"Illumination"

"Unto the upright there ariseth light in the darkness: he is gracious, full of compassion, and righteous." (Psalms 112:4)

 There is a footnote from the Editor regarding verses 2-3 in my Bible, which says, "Neither the acquisition nor the possession of earthly riches is forbidden, but the worshipping of wealth is prohibited." I'm just saying, Abraham was pretty wealthy, in his own right; but everything he had he attributed to God's hand being upon his life. This is where we are today, in the very special place of understanding who has lifted us up from death to life and that the life we now live in Him is no longer our life to live as we please, but to live as we are instructed to live, daily. To be perfectly honest, if left unchecked, even my best day could be wasted on my own personal desires and passions. Not that I would set out to do such a thing, but the flesh loves to be pleased and without restraint, it will do what it wants to do. The way I see it, we are surrounded by darkness everywhere that we go; there is just nowhere we can go without having to deal with the darkness that is here on this earth. But, we are light, of the Light, to be a light in the darkness. I know it might be easy to say, and easy to read all the verses that illustrate what it means; but to live it out fully requires that stay plugged in, all day long, every day. How are you doing with that? On a scale of one to ten, I would put it at about three; in a twenty-four hour day, I might have those three characteristics seven to eight hours, and six of those hours I am sleeping. Okay, maybe it's not that bad, but when you consider how much time we live for ourselves verses living for others, it might be ten to fifteen minutes per hour, on a good day. That is what those three characteristics are speaking about, including the third one, "righteous." The first two are easy to see, because it is hard to be gracious and full of compassion without having someone else to be that way towards; but righteous, that is something that can be demonstrated on your own. However, this kind of righteous speaks of judgement and giving out or dispensing justice; which last time I checked, involves the people in and around our lives....

"Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children; and walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour. (For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth:) see then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, long-suffering; forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye." (Ephesians 5:1-2, 9, 15 and Colossians 3:12-13