This morning I went through some technology frustration. This program would not shut off. Another would not respond. Things did not work the way I had planned or the way they ought to. So, I find myself running a little later than normal. Delays are great opportunities to see patience worked out in one’s life!

What is on my heart? That is the question I often ask. Of myself. Of the Lord. Of others.

This morning as excited as I am about revival, I notice a growing sense of lines being drawn. The kind of line that speaks of “don’t you dare cross over”. And I see this in the church.

It is not secret, my background prior to faith in Jesus, nor my pathway with Him. I had missteps, falls and scrapes. Why? Because I did not see clearly. I was in a place where I relied on me more than God, perhaps. But at the root of it was a place of darkness that covered, concealed, hid.

I do not like darkness. (I am not afraid of the dark.) I desire to bring light into each and every opportunity.

One of the reasons for the lines in the sand is because of darkness. Let me say darkness destroys relationship(s). It moves you out of community, out of fellowship and out of relationship. Darkness ruins and tears at the fabric of community and family.

Darkness causes people to draw lines of demarcation to keep people out, but it fails to give them an opportunity to move out as well. What keeps others out will keep you in!

Lately there seems to be a rising spirit of anything goes. How quickly one forgets what is darkness in one’s life affects the body at large. By divine design there is a body of Christ. By personal belief we enter in to that body. One’s sinful issues color and destroy the body of the Christ. While anything “goes” not all is good or profitable for healthy living and relationships.

Many years ago I sat with a young woman. She had a “spot” on her lung. This spot was unseen, not painful but it was there.  It came up in a X-ray.  By anyone looking at her, nothing was happening. At least nothing seemingly destructive. Over time that spot grew, metastasized and ultimately took her life. That little spot of darkness grew and grew until it snuffed out her life.

To allow sin in the body is not just one person doing their own thing, but actually a growing spot of darkness that begins to invade the body of believers at large.

We are not the grace police, the Pharisees or the religious, but just as there is a divine order to the body there is a government of kingdom orchestrated and appointed by God to bring light to darkness. As believers we ought to embrace light.

It is by grace we are saved and it is by grace we are empowered to overcome sinful issues in our lives.

Yet I see this line has been drawn that speaks of “this is my turf”. The hard part with that thinking is that if we understand what it is to be a bond servant, we see that we no longer “own our own”. Sometimes these actions occur out of ignorance, but over time they begin to calcify, to strengthen in to what the scriptures call strongholds. What began little is now big.

Why delve in this area? Because more and more I am finding an unwillingness to address with truth and love the hurtful, dark things that people are bringing on themselves. What father would allow his children to be injured at the hands of another without a fight? With knowledge of abuse, continue to let it go on?

Revival brings great light. Not to injure or to maim, but to reveal, that light might come in. Light is our friend. We are people of light. Our willingness to let light invade every area of our life must be at the top of our lists.

To not address sinful action is not to love. To not love the sinful person is not Jesus. Clearly as Jesus addressed the woman at the well, he opened the “box” of dark secrets and brought light. But He did not stop there. Light not only uncovers but it reveals a way out, releasing hope and faith. Love is the answer.

Our choices of good or sinful action are clearly our personal choices. But our choices have greater ramifications. They affect our future, they affect the body at large and in the case of the sinful action they open the door for  darkness to enter, sometimes in an uncontrollable way.

If I love you, I care about your goodness and well being. I desire and want the best for you. Sometimes that means we have to “talk”. I choose love. That love is an action.

It’s a new day dawning!