Shine that LIGHT!

I got fired up this morning after talking with my mom as she drove to jury duty. She explained how it is a federal criminal case and that its really messy and gory. She couldn't say anything more except that she needed prayer for today, tomorrow and maybe the next day.
I got fired up because as I was praying for her the Lord took me to the courtroom and reminded me that He is the Judge. How often do we go to ourselves to find justice, to avenge? My goodness! If we put that much energy into loving people the way Jesus would love, well, that would be living out the Kingdom here on earth, huh?
I see and hear about all these angry, messed up, scary folks getting sent to jail, prison, isolation, or worse yet, the death penalty. This makes total and complete sense. Put the bad guys away where they can't hurt anyone else. Where their spirits get darker, colder, and farther away from the Lord.
Fortunately we do have some who have taken the leap of faith and enter these dark places to shed some light and it spreads, people see hope, lives are changed inside the walls of prisons. Unfortunately, there are so few of them out there and there is so much bad, cold, and dark in this world.

" When light shines in a room it overpowers darkness. If you want to remove darkness from a room you don't try to take buckets that are full of darkness and empty them. Rather, we shine a light in to drive the darkness out. The way to remove darkness from our hearts isn't by focusing on darkness. It is by turning the lights on."- Mike Bickle

I was reminded of this as I focused on criminals and how we try and empty them, kick them out of society, isolate them or put them to death, rather than shining the Light on them. Now, if we were eternally minded we would see a different picture. We would be seeing their spirits being taken by the enemy and Satan laughing at us because he tricked us again. If we (I'm speaking to the Body) had an eternal perspective, we would be at those prison gates, abortion clinics, homeless shelters, walking through the slums, banging down the doors of our neighbors who beat and scream at their kids all day, just so we could get a chance at telling them how much Jesus loves them. We would do everything we could to turn on the Lights. We are not fighting flesh and blood! If we really knew the power of Love, if we really knew that Jesus lives in us, if we really knew that we can be Jesus to people, what an incredible revolution that would be!!
Yes, I'm now officially fired up again. And don't get me wrong, I'm part of the Body who hasn't got it all together either. Its a journey until you get There, and I'm not There yet. Lots of walking to be done.

"And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it."
John 1:5