Click here to listen to the radio version.
Click here to search the AOG archives.
Apples of Gold
Radio Script for April 29, 2010
“Running in the Dark”
Hello, I’m Doug Apple…with Apples of Gold.
Ah, here’s a great story from high school.
One night I had some friends at the bowling alley and some friends at Pizza Hut.
The video game Space Invaders had just come out, and they had a table-top version at Pizza Hut, which was drawing a crowd. But I was still a big pinball fan and rode with some guys to whip up the pinball machine that was at the bowling alley.
At some point I decided to leave the bowling alley and walk back to Pizza Hut where my car was. It was dark and a bit chilly, so instead of walking I decided to run.
Well you know how towns can be. There was a lot of bright lights around the bowling alley, then there was a little residential section, then more bright lights.
The residential section was dark, but I kept running anyway. In fact, darkness is a good reason to run a little faster, right?
So now I was barreling down sidewalk, and you know how towns can be. All of a sudden I wasn’t on a sidewalk anymore. I was just running on grass, which made it all the more difficult to see exactly where I was going.
But I couldn’t slow down, of course, because you sure don’t want to miss any excitement at Pizza Hut. So I was running at top speed when all of a sudden I was literally slammed backwards to the ground.
I was stunned, to say the least, and sat there to gather my wits. I looked around, but saw no one, and thankfully no one saw me.
I stood up, and then I caught a glimpse of my attacker. It was a thick metal cable stretching from the top of a utility pole down to the ground.
I dusted myself off and checked for injuries. Unfortunately there was no blood or cool gashes, but then I noticed a big welt on my left side, at about my waist. I traced the damage and wouldn’t you know it, there was a big red line diagonally across my chest to my right shoulder – a perfect line where the cable had lashed into me.
Then the thought occurred to me, “What if I had been shorter? It would have hit me right in the neck.”
A shiver ran up my spine, and I began walking carefully back to the car.
Now you might ask, as only a grownup could, “Why did you do it?”
Why did I slam my body into a metal cable? Of course I didn’t mean to. I was just running in the dark and…
Ah, there’s the point. If I hadn’t been running in the dark, it wouldn’t have happened. Nobody means to flog themselves with a metal cable, but it’s the kind of thing that happens when you go thrashing about in the dark.
In John 12:35 Jesus said, “The man who walks in the dark does not know where he is going.”
That’s not very profound, is it? Did we really need Jesus to tell us that?
Well listen, when Jesus speaks, it is profound. So when Jesus says, “The man who walks in the dark doesn’t know where he’s going,” we need to look into it.
As you might guess, Jesus is talking about spiritual darkness. A man who walks in spiritual darkness doesn’t know where he’s going. Proverbs 4:19 says “…the way of the wicked is like deep darkness, they do not know what makes them stumble.”
Yesterday I read a story from World War II, about a bunch of people who hid from the Nazis in a cave, and when the Nazis were retreating near the end of the war, they bombed the cave opening and trapped the people inside.
Eventually they were rescued, and when they came out the author said their skin was black from dirt and feces. Well how on earth did that happen? How did they end up covered in dirt and feces?
Well they didn’t know. It was pitch black inside the cave. They couldn’t see a thing, day after day. They didn’t know what was getting on them, and they had no means of washing it off anyway. What a wretched way to live, right?
But that’s what’s happening to tons of people spiritually. They are living in spiritual darkness. They don’t know where they are going. They stumble, but they don’t know what’s tripping them up. They are spiritually covered with dirt and feces, which they can’t even see, and they have no means of washing off.
But I like what it says in Matthew 4:16, “…the people living in darkness have seen a great light…”
John 3:19 says, “…light has come into the world…”
John 1:5 says, “The light shines in the darkness…”
Jesus said in John 12:46, “I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness.”
In John 8:12 Jesus said, “I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.”
And First Peter 2:9 says that God has called us out of darkness and into His marvelous light!
As Christians, First Thessalonians 5:5 says we are all “sons of the light and sons of the day.”
Colossians 1:13 says that God has “delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love…”
Ephesians 5:8 says, “For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light…”
First John 1:7 indicates that we are to walk in the light as He is in the light.
So are you stumbling today, and don’t know why? Are you falling? Are you feeling dirty? Have you lost your way?
Then come into the light – and Jesus is that light! He will cleanse you and make you new. He will be your light and bring light to your life.
You can see where you are going and stumble no more! You can run at a full clip without worrying that a cable is going to smash you to the ground!
You can live an abundant life, that’s why Jesus came!
And it starts with leaving behind our deeds of darkness, and coming into the light – the marvelous life-giving light of Jesus Christ.
Comments?
E-mail me: dougapple@wave94.com.
May God bless you today! With Apples of Gold…I’m Doug Apple.
© 2010 The Arrow’s Tip
To subscribe to your own daily “Apples of Gold” e-mail, write dougapple@wave94.com.
If you want to be removed from this e-mail list, simply click reply and type UNSUBSCRIBE on the subject line.
If you want to catch “Apples of Gold” in its original audio format, go to www.wave94.com
To search through the large archive of past articles, go here: http://www.wave94.com/modules.php?name=Stories_Archive
If you have trouble reaching me at my main e-mail address, try this one: douglas_apple@msn.com
(Proverbs 25:11 – “A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver.”)
Why “The Arrow’s Tip”? Each morning, after diligently seeking the Lord, I write Apples of Gold. Then before I release it to the public I pray one final prayer, “Lord, send forth your arrows.” I envision Apples of Gold as arrows, tips dipped in the river of the water of life that flows from the throne of God (Rev. 22:1), sailing toward the hearts and minds of men and women around the world.
Doug Apple
General Manager - Wave 94
Christian Radio for Tallahassee
PO Box 4105
Tallahassee, FL 32315
(850) 926-8000
-vi-
No comments:
Post a Comment