No Dark Corners

I'm not real sure how to begin what God has put on my heart. You know from my last couple of posts that God has placed Colossians 1:11-14 on my heart. He has gone to great measures to put those verses in front of me.

He's had me soaking in them for two weeks now really focusing on verses 13 and 14

"He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins."

This week I visited my old worn out workbook "When Godly People do Ungodly Things". I pulled it out because we are living that right now. I needed direction, scripture, and guidance as we answered questions from our children. Questions I never thought we would answer.

The enemy has deceived again and a Christian has fallen for it. As I explained to one of my daughters, satan does not need to tempt, trick or attack a non-believer. He already has them. It's us he wants to bring down. He lives to steal, kill and destroy. BUT, our God is greater. Our God is stronger and He has already defeated the enemy.

Over the past few days so many in our life have been on an emotional roller coaster. We have experienced everything from anger to extreme sadness. It's been a very long week. My heart hurts, but God has listened to every word. The words I have said and the words I couldn't say.

He has been so tender with my heart, but at the same time very stern. The minute I got too big for my britches and began to go all "Pharisee" in my thoughts and actions about this situation, I felt Him say "Not so fast little girl. Let's talk about your dark corners." Oh yes, He went there.

Whether we want to admit it or not, we all have them or have had them at some point in life. Those areas that we go to great measure to hide from family, friends, our boss, even people in our church. The thought or actions that we would HATE to become public knowledge.

Dark corners. I know what mine are.

Shoot for a while I lived every minute I could in my dark corner. I worked very hard to convince myself what went on in that corner was not a sin...after all it wasn't on the "big 10" list. Wrong.

Sin is sin.

It's all unholy. It's all disgusting, it's all vile and God can not stand it.

This week as I became physically sick at this situation, God reminded me that my sin..well it's just as nauseating. It is just as disgusting, just as vile. The difference is that my sin like a lot of yours, is "acceptable". We decorate our dark corners so that they compliment our life.

No dark corners.

God tells us in Ephesians 5:8-9 "for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light (for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and and right and true)."

No dark corners.

The thing about hanging out in those dark corners is that over time you become so numb to the sin you don't realize how consumed you are. For me, when I would attempt to step out of the corner and into the light, what I saw was nasty. It would scare me back into the dark because I didn't want to face up to what I was covered in.

As a Christian you are inhabited by the Holy Spirit of God. NOTHING can change that. Regardless of what goes on in the dark corners you keep, you are HIS. If you choose to keep those dark corners you'll never be happy. You will never be satisfied and life will be miserable. Peace will become a foreign word to you. I'm speaking from experience.

God made you and died to save you, to live, walk and breath in the LIGHT.

Still in Ephesians 5 but down in verse 15-16 He says "Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil."

My corners became dark when I did not make wise choices. I did not make the best use of my time. I pretty much took Philippians 4:8(whatever is true, honorable, just ,pure, lovely...) and did the opposite.

Oh how I love that our God is forgiving and full of mercy. I love that the very minute we ask Him to, He will flip on the Holy Light and illuminate our dark corners. (And sometimes, when we don't acknowledge the conviction He sends...He will flip the light on whether we want it on or not.) I'm thankful for the way he flipped the light on my corner and let me fall down that staircase in December of 2005.

As Psalm 107:14 says He brought me out of the darkness and the deepest gloom and broke my chains away.

1 Peter 2:9-10 "But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of the darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy."

He gave me LIGHT where there had been darkness, FAITH where there had been doubt, PEACE where there had been guilt and blame.

You can have this too. It starts with making one wise choice....

No more dark corners.