Matthew 6:23 But if your eye is evil, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!
In the early 1700s, the western world including the United States, was being swept under the influence of a philosophical and cultural movement known as the Age of Enlightenment, also called the Age of Reason. At this critical time in history, the First Great Awakening was birthed by the Lord in the American colonies of the “New World”. Led by preachers such as Jonathan Edwards and George Whitfield, a spiritual renewal took place which became a unifiying cultural foundation for the American Revolutionary War, which began in the late 1770s.
While the church had been stagnant, institutional, bound by tradition and formality, the First Great Awakening dramatically revivified the spiritual landscape with Holy Spirit inspired Biblical preaching, and it swept thousands of nominal churchgoers and atheists alike into vital and personal relationship with God. The preaching of the era ministered the light of the true Gospel of Christ, with deep conviction of human sinfulness, the need for repentance demonstrated by contrition and resolution to forsake sin, and the opportunity to receive God’s forgiveness and salvation by grace alone.
So just at a point in history, when the enemy was offering the false light of rationalism as his remedy for the Dark Ages, our God expressed His sovereignty over history and sent forth a revival, renewing the knowledge of His true Light to the world.
We are now at another critical point in history as it seems the enemy is launching a two-pronged attack, either to persecute and extinguish the true Light of Yeshua (Jesus), or to counterfeit it with his false light… we must recognize, expose, and oppose his evil work.
There is false light, a “light that is darkness”; [Matthew 6:23] and a ministry of “righteousness” that is not authentic; [2 Corinthians 11:14-15]. We must recognize them. This is not our Light or our Righteousness. We are awake to the true Light of the world who gives light to every man. Now, more than ever, don’t hide it under a bushel, sleeper….Awake! Perhaps, here and there, even before the Lord comes, you also, may inspire a great Awakening.
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[worthy_plugins_devotion_single_body]Tonight begins the feast of Purim, which celebrates the deliverance of the Jewish people from one of many of Satan's attempts to purge them from the world. Mordechai gave Esther a great challenge then, "and who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this?"
Life can get so hectic sometimes -- we often try to do too many things at once. But when our schedule gets that hectic, we need to start investing in some quality time with the Lord. The operating word here is "investing".
The first man was called "Ah-dom", we know him as "Adam". The word used for "man", as in "mankind", in Genesis 1, is also the same word – "Ah-dom". "Ah-dom" is rooted in the three Hebrew letters, aleph-dalet-mem, and one of the Hebrew words for earth is "Adamah", which contains the same three letters, however it ends with the Hebrew letter "hay". "Adamah" means "red earth", or "red clay", and this word points to the natural earth elements, the "earth dust" that composed Adam’s body, and the body of every human being since. "Man" is "ah-dom", in a very real sense, "clay".
Yesterday, in our devotional I spoke of the two rains in Israel, the early rain and the latter rain. The prophet Joel speaks prophetically of these two rainy seasons in connection with the outpouring of God's spirit.
For much of the year, Israel receives little to no rain. The early rains ( "Yoreh") begin at the time of the Fall Feasts, September-October, and the "Latter Rain (“Malkosh”) concludes the rainy season around the time of the Spring festival of Passover.
En Gedi is a nature reserve about 40 minutes from our home. Surrounded by dry, barren, rocky ground, except to the east where the Dead Sea lies, it is an oasis, fed year round by springs of fresh water, and home to some of the most unique wild and botanical life in the world.
A father asked his son to carry a letter from their camp to the village. He pointed out a trail over which the lad had never gone before. “All right Dad, but I don’t see how that path will ever reach the town,” said the boy. “Well son, I'll tell you how. Do you see that big tree down the path?” asked the father. “Oh, yes, I see that far.” “Well, when you get there by the tree, you’ll see the trail a little farther ahead -- and farther down you'll see another big tree -- and when you reach that one you'll be closer and so on until you get within sight of the houses of the village.”