1 John 1:1 “That which was from the beginning which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at, and with our hands have touched-this we proclaim to concerning the Word of Life.”
Lord! I believe without have seen, heard, or toughed. I ponder what it must have been like for those with whom you rubbed shoulders when You were here in the flesh. They knew they were looking into the very eyes of God, hearing the will of, and feeling the touch of the living GOD! You are the Word made flesh, Emmanuel! Some sweet day I will experience all of these things myself, but for now; Your sweet Spirit ministers to me and I have a different type of communion with You as I abide, and it is sweet indeed!
You, O Lord, are the Word of Life! All life comes and exists because of You. You are the creator and sustainer of everything just by Your word alone. That is so amazing in itself, but then to think that You would stoop to become one of us…If we loved You it would be one thing…but we did not. You knew a few would come to love and accept You, but the bulk of humanity would ignore You, Hate You, and some would even kill You. You came anyway…for ME! Oh Lord my God, How great You Are!
1 John 1:2 “The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us.”
Lord, You showed them not a life but The LIFE! You…the giver of all life…You, the eternal life, were seen by John and so many, many more. Lord, my spirit rejoices with the Spirit at these thoughts this day. A myriad of praise songs fill my mind:
“We bless You Lord, God of the ages, highest above, we magnify You, Your name shall be exalted.”, “In the splendor of Your majesty, from deep within my spirit sing holy! Holy!”, “How great is out God!”, “All I can do is fall down on my knees and cry Holy, Holy!”, “Amazing love, how can it be, that Thou my god shouldst die for me!”
You came to dwell among us that we might abide in You as friend, redeemer, brother, joint heir, lord, provider, forgiver and lover of my very soul, Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
1 John 1:3-4 “We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard so that you may also have the fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ. We write this to make our (your) joy complete.” (Some manuscripts say your).
Lord, John is not being exclusionary in this letter. He is not writing to tell these folks that they are excluded from Your love and their fellowship, but that those for whom he writes (we) long for and embrace the fellowship of the readers. He shares wonderful exciting news that is very inviting.
All other false religion gods are formed to either promote humans to be their own god or the followers are trying to win the favor of an angry god or gods. You, Lord, are the only true who invites His creation, because of love, to fellowship with Him. I doubt very much if the poor people who have been sucked into those false religions feel the warm kinship we believers do when we meet a perfect stranger who is a Christian. Our spirits have a strange and wonderful fellowship that makes us instantly fell like family. And if someone says that they are a Christian and are not, Your Spirit witnesses to mine that they are not of the Family.
Thank You, Lord, for this wonderful gift of salvation: unearned, undeserved, unloseable (I know this is not a word), gracious, merciful, and powerful! May I never forget the cost or the Giver.
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.”
Lord, it is relatively dark yet outside as I write this. Even as I sit with the 100 watt light shining in the room, I had to move my coffee cup because the shadow was being cast over the words of my Bible and made it hard to read. But in You, Lord, there is no shadow. Your light is so permeating and complete, shadows cannot abide where You are. You are not just the source of light, You ARE LIGHT and in You there can be no darkness at all. When light enters an area, darkness must flee from it. Actions being done in the dark are revealed. It is such a blessing, but also such a caution, to understand this.
Darkness is very easy to spot physically, but You, Lord, through Your Spirit help us to see the spiritual darkness that the normal eye cannot. Sometimes it hurts to see it in one’s own family; sometimes it makes us fearful when we see it encroaching into our governments at all levels; and it should always make us angry when we see it creeping into Your church.
Darkness is indeed all around us, and will be until You return. It ever harasses believers, seduces unbelievers, and tried to make the church ineffective. O dear Lord, help us all to be that light to the world to shed light in dark lives and places. Philippians 2:14-16 should be burned into my memory.
John 1:6-7 “If we have fellowship with Him yet walk in darkness, we lie and do not the truth. But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, His Son, purifies us from all sin.”
Precious Lord! I praise you today for being the Light of the world and for shedding Your purifying light on my pathetic sinful soul to save me from myself, sin, and death! How can I walk in darkness, now that I know You and your Spirit lives within me?
I have seen those who profess belief, but still walk in darkness, deceiving themselves and others, and it is a very sad, pathetic sight indeed. They believe with all of their heart that because they “prayed the prayer” (basically for Hellfire insurance) even though their heart was not in it, and expect to go to Your glory when they pass from this life to the next. They life as the world does, not the in the world but not of the world as You have told us to live. How sad that they will wake up in the very Hell they were trying half-heartedly to avoid because they did not truly believe.
However; if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another and our spirits witness to each of the truth. But more precious than fellowship with other believers, as precious as that is, Lord, is fellowship with YOU and the Father. May I never take that for granted or presume on Your precious gift of salvation in my life!
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