Perhaps you're wondering how 1st Light Ministries got it's name? Well, I have an interesting story about that!
In 2012 The Lord put on my heart to start a ministry preaching and teaching about the Kingdom of God. I had a name for it, Equipping the Saints, and I was prepared to embark on this new journey. Of course, as we all have experienced, life happened. My full time job became more demanding, my pastor decided to retire and the new pastor was going to need all the help he could get becoming acclimated to our church and the congregation. So I decided to postpone ETS for a while. Well, a while turned into a long while.
Life is sometimes a tough journey. Twist and turns develop out of nowhere and we have to adjust constantly to keep life in as much order as we can. Even as a pastor, I know I made some decisions that probably weren't exactly the correct ones, or at the right time, however, life goes on.
Then I looked up, it was four surgeries and many years later, 12 to be exact, and I was about to turn 65.
Circumstances made retirement from my 35 year career the obvious choice. Not very well planned out but as I stated earlier, sometimes we just have to make a decision whether it is right or wrong. I felt then and I know now that I did make the right decision.
As I was getting Social Security and Medicare set up I found myself with a lot of idle time. I had just lost a lot of weight, eating healthier and watching a lot of you tube videos about "older folks" exercise. As I was watching one night, I came upon a doctor that talked a lot about natural remedies such as castor oil for arthritis, putting onion in your socks overnight to pull a cough or cold out of you, etc... I tried several of the remedies and low and behold, they worked! One particular thing that was discussed was getting up before sunrise so your eyes and body and mind could see what the doctor call " first light". Now I am not nor have I ever been a morning person but I started getting up before dawn to watch the sunrise as I walked. I soon became adjusted to the early rising from bed and actually started enjoying it. Then one day, I was on my phone looking at the weather app to see what time sunrise was going to be the next day. I discovered something that I had never seen in 65 years of living. First light is when the sky starts to turn a little bit light about 20 minutes before sunrise. It is a beautiful sight as you can see the darkness dissipating in the east while stars are still shining in the dark to the west. I was getting up for sunrise and missing the first light of the day. Well I fixed that immediately and made sure that I was up way before sunrise so I could experience the first light of the day.
This is where God really got my attention. I was experiencing John 1:5, "And the light shineth in the darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not." I was watching the darkness flee as the light entered the sky. The darkness of night had to exit when the light entered!
Not to be long winded but... As we contemplated a new name for the ministry, several names were tossed around. Stan, Oliver and myself kept coming up with names with LIGHT in them, Then one day as I was walking and talking with the Lord, it became first light. I took a picture and BOOM!, I knew what the name should be. Of course I ran it past my advisors/board members and they both said AMEN!
Thus, 1st Light Ministries was born. Now, you might ask why did we put the numerical 1st instead of the word First? Simple, the website was taken... God uses very simple things to talk to us sometimes and 1st Light Ministries was Stan and Oliver's preferred way of spelling too. Confirmation!
Watch for God to open a door that you thought closed long ago. Sometimes, just paying attention to simple things makes it easy to hear God.. Plus, confirmation from colleagues, family, friends or even strangers can be a God thing in decision making.
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