Happy Easter Monday! Decided I would write through the numbered Johns first then move on to the Psalms. I’ve never done a whole lot with them. If you have other ideas- let me know. I’m still thinking through a plan.
Read 1 John 1 first- https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+John+1&version=NIV
1 John is one of my favorite books and like Mark it’s also short which is why I chose it. But it’s not in story form- so it’s a bit more meditative and works through a variety of themes in sort of a spiral pattern. Light and dark and love are all major themes looked at through different lenses. It was written by John who was part of the inner circle of Jesus. His brother James has died in the faith long ago and he referred to himself as the one Jesus loved, not that he didn’t lover others, but that we all are the disciples Jesus loves.
He begins by talking about being a witness to Jesus life, touching him, and how Jesus brought eternal life to us. He’s fighting against gnosticism that thought of Jesus as being God but not man. John pulls upon his own experience and tells the people that he fellowshipped with Jesus and wants others to do the same.
He also uses a lovely phrase, “We write this to make our joy complete” as I’ve been writing daily for the last couple weeks I can say the same is true. Writing about God is a form of meditation for me and though I can’t say it makes me happy per say- it’s a lot like eating a meal. Sometimes we eat for fuel. Sometimes we eat to enjoy. Either way it sustains us for the day. That’s the biblical understanding of joy. With God it’s always there, but that doesn’t mean we want to break out in leaps of joy and do tik tok dances all the time.
Then he begins talking about light and how darkness can’t break light. It reminds me of a quote from St Francis of Assissi which I read for the first time today. “All the darkness in the world cannot extinguish the light of single candle” This is truth! Then he goes into a discussion about sin. Sin and darkness are used to describe life without God. Sin is darkness. So if we claim we have no darkness that doesn’t make God’s light not shine. But it doesn’t make us shine brighter either. God wants us to be honest with him about our sin or else he can’t fix it. If you’ve worked with an addict you know unless the addict wants to be better there’s no chance of them getting better. It’s the same way with my sin. I’m never going to address it if I don’t first admit it and let God change me. Sometimes it takes getting into the darkest pit to realize- yeah I need some light. So unfortunately sometimes Im thankful for rock bottom because then the only way to look is up. How often do we prevent people from hitting rock bottom and looking up? This has to be the hardest thing for parents. I’ve seen it too much.
God is light. If you walk with him you have light too. I suppose that’s similar to the moon. It has no light of it’s own but it walks with the sun and it also walks with snow. If you’ve ever been in the mountains during a full moon you will see the snow glisten with light from the moon and light up the place. But all of that is in a dance with the sun. May we dance with the sun like the moon, bringing light to the darkness, especially now. Listen for God as he tells you to move to help your neighbors and reach out to friends who may be living alone or have 5 kids or health problems. God has someone in your circle who needs help right now. Reach out and be moved to dance with the Son as you light up your little world!
Marking It Up 