Tag Archives: light

No Darkness In God

Bible Study, , , ,

NO DARKNESS IN GOD

This is the message we have heard from Him and declare to you: God is light; in Him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with Him yet walk in the darkness we lie and do not live by the truth. (1 John 1: 6-7)

John did not mess around with theological concepts and abstract ideas. He came right to the point. He assured his readers that the one of whom he wrote was indeed the one who came from the Father, who lived on earth as a real human being and who was the living Word, representing the Father in all He said and did.

John and his fellow disciples were eyewitness of the truth that Jesus was a man and yet more than a man. They had seen, heard and touched Him and their lives had forever been changed because He came, not only because He lived and died as a perfect Son, but also because He had a message from God for them.

What was that message? Jesus reaffirmed the message of the prophets who spoke for God against the backdrop of His people’s persistent disobedience over centuries of calling them back to Himself. Their constant refrain was: God is holy! He has no part with anything that is tainted with corruption or imperfection.

Even the effects of Adam’s sin over which they had no control, like the shedding of blood during childbirth was an affront to Him because any form of bloodshed was the outcome of sin. Every hint of corruption or imperfection had to be atoned for by the shedding of blood. Death was the penalty He demanded for imperfection, the death of a perfect and innocent animal as a foreshadowing of the death of God’s perfect Lamb.

John declared that God is light. Like love, light is the essence of who He is. If God were only love, there would be no guarantee that He would act in perfect justice towards those who transgress His laws. To be love without the balance of light would leave us with a wishy-washy God who would gloss over every infringement of His perfection in the name of “love”.

That’s the way some people want Him to be, and even believe Him to be so that they can continue in their evil ways with the assurance that God will do nothing about it. But where does that leave others who suffer at the hands of the perpetrators of evil?

We do have the assurance, however, from the mouth of God Himself that His nature is in perfect balance. He is both love and light. He loved the world of sinners but He could not pass over their sin without demanding just payment for what they had done. When the time came, He sent His Son into the world to live out a life of perfect obedience to Him, and then to die as a sacrificial lamb to atone for the sins of the world.

Where does that leave us?

He calls for a response from us to what He has done, not only to deal, once for all, with our state of alienation from Him when we respond to His invitation to believe in His Son, but also to enable us to live in daily fellowship with Him. That means that we remain in oneness with Him by walking in the light of who He is and what He requires of us as His sons a daughters. There is no value in believing that Jesus is the Son of God and that God raised Him from the dead if we do not follow through with a life of transparency with Him and in fellowship with Him and with our fellow human beings.

Unfortunately, so devious is the human heart that we fool ourselves into thinking that we are okay even when we have sinned. Like Adam, we blame others and make excuses for our sin. We may even acknowledge our sin but . . . taking responsibility for it is another story.

That’s where God wants us to be with Him – not just acknowledging we have done wrong when we are caught out, but coming clean with God. The Holy Spirit never, let me repeat – never – beats us over the head with our sin. Accusation is the devil’s work. Our conscience, if trained by God’s word, will point out where we have gone wrong. The Holy Spirit points us back to who we are – holy and beloved sons and daughters of God whom Jesus has made righteous by His blood.

We do ourselves a terrible injustice of we insist that our deviation from God’s way are “mistakes” or “indiscretions”. God calls it sin. If we are unwilling to acknowledge that we sinned because we chose to, not because “the devil made me do it” or “because of what my father or mother did to me” or for any other reason, we remain in the darkness of self-deception and self-denial, and forfeit the delight of fellowship with the Father.

Painful as it is to have to acknowledge that we are deliberately walking in the darkness, and come back to the way of truth, it’s the only way to keep our faces towards Jesus who is the Way, The Truth and the Life and who will take us to the Father.

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Have you read my first book, Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart (Copyright © 2015, Partridge Publishing)? You’ll love it!

ISBN: Softcover – 978-1-4828-0512-3,                                                                              eBook 978-4828-0511-6

Available on www.amazon.com in paperback, e-book or kindle version, on www.takealot.com  or order directly from the publisher at www.partridgepublishing.com.

My second book, Learning to be a Disciple – The Way of the Master (Copyright © 2015, Partridge Publishing), companion volume to Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart, has been released in paperback and digital format on www.amazon.com.

For more details, check my website:

http://luellaannettecampbell.com/

Have you read my blogs on www.learningtobeason.wordpress.com ?

 

 

The Power Of The Cross – Purified By The Blood

Gospel, , , ,

THE POWER OF THE CROSS

PURIFED BY THE BLOOD

But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, His Son purifies us from all sin. (1 John 1: 7)

How much truth is encapsulated in this one verse!

First of all, what does it mean to “walk in the light”? Unless we understand the Hebraic thought behind this statement, we will invent our own interpretation and make nonsense of its meaning. To understand it accurately, we must go back to its use in the Old Testament.

“Remember, words used by the New Testament writers were not created in a vacuum. They have their meanings established in the Tanakh. The writers of the New Testament do not spend time defining words or phrases to the reader. The meaning of the terms are assumed. Assumed from where? The Scriptures. So let’s see how the New Testament dictionary defines light.

Psalm 119:105 – Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.

Psalm 119:130 – The entrance of thy words gives light; it gives understanding to the simple.

Proverbs 6:23 – For the commandment is a lamp; and the law is light; and reproofs of instruction are the way of life:

“This would be the dictionary of the New Testament writers. Their understanding of the words they used came from the Scriptures they already had. When the Bereans were commended in Acts 17:11, it was because they went back to the Tanakh to verify everything that was being taught by these early disciples. Why? Reason number one is because that is all they had. The New Testament had not yet been penned. Reason number two is because the Hebrew people had been taught for centuries that if someone does not speak according to the law and the testimony there is no light in them. So, when the New Testament writers, especially Yeshua‘, used the term light, they used it in a way that was already understood. Let’s go over a few New Testament verses again. This time we will see them in their proper context.

John 8:12 – I am the light of the world …” (i.e. I am the words of ’Elohiym.)

Matthew 5:14-16 – Ye are the light of the world …” (i.e. Now you are the words of ’Elohiym.)

Matthew 5:16 – Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.” (i.e. Proclaim and DO the words of ’Elohiym, so that the world can see who you are and glorify Him).

http://www.wildbranch.org/teachings/lessons/lesson4.html (-retrieved October 2015)

We have established that to walk in the light means to live our lives in obedience to the Word of God. It stands to reason that, if we are all walking in the light, we will be in harmony with one another. The Greek word, for fellowship is koinonia. It means having things in common or being in harmony, communion.

Firstly, to have fellowship with one another, we must be in fellowship with the Father, which He brought about by redeeming us from slavery to sin and reconciling us to Himself through the blood of Jesus.

Secondly, Jesus made peace though His blood, bringing Jew and Gentile together into one family, creating a new race which is characterised by spiritual birth rather than by natural human birth and condition. We are citizens, first of all, of the kingdom of God which takes precedence over citizenship in the land of our birth.

Thirdly, obedience to Jesus as Lord and to the Word of God brings us together as one. Fellowship with the Father and with His Son, and fellowship with one another is the evidence of a spiritual cleansing by the blood of Jesus. God promises to purify us when we acknowledge our sin, and to keep us pure when we live in harmony with Him and with one another.

The word for “purify” is in the present continuous tense. It implies a continuous action, something like a windscreen wiper that continually wipes the rain off the windscreen. Cleansing by the blood of Jesus is not a once-off action but a perpetual washing as we live in obedience to His word. It cleanses us from our impure intentions, attitudes, motives and failures to be perfect.

Hallelujah! This lifts the burden of trying to live up to God’s perfection because we are already perfect in Christ. Our job is to keep our eyes on Jesus and His job is to keep us clean and pure by His blood.

What do we have in common? We have a common Father, a common Lord, a common Holy Spirit, a common citizenship, a common salvation, a common hope, a common purpose, a common destiny and a common destination, and even common resources because we are one family.

This is the power of the cross!

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Have you read my first book, Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart (Copyright © 2015, Partridge Publishing)? You’ll love it!

ISBN: Softcover – 978-1-4828-0512-3,                                                                              eBook 978-4828-0511-6

Available on www.amazon.com in paperback, e-book or kindle version, on www.takealot.com  or order directly from the publisher at www.partridgepublishing.com.

My second book, Learning to be a Disciple – The Way of the Master (Copyright © 2015, Partridge Publishing), companion volume to Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart, has been released in paperback and digital format on www.amazon.com.

For more details, check my website:

http://luellaannettecampbell.com/

Have you read my blogs on www.learningtobeason.wordpress.com ?

 

 

 

Argue Or Acknowledge

Bible Study, , ,

ARGUE OR ACKNOWLEDGE 

“The crowd spoke up, ‘We have heard from the Law that the Messiah will remain forever, so how can you say, “The Son of Man must be lifted up”?  Who is this “Son of Man”?’ Then Jesus told them, ‘You are going to have the light a little while longer. Walk while you have the light, before darkness overtakes you. Whoever walks in the dark does not know where he is going.

“Believe in the light while you have the light, that you may become children of light.’ When He had finished speaking, Jesus left and hid Himself from them.” John 12:34-36 NIV.

As the time drew nearer for Jesus to be crucified, His pleas to His people became more urgent. To His disciples He would give the assurance that the Holy Spirit would replace Him when He left. They would still have someone exactly like Him who would continue to instruct and lead them from within. But for those who were on the periphery, watching from afar and questioning everything He told them, there would no longer be His physical presence to show them the true nature of the Father.

Jesus did not answer their question. They had had more than enough evidence from His words and works to convince them that He was the Son of Man of whom He had spoken. Like their spiritual leaders, their skeptical attitude kept them from acknowledging Him as their Messiah.

But it was much more than giving intellectual assent to the evidence. To believe meant to commit to Him and to reproduce in their own lives what He was teaching and modelling.

John had begun his gospel with a commentary on Genesis 1. When God introduced light to a dark and formless world, it was first the light of truth embodied in Jesus, the second person of the Trinity that entered the world before He created the heavenly lights. He assigned the earth to Jesus to provide enlightenment to the human beings He was about to create in His image to know and have fellowship with Him.

Satan had already been abolished to the earth along with his fallen angel companions because of his bid to take over the throne of God. To create and place humans in an environment where Satan had influence was to throw them to the wolves unless they had the presence of God with them in the person of Jesus to counter the devil’s work.

“God is light; in Him there is no darkness at all.” 1 John 1:5b. There is nothing selfish, devious or shady about Him. He is everything that is kind, merciful, loving and generous. He is holy, utterly separate from anything wicked or imperfect. His plans and intentions for all mankind are only for good. Everything He does is intended to draw us towards Him and the transform us to be like Him.

Satan is everything that is opposite to God. Like darkness which is the absence of light, he is empty of everything that God is. His attitude and actions are all wicked and selfish. He is heading towards destruction and everything he does is designed to draw us towards him so that we can share in his eternal judgment and doom.

Jesus’ heart cry was always, ‘Believe in me,’ because faith in Him would effect a transfer from the power and influence of the selfishness and greed with which the human race was born to the realm of God’s rule where life would be lived in the light of His presence and in the supernatural power of His Spirit.

There was little time left to hear from the lips of Jesus the words that would bring them the hope of eternal life. Instead of arguing and contradicting Him, He urged them to heed and believe Him so that they could escape from the treadmill of self-centred living which was eroding away their opportunity to enter into the real life He was offering them — life that was enriched and fulfilled by loving God and caring for those who could not care for themselves.

The clock was ticking; the countdown had begun. In a few days death would remove Him from them. They would no longer see Him. Now was the time to respond or they might never have the opportunity again.

Water And Light

Bible Study, , ,

WATER AND LIGHT 

“When Jesus spoke again to the people, He said, ‘I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.'” John 8:12 (NIV).

Although the interlude which records Jesus’ encounter with the woman caught in adultery doesn’t seem to fit, it apparently happened in the temple while He was teaching the people. The water ceremony which we spoke about in a previous post, was part of the celebration of the Feast of Tabernacles. The lighting of the candelabras took place on the second day of the feast.

“According to the Mishnah (part of the oral tradition of the rabbis), gigantic candelabras stood within the court of the women. Each of the four golden candelabras is said to have been 50 cubits high. A cubit is somewhere between 18 and 22 inches, so we’re talking about candelabras that were about 75 feet tall! Each candelabrum had four branches, and at the top of every branch there was a large bowl. Four young men bearing 10 gallon pitchers of oil would climb ladders to fill the four golden bowls on each candelabrum. And then the oil in those bowls was ignited.

“Picture sixteen beautiful blazes leaping toward the sky from these golden lamps. Remember that the Temple was on a hill above the rest of the city, so the glorious glow was a sight for the entire city to see. In addition to the light, Levitical musicians played their harps, lyres, cymbals and trumpets to make joyful music to the Lord. What a glorious celebration! The light was to remind the people of how God’s Shekinah glory had once filled His Temple. But in the person of Jesus, God’s glory was once again present in that Temple. And He used that celebration to announce that very fact. He was teaching in the court of women just after the Feast, perhaps standing right next to those magnificent candelabras when He declared to all who were gathered there,”

(http://www.cbn.com/spirituallife/BibleStudyAndTheology/jewishroots/Feast_of_Tabernacles_Jews_For_Jesus_David_Brickner.aspx?option=print)

Although many of the Jewish leaders were scathing about Jesus’ apparent origin in Galilee (although they failed to realize that He was born in Bethlehem as the Scripture had predicted), God had promised that a great light would shine out of Galilee (Isaiah 9:1,2).

The people were unwittingly using ceremonies and symbols which they did not understand while the fulfilment of their symbolic expectation was right there among them! They were celebrating their Messianic hope with physical light while Jesus was offering them a new life of freedom from the demands of selfishness and sin (darkness) so that they could live the lives He intended for them, living lovingly and generously towards others (light).

“‘I am the light of the world. Whoever follows Me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.'” John 8:12 (NIV).

There was pain in the heart of Jesus over the spiritual leaders of the nation who refused to recognize and come to Him as the light. He was inviting the people to set aside all their efforts to please God by following rules and rituals. God had set out His teaching (torah) in His law but they had found it impossible to fulfil all His requirements. The leaders laid a heavy burden on the people through their yoke of legalism.

Jesus offered them a better way. ‘Follow me,’ He said, ‘and you will never walk in darkness.’ He told them that He had not come to do away with the law but to show them how to fulfil it. In His offer of “living water” there was a promise that the Holy Spirit would be in them, like the water they drank every day to quench their thirst, to give them life and enable them the follow Him.

If they followed His way of life, living for others instead of for themselves, their lives would be filled with His light, the joy and peace of God that would bring them satisfaction and fulfilment instead of dissatisfaction and discontent.

He still invites us to follow Him!

 

Check The Fruit

Bible Study, , , ,

CHECK THE FRUIT! 

“There was a man sent from God whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe. He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light.” John 1:6-8 (NIV).

Don’t you love the way John puts John the Baptist into the correct perspective? If you have travelled with me through Luke’s gospel, you will have seen how Jesus struggled to teach His disciples to interpret what was going on from the perspective of the kingdom of God. But at that time they just didn’t get it.

He promised them that things would be different after Pentecost — and they were! Once they had the Holy Spirit in them, they saw things from God’s point of view just like Jesus did. Although he was a prophet, John the Baptist’s ministry was unique and special. Just in case anyone mistakenly thought that he was the Messiah, John assures his readers that he was only a witness but a powerful one.

How did John the Baptist bear witness to the light? His preaching on repentance had a twofold purpose — to call God’s people back to a life of generosity and service and to prepare them for the coming of the Messiah who would immerse them in the Holy Spirit.

The religious leaders had led the people away from what God wanted into what they thought God wanted, religious people who meticulously kept the minutest details of the law at the expense of loving God by being kind and generous to all people. John’s preaching was fiery and explicit. He called his curious congregation who went to hear what he had to say, “A brood of vipers, a bunch of bastards — fatherless people!”

“Return,” he urged them. “There is someone coming who is far greater than I. My baptism in water is only a preparation for His baptism of fire.” What Jesus was about to do would be like the fire that consumes the chaff that is beaten off the wheat — He would expose and get rid of everything in His people that was incompatible with God – greed, selfishness, unkindness, pride and arrogance. He was not interested in religious rigmarole. He wanted real people who would love God and love their neighbour.

John the Baptist had no desire to promote himself. His only mission was to prepare the way by alerting the people to their need to get back to the simplicity of God’s way and to recognise the Messiah when He arrived because He would continue what John began.

“The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. He was in the world, and though the world was made through Him, the world did not recognise Him. He came to that which was His own, but His own did not receive him. Yet to all who did receive Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God — children born not of natural descent or a husband’s will but born of God.” John 1:9-13 (NIV).

There is a sad note in John’s story — in spite of what John the Baptist preached and testified to, neither the world at large nor God’s people recognised or acknowledged the Messiah when He came. His own people, who should have known Him because they had been taught His Word from their mother’s breast, refused to receive Him.

Since the day when they were taken into covenant relationship with God at Mount Sinai, they persisted in rebelling against God’s best way to live and going their own way with disastrous consequences; yet they never learned. And here they were, repeating history all over again.

Except for a few. In God’s story there are always those, few in number, yes, but true children of God who take what God says seriously, act on it and are welcomed into God’s family as dearly loved children. John hastens to add that this is not about natural birth. The Jews assumed that, because they were born Jews and had been circumcised — an external sign of their Jewishness, they were “in” and everybody else was “out”.

John made sure that he told them that it didn’t work like that. There had to be another “birth”, a supernatural one that brought them back into the family of God and reproduced the character of God in them.

How tragic that this erroneous thinking has crept into the church as well! Some branches of the church bring their babies into the family of God by “Christianising” them and “confirming” that ritual when they are of age and yet they have never been supernaturally “born” into God’s family by receiving Jesus as the Son of God and the Holy Spirit as the Spirit of sonship (Romans 8:14-16).

Jesus said, “Check the fruit. That’s the real test.”