In Him was life, and that life was the light of men

John 1:4 is saying that creative life-giving power comes from Jesus.  That life itself resides in Jesus.  A little later on in John's Gospel we will hear Jesus say, "I am the resurrection and the life."  It is hard for us to see the one on one correlation between life itself and Jesus himself.  What does it mean that Jesus gives life?  I think that God has necessarily brought about the existence of Jesus because of the very nature of life itself, but what does it mean?  John adds the application at the end of verse 4, "and that life was the light of men."  Jesus' life is the thing that provides spiritual illumination, understanding, comprehension, or in our modern language: good information about God. This is profound, it means that the life of Jesus is the source of spiritual information for everyone.  This isn't such a far fetched exclusivist idea as you would think, because people from many religions have a place for Jesus somewhere, as a great prophet, a holy man, or other things.  Even so, to have true spiritual understanding one cannot ignore, but rather must accept, Jesus' own self-disclosure that was so clearly preserved in the Gospels. Spiritual darkness doesn't necessarily mean that a person has no knowledge about God, or has not heard some really good information about God.  Spiritual darkness can be like a dark cloud of circumstance that envelops our life, that hangs over our head like a blanket, so that we neither see, nor even breathe!  An understanding and acceptance of Jesus will dispel this.  A realization and communion with the Lord will pull the blanket from our head.  Coming to Christ is like coming out of the spiritual fog, out of the darkness.  But, with John's Gospel, we sometimes see that "the light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it."

Peace of God in Philippians 4:7

What we are after is "the peace of God that is far beyond/above the known."  How do you like that translation? I mean unknown to us.  It is "far beyond all comprehension" or "knowledge" or "logic."  So see then we can experience it, but we will not ever understand it.  I venture then it is supernatural, or mystical (!).  And such an experience over time has a predictable result.  "...will protect your hearts and your minds IN Christ Jesus."  We can think of this as "keeping us within the sphere of Christ Jesus' power" or more simply "Christ Jesus will be the means of soul-protection via the peace of God."  So without a doubt what we are after is spiritual.  On this day when the perpetual adolescents in our media are showing video of children being run over by trains (uninjured though they were), we need "soul protection" more than ever.  My prayer is that I would be always pursuing that peace of God through the commands of Philippians 4:4-6!

The Seen and the Unseen

I want to live out the spiritual realities captured in Romans 6. 

We know deep inside that there is an ever-present transcendence to our lives; that our soul is reaching out always for something more.  We do this in relationships- we dodge, jump back, counter, hoping to experience impact and significance.  We are reaching out for more...

On the other hand, we have to take out the trash, wash the dishes, clean the...well, you know. 

On Wednesday it may be hard to see oneself as an intersection of the seen and the unseen.  No matter what day it is, the promise is true..."Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him." 

In seeing beyond the circumstances, we can realize that there is more at stake than just one's own fate. We see sanctification, and truthful relationships with impact and significance. "But now having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you (collective) derive your benefit, resulting in sanctification, and the outcome, eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."  

Both the seen and the unseen call us to simply live with trust in God's provision for us all.  There are no "simple answers to complex questions."  That would be the seen denying the unseen.  That would be enslavement to sin, as if nothing spiritually significant had ever happened in and through history. 

Spiritual Peace and Nature

There can be little debate that getting back to nature can put you in touch with your spiritual condition in ways that being "in the noise" can't. Seeing the graces of creation,such as the mountain view I am enjoying, accents what is transcendent and eternal about us. Deep inside we resonate with the wonders of God, and we desire to know and be known. We are so small...and yet we read,"who can separate is from the love of God?" Christ offers to all true spiritual peace,a kind that is so settling. We can be free from dread and confusion, and embrace in an unashamed way the power of the Creating God who calls us by name not to be just "religious" or "nice" but to be saved. A view of the seen is but a doorway to what is unseen. See, and pray...seek and find. "I look up to the hills, from where does my help come? My help comes from the Lord."