FROM DARKNESS TO LIGHT

FROM DARKNESS TO LIGHT

by Don Phillips

"You are seen as bright lights, shinning out clearly in the dark world,

holding out to and offering it the Word of Life.” (Phil. 2: 15 AMP)

God faithfully provides His light to encourage and lead us out of the darkness into His marvelous light. It is in times of darkness that we can experience some of our greatest victories and growth. I am convinced that when Jesus is our Savior and Lord, we have the Light of the world (Jesus) residing within us. No strategy from Satan can extinguish that Light. Satan cannot hold us hostage because he was defeated by Jesus on the cross. May God help us to not let fear rule over us and cause us to doubt in the darkness what God has promised. God will continue to shine in our darkness until it is overcome.

As we observe what is happening in our World today, we could conclude that these are dark times. We are entering into what many believe to be the end times when Jesus will return. What the prophets said would be the signs of the return of Christ are being fulfilled daily.

 As we face dark times we must remember who we are and Who He is. We, through faith in Jesus Christ, are the children of God and we must believe that He has everything under control. We must not allow doubt and confusion to minimize our faith in a loving, providing and all sufficient God. It is true that God wants us to use what we learn in our dark seasons to bless others. "What I say to you in the dark, speak in the light;and what you hear in the ear, preach on the housetop." Matthew 10: 27

Are you going through a dark season?

Perhaps you are experiencing a dark season emotionally, in your physical body, marriage, family or finances. I encourage you to let God use your dark times to bring you closer to Him. I encourage you to let His light shine brightly in you for His glory and for the benefit of others.

God enables and empowers us to overcome the darkness. May God help us to let the stress and pain  draw us closer to Him and each other. Satan, the prince of darkness, wants to cause you to fear and doubt, which will ultimately lead  to unbelief. We must decide who we will follow during our dark times. Prayer, the Holy Spirit and God’s Word will help us overcome those dark seasons in our lives.

We who have experienced or are experiencing a dark season can discover an overwhelming sense of God’s Word and the Holy Spirit serving as a light guiding us through our dark times. As Ruthanne and I are going through a current personal challenge, we are greatly encouraged as we read Psalm 119: 105 in The Message Bible: “By Your words I can see where I’m going; they throw a beam of light on my dark path."

Our Journey from darkness to light

Several months ago I was diagnosed with Stage two Lung Cancer. Ruthanne and I met with the surgeon who specializes in lung cancer surgery. He recommended immediate surgery. He said even with surgery he could not give us a positive prognosis. He described the surgery procedure. He would have to go in and spread my rib cage and collapse my left lung. He would then remove the lower left lobe where the cancerous tumor was located. He said recovery would be long and require Chemo therapy and Radiation. He said we could get a second opinion if we wanted to.

As we drove home from the Kaiser Hospital in Santa Clara, we both were silent for a while and a feeling of darkness began to come over us. After several minutes we began to pray and talk. We both recognized that this was another dark season for us but we knew that God would shine His light in the midst of our darkness as He has done through previous dark experiences.

A promise from God

God reminded me of a message He gave me a few days before. “Don, you will be going through another storm but the Son of Righteousness will rise with healing in His wings.” We both were encouraged to trust God more than the doctors. After I received that word from the Lord, Ruthanne reminded me that it was from Malachi 4: 2. We read verses 1-3 in several versions and were greatly encouraged. May you be encouraged as you read these words of light and hope in the midst of your dark season.

“Count on it: — a black day. But for you, sunrise! The sun (Son) of righteousness will dawn on those who honor my name, healing radiating from its wings. You will be bursting with energy, like colts frisky and frolicking. God-of-the-Angel-Armies says so.”  (Malachi 4: 1-3 The Message) (Emphasis mine)

God gave us a “second opinion”

We rejoiced that God had given us a “second” opinion through this and other promises. We were overwhelmed with the assurance that we could go through another dark season without doubting or wavering. After prayer we felt God didn’t want me to have surgery, Chemo therapy or radiation. We were convinced that God wanted us to use the natural path for healing. God led us to a great Naturopathic doctor who has treated me for the past several months. Even though I have periodic pain, in many ways I feel better now than I have in years. I still have my Oncologist and he informed me that my last test showed the cancer has not grown or spread. Praise God!

We talked about the other dark times in our lives and how God was always faithful to let His light shine on our pathway and give us light and hope for our future. God always proved Himself to be so very faithful. The more we talked and prayed the light got brighter and our faith began to rise and the darkness began to flee.

The darkest season of all

We talked about the darkest season of all when we had to watch our daughter Donna die a slow painful death, what a dark night of the soul that was for her family and friends. She was 36 and the wife of our wonderful son-in-law Richard and the mother of our awesome grandchildren, Abby, Jeremy, Rachel and Ruth. We were so grateful for the love and prayers from so many in the body of Christ. Through it all God’s light broke forth and gave all our family and friends the power to let Him use that dark season for our good and His glory.

We are so grateful for the way God has blessed Donna’s family. Here is a current update: Richard is still a man of the Word and prayer and has organized some of the men in our family who live in the area to meet with me on a regular basis. I appreciate my "stretcher bearers," Richard, Jeremy, who recently returned from Marine duty in Iraq; Danny, Abby's husband who is on the pastoral staff at Calvary Chapel in San Jose;  Pete, Rachel's husband, who assists Danny with the youth at Calvary, and Solomon (11), Abby’s oldest child, who is becoming quit a prayer warrior and Bible scholar. 

I am so blessed as we come together and share God’s Word together. They all fervently pray for me as I deal with cancer.

Abby and Rachel  bless us as we observe how they love and serve God and their husbands and children. They both are married to dedicated men of God. Jeremy is a committed follower of Christ and is married to Rachel who is a dedicated woman of God. Ruthie, Donna's youngest, is single and is growing in her faith. Donna would be so proud of her family and grateful for the way God has answered her prayers concerning each of them. Donna was a godly wife and mother and would be an awesome grandmother to Solomon, Naomi, Michal Donna, Judah, Jonah and the others who will come in the future.

We are in the process of making a DVD of Donna’s memorial service and a pictorial DVD review of her life. We want her powerful Christ-centered legacy to live on and influence her children and grandchildren and others to give their all to Jesus as she did.

Another dark season

About one and one half years ago Ruthanne received a call from the Trauma Department at Valley Medical Center in San Jose. They told her that out 50 yr old son Rodney was involved in a serious motorcycle accident and had been taken by helicopter to their facility. They said we should come immediately but they couldn’t give any more details over the phone. As we drove to the hospital we felt we were experiencing another season of darkness. As we made our way to the hospital we prayed for Rod and called others to pray. There came to us a sence of God’s light shining through the darkness and giving us faith for his recovery. God marvelously answered prayers and Rod has fully recovered. Praise God!

God’s light conquers cancer

Ruthanne and I are still in facing some unknowns as we continue to do battle with this “giant” called Cancer. We are daily being lifted by the prayers of our faithful brothers and sisters in Christ throughout the World. We deeply appreciate the outpouring of love and faith. As His light continues to shine upon us we experience great hope and faith that I will have many more years to love and serve Him on this earth as long as Jesus tarries.

We are praying that God will use what is happening to us to bless and encourage others who are going through their own dark season. We strongly believe that what Satan intended for evil, God is turning around for good. We want the message God is writing on our heart to be used by Him to help others have hope and embrace His light to lead them from darkness into His marvelous light

Let the light of His Word lead you out of the darkness!

I pray the following Scriptures will encourage and bless you, as they have us, and light up your pathway as you deal with your own season of darkness.

“Do all things without grumbling and faultfinding and complaining, that you may show yourselves to be blameless in the midst of a crooked and wicked generation among whom you are seen as bright lights, shinning out clearly in the dark world, holding out to and offering it the Word of Life.” (Phil. 2: 14-16 AMP) (Emphasis mine) Paul encourages us to let His light shine in our darkest hours. Remember, he was writing this from a dark prison cell.

“Jesus spoke to the people once more and said, I am the light of the world. If you follow me, you won’t have to walk in darkness, because you will have the light that leads to life.” (John 8: 12 NLT) (Emphasis mine) Don’t curse the darkness but follow the “Light” above all lights.

“We proclaim to you what we ourselves have actually seen and heard so that you may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. We are writing these things so that you may fully share our joy. This is the message we heard from Jesus and now declare to you: God is light, and there is no darkness in him at all. So we are lying if we say we have fellowship with God but go on living in spiritual darkness; we are not practicing the truth. But if we are living in the light, as God is in the light, then we have fellowship with each other, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from all sin.” (I John 1: 3-7 NLT) (Emphasis mine)

“We saw it, we heard it, and now we’re telling you so you can experience it along with us, this experience of communion with the Father and his Son, Jesus Christ. Our motive for writing is simply this: We want you to enjoy this, too. Your joy will double our joy! This, in essence, is the message we heard from Christ and are passing on to you: God is light, pure light; there’s not a trace of darkness in him. If we claim that we experience a shared life with him and continue to stumble around in the dark, we’re obviously lying through our teeth—we’re not living what we claim. But if we walk in the light, God himself being the light, we also experience a shared life with one another, as the sacrificed blood of Jesus, God’s Son, purges all our sin”  ( I John 1: 3-7 The Message) (Emphasis mine)

“The way of the righteous is like the first gleam of dawn, which shines ever brighter until the full light of day. But the way of the wicked is like total darkness. They have no idea what they are stumbling over.” (Prov. 4: 18-19 NLT) (Emphasis mine)

The ways of right-living people glow with light; the longer they live, the brighter they shine. But the road of wrongdoing gets darker and darker— travelers can’t see a thing; they fall flat on their faces. (Prov. 4: 18-19 The Message) (Emphasis mine)

“My dear friends, I am not writing a new command to you but an old command you have had from the beginning. It is the teaching you have already heard. But also I am writing a new command to you, and you can see its truth in Jesus and in you, because the darkness is passing away, and the true light is already shining. “(1 John 2: 7,8 NCV) (Emphasis mine)

“Dear friends, I am not writing a new commandment for you; rather it is an old one you have had from the very beginning. This old commandment—to love one another—is the same message you heard before. Yet it is also new. Jesus lived the truth of this commandment, and you also are living it. For the darkness is disappearing, and the true light is already shining.” (I John 2: 7-8 NLT) (Emphasis mine)

“My dear friends, I’m not writing anything new here. This is the oldest commandment in the book, and you’ve known it from day one. It’s always been implicit in the Message you’ve heard. On the other hand, perhaps it is new, freshly minted as it is in both Christ and you—the darkness on its way out and the True Light already blazing!” (I John 2: 7-8 The Message) (Emphasis mine)

 “Daniel said, ‘He (God) gives wisdom to the wise. He reveals deep and mysterious things and knows what lies hidden in darkness, though he is surrounded by light.’ ” (Daniel 2: 20-22 NLT) (Emphasis mine)

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