
photo: © Oleksii Sergieiev | Dreamstime.com
What a crazy week! I haven’t gotten any posts up yet and I have been writing like crazy! There is nothing to show for it. Well, not right now anyway.
I had some extra projects I was working on and I thought I had time for them. All of a sudden, the chance came to go to St. Louis to see our youngest grands for the long weekend and my time vanished into thin air!
I had to get the projects done. Grands here had to be taken care of and some doctor appointments had to be kept so the week turned into crazy! It will be nice to get on the road in the morning and leave this all behind.
Reading a commentary on I John
Recently, I was reading a commentary on I John. No, I don’t do it often. I decided I would work my way through it this summer. The commentary is The Epistles of John. It was written by James Montgomery Boice. He passed away a few years back…way too young, barely into his 60’s. He had very little warning his time was up.
He was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, told his congregation in a very memorable, GOD-glorifying service and died within a very short time! He came as the new pastor to the church I attended when able, during my senior year of nursing in Philadelphia (1968). He passed in 2000. It was a huge loss to the church and to the greater Church. He was a wonderful man of GOD!
I was reading the third chapter on I John 1:5-10 titled The Message of Jesus Christ. He started by reviewing the Westminster Catechism answer to the question “What is GOD?” which is certainly concise and quite thorough:
“GOD is a spirit,
infinite, eternal and unchangeable,
in His wisdom, being, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth.”
Then he mentioned John’s answer. Talk about brief! But when you get down to it, he covered the absolute basics of who GOD is, didn’t he?
GOD is light; In Him there is no darkness at all.
It is brief and to the point.
Do you ever sit and watch an evening of TV and feel dirty? With all the inuendo and sexual inappropriateness…and that is just the commercials? I can stand it when just my husband is with me, but if there is anyone else there…forget if there are children…ugh! Awful! We have to turn it off.
What would an evening be like with Jesus?
Imagine an evening with Jesus. No comments with sexual innuendo. No jokes that have hidden meanings. He is wholesome. He relates to us with respect. There are no putdowns to those of a different sex, much less a different race or style.
There is complete moral purity in Him. He is totally holy, righteous, pure and upright. It is difficult to imagine!
Imagine what that must be like for an evening? He looks into your eyes, but not in a flirty way. He genuinely wants to know you…wants to hear what you have to say. He has no ulterior motive.
Except, of course, the most approprite thing in the presence of Jesus, the GOD-man is that I would be dumbfounded and be bowing before HIM! None of what I would have to say would even seem worth bringing up. It would seem too trivial. I would want to just sit quietly and listen to what He had to say. What wisdom would He be able to convey to me that would help me understand and know Him better?
He has things He wants to tell you….
are you are ready to listen?
The most reliable way to “hear” GOD’s Word is in the Bible. It is the inspired Word of GOD…GOD’s Word in the words of men. He superintended the writings of the books of the Bible that the distinct personalities of each writer would be seen, yet without error in the original manuscripts.
GOD revealed truth about Himself in the 66 books of the Bible, He reveled Himself in Jesus Christ, who lived 33 years here on earth. But that truth is also in the Bible.
There is another place where GOD has revealed Himself. It isn’t as clearly delineated, but there is enough revealed such as that He exists for example, that all humans are without excuse when standing before Him in the end of time. What is that way? Creation!
See Romans 1:18-32 (there’s more if you read that whole chapter, but this gives you a good bit of it.) It is powerful stuff! We can look at creation and realize there must be a GOD…unless we harden our hearts to the fact that there is a GOD behind all the beauty and complexity of it all.
Reading that passage can be downright scary! Unless we remember that this GOD is light, in whom is no darkness at all!
He is not devious, sneaky, underhanded, morally deceitful or in anyway morally dark at al! What a context for this kind of passage. A GOD who is both just and loving, righteous, full of light and still one who is able to bring down justice and punishment on those who deserve it because of the complete balance of His other attributes.
I’ve gotten away from my main point a bit, but thinking about the fact that He is a GOD of light has been taking up my thinking lately.
How does GOD’s being Light affect your life and relationship to Him?
How will it affect your attitudes toward sin this week?