{"id":499,"date":"2017-08-11T07:34:45","date_gmt":"2017-08-11T15:34:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/?p=499"},"modified":"2017-08-11T07:34:45","modified_gmt":"2017-08-11T15:34:45","slug":"devotion-1-john-15-7-the-light-within","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/?p=499","title":{"rendered":"Devotion\u00a0\u00a0 1 John 1:5-7 \u00a0The Light Within"},"content":{"rendered":"

1 John 1:5-7 <\/strong>\u2013 5\u00a0This is the message we have heard\u00a0from him and declare to you: God is light;\u00a0in him there is no darkness at all.\u00a06\u00a0If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness,\u00a0we lie and do not live out the truth.\u00a07\u00a0But if we walk in the light,\u00a0as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.<\/span><\/p>\n

Again, John is not repeating a tale as a third person recipient.\u00a0 He is an eyewitness.\u00a0 What he has seen and heard He has declared to us.\u00a0 He is not repeating what someone else said about Jesus, he is repeating what he heard Jesus teaching.\u00a0 Wow!\u00a0 Really, wow!\u00a0 God so lovingly provides for us!<\/p>\n

\u201cGod is light<\/span>.\u201d\u00a0 Not \u201cGod is a<\/u> light,\u201d but God is light.\u00a0 He is not one of many lights just as He is not one of many gods.\u00a0 There is only one God and that God is light.\u00a0 What does light inherently do?\u00a0 It reveals.\u00a0 \u00a0When light enters a dark room it reveals what our eyes could not previously see.\u00a0 When God touches a person\u2019s life, what spiritual truth was previously unseen, is seen.\u00a0 As light intrinsically reveals, so does God.\u00a0 The best thing that He could reveal to us is Himself.\u00a0 Pastor Chuck Smith said, of God identifying Himself as \u201cI Am<\/span>,\u201d that this could be understood as the \u201cEver Becoming One\u201d (Exodus 3:14<\/strong>). God is who He is.\u00a0 He always has been and unchangingly so, always will be (Numbers 23:19<\/strong>).\u00a0 He is not \u201cEver Becoming\u201d because He becomes as the need arises (James 1:17<\/strong>).\u00a0 No, He is always desirous to reveal Himself to us (John 14:9, 17:3<\/strong>).\u00a0 So, though God never changes, to us, we learn more of Him every day (2 Peter 3:18<\/strong>).\u00a0 Every day our God is a wonder!\u00a0 Every day He is a blessing that explodes within us and overwhelms us with His goodness and love!\u00a0 Oh Family, jump and shout at the greatness of God!\u00a0 Jump and shout at the greatness of God in your individual life.\u00a0 When we begin to recount how many blessings we have, from seemingly little to seemingly miraculous, God is great beyond the words to express!\u00a0 Thinking of Him, words fail me.\u00a0 Being overwhelmed by who He is, I can only, repeatedly proclaim \u201cThank you Lord\u201d and \u201cPraise God!\u201d<\/p>\n

In God, there is \u201cno darkness at all<\/span>.\u201d\u00a0 This darkness speaks of blindness, darkened eyesight, or ignorance.\u00a0 God is none of these three.\u00a0 With Him within us, all of these have been, and are being, chased away.\u00a0 With the Holy Spirit teaching us the Word of God (John 14:26<\/strong>), and revealing God\u2019s endless acts of love to us throughout our day, we are not blinded to the wonder that is our God.\u00a0 He and His Word, are beauty and wisdom that feed and guide us for a lifetime, and beyond.\u00a0 The darkness spoken of here is not so much speaking directly about sin, but rather about blindness that comes from rejecting the knowledge of God that only comes as one respond\u2019s to God\u2019s calling that comes through Jesus Christ.\u00a0 God is not blind or ignorant.\u00a0 He is omniscient.\u00a0 In Him is \u201cno darkness at all.\u201d With Him within, darkness must flee from us.<\/p>\n

If we claim to know God, but do not know Him, if we do not know His Word, if we don\u2019t know His will, we are still in darkness. The only way to still be in darkness is to reject His call to come and belong to Him.\u00a0 Those who walk in ignorance willingly do so.\u00a0 They do not want the light because they want to continue to live in darkness and do the evil deeds that they do (John 3:20<\/strong>).\u00a0 If they were to come into the light, then they would know the truth and have an obligation to do it.\u00a0 They foolishly suppose that they will avoid condemnation by willful ignorance.\u00a0 That is a lie perpetuated by the enemy of our souls.\u00a0 It is a lie that the enemy, and the lusts of a corrupt nature, plants in the garden of our hearts and soul and then carefully tends.\u00a0 God, by nature reveals Himself to all who heed His call.\u00a0 If we are ignorant of the things of God then we are ignorant by our own will.\u00a0 If there is no victory over sin, then something is wrong.\u00a0 Not that we will not ever sin, we most certainly do.\u00a0 But we should, ever the more throughout our lives, gain increasing victory of sin.\u00a0 For that not to happen, then we are denying God the Light to expose sin in us, and chase it from us.\u00a0 To have fellowship with God is to be moved from ignorance of God and His ways to knowledge of Him and His ways.\u00a0 All this only happens through Jesus.\u00a0 Our Savior and Lord Jesus, purifies the lives of all who fellowship with Him.\u00a0 As God and His Word are known by us, the washing of our souls and spirits has come, and it continues.<\/p>\n

If we claim to be without sin, then we are still in darkness. Jesus, who is the Light and the Truth, is not illuminating within us.\u00a0 We all sin.\u00a0 What we don\u2019t do is plan to sin.\u00a0 We don\u2019t habitually sin, but rather, we torture ourselves as we sin.\u00a0 We wound our consciences because we cannot bear doing what displeases God.\u00a0 John does not leave us here.\u00a0 He is clear to say that, as we sin and we confess, He always forgives us.\u00a0 What does that mean?\u00a0 Does it mean that every time we sin God is making a mental note to forgive us?\u00a0 No!\u00a0 Jesus paid the full price for all of our sins.\u00a0 Jesus said that \u201cIt is finished\u201d and He did not say that it is mostly finished but He will take care of that as it happens.\u00a0 When Jesus cleans, He cleans completely.\u00a0 When Jesus died for our sins, there was no sin that we would do, even after becoming Christian, that He did not die for.\u00a0 He died for the all the sins of all of our life.\u00a0 When He became our Savior and Lord, He knew of all future sins.\u00a0 He did not die just for the sins up to that date, but all our sins.\u00a0 Family, our salvation is complete.\u00a0 Praise God!\u00a0 Then, why do we need to confess.\u00a0 It is for our benefit. Remember that God continues to redeem us.\u00a0 The whole process is too miraculous and too wonderful!\u00a0 As we confess, as we acknowledge it, as the Light of God exposes it in us, then God works it out of us.\u00a0 Also, it keeps us from pride.\u00a0 Additionally, our gratefulness grows and is multiplied as we acknowledge and grow in the depth and beauty of His grace and love.<\/p>\n

Let us every day be in the Word of God.\u00a0 Let us pray that the Holy Spirit will bring us light.\u00a0 Let us get out of the way of the Light that no shadows are cast that would obstruct the work of the Light.\u00a0 God is good, and He is faithful even when we are not.\u00a0 Why?\u00a0 Well, that\u2019s just who He is.\u00a0 Aren\u2019t we so glad of that!\u00a0 Family, let us always, every day, praise and thank God.\u00a0 There is great wisdom and wonderful protection in doing so.\u00a0 God has ordained it!\u00a0 Praise God.<\/p>\n

Psalm 150:6<\/strong> – Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.\u00a0 Praise the Lord!<\/span><\/p>\n

Micah 7:7<\/strong> – But as for me, I watch\u00a0in hope\u00a0for the\u00a0Lord, I wait for God my Savior; my God will hear\u00a0me.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Micah 6:8<\/strong> – He has shown You, O man, what\u00a0is\u00a0good; And what does the\u00a0Lord\u00a0require of You but to do justly, to love mercy, And to walk humbly with Your God.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

1 John 1:5-7 \u2013 5\u00a0This is the message we have heard\u00a0from him and declare to you: God is light;\u00a0in him there is no darkness at all.\u00a06\u00a0If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness,\u00a0we lie and do not live out the truth.\u00a07\u00a0But if we walk in the light,\u00a0as he is…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1192],"tags":[2220,511,449,277,7,62,1700,180,100,512,1019,94,1874,90,17,97,2221],"class_list":["post-499","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-devotion","tag-chuck-smith","tag-darkness","tag-devotion","tag-fellowship","tag-god","tag-holy-spirit","tag-james","tag-jesus-christ","tag-john","tag-light","tag-lord","tag-micah","tag-numbers","tag-peter","tag-psalm","tag-savior","tag-unchanging"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/499","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=499"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/499\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":500,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/499\/revisions\/500"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=499"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=499"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=499"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}