pray that he would unite your church. Pray that all churches and church goers would pray for revival. It starts with you and if starts with me. Jesus said that we are the light of the world, and what does light do? It expels the darkness. Do not be afraid of the darkness, for you are light in the Lord. We are children of light, 1 Thessalonians 5:5 You are all children of the light and children of the day. We do not belong to the night or to the darkness.

So church, let us shine our light into this darkness..every day. And let the light win.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Age of Brokenness.

  We are living in an age of brokenness, no matter what age you are, you probably have been touched with relationships falling apart, which causes more and more people to live in isolation. In this generation there is less of an incentive to heal and reconcile relationships, but that doesn’t excuse the amount of people who are broken. Why people don’t seem to be motivated to heal relationships is because our beliefs about faith and God have changed, really giving us less of an incentive to do what our religion says. If I act from my personal beliefs, but the person that I am responding to has abandoned religious beliefs, than the response to my wanting things to be better can be misinterpreted and rejected then by someone else. Generally when a society has expectations about broken relationships, loneliness and isolation, and the beliefs are generally accepted, society becomes a more compassionate society, because all value the same things. When religious values are undermined and ...

The Parable of the Ten Virgins.

 Matthew 25:1-13 I have discovered a remarkable interpretation of this parable that I would like to share with you. The story in the Bible goes like this:    “At that time the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom.   2  Five of them were foolish and five were wise.   3  The foolish ones took their lamps but did not take any oil with them.   4  The wise ones, however, took oil in jars along with their lamps.   5  The bridegroom was a long time in coming, and they all became drowsy and fell asleep. 6  “At midnight the cry rang out: ‘Here’s the bridegroom! Come out to meet him!’ 7  “Then all the virgins woke up and trimmed their lamps.   8  The foolish ones said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil; our lamps are going out.’ 9  “‘No,’ they replied, ‘there may not be enough for both us and you. Instead, go to those who sell oil and buy som...

The Existence of God

  Since the beginning of time, man has learned about the existence of God. It began in the Garden of Eden where Adam and Eve walked and talked with God, however when they sinned, they died spiritually and their closeness with God was severed. In Genesis 4:26 it reads “Seth also had a son, and he named him Enosh. At that time people began to call on the name of the LORD.” Seth was the third son of Adam and Eve, so it’s fair to say that not too long after mankind fell, we also called upon the Lord.   From that time until now, mankind was closer to God then, but it’s a modern shift that the world is in the state it is in now, mainly unbelief, because even 30 years ago from now, mankind was closer to God. It is also true that in ancient Israel’s history, there have been generations that fell away and forgot God, but in the time of the prophets Israel was never left without a word from the Lord. Many generations have come and gone, but there have been remarkable generations all thr...