All his life there had been a battle, and all his life he had worked.  He would go down working, go down fighting, go out trying as he had always done.  Had he known how, he would have quit, but life had taught him everything but that.”
              –Louis L”Amour  (Comstock Lode)

    “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”
              –Romans 12:21 (NASB)
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How to Live in a Pagan, Apostate, and Foolish World

Key Verse:  “We know that we are of God, and that the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.”   –1 John 5:19 (NASB)


To make it through this crazy, mixed-up world, we must walk with God.  Our every footstep must be guided by Him.  Too many people think that these few short years are for their pleasure and entertainment, and while we can have these things to an extent we must realize that life is a serious journey for it is what takes us on into eternity.  Choose heaven or hell, and that is done in this life.
    We must therefore, be certain about life, its meaning and purpose.  We cannot be superficial about the values and principles of life.  Our foundation is to be on Jesus Christ.  Far too many people, Christians included, tend to become victims of circumstances.  Worries about today, frets about tomorrow, anxieties and the wringing of hands depict most of those who walk this earth, and too often man seeks to escape through a myriad of means.
    “Oh no, another day is before me,” is the cry.  Then they go on their way, day by day, feeling uneasy or feeling concerned about what might happen.  Oh, just get me through this day, but at the end of the day, things have not changed and people find themselves living the same life, nothing really vital has changed.  We let life and/or the things of life control us.  D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones stated, “One of the real difficulties in life is not to be mastered by it.”  Focus for a minute on the following verses:

         “My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; 2 and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.”
                   –1 John n2:1-2 (NASB)

    The Bible is a book of great principles and the foremost of these is our relationship to God.  Our troubles are due to a wrong relationship with God.  “If we are centrally wrong, finally we shall be altogether wrong.” (Lloyd-Jones)  We cannot solve problems without a right relationship with God.  To have a right relationship with the Father we must be people of the Word.  Our problems become secondary and our relationship with God primary.  That is real faith–being in the right relationship with God, really knowing Him.  
    Here is a fundamental question:  Come what may will all be well with your soul?  Relationship with God does not try to improve particular problems.  However, it puts us as masters of our circumstances; our circumstances are not masters of us.  Think of Paul and Silas singing in prison, of Daniel in the lions’ den, of the three Hebrews walking in the fiery furnace, and so many others.

         My heart can sing when I pause to remember
         A heartache here is but a stepping stone
         Along a path that’s winding always upward
         This troubled world is not my final home.

              But until then my heart will go on singing
              Until then with joy I’ll carry on
              Until the day my eyes behold my Savior
              Until the day God calls me home.
                       –Stuart Hamblen

When we are right with God; when we are walking by His side we do not have to be anxious about life.  There should be no fear of tomorrow and there is the recognition that the Lord is in control of my life.  “We may be called to do things which come to the natural man in an utterly devastating manner, and yet to us, because we are right with God, we will have an understanding and we will not be afraid.” (Lloyd-Jones)

One small guiding light in a vast darkness.  That’s the kind of man he was.”
              –R.J. Hendricks II (The Beale Treasure)

    “Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, ‘I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.’”
              –John 8:12 (NKJV)
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A person who is blind lives in darkness.  Their blindness may have been caused by many reasons, and that includes spiritual blindness.  They lived in a darkened world, and they must depend upon and follow others to get around.  However, Jesus warned about “blind leaders.”  Leaders who should see the light, but for one reason or another continue in their blindness.

    “Let them alone. They are blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind leads the blind, both will fall into a ditch.”
                   –Matthew 15:14(NKJV)

Several places Jesus combines blindness with fools and He speaks of “blind guides.”  He speaks of a power, actually a person, that has, “He has blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts, Lest they should see with their eyes, Lest they should understand with their hearts and turn, So that I should heal them.” (John 12:40, NKJV)
    Some people choose to live in darkness, others are blinded.  Look at what Paul writes in regard to blindness, then think of what is happening in our country.

         “whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them.”
                   –2 Corinthians 4:4 (NKJV)

         “having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart.”
                   –Ephesians 4:18(NKJV)

People who live in darkness stumble, they cannot see, and they seem to enjoy their plight.  As we have been looking at John, he writes,

         “But he who hates his brother is in darkness and walks in darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.”
                   –1 John 2:11 (NKJV)

Perhaps you have visited some of the caves in America and the guide at some point will turn off the lights to leave you in total darkness.  The experts say that if a person is in total darkness for three days they will go blind.  I would imagine that there is a correlation with spiritual blindness.  Some people reject the light of Jesus Christ.

    A recent article in the Los Angeles Times reads, “The secularization of U.S. society–the waning of religious faith, practice and affiliation–is continuing at a dramatic and historically unprecedented pace. While many may consider such a development as a cause for concern, such a worry is not warranted. This increasing godlessness in America is actually a good thing, to be welcomed and embraced.”
    The article continued, It reads, “The organic secularization we are experiencing in the United States is a progressive force for good, one that is associated with improved human rights, more protections for planet Earth, and an increased socio-cultural propensity to make this life as fair and just as we can–in the here and now–rather than in a heavenly reward that fewer and fewer of us believe in.
    Does this not foreshadow the words of Luke 18:8: When Christ returns, will He find any of faith??” (Prophecy News Watch)
We must be getting close to the coming of the Lord.  When these things, the things we are seeing and hearing all around us begin to happen, then get ready for the Lord is coming–our redemption is growing near.
    It happens quickly, the darkness arises and then, as Congressman Jerry Nadler stated, God’s will was of no concern to this Congress.  Stay in the light, warn those in the darkness, do not become a mocker like Nadler, do not be foolish and not have your lamp trimmed and ready.
    There is a darkness beginning to sweep over the land.  Do not fear; it cannot extinguish the Light.  Because of this darkness that with it brings fear–fear of terror, fear of a pandemic, and then turning to the government for the solutions and making it their security–their god.
    Rest in the security of the Lord:  “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in the land of the shadow of death, upon them a light has shined.” (Isaiah 9:2, NKJV)
                            
              

One did not submit to violence to oneself or to one’s home.”
              –Louis L’Amour  (Brionne)

    “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.”
              –1 Peter 2:9 (NASB)
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How to Live in a Pagan, Apostate, and Foolish World

Key Verse:  “We know that we are of God, and that the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.”  –1 John 5:19 (NASB)

    Get rid of the police!  “It wasn’t an accident.  Policing in our country is inherently and intentionally racist…  No more policing, incarceration, and militarization.  It can’t be reformed,” so spoke Rashida Tlaib.  Call forth the “man of lawlessness.”  We are at the point of chaos and anarchy, from which Nietzsche said the superman will arise.  How will you live in this country, if this should happen?
    I wrote of the darkness yesterday.  Most riots, the damage, takes place at night in darkness.  Christ came to reveal the hidden things of darkness.  If you are a true believer then your presence is a threat, for the Spirit living within you will also reveal the hidden things of darkness.

         If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth; 7 but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.”
                   –1 John 1:6-7 (NASB)

    It is necessary that we walk in the light.  Barclay sheds some light on these verses.

         1)  “John insists that to have fellowship with the God who is light a man must walk in the light and that, if he is still walking in the moral and ethical darkness of the Christless life, he can not have that fellowship.”  He will understand the fact that he is to be holy for he serves a holy God.  C.H. Dodd stated, “The Church is a society of people who, believing in a God of pure goodness, accept the obligation to be good like Him.”  We will be aware of our obligations to God.  “It will mean that he will never think that sin does not matter; it will mean that the nearer he comes to God, the more terrible sin will be to him.” (Barclay)
         2)  “John insists that these mistaken thinkers have the wrong idea of truth.”  For the Christian “truth is never only intellectual; it is always moral.

    We are children of the light and if we want to have fellowship with God we must remove ourselves from darkness, the deeds, and evil of darkness, and choose to walk in the light.  Stumbling, failure, does not mean we are no longer walking in the light, and we use that light to get back up, repent (1 John 1:9) and continue on.  Know that John is not dealing with the sinful nature, but sin that breaks fellowship.  Walking in the light is part of sanctification–confession and recognizing sins.
    The Christian is not a person who spends his life walking in and out of the kingdom of God.  He doesn’t jump from light to darkness then back to light.  He does not return to Calvary for he knows that Calvary accompanies him.  D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones wrote, “The Christian is not a man or woman who ought to be walking in the light but who so often is walking in darkness.  The Christian is one who, by definition here, is always walking in the light even though he falls into sin.  By falling into sin you do not return to walking in darkness.  The Christian is not a Christian at all unless he is walking in the light.”  He continues, “You do not go back in your Christian life; if you all into sin, you confess it and go on.”
    First John 1:9, is a verse that is for the Christian, not the unbeliever, as it is so often used.  It a verse to give up to the Christian that if he falls, he can go to the Father asking for forgiveness and the Father will forgive and cleanse him.  The believer does not leave the light for he can see His way to the Father.  

         “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous, so that He will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”  
                   –1 John 1:9 (NASB)

Stay away from the deeds of darkness.  Seek to be holy as your heavenly Father has commanded.  Obey Him and His commandments, however, if a slip is made, go immediately to the Father and confess.