Hello everyone, I'd like to welcome you to The Lighthouse with an article. This will be the first of many exclusive articles written by me. In coming blogs I will link to non-exclusive articles. And maybe even get some guest bloggers on here. I want to keep you growing in your faith and I also think it is a good idea to keep up with current events. Some may be totally random. Some will focus on important issues. But hopefully all will encourage you and bless you. So without further adoo, here is my first exclusive blog, Children of Light.


Recently I have been feeling a little separate from God. It has been my own fault, but since I have realized it, I have gotten back to some of the Biblical basics of spending time with God and reading His word. They both have been amazing, and I have come to the point where I look forward to this time whereas before I would forget to do it and put it off needlessly. Really the thought that made me start back was this: "Getting right with God is the most important thing right now. So what if I loose a little personal time. God should be the most important thing in my life and I need to put him there" That is a very rough paraphrase of my thoughts, but it is a summary.

One set of verses that has been a tremendous encouragement in my life, to the point where I read it practically everyday is Ephesians 4:17-24.

The first half of verses says this...

 17So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. 18They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. 19Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, with a continual lust for more.

I was living as a gentile. My thinking was futile. My heart was hardened to my own ways, and I was not wanting to get back on the path. I mean my spirit wanted to, but my selfishness did not want to. And selfishness was winning. I had lost sensitivity and I was impure with a continual lust to please myself. I do not boast in my time of a discontinued walk with God, but I am saying this because I want to encourage you and help you if you are having trouble too.

Here is the last part of the passage I'm outlining...

20You, however, did not come to know Christ that way. 21Surely you heard of him and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus. 22You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; 23to be made new in the attitude of your minds; 24and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.

This next part of the passage is what really hits me. I did not come to know Christ that way. I was taught and nurtured in Him. I was taught to put off myself and to ignore my desires. I have need to be my new self, not my old self. And yet I was living in opposition to that. As I said these verses still encourage me. They are a reminder of my inclination to turn and gratify my desires, and then they remind me of my savior who died and through that I was given new life to live in true Righteousness and Holiness.

Here I am to tell you to repent and live in true righteousness and Holiness if you are living apart from him. You will not be complete until you surrender to your Lord.

Live as Children of Light, not of Darkness.

In Him,
The Lighthouse