Logos, Life & Light (John 1:1-5)

I had a really cool devotional/Bible study time this morning. My text was John 1:1-5. I am beginning to work through this Gospel once again and will be sharing lessons I learn in the days and weeks to come. Let me begin by saying that once again God has proven to be not only incredible, but timely as well.

To put things bluntly, Michelle and I are under attack.  It seems that the forces of the evil one have begun a concerted effort to draw us away from each other, God and our personal walks of faith.  Most of you know that we have been grieving over the loss of our precious Janie Beth.  Well, in the last 6-7 days the forces of darkness have been trying to cause doubt, hurt and hardship in our lives.  And let me tell you, when people let you down, both in personal relationships and even your church, the darkness can seem overwhelming and intense.  And it is into this period of darkness and attack that I found myself in John 1:1-5.

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it."

Let me point out that the Greek word that John is using for the "Word" is LOGOS.  Whihc literally means the Divine Expression (God expressed in Jesus Christ).  And I found it cool to think that this manifestation of God has not only been around since the beginning of time, but when darkness and light were being separated, He did it.  And then that Divine Expression went further, in that He not only created it all, but He became the source of life..."In HIM is life."  Think about it, He is life, not our jobs, relationships, religions or any other thing.  When we look for other things to help us feel alive then we have lost the focus.  He must be the source, sustainer and security for our lives.

Well then I came to one of those truly cool insights from God's Word this morning.  John's Gospel talks about the light shinning in our darkness and dark times.  The Greek word for light is "phos" as in our word phosphorescense.  This word can literally be translated to mean "luminousness."  Or, let's put it this way; have you ever been in a cave and noticed that it was not totally dark as you supposed, there were perhaps types of plants that gave off a faint light, of some other glowing essence that made the darkness not be truly complete?  That is part of the wonder of this light that shines in our darkness.  The darkness may not realize, or comprehend what is happening, but when we trust in and draw life from the Logos of God, we will always have, at the very least, some light with which to navigate the dark times in our lives.

I praise God that no matter what the demonic forces of darkness try to throw at Michelle and I we can always depend on the Logos, Life and Light that is Jesus our Christ, Savior, and Bright and Morning Star.