Samuel Rodriguez: We Cannot Deny We Live in Dark Times, but …

In Be Light: Shining God’s Beauty, Truth, and Hope into a Darkened World (WaterBrook, ISBN: 987-1-60142-816-5), Rev. Samuel Rodriguez, lead pastor of New Season and president/CEO of one of the world’s largest evangelical organizations, acknowledges that today’s world is troubled and, in many ways, dark. Yet, in these times when religious liberties are being attacked and there is great pressure for political correctness instead of biblical truths, the church needs to rise up in all of life’s arenas and become “the bright city on a hill.”

“We cannot deny we live in dark times … sin, immorality, moral relativism, infanticide, racism, false prophets, watered-down preaching, religious extremism, terror, violence intolerance and disbelief,” said Rodriguez. “But, when light stands next to darkness, light always wins.” 

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In Be Light, readers will be inspired and given the blueprint to confront and overcome spiritual, emotional, relational, family and financial darkness and live as light. The book can be read as a 30-day journey, with each chapter portraying a spiritual analogy to light with real-life examples and testimonies, Scripture and a reflection to lead the reader to action. The foreword to the book was written by Roma Downey, producer, celebrated actress and president and chief content officer at LightWorkers Media (a division of MGM Studios). 

Be Light is a biblical mandate. The word “light” is mentioned more than 200 times in the Bible. Light is an important part of the Christian narrative beginning in Genesis, when God said, “Let there be light.” In this new book, Rodriguez offers clarity to this important Christian metaphor and how it relates to individuals of faith living in current times. 

Rodriguez uses the laws of light—including reflection, refraction and the bending of light; destructive light and lightening; and celestial light—to challenge followers of Jesus to take up its responsibility to stand up and be something inherently different from society.

“Like a prism when light passes through it, we reveal the full color spectrum,” writes Rodriguez. “We are called to be the light of the world, but that does not mean that we, people of faith, are uniform, monochromatic or one-dimensional. The light of God may appear to be single beam of white light, but when it passes through the prisms of His people, its full complexity and beauty are revealed.”  

Be Light will release May 3, 2016, from WaterBrook, an imprint of Crown at Penguin Random House, LLC. The book has been endorsed by a number of leaders including: Dr. Ronnie Floyd, president, Southern Baptist Convention and senior pastor of Cross Church; Robert Morrison, founding senior pastor at Gateway Church; and James Robison, founder and president of LIFE Outreach International. 

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“Sammy Rodriguez is a dynamic leader,” says Dr. Alton Garrison, assistant general superintendent of the Assemblies of God USA, “His influence impacts other leaders, both spiritually and politically. Yet his compassion touches the hurting, the marginalized, and the under-represented. His message is compelling. He does not just articulate problems; he also gives solutions. His book, Be Light, is a must-read if you are tired of the darkness. Share it with your friends and help turn on the light.” 

Rev. Samuel Rodriguez is president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, the world’s largest Hispanic Christian organization, which serves as a representative voice for the more than 100 million Hispanic Evangelicals assembled in over 40,000 U.S. churches and another 500,000 congregations spread throughout the Spanish-speaking diaspora. He has been named by CNN and Fox News as “the leader of the Hispanic Evangelical movement” and Newsmax included him in the “Top 100 Christian Leaders in America.”

For more information, visit pastorsam.com.