Darkness and hopelessness are terms that have no plural form, whereas light and hope do. Once you punch a hole in the darkness, light floods in.
I think the biggest enemy in the church is not the devil. It’s our own passivity. At some point the Good News becomes okay news and Christianity is no longer life changing but merely life enhancing. If Jesus doesn’t change people into radicals anymore, just nice people, then the church becomes dull, predictable, and monotonous. Dullness is the absence of brightness in our soul. Sometimes I think that sin is not necessarily immorality or selfishness. Sometimes it just means we live drab, colorless, stale, and unimaginative lives before God.
Because we have a free will, some people become good and others bad, but everyone has faults. With this view we tend to see society’s advancement as a struggle between good and evil. When the righteous rise up, good prevails. When the unrighteous rule, evil prevails. This means the moral and spiritual progress of humanity is not only dependent upon what God is doing in the world, but also what people do. The conditions of the earth are very much dependent upon us.
Harold Eberle
Daily Christian Quote Website
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The Church Jesus launched is meant to be expansive, like salt, water, light or leaven—metaphors He used to describe the Kingdom of God—none of which is effective if contained or controlled. Salt left in a shaker is useless. Stale water turns putrid. Light that is blocked results in darkness. Leaven in a container remains inert.