Hell Shuddered Last Night
Hell shuddered last night. Somewhere in God’s creation a spark of light shined through the darkness that is in constant pursuit of overcoming God’s light. But God has a weapon against hell’s power and the presence of darkness. And, it was demonstrated just last night at a little obscure place in North West Louisiana.
Derek Bryant was baptized into Christ last night (January 28,2008) around 6:00 PM. His faith and trust in God allowed him to follow the calling of God through the Gospel and in that act of baptism he made his covenant with God Almighty. Derek has been listening, studying and probing for some time now. He continued in his pursuit trying to get a hold on God, now realizing at first, that it was God getting a hold on him. He and I talked recently about the role of baptism in his life and I advised him to not get baptized because it was necessary, but because he couldn’t do any differently. It was obvious that this young man made his commitment to God last night because there just was nothing else he could do. Consequently, he will never regret it nor will he ever doubt it. God has a way of getting you.
When sin entered the world, God spoke about it as darkness. Here, God, the God of perfect light, created that which was flawless. There was no sin or shame. Then, when Adam and Eve went against God and sinned it brought sin and darkness into the world. Not only that, but it gave Satan a boost and there must have been a party in hell that very day. God made a promise to Satan that He would, through the seed of woman, “crush his head.” That made Satan even more tenacious. He made it his aim to corrupt as many of God’s humans on the face of this earth as he could. It got so bad that God washed the earth clean of every living thing except for eight people and one pair of every created animal on the face of the earth.
Man continued to do evil and the darkness continued to spread. God sent forth His Son and the Redeemer of mankind. It was all wrapped up in a story, about which Jesus told His disciples to go to the furthermost parts of the earth and tell. “Go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature…” This story tells how God came to earth to live as a man, died on a cross as sacrifice for sin, arose from the grave to beat the power of death, ascended back into heaven to work as our High Priest and is one day coming again. “…He that believes and is baptized shall be saved…”
Our new brother Derek believed that message and trusted the work God has done for us, is doing and will do, surrendered himself to baptism for a covenant with Him and HELL SHOOK!
There was a burst of light into the darkness. Satan trembled and another little chunk of his domain was taken away. Here in this action Derek taught us that if we will just share the message, God will draw people to Himself. And, every time He does and one comes into covenant with Him, things get brighter and hell suffers.
I hope that this week you get to touch Derek, the man who, through the Power of God, shook the whole dominion of darkness and made Satan stagger. As a matter of fact, it might be good for all of us who have already made that same covenant with God to reflect on what happened when we entered His family. It might just motivate us to tell someone else.
God be praised!