Why Have We Embraced So Much Darkness?

I have been reading the book God.net by James Alexander Langteaux on page 39 a paragraph practically jumped off the page at me. It is a question I do believe we should all be asking ourselves. I will put the exert here:

            Sin IS desperately DECEITFUL and diabolically designed to take us all DOWN.

Disobedience leads to distraction, and distraction can take us into darkness in any number of ways. … The longer I live, the more surprised I am at how many who claim to be followers of Jesus are allowing the heinous of things to pass through the windows of our souls. If we were completely honest with ourselves, we’ll realize that the bulk of films we watch are full of vile and obnoxious things – things that would have been offensive to nearly all audiences not even twenty-five years ago. How have we allowed ourselves to embrace so much darkness and yet feel absolutely no guilt, remorse or shame? Jesus made no bones about it. He will not hang out where there is darkness and sin. God won’t tolerate our taking it in.  Because what we see is what we will eventually become. AS WE SEE, so SHALL WE BE. I know I sound old fashioned, but there’s no time for fashion when the world is spiraling so wildly out of control. And there’s more than just our single soul at stake. There are souls of all the people we meet – all those we encounter, to whom we should speak – and if we aren’t full of HIS light and filled with HIS love, the words we have for them will be uninspired, unimpressive and unbelievably cold….. God is not looking for people who are holier than thou but for those who are trying like crazy to be more like HIM! I think that the only part of the struggle involves trying; most of the battle is about dying – all about realizing that we are powerless apart from God. When we come to that place, we can lay down our man made holiness and in our very real and honest weakness look to HIM and make us strong. In our weakness HE makes us strong. When we let HIM. When we ask HIM.

The question at hand: How have we allowed ourselves to embrace so much darkness and yet feel absolutely no guilt, remorse or shame?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYDCMg4d7ks

I came across a verse in the bible, quite honestly I never thought I would ever find – it is a chilling reminder of who we belong to before accepting Jesus as our savior. 

John 8:44 “You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it.” 

One thing that God spoke to my heart about finding this verse and the above exert is: am I going to allow Satan to use me as a tool for carrying out his plans? Weather that be with what I watch on TV, movies I watch or the music I listen to, the way I am around my friends. There are a million ways Satan desires to deceive us, to trap us in believing a lie. What is the opposite of a lie – it is truth. God stands for truth. “Man will suppress, distort, reject and exchange God’s truth for lies.” (Truth Project) 2 Timothy 4:3-4 “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers, and they will turn their ears away from truth and be turned aside to fables.” 

When it describes itching ear my study bible says that this is referring to only hearing what you want to hear. How many times have we heard the phrase “if it feels good do it”? It’s the same idea about hearing what you want: it’s how you want to hear it because that is good for you and it suits your purpose. We are so easily deceived as we willingly run into sin whereby buying into Satan’s lies. 

Here is the last example from Isaiah I will leave this post with: Isaiah 44: 14 -17 “He cuts down cedars for himself…..16 He burns half of it in a fire, with this he eats meat, he roasts a roast and is satisfied, he even warms himself and says “Ah I am warm”…..and the rest of it he makes into a god. His carved image he falls down before it and worships it and prays to it and says “Deliver me, for you are my god.” 

How absurd to make a god out of the same tree that gives firewood – but I wonder what things we make into our own gods, perhaps is not a tree or a craved image but rather fame, fortune, and or power. The way we feel about bowing down to a piece of wood, I am sure God looks on at whatever we make into our idols and feels that much more disgusted. If we make a god of our own choosing we are deceiving ourselves – we know from John 8:44 who speaks lies and therefore we cannot expect Satan to empower us or our lives. Satan has one sole purpose to oppose God and everything He is – he wants to rob us from our eternity, from our creator! I think this is the answer to the above question about how we can embrace so much darkness with little remorse – it is because we have been deceived! Are we going to let Satan’s lies defeat, destroy and rob us? You know you can stop the subscription to the master of lies and start seeking truth and the one who stands behind it - Jesus.

~ALD