Living In The Sunshine

The title of the message is “Living in the Sunshine”. From shades of night, to flames of light, He, our dear Lord, lifted me. Find the book of James please, chapter one. In just a moment we are going to begin reading in verse seventeen. Now I’ve told you before that the devil wants you to think negatively about God. The devil wants you to blame God on the troubles and the heartaches and the disappointments you are having.

Joyce and I, some years ago, had a little baby boy that died. One of those unexplainable crib deaths. And our hearts ached, we went through sorrow and pain but the Lord Jesus was there, so near and so real. Joyce and I learned to depend on Him so much and grew so much in that experience. Heartache and pain indeed it was. We had never known such deep sorrow. But the Lord was so real to us. And that was in J. W., Fort Pierce where you and I know so much about, where we’ve been so much. And I was back in the hospital in the Fort Pierce Hospital a few days after we had buried our little son Phillip. And I had been visiting a man who was not a Christian. And I had been witnessing to him, trying to lead him to Jesus Christ. And he somehow had learned that our son had died. And when he saw me walk in that room, he said, “What are you doing here?” I said well, I came to see you, to visit you. He said, “What? Are you still serving God after what he did to you?” Now, you think about that. Are you still after what He did to you? I said, “Oh my friend, I want you to listen to me, and I want you to get it down big and plain and straight that the author of all suffering and sorrow and pain and death is Satan, not God. God is good. God is good. And the suffering we have in this world is because we live in a world that has been cursed with sin, and if you think that I’m going to line up against God in favor of the devil, and line up with the one who has ultimately wounded me, your so wrong.”

Now look at our verse of scripture here. James chapter one, verse seventeen.

“Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and cometh down from the father of lights in whom there is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. Of His own will begat He us, with a word of truth, that we should be a kind of first fruits of His creature.” Understand this: Every good gift, every perfect gift comes down from above. Their is no good but what it comes from God and only good comes from God. Their is no good but what it comes from God. And only good comes from God. “Every good gift, every perfect gift cometh down from above, from the father of lights, in whom their is no variableness nor shadow of turning.”What does He mean by the Father of Lights? He is comparing God Almighty to the sun that shines in the sky. You know the Bible says that God put the sun in the sky and the moon their as signs, that is as ordinances. There is a lesson there, there is a lesson in all of nature. And God gives us so many illustrations of His person and of His grace. Wasn’t it Elizabeth Barret Browning who said that “Earth is crammed with heaven and every common bush afire with God. But only he who see, takes off his shoes. The rest surround it and pluck blackberries.” You know if you would just see that God is manifest in nature. God shows Himself as the Father of Lights, and when you see the sun shining in the sky today, there are some lessons I want you to learn about our great God. For the Apostle John has also said in first John chapter one and verse five “God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all.”

So I want you to think about the Father of Lights today. I want you to think about this good God today. I want you to think about this God from whom all good comes and from whom nothing but got good comes. The Father of Light. And understanding that, just seeing who God is. Then I want you to learn to live in the sunshine.

Now, I’ve had a good time this week just thinking about light. I’ve sat at my desk and studied about light. As a matter of fact, I’ve done a little bit of a study now on the Theory of Relativity. Einstein and I understand all about that. I’ll explain it to you know, in just a few moments. But we’re going to learn some wonderful things about light. The very first thing I want you to see about God’s light is, that it is pure light. Pure light. Now get this in your heart and in your mind. Did you know that that their is nothing known in the universe as pure as light? Nothing as pure as light. You see, it is absolutely impossible for light to be defiled. You can pass light through any medium, it will not pick up the properties of the medium through which it passes. It’s just as pure as when it comes out the other side as it was when it went in. You cannot stain light. You can put some filth on the ground, and the light will shine upon that filth, but the light will not be filth. You can put some disease germs there, and the light may shine upon those disease germs but the light cannot catch that disease. It is absolutely impossible to soil light.