Daily Encounter: A Week-day Devotional by a staff of ACTS International.

Thursday, January 26, 2012

"This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin."¹

You may recall that several years ago Mel Gibson was bitterly criticized for his movie, The Passion of the Christ. Much of the criticism was apparently by people who didn't even see the movie. But that's not my point. What if Mel Gibson, or any other actor for that matter, were doing a movie glorifying homosexuality and/or gay marriage, or promoting the liberal and legal use of marijuana? Chances are many of these same critics would praise such a movie as being enlightening.

One cannot help but wonder if the accelerating moral decline in the U.S.A. didn't begin "in 1947 when the Supreme Court ruled on the 'Separation of Church and State,' opening the door for Madalyn Murray O'hair and her 1962 lawsuit which literally kicked God out of our schools. Furthermore, in 1973, the Supreme Court ruled to make abortions legal, and since that time some 50 million babies have been killed."²

Even many churches today have also gravely lowered their standards of biblical morality. Not so long ago, an openly gay bishop was appointed to the Episcopal Church. Does this also mean that a single bishop would be accepted and appointed if he were an openly practicing fornicator? More recently the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) lowered its standard thereby opening the door to allow homosexuals to be ordained as pastors.

One cannot help but wonder at how far we have moved as a society from the light and how much are we now walking in darkness?

Years ago former president, Dwight D. Eisenhower, posed the same question: "In the swift rush of great events, we find ourselves groping to know the full sense and meaning of these times in which we live. In our quest of understanding, we beseech God's guidance. We summon all our knowledge of the past and we scan all signs of the future. We bring all our wit and all our will to meet the question: How far have we come in man's long pilgrimage from darkness toward the light? Are we nearing the light—a day of freedom and of peace for all mankind? Or are the shadows of another night closing in upon us?"

I am also reminded of the words of President Ronald Reagan who said, "If we ever forget that we are one nation under God, then we will be one nation gone under!"

With God's help let us make sure that you and I walk in the light—the light as revealed to us in God's Word, the Bible.

Suggested prayer: "Dear God, please help us as a nation to see the folly of our ways when we turn from the light of your Word and walk in darkness. In your mercy please send a great spiritual awakening to our country ... and let it begin in me. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus' name, amen."

1. 1 John 1:5-7 (NIV).
2. Jerry Beavan, American News Commentary, June 8, 2011.

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