Leading people to a more intimate friendship with God
Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God. — John 1:12 (NIV)
I have been coming to realize in the last few weeks how many different things God offers to us that are really great deals but which require at least some kind of action or response on our part. And it is amazing to me the number of people who fail to respond!
Continue reading “It’s Easy to Become A Child of God (John 1:12)”
The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it… He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. — John 1:5,10-11 (NIV)
These are perhaps some of the saddest verses of the Bible. God does something earth-shattering — He comes into the world to rescue people from the prison in which they are held captive. But when He comes, instead of cheers for their imminent rescue and gratitude to their brave rescuer, they do not even recognize what is happening and who it is that is there for them. People had become so accustomed to darkness that light was a very foreign concept to them. They once knew light, and their essential nature was light, but that part of their nature that should have and could have recognized Him failed to. Instead, they rejected Him.
Continue reading “The World Did Not Receive Him (John 1:5,10-11)”
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. — John 1:1-3 (NIV)
These powerful verses draw us into a mystery. Who or what is “the Word”, who was present with God at the beginning, when all things were created? The Beloved Disciple slowly reveals over the course of the chapter that he is referring to Jesus.