Living In The Light

1 John 1:5-10 This is the message we heard from Jesus and now declare to you: God is light, and there is no darkness in Him at all.

So we are lying if we say we have fellowship with God but go on living in spiritual darkness; we are not practicing the truth. But if we are living in the light, as God is in the light, then we have fellowship with each other, and the blood of Jesus, His Son, cleanses us from all sin.

If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth. But if we confess our sins to Him, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness. If we claim we have not sinned, we are calling God a liar and showing that His word has no place in our hearts.

In our previous post we looked at the fact that Jesus really was "God With Us" and that is the only reason why we are still celebrating His arrival two thousand years later. In the verses that we are looking at today our focus changes from who Jesus is to who God is and how that should affect the way we live.

John tells us that God is light, most religions can agree with that statement, if you believe in God then you probably agree that He is pure and holy. There isn't any darkness at all in God, He is one hundred percent pure light, he is holy, pure and righteous. Besides being light God also gives us the light, He reveals the light of truth to us, and He gives us the light of salvation.

Does the fact that God is light have any implications for me?

Does it really matter how I live? When Jesus told his followers "You are my friends if you do what I command" He made it clear that there has to be some changes in the way that I live and that obedience is a necessary part of a relationship with Him. (John 15:14)

Romans 6:16-18 Don't you realize that you become the slave of whatever you choose to obey? You can be a slave to sin, which leads to death, or you can choose to obey God, which leads to righteous living. Thank God! Once you were slaves of sin, but now you wholeheartedly obey this teaching we have given you. Now you are free from your slavery to sin, and you have become slaves to righteous living.

We all have to decide who is going to be in control. We don't like the idea of being a slave but that's what the apostle Paul tells us we are. We don't get to change the fact that we are slaves but we do get to choose who we will be enslaved to.

Fellowship with God and living to please him is always characterized by walking in the light. We know that we have been saved for all of eternity but we can choose to step away from the light and stumble around in the dark when we refuse to live by God's Word.

I cannot live in the dark and expect it to be beneficial to me and I should not expect to enjoy God's company. I need to decide that my morals, my attitudes and my convictions are all going to be dictated by God's Word.

Also Know As God

John 1:1-5 In the beginning the Word already existed. The Word was with God, and the Word was God. He existed in the beginning with God. God created everything through Him, and nothing was created except through Him.

The Word gave life to everything that was created, and His life brought light to everyone. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it.

This is a different genealogy from what you see at the beginning of Matthew and Luke's gospels, they both show us the human genealogy of Jesus, but John goes way back beyond the humanness of Jesus and he points out the fact that Jesus is God and since He is then He always existed with God.

The four books of the Bible that tell us about Jesus time on earth are written to different audiences and therefore they give us a different perspective on who Jesus is. Matthew shows us Jesus as the Messiah and King of Israel, in Mark there isn't a genealogy because Christ is presented as a Lowly Servant which wouldn't have His lineage tracked, in Luke He is the Son of Man rejected by Israel. John the apostle and author of this book wants us to know that Jesus is the Son of God.

Jesus Christ is nothing less that God in a body, He isn't some mystic, divine being up in heaven somewhere and He isn't an angel that got a promotion. Jesus was there with God in the beginning when God decided to create, Jesus was there when God gave physical life to this world and now he has come to earth to give us spiritual life.

It is amazing that the world is still talking about this man. Every other great man in history combined doesn't get the amount of attention that Jesus gets. In his book "Jesus: Why The World Is Still fascinated With Him" Tim LaHaye states:

"The philosophers Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, who together are said to have formed the philosophical foundation of Western culture. And yet, despite being in the public eye for only three and a half years, Jesus and His teachings have arguably impacted the world far more than the collective erudition of these three great philosophers whose combined careers totaled more than 150 years."

There are people who love Him and swear that He is who He claimed to be and there are others that will bend over backwards to distort the truth. There are plenty of religions in the world today that blaspheme against Jesus saying He was not God, some religions even go as far as to claim that Jesus didn't even claim to be God.

1 John 1:1-2 We proclaim to you the One who existed from the beginning, whom we have heard and seen. We saw Him with our own eyes and touched Him with our own hands. He is the Word of life. This One who is life itself was revealed to us, and we have seen Him. And now we testify and proclaim to you that He is the One who is eternal life. He was with the Father, and then He was revealed to us.

John, who was probably Jesus closest friend, gave us his testimony about Jesus, John wants you to know what he saw and heard and why his life was so radically changed. His experiences with Jesus are very important to him and he wants us to know Jesus the way that he did after spending three years with him. John heard the claims by Jesus, he saw the proof in how He lived, and the things that He did, it all made sense to him that Jesus really was God and our Savior.

Jesus referred to himself as:

✔  the Bread of Life, (John 6:35-51) ✔  the Light of the World, (John 8:12) ✔  the Door, (John 10:7-9) ✔  the Good Shepherd, (John 10:11-14) ✔  the Resurrection and the Life, (John 11:25) ✔  the Way the Truth and the Life, (John 14:6) ✔  the True Vine (John 15:1-5)

JESUS QUESTION IS FOR ALL OF US

Luke 9:20 Then He asked them, "But who do you say I am?" Peter replied, "You are the Messiah sent from God!"

Is He a radical thirty year old carpenter that left the family business and got Himself killed for no reason? Did He fake the fulfillment of prophecy? Could a man possibly be born in the right circumstances in order to fulfill hundreds of prophecies in order to trick us? How could His miracles have tricked so many? If He is just a liar then why is the world still so obsessed over one liar?

If Jesus is really the only son of God, fully God revealed to us in a body, then the question that Jesus asked Peter is the most important one that we need to answer as well. "But who do you say I am?"

What if He really is who he claimed to be? If He told us the truth about being God then everything else that He said should be extremely important to us as well. We should be digging into God's to find out what He wants us to know and what He wants us to do.

Celebrating Two Years

It is hard to believe that it has been two years since we left the comforts and familiarity of our family and friends to be on mission in New Jersey. On one hand, it seems like it was just yesterday, but on the other hand it seems like an eternity. I can honestly say for all of our team that it wasn’t at all what we expected, but it has been absolutely life changing for all of us.

We have witnessed the power of God move in so many incredible ways among us. We have seen God for who He is and what He has done in many up close and personal ways. We have seen Him as:

Jehovah Jireh – The Lord will Provide.

It seems like every time we needed something, God has, and does, provide in ways we could never expect. God has entrusted to us prayer warriors, finances, resources, relationships, encouragement, help, vision, hope, wisdom, and even obstacles... and the list could go on. We have learned that God is our sole provider and there is nothing we need, because we have Him and in Him is all we need!

Jehovah Shammah – The Lord Is There.

We must be honest and say that leaving all we knew and were comfortable with was much harder than we ever expected. We, even today, miss the ‘everyday connection’ with those we love and got to do life with in Tampa. Yet, God has not and never does abandon His children. He has been and is there with us every step of the way. We have just learned the value of looking to Him and not others and other things to find that peace. This is a constant learning journey but God is there guiding us daily.

El Shaddai – Lord God Almighty.

God’s power has been on display in so many ways throughout this journey and we have the privilege of getting a front row seat to see God show up and show off. We are constantly reminded of the words of Jesus in the book of John where He said, “apart from Me you can do NOTHING.” Our best efforts aren’t enough to move the hearts of folks and build a church. Yet, if we lay our agendas down and seek God’s will, we see what only He can do.

We have seen lives both changed and transformed by the gospel, marriages strengthened and saved. We have seen a community that looks to other things to sustain it realize that life is fragile if built upon its present foundation. We constantly get the opportunity to BE GOOD NEWS to a people and a community that is desperately looking for hope.

God is good, right and perfect.

He is Holy and all His ways are right and trustworthy. The God who SEES and KNOWS. The God who POINTS us in the RIGHT DIRECTION. The God who is both MYSTERIOUS and RELATIONAL. He is GLORIOUS, HE is GRACIOUS, He has a PLAN, He is LOVING and GRACEFUL.

I could go on and on about God and the ways that we have come to know Him and see Him at work, but what I hope you know is that it has been transforming! So, as I write this I just want to stop and give God all the praise! He alone is worthy and we thank Him for His faithfulness!