God is Light & Love

1 John 1:5 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 4:8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.

Very few places in scripture says what or who God is and yet the Apostle John writes in 1 John that God is light and then a few chapters later says that God is Love.

Recently I read a book entitled “Imagine the God of Heaven” by John Burke who has interviewed many survivors with near death experiences and researched over a thousand more.  Many of them claim to have encountered a being of pure light and love. Many of these instinctively knew that this being was Jesus as they were enveloped in light and love like they had never encountered on earth. The problems and injustices of life melted away in his presence. They experienced peace, wholeness, and forgiveness. The struggles and victories of their life were laid bare and reviewed for the impact they had on others, but through it all they were held and loved by Jesus who forgave them their shortcomings. They were fully known and yet fully loved.

Although they begged to remain, many were sent back because their purpose had not yet been fulfilled.  Others were given a choice and chose to return because of family that needed them. And then I believe there are others, like my nephew who passed several years ago, who if given a choice, would have chosen to stay with reckless abandon.  Oh, the thrill of experiencing the love of Jesus. Some described it as taking all of the love they had experienced in a lifetime, times a thousand, or times a million.

Love doesn’t exist alone.  It implies, or better yet, demands relationship. Love is relationship.  God created us to have a relationship with Him.  All love relationships on earth especially marriage and family, were designed to illustrate the love that God has for each one of us and the relationship we can have as we respond in love and worship of Him.

The world wants to tell you that you are not good enough, not beautiful or handsome enough, not funny enough, not “cool” enough, not talented enough, not exciting enough, not rich enough, and the list goes on.  But God knit you together in your mother’s womb and God doesn’t make junk.  He formed you as a masterpiece to be one of a kind, unique, special, and like no one else on earth.  You are loved by God.  God really, really, really…, really, really, really… loves you. He loves you so much that He sacrificed his own son on the cross to redeem you from the clutches of the evil one.  He loves you with an abundant, all-consuming, over-the-top, self-sacrificing, kind of love.

All we can do is try to accept it, rest in it, bask in it, and then love God back in our very limited and flawed way. Our best response is to repent, align our will with His will, and worship and adore him for His unmerited favor.  And then take His love and try to love those around us.  As 1 John 4:7 says, ^“Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.”

Perhaps that is why Jesus said the whole Old Testament law is wrapped up in these two commands, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” Mark 12:30-31

Let’s pray, “Heavenly Father, thank you for amazing love. I look forward to the day I experience it fully with you in your bright Heavenly Kingdom. Help me to love and worship you better; and help me to share Your light and love with a world that is lost in hopeless darkness. In Jesus name, Amen”

Blessings,

Pastor Vern