JMD Devotional 258 Ephesians 5:8-14 Enterprises of Darkness

For once you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord; walk as children of Light [lead the lives of those native-born to the Light]. For the fruit (the effect, the product) of the Light or the Spirit [consists] in every form of kindly goodness, uprightness of heart, and trueness of life.
And try to learn [in your experience] what is pleasing to the Lord [let your lives be constant proofs of what is most acceptable to Him]. Take no part in and have no fellowship with the fruitless deeds and enterprises of darkness, but instead [let your lives be so in contrast as to] expose and reprove and convict them. For it is a shame even to speak of or mention the things that [such people] practice in secret. But when anything is exposed and reproved by the light, it is made visible and clear; and where everything is visible and clear there is light. Therefore He says, Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall shine (make day dawn) upon you and give you light.

Planning for my retirement is a tough challenge for me. I compare mutual funds and make choices on my 401K based on very vague information. When it comes to a company’s professed performance and their actual profitability, I have little insight. But each of us has first-hand experience with the two greatest enterprises of Light and Darkness. We have seen the contrast of the two global options. The Enterprises of Darkness function via deceit. They take women seeking excitement and glamour as raw materials and crank out crack-addicted prostitutes. Everything they process has a similar end. No manufactured outcome of this enterprise conforms to its specification and promise. Even though all the lives it touches are ultimately ruined and the dividends paid out are mere illusion; there is no shortage of eager investors. God does not “squash us” for making these poor investments; our own sins punish us. Insanity has been characterized as doing the same things again and again and expecting different results. With the evidence at hand; does it not make sense to divert all of one’s investments into the Enterprises of the Light?

Dear God,
I do not want to be gray any longer. Please give me new robes that are brighter than an arc lamp!
Help me to be pure in heart, so I can see You. My impurity has turned everything I see dark; the way of darkness leads to nothing but ashes. Light me up from within, cultivate an appetite for truth and righteousness; make me truly into a Child of God. Help me to consider well how my actions affect everyone around me; and how my attitude functions like a dimmer switch. May the combined glow of Your people become incredibly brilliant. For Your glory.
Amen

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**Scripture taken from The Message. Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group. (Eugene Peterson's easy-to-read, contemporary Scripture translation)

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