The Light

    We all need love. Some find satisfying love relationships with other people and some don't. But even the best of human love doesn't fill the deepest longing of our hearts for a love that we cannot express or even understand. We are simply aware of a void that neither people, nor money, nor material things, nor power, nor worldly success can fill. We go through our lives searching, perhaps unknowingly, for the filling of this void.

    This search may last a lifetime without fulfillment. Or it might lead through many years and along a number of paths until finally, and sometimes after much pain, it bears fruit. Some find this most fulfilling of love relationships at quite an early age. I think the former is most often true.

    I selected Graham Cooper's, "Early Morning Sun," photograph for this page because to me it portrays so clearly the bright morning light as it finally dawns after a long, dark night. Rising higher and higher, its consuming light drives out every vestige of darkness until the whole earth is bathed in the warmth and radiance of the sunlight.

    The photograph of the brilliant morning sun rising also typifies to me what happens in a human heart when he or she truly hears the gospel of Jesus Christ. I say "truly hears" because so many have heard, but so few by comparison have truly opened their hearts to the Christ of God. He lives on the outside of their heart rather than within as He desires, where He can heal and truly change a life. When the light of God dawns in that heart with a revelation of its true meaning and the person truly repents of their sins (turns from them), asking Jesus to come into their hearts and to forgive them, they are what the Bible calls "born again".

What Jesus Said about The Light

    "For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life. God did not send His Son into the world to condemn it, but to save it. There is no judgment awaiting those who trust Him. But those who do not trust Him have already been judged for not believing in the only Son of God. Their judgment is based on this fact: The light from heaven came into the world, but they loved the darkness more than the light, for their actions were evil. They hate the light because they want to sin in the darkness. They stay away from the light for fear their sins will be exposed and they will be punished. But those who do what is right come to the light gladly, so everyone can see that they are doing what God wants" John 3:16-21 (New Living Translation).

The Light in the Book of First John

    "This is the message He has given us to announce to you: God is light and there is no darkness in Him at all. So we are lying if we say we have fellowship with God but go on living in spiritual darkness. We are not living in the truth. But if we are living in the light of God's presence, just as Christ is, then we have fellowship with each other, and the blood of Jesus, His Son, cleanses us from every sin" 1 John 1:5-7 (New Living Translation).

The Light in the Book of John

    "In the beginning the Word already existed. He was with God, and He was God. He was in the beginning with God. He created everything there is. Nothing exists that He didn't make. Life itself was in Him, and this life gives light to everyone. The light shines through the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it.

    "God sent John the Baptist to tell everyone about the light so that everyone might believe because of his testimony. John himself was not the light; he was only a witness to the light. The one who is the true light, who gives light to everyone, was going to come into the world. But although the world was made through Him, the world didn't recognize Him when He came. Even in His own land and among His own people, He was not accepted. But to all who believed Him and accepted Him, He gave the right to become children of God. They are reborn! This is not a physical birth resulting from human passion or plan - this rebirth comes from God" John 1:1-13 (New Living Translation).