Walking in the Light

(This is an article that was in the May-June 2008 issue of Yahshua’s Witness Magazine, a publication of Yahweh’s Evangelistic Assembly, PO Box 31, Atlanta, TX 75551-0031. I think it is worthy of re-printing here for those who would otherwise miss it. As we approach the end of this age, there are things we must be doing if we expect to be in that Firstfruits resurrection when Yahshua returns to resurrect His Saints.)

As long as you grab for what makes you feel good or makes you look important, are you really much different than a babe at the breast, content only when everything’s going your way?

The night is about over, dawn is about to break. Be up and awake to what YHWH is doing! YHWH is putting the finishing touches on the salvation work he began when we first believed. We can’t afford to waste a minute, must not squander these precious daylight hours in frivolity and indulgence, in sleeping around and dissipation, in bickering and grabbing everything in sight. Get out of bed and get dressed! Don’t loiter and linger, waiting until the very last minute. Dress yourselves in anointing oil, and be up and about! Be prepared You’re up against far more than you can handle on your own.

In the same way, prayer is essential in this ongoing warfare. Pray hard and long. Ray for your brothers and sisters. Keep your eyes open. Keep each other’s spirits up so that no one falls behind or drops out.

I am immersed in tears, yet always filled with deep joy; living on handouts, yet enriching many; having nothing, having it all. I can’t tell you how much I long for you to enter this wide-open, spacious life. I’m speaking as plainly as I can and with great affection.

Open up your lives. Live openly and expansively! The smallness you feel comes from within you. Your lives aren’t small, but you’re living them in a small way. Rise up with a pure heart, clear head, steady hand; in gentleness, holiness, and honest love.

Leave the corruption and compromise; leave it for good. Don’t link up with those who will pollute you. The world is unprincipled. It’s dog-eat-dog out there! The world doesn’t fight fair. But we don’t live or fight our battles this way – never have, never will.

The tools of our trade are not for marketing or manipulation, but they are for demolishing that entire massively corrupt culture.

We use our powerful tools for smashing warped philosophies, tearing down barriers erected against the truth, fitting every loose thought and emotion and impulse into the structure of life shaped by the Messiah asking YHWH to give us wise minds and spirits attuned to his will, and so acquire a thorough understanding of the ways in which YHWH works.

I pray that you’ll live well for the Master, making him proud of you as you work hard in his orchard. As you learn more and more how YHWH works, you will learn how to do your work.

I pray that you’ll have the strength to stick it out over the long haul – not the grim strength of gritting your teeth but the glory-strength YHWH gives. It is His strength that endures the unendurable and spills over into joy.

Thank the Father who makes us strong enough to take part in everything bright and beautiful that he has for us.

You are sons of Light, daughters of Day. We live under wide open skies and know where we stand. So let’s not sleepwalk through life like those others. Let’s keep our eyes open and be smart. Since we are creatures of Day, let’s act like it. Walk out into the daylight sober, dressed up in faith, love, and the hope of salvation.

Your baptism was not just washing you up for a fresh start. It also involved dressing you in an adult faith wardrobe.

Friends, this world is not your home, so don’t make yourselves too cozy in it. Don’t indulge your ego at the expense of your soul. Live an exemplary life among the natives so that your actions will refute their prejudices. Then they will be won over to YHWH’s side and be there to join in the celebration when he arrives.

My counsel is this: Live freely, animated and motivated by YHWH’s Spirit. Then you won’t feed the compulsions of selfishness.

There is a root of sinful self-interest in us that is at odds with a free spirit, just as the free spirit is incompatible with selfishness. These two ways of life are antithetical, so that you cannot live at times one way and at times another way, according to how you feel on any given day.

Since, then, we do not have the excuse of ignorance, everything – and I do mean everything – connected with that old way of life has to go. It is rotten through and through Get rid of it! And then take on an entirely new way of life, a life renewed from the inside and working itself into your conduct as YHWH accurately reproduces His character in you.

What this adds up to, then is this: No more lies, no more pretense. Tell your neighbor the truth. We are all connected to each other, after all. When you lie to others, you end up lying to yourself.

Go ahead and be angry. You do well to be angry – but don’t use your anger as fuel for revenge. And don’t stay angry. Don’t go to bed angry. Don’t give the finger-pointer that kind of foothold in your life.

Did you used to make ends meet by stealing? Well, no more! Get an honest job so that you can help others who can’t work.

Watch the way you talk. Let nothing foul or dirty come out of your mouth. Say only what helps, each word a gift. Make a clean break with all cutting, backbiting, profane talk.

Don’t grieve YHWH. Don’t break His heart. His breath of life, moving and breathing in you, is the most intimate part of your life, making you fit for himself. Do not take such a gift for granted.

Be gentle with one another, sensitive. Forgive one another as quickly and as thoroughly as YHWH forgave you.

Think of your sufferings as a weaning from that old sinful habit of always expecting to get your own way. Then you will be able to live out your days free to pursue what YHWH wants instead of being tyrannized by what you want. But, now that you know better, make sure it is all gone for good: Bad temper, irritability, meanness, profanity, dirty talk. You are done with that old life. It is like a filthy set of ill-fitting clothes you have stripped off and put in the fire.

Now you are dressed in a new wardrobe. Every item of your new way of life is custom-made by the Creator, with His label on it. All the old fashions are now obsolete.

So, chosen by YHWH for this new life of love, dress in the wardrobe YHWH picked out for you: Compassion, kindness, humility, quiet strength, discipline. Be even-tempered, content with second place, quick to forgive an offense. Forgive as quickly and as completely as the Master forgave you. And regardless of what else you put on, wear love. It is your basic, all-purpose garment. Never be without it. Let peace keep you in tune with each other, in step with each other. None of this going off and doing your own thing.

And cultivate thankfulness. Let the Word – the Message – have the run of the house. Give it plenty of room in your lives. Instruct and direct one another using good common sense. And sing, sing, sing your hearts out to YHWH! Let every detail in your lives, words, actions, whatever, be done in the Name of the Master, thanking YHWH every step of the way. ~