June.06.02: Light For The Day - "Clouds and Darkness"

-- Psalms 97:1, 2 (NIV)
"1 The LORD reigns, let the earth be glad;
let the distant shores rejoice.
2 Clouds and thick darkness surround him;
righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne."

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A person who has not been born again by the Spirit of God will tell you that the teachings of Jesus are simple. But when he is baptized by the Holy Spirit, he finds that "clouds and darkness surround Him ."

When we come into close contact with the teachings of Jesus Christ
we have our first realization of this. The only possible way to have full
understanding of the teachings of Jesus is through the light of the Spirit of God shining inside us. If we have never had the experience
of taking our casual, religious shoes off our casual, religious feet --
getting rid of all the excessive informality with which we approach God -- it is questionable whether we have ever stood in His presence.

The people who are flippant and disrespectful in their approach
to God are those who have never been introduced to Jesus Christ.
Only after the amazing delight and liberty of realizing what Jesus Christ does, comes the impenetrable "darkness" of realizing who He is.

Jesus said, "The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life" (John 6:63). Once, the Bible was just so many words to us-"clouds and darkness"-then, suddenly, the words become spirit and life because Jesus re-speaks them to us when our circumstances make the words new. That is the way God speaks to us; not by visions and dreams, but by words.

When a man gets to God, it is by the most simple way-words.

-- Oswald Chambers

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-- 2 Corinthians 3:6 (NIV)
"6 He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant --
not of the letter but of the Spirit;
FOR THE LETTER KILLS, BUT THE SPIRIT GIVES LIFE."

-- John 6:63 (NIV)
"The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing.
The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life.

-- Romans 8:2 (NIV)
"Because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life
set me free from the law of sin and death."