Christian Living

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Our lives are journeys that end with judgement, and begins again with either eternal peace or eternal damnation. The way we choose to live our lives until death determines our new beginning. There are two roads on life's journey, which are the right road; it leads to spiritual prosperity, and the wrong road; it leads to spiritual destruction. Although we have a free will to choose the road we desire to take, if God has chosen you as a servant, wrong choices will prove to be great learning experiences as well as great testimonies as God molds you into what He wants you to be to draw others to Christ.
Sin is considered darkness, and righteousness is considered the light. We are born in sin, shaped in iniquity, and sin is all around us all day. There is none without sin, but the Father, who is in heaven, but the difference in living in darkness and living in light is when we live in darkness, it is our desire and choice to do things directly against the will of God; but in the light, we are striving to do what is right and pleasing in God's eyesight. Although you may fall into sin on occasion, the light drives you to press forward to get back where you need to be in Christ.
Everyone who claims to be saved has lived in the darkness at some point to some degree, and some of us are still struggling to get out although we have confessed Christ. We still have habits that need to be broken, friends that need to be forsaken, and desires that need deliverance. There is no saved Christian who has lived and is living without sin because "saved" means just that: Saved; delivered from a bad way of live that is hazardous to our souls. If you've never lived in sin, you have nothing to be saved from; you're already pure and clean. We all have spots that need to be touched up a little, or need some treatment by God.
Although God's grace is sufficient, and His mercy endures forever, He gets tired too. God is very patient; quick to forgive and slow to anger, but there are times that His patience runs thin with our disobedience. It's bad to be in the hands of an angry God, and by the way things are going in the world today, God is angry about some things.
God had something that He wanted Saul to do, but as we all do, Saul had his own agenda; he wanted to do his own thing. He sought for his own glory, power and position. He wanted to be known in his own way. You know how we are: we seek to satisfy our own selfish desires regardless of what the consequences are; this, of course, is when we're living in darkness. I'm sure if there are some liars here, they can relate. A liar will tell you whatever it takes to obtain the attention, position, and power he seeks regardless of whose name he drags in the mud, whose home is broken up, whose job is placed in jeopardy, whose feelings are hurt and whose reputation is destroyed. Even a thief can comprehend the selfish desires of living in sin because a thief steals to obtain what someone else has without paying for it or going through the necessary steps to reach that goal; he just takes what he wants. A fornicator doesn't care about disease, pregnancy or condemnation when that desire strikes; all he/she cares about is getting that temporary need fulfilled with no concern that fulfilling that temporary desire can place him/her in an eternal fire. An adulterer doesn't care about hurting his/her family, only about making his/her own flesh happy. When we're living in darkness, we don’t' care because we cannot see beyond getting what we want. We are blinded by our own selfish, fleshy desires. We can't even comprehend the pain and suffering we cause others, neither do we care. For example: A smoker. A person who smokes has a type of addiction, which causes him/her to be very inconsiderate. Once you start smoking, it's very difficult to stop because your body yearns for the nicotine, it's become familiar with and dependent upon it over time. A smoker would rather hurt others with second-hand smoke than suffer him/herself from withdrawal. Although he/she is well aware that smoking is hurting him/her as well as others, he/she cannot control that desire. Although he/she cares about his/her health and others' as well, his/her desire to have the nicotine overrides his/her ability to care for his/her well being and those around him/her. He/She doesn't care that smoking may cause illness and death, which will cause emotional turmoil for family and friends. The same goes for alcoholics, drug addicts, and so on.
When you are living a life that you cannot restrain the desires of your flesh or sacrifice fulfilling your desires for the benefit or happiness of someone else, you are still in darkness. God showers us with mercy every day, but He's getting tired of us living any way we want to. He gave us our lives to give back to Him in the ways we choose to live. Anyone that is of darkness is not of Christ.
Although we may live in darkness for many years, there will come a time when a change must and will come. God will allow something to happen in your life that will make you look beyond your desires to see how you've been hurting yourself, others, and most importantly, Him. God will shine a light on you through death, sickness, a near-death experience, pain and suffering, financial failure, unemployment, divorce, repossession of home/car; any number of things can happen for God to get your attention. When God shined that light upon Saul, he became confused because he was experiencing something he had never experienced before. He needed some direction and some guidance. Everything around him had changed; even the way he felt. When God shines His light of salvation on you, you will change. The places you were so used to and enjoyed going to, now make you feel awkward and out of place. You are, somewhat, embarrassed by the thought of your presence there. Those evil words you used to say don't taste so good rolling off your tongue any more. The things you used to do have become strange to you. The people you used to hang out with just aren't any fun any more. Something has happened; you have a strange desire on the inside to do good. Where there was hate, love now abides. The way you used to see things is so different now. Why? Because God has shined a little from heaven and filled your soul. He has filled your heart with His love. You were blind, but now you can see God's will so clearly. You have been redeemed.

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