To all the brethren who dwell in "The Light";

As I lay in bed today recovering from surgery, (the sixth in 3 years), the Lord greatly encouraged me. I was reading in Scripture about light. Jesus is ,of course, the light of the world. We are the lesser  lights, and our wonderful Father is, "the Father of lights". If we walk in him we walk in the shadow of his light. We dwell in that place of mercy. It is from there that he speaks to us, in the shelter of the overshadowing wings.

I want to pass on these thoughts in the hope that others are comforted with the same comfort that comforts me.

In the Holy Scriptures, the fist time the word, "love", is used, is when God commanded Abraham to offer up Issac. "And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of." Genesis 22:2. In hindsight we see the wonderful image of the Messiah that should come. The firstborn the only begotten Son that was to be offered for our siins. This testimony of faith will stand throughout eternity.

 Should we really be surprised then, if our prayers have been to be used of God, that our Father allows us to be offered up too? Do not we bear his image?  Is it not proof of His own DNA in us? There is none that is loved above the Son, yet it "pleased the Lord to bruise him". Remember that it is this shadow that we walk in. The darkness is where the lesser lights shine brightest.

"Oil beaten for the light" This phrase is often repeated throughout the five books of Moses. The Lord could have told Moses to just take olive oil and use it to light the lamps, but He did not. He reiterated over and over, that the oil was to be "beaten for the light". The whole process of extracting oil from the olive is arduous. They are put into porous sacks and beaten in order to extract the oil, sometimes ground and then put in bags with heavy stones placed on top of them. Perhaps you can relate to that feeling.

The process yields the the wonderful oil that when lit, with the fire of God, reveals the Word, to us and to the world. It is from this seed that Christ is born in the hearts of men. That is the goal, is it not? To bear him much fruit.

I don't know what your burdens are. I do know this - Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, in whom dwells all the fullness of the Father; He is your answer. If you have been on a walk through a dry and parched land, and you have reached a spring and found it too bitter to drink, Jesus is the answer. The cross at Calvary is the tree that can make the bitter waters sweet. It is his Spirit that will give us strength as we hoist the Ark upon our shoulders and bear with honor the burden of the priesthood; even his image upon this earth.

Yours in Christ, Brother Tom A

"Bless the LORD, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name.

 Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits:

 Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases;

 Who redeemeth thy life from destruction; who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies;

 Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things; so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle's."