Annihilate Darkness and Choose Life

 

 

By Dr. Lindy S. Diffenbaugh, DD

 

 

Why, you may wonder, would I make it a priority to write about the concept of Faith? In fact, are you aware that in Chapter 11 in the book of Hebrews,  champions the concept of faith and goes into great detail regarding the glorious attributes and the value of faith!  

 

As you consider the above introductory concept of faith, it is possible that you could be scratching your head and wondering, “Why does faith carry such weight in this Biblical writing? Surely there were other concepts that could have “opened the curtain” in that Chapter of Hebrews.

 

The author of that book lists a litany of men and women of God, who lived “on purpose” and changed their world for the Kingdom and Glory of God. Most were not wealthy, but they carried an entire treasure chest of a rich and glorious heritage of their faith-filled lives.

 

These were from all walks of life and they all, at one time or another, they experienced what it is like to stand in the face of death, fear, and certain danger, and to ultimately prevail in the battle with the forces of darkness.

 

In fact, these mighty warriors all knew how to react to the threats that they faced, and they did not hesitate to stand against possible destruction and/or death.  When Hell was staring them in the face, and threatening their lives and futures, as well as the lives of their families, these stood strong and looked their enemies squarely in the face.

 

Each one of these heroic warriors of the Most-High God, was able to walk through and over the obstacles that stood in the way of living out their destiny, as they ran the race in the course of time that God had determined for them to live and prevail on the Earth.  

 

By allowing God to move them through the demonic forces that stood before them, and brought them to His endgame of overcoming victory, God surely said to them, “Well Done My Good and Faithful Servants”. In Hebrews, we learn that these selfless warriors, “were those of whom the world was not worthy.”

 

God also said that there were others who lived their lives on the Earth by listening to God, learning His ways, and running the race of life all the way through to victory. I would add that in every generation of the God created people on the earth, that God had a remnant of mighty warriors on this earth, who were selfless and persistent in serving the Lord, pushing back the darkness, and releasing the Glorious Light that God had placed in their hearts and lives.

 

          Why Did The Lord Send   Nathan to Confront King David?

 

 

In 2 Samuel, Chapter 12, we read that, the Lord sent Nathan to David. When he came to him, he said, “There were two men in a certain town, one rich and the other poor. ² The rich man had a very large number of sheep and cattle, ³ but the poor man had nothing except one little ewe lamb that he had bought. He raised it, and it grew up with him and his children. It shared his food, drank from his cup, and even slept in his arms. It was like a daughter to him.”

 

 

⁴ “Now a traveler came to the rich man, but the rich man refrained from taking one of his own sheep or cattle to prepare a meal for the traveler who had come to him. Instead, he took the ewe lamb that belonged to the poor man and prepared it for the one who had come to him.”

 

⁵ David burned with anger against the man and said to Nathan, “As surely as the Lord lives, the man who did this must die! ⁶ He must pay for that lamb four times over, because he did such a thing and had no pity.”

 

 

⁷ Then Nathan said to David, “You are the man! This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you from the hand of Saul. ⁸ I gave your master’s house to you, and your master’s wives into your arms. I gave you all of Israel and Judah. And if all this had been too little, I would have given you even more. ⁹ Why did you despise the word of the Lord by doing what is evil in his eyes? You struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and took his wife to be your own. You killed him with the sword of the Ammonites. ¹⁰ Now, therefore, the sword will never depart from your house, because you despised me and took the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your own.”

 

Is it Impossible for a Fallen Follower of Christ To Be Brought to Repentance

 

Let us turn to another verse in the Book of Hebrews, Chapter 6, verse 5; This is where the Lord says that, “It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, ⁵ who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age ⁶ and who have fallen^[c] away, to be brought back to repentance. To their loss they are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting him to public disgrace. ⁷ Land that drinks in the rain often falling on it and that produces a crop useful to those for whom it is farmed receives the blessing of God. ⁸ But land that produces thorns and thistles is worthless and is in danger of being cursed. In the end it will be burned.”

 

There are a few of the other Biblical Saints and/or “Would Be Saints,” that we will consider; and by the way none of the people that God counted as worthy were perfect. As some would say, they had feet of clay up to their armpits.

 

However,  despite their mistakes and their shortcomings, these men and women, stood out as those who carried the zeal and passion of God, and those who considered God’s Kingdom and purpose before they questioned their own peace, safety, and comfort.

 

When you look at Israel from the perspective of Judges 6, where the Israelite had been moving through a cycle of obedience, disobedience, and trouble, God delivers them, and before you know it, the cycle starts all-over again.

 

In fact, the cycle continued year after year, until the Angel of the Lord paid Gideon a visit.  In fact, the visitor that was sent to Gideon was an an Angel of the Lord.

 

Where is Gideon when we first see him Judges, chapter 6? He knows that the Midianites are after Israel, so he is hiding out working in a wine press, beating out the wheat for his father.

 

Then, from out of nowhere an angel appears before Gideon and proclaims, “Hail Mighty Man of Valor…The Lord is With You.” And most likely Gideon does not identify with that “Mighty Man of Valor” thing; after all, Gideon sees himself as the least in his father’s house. When the Angel tells him that God is with him, he really does not comprehend that concept!  

 

What Gideon does not seem to understand is that the angel has arrived before him in response to the prayers of the Jews in the face of an ongoing invasions of the Midianites. In fact, the Angel tells Gideon to go out and save his country.

 

While Gideon is standing  before an Angel of the Most High God, he starts asking questions. ³ “Pardon me, my lord,” Gideon replied, “but if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us?  He is nowhere and he has given us over to the hand of the Midianites.”

 

 

I suppose that Gideon was thinking, “Since I have an angle here, I might as well get that off my chest.”  But it did not move the Angel to back off the mission that he was to release to Gideon. Then the Angel said to Gideon, “Go in Your strength and save Israel from the hand of Midianites. Am I not sending you?”

 

We know that after Gideon received the commission of the Lord, he took down the altars of Bael, his father turned and sided with Gideon, and he drove the Midianites out of their town. In short, Gideon’s obedience to what he really did not understand, saved the Israelites from total-destruction and absolute annihilation.

 

You know as I do, that there is a lot more meat to that story. But the point is one-man obeyed God, and in so doing he saved Israel from what most likely would have been certain death and annihilation.

 

Remember Daniel In the Lion’s Den?

 

Now let us  turn to another man, that God  used to see almost the entirety of how the days and times of the people of God would unfold, from Daniel’s day to the Book of Revelation, and up to the days that we are now living out in this day. 

 

The Book of Daniel, as you know, took place at a time that the Israelites were being carried off to Babylon, where they were held in captivity. Why? Because they had turned their backs on God and His Word.

 

God had, had enough.  He allowed His chosen people to be carried off into Captivity…They went from Israel, the land flowing with milk and honey, to a foreign nation called Babylon. It was certainly a dry and thirsty land to those who had been carried there from Israel, to Babylon, where there was ongoing persecution of the Jews.

 

There is no evidence that Daniel himself was persecuted or beaten by his captors in the early days of his captivity. We do know that as an older man he was put in a lion’s den because he refused to worship the King or a statue of the King. In other words, the Babylonians had made it a law that the Statute of the King that was erected in the town square, was to be worshiped.

 

The sign of that worship was that every one that passed by the Statute of the King, had to bow their knees in honor of that statute. This went against Daniel’s worship of the Most-High God of Heaven and Earth, thus, he refused to bow his knees to any god, but his own God, Jehovah.

 

Because Daniel refused to worship a foreign God He was thrown into the Lion’s Den. To the shock of the King of Babylon, Daniel was not consumed by the Lion; in fact, Daniel remained alive and well the next day…Because God was With Him, the Lion did not touch Him.

 

Let Us Now Look in On The Beautiful and Powerful Queen Esther

 

The last story is that of Queen Esther. She too had been carried into captivity in Persia. She came into the recognition when Queen Vashti of Babylon, refused a direct order from King Xerxes. The King had Queen Vashti removed from the throne and taken into exile.

 

While there was a search in the land to find a new queen,  Esther was being groomed for greater things in her life. While the King was searching for a queen, Esther was brought before him. She was chosen, and they were married.

 

There came a day when King Xerxes,  ordered that Haman and all of His Henchmen, were hung on the gallos  that Haman had built for the all of the the Jews in the community to be put to death.  Queen Esther found out about it through her, Cousin, Mortdecai…He encouraged the Queen to go before the King and get the edict rescinded.

 

Queen Esther told Mortdecai that if she did such a thing without being summoned by the King, that she would be put to death. He told her that if she did not go before the King, then she would perish. He believed that the Jews were going to be delivered, with or without Esther’s intervention…but he believed that Esther had been brought into the kingdom for such a time as this, and if she did not do it, then even Esther herself could also be annihilated along with the other Jews.

 

Queen Esther was invited by the King to enter His throne room with her petition. When she told the King that she herself was a Jew, and if he killed all the Jews, that she too would be killed, the King succumbed to her request and stopped the execution process.

 

 

When Esther exposed this plot of Haman’s to kill all the Jews, the King was appalled, and He hung on Haman on and his men on the gal-lose that Haman had been built for the annihilation of the Jews in Israel. Thus, because of the bravery of Mordecai and Queen Esther, the entire Jewish race prevailed in that day, and even up to this day.

 

 There Is Nothing New Under the Sun!

 

As we learned from King Solomon, “There is nothing New Under the Sun.” What exactly does that mean to us in this day? It simply means that Humanity in that day and in this one, is influenced by one of two venues. It can either follow the darkness of Satan, on a pathway that will lead us straight to Hell, or they can follow Christ and Ascend into the Heavenly Realm with Him When We Leave This Earth!” In that choosing, understand that living like Hell on the Earth, does not lead us to Heaven when we die.

 

 

In fact, road to hell is a wide pathway, and many find it and they burn in the raging flames Hell for all of eternity. On the other side of the of the matter, the road to Heaven is a narrow road, and few there be that find it!

 

 

Every Day is a Day that We Must intend to Make a Choice Between Right and Wrong and Life and Death.

 

 

             Be Intentional and Diligent! 

                       Choose Life!!!

                   

                                      

                           Selah!!!