Proverbial Sharing

Our Men's Group is studying Proverbs on Tuesday mornings. It's a great time of fellowship and learning together. We are as "iron sharpening iron" and it's something that I personally look forward to every week.

I thought that I'd share a little bit (just a small portion) of what we talked about this morning. Maybe you will be encouraged to open the Word and do a little study yourself.

We are in Proverbs chapter 4 right now. In verses 18-19, there is a contrast given about light & dark. The life of a true believer is like the dawn of a morning. The light increases. It begins as a faint glow on the horizon and then proceeds to the full light of the noonday. 1 John 1:5 says that God is light and in Him there is no darkness at all. Light exposes and darkness covers. Throughout scripture we see this truth over and over again. Take time and look at these passages: Romans 13:12-14, 2 Corinthians 6:14, Ephesians 5:8-17, 1 Thessalonians 5:4-9, 1 Peter 2:9, 1 John 1:5-7 & 2:9-11.

As we went over these, many men shared about the light and darkness that we see in everyday struggles. One of the things that most impacted me was that scripture from Ephesians 5:8 that says, "For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light." It doesn't say that we were once in the darkness, it says that we were darkness! We are called to be the children of light, the ones that shine Jesus to all that we come in contact with.

In Matthew 5 (Jesus' Sermon on the Mount) Jesus told us to be salt and light. In that context we think of light being evangelism and that we are to let our light shine to the unbelievers, which is true. But we are also called to expose the darkness around us by confronting sin, being a conscience in our community & by helping brothers and sisters that fall back into the darkness of sin and the world of the "Prince of Darkness".

I always say that nothing good happens after dark. If you are going to break in and steal, it's going to happen at night in the covering of darkness and not in broad daylight. If you cheat on your spouse it's always in covering of darkness so no one will know. As you sin, you don't tout it and brag about it, but you try to conceal and hide it and put it out of sight into the darkness. As God changes your life and your heart, you will find that His exposure of your sin and self to light will keep you on the narrow path that leads to life. And over time, you will enjoy the light of salvation even more.