{"id":770,"date":"2006-12-27T22:50:00","date_gmt":"2006-12-28T05:50:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/69.195.124.95\/~redletu4\/turning-on-the-light-in-a-dark-world\/"},"modified":"2006-12-27T22:50:00","modified_gmt":"2006-12-28T05:50:00","slug":"turning-on-the-light-in-a-dark-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davidrupert\/turning-on-the-light-in-a-dark-world\/","title":{"rendered":"Turning on the light in a dark world"},"content":{"rendered":"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><head><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><\/head><body><p>The world is filled with lost and dying souls.<\/p>\n<p>But you won\u2019t just find them in the usual and expected places \u2013 like the dark, mean streets of our cities or some distant, unexplored jungles, or tropical, remote islands. If you want to see where these forlorn souls are living, just look in the cubicle right next to you. They are working alongside you under the florescent lights of your factory floor. They drink coffee with you and sit next to you at lunch.<\/p>\n<p>The American workplace is literally filled with millions of the lost and dying.<\/p>\n<p>As motivated believers, we know that we need to reach out to these people. We need to live like cities on a hill, uncovering our lights so that all men may see. It is our obligation, our duty, and our joy to share God\u2019s Good News. And so we desperately look for just the right moment to pounce, for the perfect time to use spirit-filled persuasion to save another hopeless individual to experience God\u2019s grace. We rush head-long into battle hoping to save just one soul from the clutches of the evil one.<\/p>\n<p>But when the moment arrives, when we are presented with that perfect opportunity to shine our light as a witness for Christ, nothing happens. Something is wrong. The light bulb is burned out. Our outer bulb appears fine and there is electricity running through us but our inner filament is broken, rendering us useless and unable to provide the light that is in such critically short supply in our world.<\/p>\n<p>Perhaps the reason for our limited success is that we just can\u2019t connect to the world that surrounds us. If only we could find the right words to say. If only we could find the perfect message that will bring light to the dark world we live in. With so many Christians on the rolls and supposedly available to spread the Gospel, why aren\u2019t we winning more people to the faith? What is wrong with our approach to bringing Jesus to new prospects?<\/p>\n<p>What are you thoughts?<\/p>\n<div>Please, share with a friend if you feel moved.<br>\nRead all past issues at http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davidrupert<\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The world is filled with lost and dying souls. But you won\u2019t just find them in the usual and expected places \u2013 like the dark, mean streets of our cities or some distant, unexplored jungles, or tropical, remote islands. If you want to see where these forlorn souls are living, just look in the cubicle [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2375,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[973],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-770","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-witnessing"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Turning on the light in a dark world<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The world is filled with lost and dying souls.But you won\u2019t just find them in the usual and expected places - like the dark, mean streets of our cities or\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davidrupert\/turning-on-the-light-in-a-dark-world\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Turning on the light in a dark world\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The world is filled with lost and dying souls.But you won\u2019t just find them in the usual and expected places - like the dark, mean streets of our cities or\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davidrupert\/turning-on-the-light-in-a-dark-world\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"David Rupert\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"www.facebook.com\/davidrupert\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2006-12-28T05:50:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"David Rupert\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@rupzip\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"David Rupert\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davidrupert\/turning-on-the-light-in-a-dark-world\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davidrupert\/turning-on-the-light-in-a-dark-world\/\",\"name\":\"Turning on the light in a dark world\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davidrupert\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2006-12-28T05:50:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2006-12-28T05:50:00+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davidrupert\/#\/schema\/person\/1ee971d3244e1f67a487a31f55d37c81\"},\"description\":\"The world is filled with lost and dying souls.But you won\u2019t just find them in the usual and expected places - like the dark, mean streets of our cities or\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davidrupert\/turning-on-the-light-in-a-dark-world\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davidrupert\/turning-on-the-light-in-a-dark-world\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davidrupert\/turning-on-the-light-in-a-dark-world\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davidrupert\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Turning on the light in a dark world\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davidrupert\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davidrupert\/\",\"name\":\"David Rupert\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davidrupert\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davidrupert\/#\/schema\/person\/1ee971d3244e1f67a487a31f55d37c81\",\"name\":\"David Rupert\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davidrupert\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/47e7c27dc78a66ace4b19bb00da8bccc?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/47e7c27dc78a66ace4b19bb00da8bccc?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"David Rupert\"},\"description\":\"I am a communication professional who has a passion for people. 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