By Odon Bulamba
We are going to share the Word of God from Mathew 24:29, “Immediately after the distress of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from the sky, and the heavenly bodies will be shaken”.
Today I’m only going to talk about the sun being darkened. Have you thought about waking up one morning and there is no morning? Without sun, it’s night-time. When the sun appears, we call it morning time. When the sun arrives in the morning, you are forced to start a new day regardless of whether you are tired, sick, or stressed, the sun doesn’t care, light is there and you have to wake up.
Everything we do during the day is based on the sun. From the sun we decide it is 7am, 8am, 9am. We decide to start work at a certain time based on the sun. The sun is special in our spiritual lives. In the beginning God created light, the first thing. How important is light in your life? How important is light in my life? For some people, they prefer to live in darkness and prefer to be where light doesn’t exist but you can’t be there for a long time.
I visited a corner of the world where the sun comes up for 6 months and then disappears for 6 months. For the time that they don’t have sun, it feels like death. Life is not there but once the sun appears, everyone is out and are happy to see the sun. No one can control the sun and we don’t pay a cent for the sun but God has decided to give it us freely.
This light from the sun is very big and it is a mystery. It shines in New Zealand at 10:30am but in Africa it is night-time. When one side of the world sees the sun, the other side is in darkness. The absence of light is darkness.
What is the importance of sun in our lives? It gives us light, power that gives life to plant, and vitamin D. I can function because the sun is there and my eyes can see because of the light from the sun and sometimes when I don’t feel the sun on my skin, I will feel cold and I go outside to sit in the sun to warm up my body. In different places, people can spend hours lying in the sun.
Jesus says to us, you are the light of this world. The first light that was created is the sun which gives light to every person, good or bad and doesn’t choose who you are but is there to shine and help you to see. If we are the light of the world, what is our role? Do you also provide vitamin D to people, do we give life, do we shine so that those who don’t have a clear view can see, do we wake others up? What is our role on this earth?
A big gift and title that God has given to us is to be the light of the world. It is now up to us to act. Do we warm people up or make them cold with our actions and words? Do we cheer people up and make them comfortable? Being next to Hayley, do I feel good? Or are you the kind of sun like the desert where people don’t want to be around because it is too hot and you can’t open your eyes and you feel annoyed with the sun. Are you the type of sun that dries plants or burns the ground so people can’t walk on it without burning feet? Do you provide life or death?
How much power the sun gives out depends on whether it gives life or death. Some days it is nice and other days it is too hot. Are you the kind of person where people feel secure and benefit from you and your actions and your advice because of your kindness? How often do you become angry (e.g. the sun gets too hot and punishes people). How often do you punish others? When you punish others, you are light but your purpose is not what God wants you to be.
In New Zealand we are lucky and blessed because we don’t have a strong sun. Even in summer you can walk around without a hat and it is ok but in other countries you can’t because the sun is harsh. Aren’t you a harsh Christian? What testimony do you have as the light of this world? Do you only shine for those that you love and like but become darkness for those you don’t love or like? In your life do you have people that you want to be with and prove you are a good person but on the other side you leave others in darkness and prove you don’t love them.
What should we do in order to be good to everybody? What effort have you done in order to respond to the needs of others, good or bad? Jesus came down to die for those who were sinners. If we are sinners, we should understand also those that are sinners and how hard is their lives and be there to help them. I can remember what I used to be like years ago and my life has changed now. All of us are weak but we are fighting and running towards the goal, to please God. that is the only visa to get to heaven. You are the only person who can fill out the visa for you, no one can do it for you.
The sun will be darkened. It was good when God created it, He said, “This is good”. Now God is telling us that the sun will be changed to dark. You can have eyes but without light you can’t see. Without the sun you won’t warm up. Plants will not grow without the sun and animals will not survive. It will be a big shame if you will be one of the lights that will be darkened.
If a branch does not produce fruit, it will be cut off. Although you are a branch of that tree, they will cut it off and throw you away into fire so you can burn and disappear completely. My mum when she used to cook, she would use tree branches to start a fire. The more the branch is consumed, it disappears into ash. The branch that is cut off will also be put into fire and disappear completely. After being consumed, the ashes are dead and can’t be put to fire again.
Don’t beat your chest and say I am the light of the world if you don’t produce your own light, you can become darkened. If I am not producing fruit, I will be detached from the branch and put in fire and consumed.
What is darkness to you? You can’t see but for others it can be when you will enjoy things or you are free and no one can see you. For God, it means when you are entering the kingdom of sin. You are going astray and you forget that you are walking away from God and into the kingdom of darkness where sin reigns.
Darkness is when you know what God wants but you refuse to put it into practise. Everybody knows the law but if you don’t obey it, you will still be punished by it. The judge will judge you whether you know the law or not. The judge will punish you regardless. It is your responsibility to learn the law and discover what is right and wrong. Sometimes we learn tough things about the Bible but it is the law.
If you see a snake here, what will you do? Run away. In my country, the first thing is to kill the snake. In other countries, they will pick the snake up nicely and put it back in the wild, the snake has the right to live. For us in my country, when a danger comes, you must attack to protect yourself because it will hurt someone else tomorrow.
Many people will go into the kingdom of darkness and sin because they are discouraged and give up walking with God. I’d rather watch my tv than read my Bible. Levi will come to me and ask me to pray now so he can go to bed but I have to pause the tv series and maybe sometimes I quickly put him to bed and pray quickly because I don’t want to lose that program. One time he said, “That was a quick prayer, we didn’t pray for x y and z,” and I felt guilty.
How can I sacrifice this desire of Levi to pray to God to cut it short because I have my own personal plan? If God asked me now, what are you doing, what will my response be?
Another time, I was sitting in front of tv and someone else turned the tv on in another room and used the Netflix subscription and I couldn’t keep watching. What are you going to do? Do I stop that person or wait? In my house, you are watching tv and someone will connect the tv you are watching to youtube using another remote control so they can then log into Netflix. Sometimes we are taken away from the reality of life, we want to enjoy what we want instead of sharing our time with God and others.
At our house, our neighbours can change the channels on our tv using their remote control. You can feel annoyed by that. It was another way for me to think, if you are the light of this world and you are watching tv and someone disturbs you, it’s a good time to pray, “God I was distracted but now I want to come close to you”.
To be the light of the world is a huge mission. How can I light up the whole world? Through my actions, words, prayer, I can be the light for others. Be kind, love is kind. Be good to people, to yourself, be kind to yourself. Ask yourself am I kind? As the sun rises every morning, is the sun good and kind to you? Yes, even when I am grumpy. If someone in your family is grumpy, that shouldn’t stop you from being kind to them.
Don’t treat yourself harshly. Some people might think, I wish I had hair like Leah. That is not life. Look at God and appreciate what God has given to you and how you appear in front of God, others, and yourself.
A man came to me one time when I was overseas and asked for shoes (he was a refugee). I was once a refugee so I know how hard it is. I took off my shoes and gave them to him. I was walking in my socks. He wanted money instead to buy shoes. Another man had no legs and he said, “you are rejecting shoes, I wish I had legs like you without shoes”. You must be grateful for what you are and as you are. God doesn’t see me ugly or short or that I don’t speak English. In front of God it is different and I must be proud of who I am.
Well done Odon, I woke up today and prayed. Encourage yourself. When was the last time you encouraged yourself to come close to God? Do you encourage yourself to be the sun to shine in this world? Do you encourage others but not yourself? God is telling us, be like the sun, rise every morning and shine and make everyone you see, happy.
Sin doesn’t hide itself. It will talk to you but tell that feeling, “I need something else instead, I need the sun and to shine and not to let darkness come out of me”.
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