The Power over Darkness

 Colossians 1:13-14

“He has rescued us from the domain of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of the Son He loves. We have redemption, the forgiveness of sins, in Him.”

My first Mentor Jack Archer asked me to go with him to a mission project he was funding in Mexico.  Jack was in the oil business and had come to have a relationship with Jesus Christ in his forties, and wanted to share that relationship with everyone.  That trip was an eye-opener for me, and I saw people living in cardboard shacks and walking for miles to sit under a tin roof in chairs I was not sure would hold anyone.  There were no walls, no doors, no windows just a roof and yet the people listened to a sermon from pastor Joe and sang songs of praise to Jesus who had changed their hearts. 

As we left that service and headed back to a border town to have lunch, I was once more aware of the condition these followers of Christ were living in and wondered how they could be so content?  We parked the car at a very nice eating-place and walked out of the bright sunlight into a very dark room.  As we followed Pastor Joe going very slow to the back of the room, I had not seen anyone in the place.  The longer we sat there I began to see the rooms were full of people and that was why we had gone past so many tables to find one to sit at.

Pastor Joe turned to me and asked a question I’ve never forgotten; Bob, when we came into the darkness out of the bright light of the sun, we did not see all these people did we?  And my answer was, I did not see anyone.  Pastor Joe said, that is how sin works when we first encounter it the darkness is overwhelming but the longer we stay around sin the lighter it becomes.  What a lesson about our culture, we are not shocked by the unwed mothers of today, we are not shocked by couples living together, and we are not shocked by the killing of a baby before it can be born.  We are not shocked by the lies of our politicians and business leaders, we have come a long way; it began in darkness but it is not dark to us now, but let’s not forget, that God has not changed and He still calls it sin.

All who have entered into Christ and He has entered into them have been set free from the darkness of sin as stated in Colossians 1:13-14, “He has rescued us from the domain of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of the Son He loves. We have redemption, the forgiveness of sins, in Him.”  Yes, it becomes a choice each moment of life to choose to return to the domain of darkness or stay in the light of the Son, where one will find love, redemption, and forgiveness.

The Holy Spirit using the lips of the Apostle Peter gave us this insight: “By which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (2 Peter 1:4-11)

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice