How can light mingle with darkness

How can light mingle with darkness

Author Guardian

I often hear fellow Christians say " Do not be unequally yoked with none

believers "

As if we are not to have anything to do with " non believers "

We are not to befriend nor be seen to agree with them...

So I ask you this question..

How can we be unequally yoked with non believers ?

You see before I knew the Lord, He was speaking to me, He was gently nurturing me,

His Holy Spirit was speaking into my life and heart, the Light of the world was

speaking to me while I was walking in darkness.

The light of the world was iluminating my heart and mind and even though I did'nt

know His voice or recognise His calling at the time, my heart was responding to

Him.

All of us who are Christians now at some point walked along the Damascus Road and

had a light shine down on us.

While we still walked in sin, While we still walked in the " I " Instead of the " O "

The " "I" in the middle of s "I" n

Instead of the "O" in the middle of S " O " N.

We all had that " O " , that God hole inside that needed to be filled..

It was no good blaming anyone else...it was no good blaming Adam and Eve...

Adam and Eve were not the only people to disobey and be rebellious.

We were enemies of God, walking in disobedience, Walking in the " I " , walking

the wide path, walking along when sudenly a light began to shine down.

And God spoke to us whether we recognised His voice or not...

And as God said to Paul " Paul why do you persecute me "

He could have been saying it to any one of us, because all of us held Jesus to

the Cross.

And the light shone down upon us and we fell and responded...

Now we suddenly realised the way in which we had been walking and for the first

time we began to realise that maybe we needed to change and walk another way.

Before that time we knew no different, before that time we were walking in darkness,

But at the point of the light coming down then...even though we were blinded by the

Light of the world and we walked knowing that we were blind...this was the turning

point of our lifes .

Now we knew we were blind and we sought to have our blindness taken away.

Now and only now could we see the way we had walked in our previous life.

Now and only now could we see that we had been walking in darkness and now we

realised how dark that darkness was.

Now as Paul ....walked along in blindness, we too walked in blindness instead of

darkness.

Because for the first time our eyes had been opened to the truth that we were blind.

I wonder how many of us had a ......." Ananias.." praying for us ?

Now having sat and sought God we knew the lifting of the scales from our eyes and

at last we walked in the light, now we could go out and see the world in new eyes.

Now we could mix as Paul mixed with the gentile and the jew.

You see most of us walk alongside those who are called ( by the Christian community )

" non believers "

A lot of us work with non believers, a lot of us mingle with non believers, a lot of

us have more contact with non believers than we do with believers.

Every day we walk alongside those who still walk in darkness...

We mingle with these people, as Jesus Himself mingled with people.

Jesus did not spend all His time at the local synagogue, neither did he spend His

time with the religious people of that day.

In fact as we read , He spent most of His time as the light of the world mingling

with the people who walked in darkness and the people who walked in darkness had

seen a great light.

He walked and mingled with those who were prostitutes and thieves, those who were

down and out and those who were beggars of that time.

Those who were tax collectors and shepherds, who were not seen as the " top " of

society at that time.

He walked and talked with the lady at the well and told her how she was living,

because the light was shining in the darkness and iluminating the hearts of those

around.

In fact you know who Jesus could see into more than anyone ?

The pharisees and the sadducees !!

His light exposed the hearts of those religious teachers of the law...

Jesus looked past the external things and His light saw into the hearts of the

people around Him.

And so we see that Paul himself saw the light, and we see that we ourselves saw and

the light and we now as Paul walk in the light and we see that the Magi, those

magi ..cians followed the light to the place of Jesus .

To the manger, that was a feeding trough in a stable, so that all could feed from

the bread of life as in a manger.

And the shepherds of the sheep saw a light and heard heaven rejoicing...

So in fact we see time and time again that instead of the light hiding away, the

light in fact does the opposite and exposes and shines out into the darkness and

the darkness can never hide the light.

For the light of the world exposes the darkness and the darkness in a heart.

And as Paul , it is not until the light exposes that we realise that we are blind.

And we seek to have our blindness taken away.

So what does it mean when we read " Do not be un equally yoked with non believers " ?

Surely we spend all our time with " non believers "

We watch television, we listen to the radio, we read the newspapers...

We are in the world but not of the world.

Our enemy is not far out there somewhere, but in fact our enemy is all around us.

We are living in the enemy camp, but "stronger is He that is in us, than he that

is in the world "

And so we read these scriptures and we ponder what they might mean ?

2 Corinthians 6:14 (New International Version)

14Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and

wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness?

2 Corinthians 6:14 (Amplified Bible)

14Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers [do not make mismated alliances with

them or come under a different yoke with them, inconsistent with your faith.

Some time ago I had to reach a decision regarding my business..

At that time I had just split from a partnership of three that employed five people,

and was launching out on my own, I employed two people to carry on my own cleaning

business, but I had come up against some interesting decisions that I had to make

some conclusion on.

One of the people working with me at that point was not a Christian and the other

was, during the years I employed people I met and employed many " non believers "

And I am sure that a little of me rubbed off on them and I am sure a little of

the character of God rubbed off on them.

They probably saw all the bad points about me and workinbg alongside me all the time,

they saw me on my bad days and my good days, they saw all the jagged edges.

They probably saw things about me that I never saw, they saw my bad hair days,

and they probably made up their own decisions based on what they saw.

In fact I could say that at that time of employing people I would prefer to employ

non believers because this gave an open doorway for God, and the Christians who

worked for me probably knew me too well and probably had preconceived ideas about

" what I was like "

They saw me as I was and not as I am...

In other words they had already made up their minds what I was like by what they

had heard about me.

They did not really see me as God was moving me on, but saw me as they had seen me

years ago.

You know beware of people who read into things that are'nt really there...

The devil can get a foothold on these things, never try to read into situations

without knowing the full story and seek God above all else, never base your

thoughts on " lack of knowledge "

But back to the topic at hand..

At this point in time while I was running this business several firms were joining

up together and this was a great idea, it strengthened firms and made for more

profit.

I had several firms come to me asking if I would be interested in joining together !!

This would have meant doubling or tripling turnover, this would have meant joining

our ideas together and our teams together and putting our knowledge of the cleaning

business together.

This might have meant expanding into all kinds of areas and possibilities...

But I had to reach a decision on this as I had done many times before and time and

time again I found myself unable to go ahead in these decisons..

Why ?

Because you cannot be unequally yoked with non believers...

Light cannot mingle in the things of the darkness...

In other words, although I worked alongside " those who did not believe at that

point "

Although I worked in a dark world, although I walked as a light in the darkness

and alonside those who had not yet been blinded by the light

I could not join forces with other people and do the things they did.

I had to "take up my Cross " if you like...

I had to out my walk with the Lord before the world..

It is one thing to work and walk alongside those who have not yet seen,

but quite another to do as they do.

Amalgamating with and joining up in partnership with non believers would

have meant taking on their practices and their ways of doing the books, it would

have meant , not just working alongside them but saying in effect " I am like you "

I had to walk away and stand my ground even though it meant " loosing out "

because you see there is a cost, but far greater the reward in the life to come.

You see you cannot be in the Kingdom of light and in the kingdom of darkness.

You cannot serve two masters..

Although Jesus walked alongside those that were in darkness and walking in darkness.

He did not do as they did..

So simply ....try to avoid at all cost forming alliances with those who are in

the world.

BUT try to befriend and walk alongside these people " at all cost "

Now there are some who find they " see the light " while in a marriage and

united with a " non believer "

Here you have the two kingdoms living together.

The reason that Gods word says " do not be unequally yoked "

Is not to say " this is a law "

It is not to say " you are wrong "

It is not to condemn and blast a Christian with scripture.

It is simply God saying " be wise.. be careful my son or daughter "

" you are walking in the light as children of the light so do not

do as the children of the dark do "

A simple illustration is this..............

If you stand on a chair and you try to pull someone else up onto that

chair....you will find it quite difficult ?

Much easier for them to pull you down !!!

This is a simple rule to follow

the scripture we have looked at goes on...

17"Therefore come out from them

and be separate, says the Lord.

Touch no unclean thing,

and I will receive you."[d]

18"I will be a Father to you,

and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty

Although we come out of Egypt ( the world )

We carry things along with us, we can still hold onto the gods of Egypt

We can still carry the rich foods of Egypt in us and it is not until we

come to the waters of Marah that we find our cleansing from the inside

out.

It is not until we come to the springs of Elim that we find our filling.

It is not until we come to the base of the mountain and look up at the

mountain when things seem impossible that we start to see the gods that

we had held onto become the gods that we worship.

And we find ourselves unclean, unable to touch the mountain..

We can have a " golden calf " in our lifes.

We can carry the " golden calf "

And once we melt down those things we worship...tv...a person...car...

house...marriage....house....work ....then and only then do we see the

idol for what it is.

It is not until the light comes that we see the darkness..

It is not until we are blinded by the light that we see that we were blind.

It is not until we come to the foot of the mountain that we see the " gods "

as they are.

Once the children of the light walk alongside the children of the

dark then the children of the dark will see a light and see that they have

been blinded and want to turn and follow the light.

And so to conclude..

Let us be a beacon light to those around, but not join forces with those around.

Let us be " the light of the world " in a dark place.

And let us walk up the mountain of God instead of joining with those who sit at

the bottom of the mountain.

For how can the army of the Lord join forces with the enemy ?

Lets pray.

Lord God in Jesus name you have given us so many gifts to use in the season of

salvation, you have given us the sabbath rest, the day of all days...

To walk in and to be lights shining in the darkness, that others might be

blinded by your light and see what they have been walking in and desire to see

and have their eyes opened.

You have given us Jesus who has been born in our hearts and reborn every time we

come to Him, you have given us so many gifts for this season...

Let us not follow the ways of the world but walk in the world, let us not be as

they are, but be as you are, let us not sit on the throne of judgement, but let you

be the judge, let us not pull others down but see you pull them up.

Let us walk alongside those who are weary and heavy laiden that they might find

" rest " from their labours and walk in yours.

Let us walk alongside those who are weary and heavy laiden that they might find,

" your sabbath rest "

Let us not walk past the stranger at the wayside, but let us help them and pick

them up.

Let us not walk past the stranger at the wayside but go to their aid as indeed

you first picked us up as the " good samaritan " and helped us to our feet and

continue to do so.

Let us not walk past the stranger at the wayside but pick them up as indeed you

pick up the Church.

Let us not join in and do things as other do , but do the things that you would do.

Let us in all things seek what you would want and not speak out of our fleshy nature.

In Jesus name amen