Grains of Sand

Pixabay The sun rose in a brilliant blue sky this first morning of a new year. Light. How appropriate to this: “ In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. And God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light. God saw that it was good… ” (Genesis 1:1-3). We just finished celebrating the first coming of THE light—Jesus Christ—the One of whom the prophet spoke when he said: “ The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned ” (Isaiah 9:2). Our Lord, speaking of Himself, said this: “ When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, ‘I am the light of the world. Whoever follows will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life’ ” (John 8:12). THE Light passes on His glow to those who follow Him. The world was a place dark with sin when the Saviour arrive...

hdnewwallpapers.com (Google Images) Last evening there was a power outage in my neighbourhood. It was 10:30 before crews were able to restore the electrical current. That meant an evening in the dark. What does one do in the dark? It was too early to go to bed and the days are not long enough to be able work for a while by the light of the sun. So… I improvised by reading by flashlight. It worked but my hands protested at have to hold the light so that I could read. The amount of light probably didn’t do my eyes any favours either. But, as the saying goes, “a man’s (and a woman’s) gotta do what he’s (she’s) gotta do.” My Scripture reading for this morning was from John 8:12-30. The section begins with, “ Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, ‘I am the light of the world. He who follows me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.’ ” I remember this verse, not only because I learned it as a child in Sunday School, and have heard it repeated a good many times since, b...

Google Images “Follow us on TWITTER.” “Follow us on FACEBOOK.” Follow the trends. Follow the news. Follow the crowd. Follow the leader. Follow... Everywhere we look something, or someone, wants us to follow. In Jesus’ discussion with the crowd in Jerusalem, He spoke these key words: “ 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). Men are “blessed” with great ideas, usually built around their own agendas and their own ambitions. A following helps them achieve at least the appearance of success. They may even be so bold (and deluded) to promise light and life to those who follow them. But only Jesus can make the promise of light and life and actually keep that promise. Later in the discussion, the Lord speaks more key words: “ If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free ” (John 8:31, 32). Light. Life. Truth. Freedom. ...

Feel the passion and conviction of John's words as he begins his letter: " That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and appeared to us…this is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. " —1 John 1:1, 2, 5, NIV. This introduction is similar to the beginning of John's Gospel when he wrote: " In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning…In him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in darkness, but the darkness has not understood it " —John 1:1-3, NIV These references to light and life echo the words of Zechariah, the father of John the Bapt...