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This study seeks to establish the fact that Christians are bright lights in the world that appears to be in darkness.\u00a0 A world that is destitute of spiritual light, Matthew 5:14, is said to be in darkness which can be described as the habitation of the devil and his agents.\u00a0 The Christian is called upon to be the bright light in such a dark environment.\u00a0 How to achieve that goal is the focus of this study.<\/p>\n
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A dark atmosphere is one that prevents vision because of depravity of light, Exodus 10:23.\u00a0 Darkness in the world is characterized by the following: In Genesis 6:11-13, the earth was corrupt and filled with violence which means there was injustice, cruelty, oppression, maltreatment and contempt for God.\u00a0 It is a time where wickedness is displayed; people backslide, forsake God and lack the fear of God in their hearts.\u00a0 These are manifested in fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil passions, greed, idolatry and all kinds of sin.\u00a0 Other features seen include murder, rape, ungodliness, sexual immorality, anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication, lies, adultery, lasciviousness, witchcraft, hatred, avarice, strife, seditions, heresies, envy, emulations, indecency, drunkenness, etc.\u00a0 Generally, works of darkness are ungodly actions.<\/p>\n
Another evidence of darkness that is prevalent in our time is where men forsake God because of the love for this present world and what it offers.\u00a0 In this second letter Paul told Timothy that Demas forsook him for the love of the world, 2 Timothy 4:10.<\/p>\n
One thing is however sure, the wrath of God is upon those that partake in these acts and they shall not inherit the kingdom of God.<\/p>\n
When there is darkness, the devil operates and wants to keep people in darkness.\u00a0 \u201cThe thief cometh not but for to steal, to kill and to destroy, I am come that they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly\u201d, John 10:10.<\/p>\n
When darkness prevails, it shows that light is dim and the people that have been assigned to provide light are asleep.\u00a0 In Matthew 13:24-30, Jesus told the parable of the kingdom, where the enemy which is the devil sowed tares among the good seed that were planted.\u00a0 While the servants were desirous of uprooting the tares to give way for the good seed (wheat) to blossom, the Master directed them to let both grow together until harvest, when they would be separated, the tares burnt and the wheat, gathered into the barn.<\/p>\n
Men usually sleep at night and the enemy which is the devil can only sow evil seeds of darkness when men sleep, evil prospers and darkness prevails, in such a society.\u00a0 Hence, Christians are to be awake, alert to their call and responsibility.\u00a0 We must refuse to fall into sleep and not to allow the devil to perpetuate darkness, continue to blind the minds of men, 2 Corinthians 4:4, and keep people in bondage, Psalm 107:10.<\/p>\n
Christians are the light to brighten up the darkness; therefore we must shine in the midst of darkness, Romans 13:12; Acts 26:18.<\/p>\n
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People expect to be given money, or any other form of personal gratification for what they are officially employed to do.\u00a0 Christians, even leaders, tell lies and this seems to be the order of the day.\u00a0 People now tell all manner of lies so as to secure the favor of their boss even if it means putting their colleagues into trouble; in so long they get what they want.\u00a0 Eye service becomes their stock in trade, pretending to be dutiful and loyal in the presence of their boss; going late to work and writing earlier time the actual time they came; manipulation of figures in receipts or invoice for personal gain; praying for hours in the offices while keeping people waiting even upon the fact that they went late to work; falsification of personal data, like age declaration, etc. In the work places, some Christians are not known to be believers because of their lifestyle.<\/p>\n
At business places using false measures like the construction of deceitful measuring instruments, printing of designers labels and fixing same on inferior good; the use of diabolic powers to prosper and establish a business or even a church.\u00a0 The class should mention others.\u00a0 Believers are not expected to be partakers in these.<\/p>\n
Much darkness is evident, as devilish activities are manifest in our days more than before. The following are some of the examples; examination malpractice; bribery and corruption; occultism; students offering money and their bodies to lecturers to pass examinations and vice versa, admission racketeering; plagiarism which is writing someone else\u2019s publication without due acknowledgment. The class should mention others.<\/p>\n
The church today is viewed by many as a form of business.\u00a0 Hence, any individual can build a hall and tag it \u201cchurch\u201d, furnish it and get a paid pastor to run the church, such that proceeds, therefrom, are shared or entirely remitted to the owner of the church who is the founding financier.\u00a0 They thereby make merchandise of God\u2019s precious people who Jesus died and shed His precious blood for.\u00a0 In other cases, \u201cpastors\u201d extort money from the members having made themselves \u201cdemigods\u201d that members could neither correct nor reprove or even offer useful suggestions. They clothe themselves with so much authority that members are not allowed to question them. They cajole their congregation to give fat offerings irrespective of the financial status of the members; they smile to the banks consistently while the unsuspecting, gullible congregations languish in abject poverty and penury.\u00a0 In the name of attracting God\u2019s favor and blessings, everything including healing, salvation, cars, houses, good jobs, children, etc., which are the believer\u2019s heritage in Christ Jesus, have been monetized. Therefore some believers who are desirous of these blessings have to sow all manner of seed faith, to attract the favor of God.\u00a0 To merit any of these blessings the member must be loyal to the pastor who has so much control over them.\u00a0 Therefore, materialism (the number of houses and cars dedicated in church and those in positon of power in the circular world) are given undue recognition in the church today.\u00a0 This is presently equated with growth and prosperity of the church while abandoning the rudiments of faith.\u00a0 The members are not left out in this, because in some cases, they exalt the man of God higher than the God of the man by calling him all sort of names and giving the glory due God to man. These \u201cmen of God\u201d, become a pattern for their members to copy, rather than Jesus who alone died for them.<\/p>\n
Another unwholesome activity taking place in the church of today is the crave for large congregations, no matter what is done to bring the multitude to the church and keep them in the church.\u00a0 Some have had to offer sacrifices and then telling the people what appeals to them as against sound doctrine; hence, anything is permitted and people can dress and live anyhow provided thy drop the fat offerings.\u00a0 They do not reprove their members of sin. They rather refer to sin as a challenge and seen as such but not outright sin.\u00a0 In such congregations, prosperity messages and motivational talks replace the place of God and the undiluted Word.\u00a0 So many false prophets have sprang up of recent, seeking power to perform miracles, healing and deliverance while teaching heresies and false doctrines, and quoting scriptures that have been twisted and misinterpreted by them to suit their convenience.\u00a0 They have forgotten the injunction of Christ that, \u201cnarrow is the way and few are they that walk there in\u201d.<\/p>\n
The congregations are not left out in this as they have developed itching ears, refusing sound doctrine, and in continuous search of miracle-performing churches; not many people go to church to seek God now but to get their problems solved after which, they move on and keep migrating to the \u201creigning and happening church in town\u201d, where the pastor can foresee and prophesy, whether through God\u2019s enablement or not.<\/p>\n
Another ungodly activity taking place in today\u2019s church is in the ordination of ministers, whereby men that are praise singers of the \u201cman of God\u201d, president and founder or General overseer, are selected to occupy offices in the church, depending on their loyalty to them and not based on scriptural standard.\u00a0 These self-elevated leaders are careful not to ordain any one that would challenge them on any issue on scriptural values, hence ordination is based on family ties and relationships.\u00a0 The scripture is clear on the standard of appointing church leaders, based on prayerful, spirit-led considerations and sound character of the people to be ordained.<\/p>\n
The family is the smallest unit that makes up our communities.\u00a0 When there are more practicing godly families in a community, such a community is bound to be influenced in a godly manner.\u00a0 However, it is disappointing to know that whereas there are many church goers in our community, darkness still prevail.\u00a0 The following are some examples of ungodly activities that take place in our families and communities; Added to above are the use of false measures, all sort of malpractices, electoral offences, fraud, extortion, encouraging children to go into vices like prostitution (raising funds to send female children to Italy knowing what they are going to do there), kidnapping, armed robbery, et.\u00a0 Also, cutting corners and cheating one another, have been tagged as being smart.\u00a0 Some have evaded payment of bills connecting heavy duty appliance straight from the electric pole, thereby diverting from the meter to enable the person pay smaller power bill, adjusting land boundaries whether family or community or trespassing into another person\u2019s land deliberately either because you are more financially endowed and have weighed the other party not to be your match in terms of strength, finance or political influence generally; oppressing the helpless; taking advantage of others because the family is more advantageously placed than the other.<\/p>\n
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We were in darkness in times past, but we are now light in the Lord and should walk as children of light, Ephesians 5:8.\u00a0 Jesus declares in John 8:12, \u201cI am the light of the world; he that follows me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life\u201d; and in John 1:9, Jesus \u201cis in the true light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world\u201d.<\/p>\n
Jesus is the Light and all His children are lights and are not to walk in darkness.\u00a0 In this life, believers are the light and are expected to lighten everyone just as Jesus is the true Light.\u00a0 However, it is unfortunate that some believers have no more light, and go about in deception not being true lights; hence we have so many self-acclaimed Christians by profession without living as the kingdom demands.<\/p>\n
A Christian is expected to function as light in all of the issues discussed in question 2.\u00a0 The word of God should be a guide and watch to guard the Christian in his or her general lifestyle.\u00a0 The Christian must purpose in his or her heart to please God and not to defile themselves with this world and the pleasures it offers, just like Daniel and the three Hebrew children, Daniel 1:8, 11.\u00a0 The Christian must deliberately choose not to follow the crowd to do evil, Exodus 23:2, and choose to be in the minority that please God knowing that God\u2019s grace is always sufficient and choosing not to compromise by lowering God\u2019s standard.\u00a0 They must also not lose focus of their goal of spending eternity with the Lord which would go a long way in helping to shape our general life style after the kingdom\u2019s pattern, making Christ our example.<\/p>\n
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The failure of the Christian to light up the darkness in society results in grievous consequences such that evil will prevail; people will lack direction because as light we are to give direction to men; more people who would\u00a0 have been saved will go to hell.<\/p>\n
Christians must be convinced of their individual calling, to follow God.\u00a0 Our call is to follow Christ and not men, we must at all times take heed to ourselves to make our calling sure, shunning all manner of distractions.<\/p>\n
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Apostle Paul in his letter to the Ephesian Church admonished them on the Christian lifestyle.\u00a0 The Christian must see other Christians as part of the same body that is tightly knitted in Christ, a relationship closer than our earthly blood relationship.\u00a0 Hence we must be truthful and not lie to one another.\u00a0 As Christians, our yes should be yes and no, no.\u00a0 It is common today to see believers lie recklessly and are not even remorseful when it is discovered that they have lied.\u00a0 We must consciously and deliberately put away lie.\u00a0 Everyone having this as a challenge should go to God in prayers and God will help him or her.\u00a0 Scriptures have made provisions for us to be angry being human and likely to be offended one way or the other.\u00a0 However, we must obey the injunction not to sin in our anger.\u00a0 We must weigh our actions and words when angry.\u00a0 Always remember, spoken words cannot be recalled once spoken.\u00a0 Some go to the extent of nursing grudges in their minds and hearts against their spouses, children, family and church members, etc.\u00a0 We must be careful to settle all issues\/points of contention as soon as they arise, to avoid keeping grudges; hence the pace of forgiveness is very important in our lives as Christians.\u00a0 We must decide in our hearts to forgive whoever hurts us, even before the offences arise.\u00a0 We do not forgive because the offender came pleading for forgiveness nor because they deserve it; we forgive primarily because it is a command from God and also that our sins would equally be forgiven by God; for if God would count our iniquity against us who can stand?<\/p>\n
Here is also a strong call unto repentance and hard work, \u201cLet him that steal, steal no more\u201d.\u00a0 Christians commit all forms of stealing in different disguises, be it in borrowing a book, a tape, money, etc. and returning the same; stealing by inflating figures, etc.\u00a0 We are rather admonished to work hard so as to have and to give to others.<\/p>\n
Another Christian lifestyle which is worthy of emulation, is being discreet with our words.\u00a0 \u201cLet no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth\u201d, Ephesians 4:29.\u00a0 It is disheartening to see the way Christians make jokes these days even with sacred things.\u00a0 An example of such abound at occasions such as Christian weddings and comedians make fun of God, the Holy Spirit and Godly things and fellow Christians would seat back, laugh and clap at such unedifying jokes.\u00a0 These practices are condemnable and herein condemned in its totality.\u00a0 Our words are to be seasoned with salt, giving grace to all its hearers.<\/p>\n
The show of kindness, most times, is done to those we expect to get back a favor or token of kindness from. The Christian lifestyle is to be kind to all without expecting those you have shown kindness to repay you in cash or in kind.<\/p>\n
The Christian must be bold to reprove all manner of darkness and refuse to partake in them and must not encourage darkness in any shape.\u00a0 He or she must also not belong to any form of secret cult, whether reformed confraternity or by any name they are called.<\/p>\n
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Light is used to describe the Christian in relation to his capacity to illuminate the earth and eliminate spiritual darkness caused by sin and evil works.\u00a0 The Christian is the only one who can reverse the social and moral decay of our modern civilization.\u00a0 Our world is in dire need of light.\u00a0 Therefore, arise and shine brighter and brighter.<\/p>\n
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John 8:12 \u2013 \u201cThen spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Bright Light in a Dark World Central Thought: Jesus is the Light of the world. Text: Philippians 2:12-16; Matthew 5:13-16; Ephesians 5:8-20; 2 Peter 1:19 This study seeks to establish the fact that Christians are bright lights in the world that appears to be in darkness.\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-671","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sundayschool"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mzgtiglobal.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/671","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mzgtiglobal.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mzgtiglobal.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mzgtiglobal.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mzgtiglobal.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=671"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/mzgtiglobal.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/671\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":989,"href":"https:\/\/mzgtiglobal.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/671\/revisions\/989"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mzgtiglobal.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=671"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mzgtiglobal.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=671"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mzgtiglobal.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=671"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}