Father, only You truly know my heart. Please empty it of ALL things that are not You. Show me Your way, Your Words for this day. Amen
Good morning brothers and sisters. A brand new day, the light of day may not of appeared yet as you are reading this, but the one true Light is always ON!!!! Hallelujah!
Today’s reading is:
John 1:10-14 The Message (MSG)
9-13
The Life-Light was the real thing:
Every person entering Life
he brings into Light.
He was in the world,
the world was there through him,
and yet the world didn’t even notice.
He came to his own people,
but they didn’t want him.
But whoever did want him,
who believed he was who he claimed
and would do what he said,
He made to be their true selves,
their child-of-God selves.
These are the God-begotten,
not blood-begotten,
not flesh-begotten,
not sex-begotten.
14
The Word became flesh and blood,
and moved into the neighborhood.
We saw the glory with our own eyes,
the one-of-a-kind glory,
like Father, like Son,
Generous inside and out,
true from start to finish.
The title the Message gives to the first part of Chapter 1 of the book of John is “The Life-Light” explaining that Jesus came into existence as the Life, and the Life was Light to live by and also that the darkness COULDN’T PUT IT OUT. I wasn’t able to attend worship, but my husband did bring home the bulletin to me. I know it was Confirmation Sunday and also noticed on the front to the bulletin - Resurrection Life...The Reality of Struggle. Struggle, there’s that word, the one that represents so much heartache, hardship, etc. And then there was that wonderful image beneath the cross on the cover of the bulletin, showing blinding Light coming out of the tomb. (Dawn does such a great job at finding those images) All of this going through my head before I even start today’s scripture.
Today (writing blog Monday night) was a busy day as most days are. Joyous things like grandchildren, wonderful weather and praises from spending a weekend celebrating with sisters in Christ seeing God’s Blessings after years of struggles (there’s that word again). Hard things like keeping up with a 4 year old and 5 month old as a grandmother :), trying to truly follow Christ in this crazy world and then there are the heart-wrenching prayer needs including the bombs at the Boston Marathon that took the life of a little 8 yr old....
Verse 19 - The Life-Light was the REAL thing - Praise God that Jesus is real, He is the Truth, He is the conqueror of all - especially darkness, evil, Satan. Thank You God that this scripture can be all about Hope if we believe and have faith in Jesus, our Life (new) - Light. If I wasn't writing this blog and reading the Word and listening for the Spirit, I know my night would be way different - right? He brings all good and TRUE things.
And that’s another word that rang clear in my heart tonight from this scripture - True. He made to be their true selves, their child-of-God selves. The ones who believed, that is - Again Good News!!! Not our old yucky selves, but our unconditionally loved by God selves. Generous inside and out, true from start to finish. This scripture ends with reminding us that Christ will remain constant, true, to us into eternity.
There will always be disappointments, heart-wrenching struggles, I could go on and on. I cannot be totally without sin. Evil will remain a huge part of this world, BUUUUUUUT, I have a new identity because of the Risen Jesus Christ, who is my HOPE, He is my Life-Light for eternity and He promises His true love forever and ever to those who believe.
Oh, Father, I want to believe, I want to act, I want to believe. Help me Jesus, through Your Spirit this day. Your Kingdom come, Your Will be done!!!! Amen.
How do these verses speak to you? What do you hear from the Spirit?
Love to all,
cindy