<TITLE>17. Par 130-143</TITLE>L-130   Rise, and shine, for the Light has come to you. The Word, Light, is vindicated.

L-131 The only way, as God was, Jesus Christ was the manifestation of God's spoken Word, the Light of the hour.

L-132 John the Baptist was the Light of the hour. He was the Light before Jesus was Light. The prophet Isaiah said, "A voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord, and make straight His path." That was the spoken Word of God, It was laying there, hadn't come to life yet. Malachi, the last prophet, four hundred years before it taken place, he said, "Behold, I send My messenger before Me, to prepare the way of the Lord." Here come one out of the wilderness, without denomination, without creed, without identification. But his Light identified him. The Word identified him.
They said, "Are you the Messiah?"

L-133 He said, "I'm not! But I'm the voice of one crying in the wilderness, 'Prepare the way of the Lord!'"

L-134 Jesus said, "You did walk in his Light." He was a bright and shining Light for a while. Why? Until the way was prepared, then his Light went out.

L-135 You can't walk in that light, you Baptists, This is the Light of the hour! The Light has come. Rise, and shine. The Word, Light. Word, the manifested Word of God (identified) is a Light.

L-136   Now what about the new year that we're facing? We could have more to say on this in-between, from the darkness to the Light, the introducing of the Light coming between, but now we want to get right straight to the new year. All right.

L-137 New year, new year, what about it? Brings new hope. We're one year closer. We're one day closer than we was yesterday. We're one hour closer than we was when I started, fifteen--fifteen minutes to eleven, it's fifteen till twelve now. We're one hour closer! We don't look back, we look forward. See? Oh! Yes, sir. New year doesn't mean turning a new page. Huh-uh. No.

L-138   Like the man one morning; I was heard it. A man got up early and went out and picked up the paper, come back, and set down, put his feet up on the divan, put his glasses on, begin to read the paper. His wife, out getting breakfast, she said, "John, anything new?"

L-139 Said, "No. Same old thing, just new people." Yeah. That's right. Murders, rape and everything, somebody else done it, see. True.

L-140   Not turn a new page. It's, turn to the Word, see what the Word promises for today, see what the Light of the day is supposed to be. What we ought to do this year is not go back to creeds and things, go back to our old denominations, not go back to old denominations; but turn to the Word, see what kind of a Light is supposed to shine today. Oh, church, turn to the Word, get back to the Word, flip the right switch, quit punching around on electric lights, see, artificial, man-made. Turn to His Word and see the promise of today. And then see what the promise is, and watch for its identification. When it's vindicated, then you know whether you're in Light or not. See what the promise is.

L-141 Changing the pages or changing calendars doesn't change time. A lot of people say, "Well, the old year's gone, throw away the old December calendar now and put up the other one, a new year." That, that's what new years means to them.

L-142 To me, I want to see what's promised for the day. I want to know what the Light of the hour is, so I can know how to walk in it. I want to know where I'm living, what age I'm in, how far up the road am I.

L-143 As Paul said, I could stand quoting again, "Forgetting those things that are in the past, now I press towards the mark, the high calling," to the complete identification, when all time will fade out into Eternity when Jesus comes.


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