Not sure anyone in the last hundred years could turn a phrase, or use a word, like he could. For an adventure, read how when learning to fly, he took a pilot friend of his back to base, took off for home, realized he couldn’t reach there before dark after it began to get dark. No instruments. No radio. College student. His Father didn’t know he had purchased the airplane and was learning to fly. He may well have been the definition of the word, “pluck”.
Using GIMP to stitch together panorama pics from my Canon S2 IS Powershot. My work is a little rough in spots, but isn’t God’s creation beautiful?
People are interested in how life began. The Bible says that before anything was made, that God existed. And that even then, God expressed himself through his Word in such an extraordinary sense that the Word was a separate and distinct person, while still one with God, and while still being God.There are actually three personalities that are one God: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. We know from John chapter one that the Word is the Son, because verse fourteen says that “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us”.
We know from verse three that the Word made all things, and from verse four that the very life we live comes from him. Sadly, we learn in verses four, ten and eleven that the people he made turned away from him.
He gave us physical life, and yet we have turned away from him. Since we turned away from him, we live in darkness. Living in darkness means we don’t have answers. We try to figure out how the world began, and we make up theories from science to psychology to explain things we don’t understand. But we don’t know the answers, because in turning away from God, we have turned away from the light, and we walk in darkness.
But God did not create us to walk in darkness and confusion. He created us to walk with him, in the light. But we by our choices have turned away from him. How? By choosing to break his laws. When we break the law, we deserved to be punished, and the punishment for breaking God’s law is death. “For the wages of sin is death.” Everyone dies sometime. Because everyone sins. But physical life and physical death are only part of the story.
God created us to live and fellowship with him forever. In fact, the Bible says that his “delights were with the sons of men”. But mankind, every one of us, has broken God’s law and are therefore separated from him. We know from verse eleven that “he came unto his own” (that’s us - we are his own because he made us) and “his own received him not” (we choose to reject him).
Breaking God’s law is called sin. Physical death came into the world because of the first sin committed by Adam. Death has been with us ever since, because sin has been with us ever since. As long as sin stands between us and God, we will be separated from him. The Bible says that after we die physically, there is a judgment for sin that lasts from then on forever. Just like physical death is separation from those we love, eternal death is separation from God who loves us, forever.
Just like physical death is inevitable because of sin, eternal death would be inevitable if God, who made us, had not given us a way out.
Because God always does what is right, everyone who breaks his law must be punished. But God does not want anyone to be punished. The Bible says “he is not willing that any should perish”. So the Word of God, the Son, “became flesh and dwelt among us”. God became a man. The difference between us and the man Jesus, is that he never sinned. So unlike us, he did not deserve to be punished for breaking God’s law.
God asked Jesus to die for us. Jesus willingly agreed to die - to be separated from God - so that sin would be punished AND so that we would not have to be punished. That’s why John said in verse twenty-nine when he saw Jesus, “Behold the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world.”
By dying for us, he takes away our sin, and its consequences. But why then do people still die? Why then is there still a coming judgment? Because some will not receive him as their Savior from sin.
“He came unto his own, and his own received him not”. “But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name.”
Sadly, even though God has provided a simple way of salvation from sin, “receive him” and “believe on his name”, people still make the choice to reject him and not believe him.
God has shown himself to us, to you. His Word, Jesus, became a man, lived without ever sinning one time, died on the cross so that you don’t have to be punished for your sin, and rose from death to give you everlasting life.
Do you believe? Will you turn to him and receive him as your Savior from sin, and accept from him the gift of everlasting life, and become a child of God? He made you, he loves you, he died in your place. I urge you to receive him now.
My words above are based on the Bible, and what follows is from John chapter one with certain phrases italicized so that you can easily relate them to what you just read.
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.
There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him might believe. He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light. That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. He came unto his own, and his own received him not. But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.
John bare witness of him, and cried, saying, This was he of whom I spake, He that cometh after me is preferred before me: for he was before me. And of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace. For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.
And this is the record of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, Who art thou? And he confessed, and denied not; but confessed, I am not the Christ. And they asked him, What then? Art thou Elias? And he saith, I am not. Art thou that prophet? And he answered, No. Then said they unto him, Who art thou? that we may give an answer to them that sent us. What sayest thou of thyself? He said, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make straight the way of the Lord, as said the prophet Esaias. And they which were sent were of the Pharisees. And they asked him, and said unto him, Why baptizest thou then, if thou be not that Christ, nor Elias, neither that prophet? John answered them, saying, I baptize with water: but there standeth one among you, whom ye know not; He it is, who coming after me is preferred before me, whose shoe’s latchet I am not worthy to unloose. These things were done in Bethabara beyond Jordan, where John was baptizing.
The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. This is he of whom I said, After me cometh a man which is preferred before me: for he was before me. And I knew him not: but that he should be made manifest to Israel, therefore am I come baptizing with water. And John bare record, saying, I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it abode upon him. And I knew him not: but he that sent me to baptize with water, the same said unto me, Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending, and remaining on him, the same is he which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost. And I saw, and bare record that this is the Son of God.“
Consider not the seen, but the unseen.
For the seen are temporary, but the unseen, eternal.
“Do all the good you can,
in all the ways you can,
to all the souls you can,
in every place you can,
with all the zeal you can,
as long as ever you can.”
John Wesley, The Forbes Book of Business Quotations, (New York: Black Dog & Leventhall Publishers, Inc.), 354.
No wonder he changed the world!
“Arose a man sent from God, named himself, John.
He came to witness, to witness about the light that all believe through him.
Not was he the light, but that witness about the light.
Was the light the true, who shined to all men coming into the world.
In the world was, and the world through him was made, and the world him not knew.
Into the his own he came, and the his own himself not received.
As many as received him,
he gave them authority children of God to become,
the believers in the name of him.
The not of blood, neither of will of flesh, neither of will of man, but of God born.”
“In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God.”
John 1:1
Mark begins with the baptism of Jesus, Matthew and Luke begin with the heart of Mary, but as Alexander McLaren says, John begins in the very bosom of God. Look at verse 14 to see why the word ‘Word’ is capitalized, and exactly whose name it is.
When time began, Jesus was already.
Jesus the Son and God the Father were in communion.
And Jesus is God as the Father is God.
“But these are written
that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God,
and that believing
ye might have life through his name.”
John 20:31
This is the theme verse of the gospel of John. It shows why John selected what he included. You were included in his purpose, back in the first century. Kind of like how you were included in God’s purpose, back before there were centuries. Respond. Believe.
Rudimentary word order translation. Not trying for a clear English version, simply for a representation of the Greek word order in English. Also, sticking with Greek article usage. This is all to help me convert my thinking to the Greek fluency, not to do English well. Happen to be using the Hodges/Farstad Majority Text.
“In beginning was the Word,
And the Word was with the God,
And God was the Word. (object was subject - I know, but you can mean it that way, even in English, like “impertinent was Aaron”)
The same was in beginning with the God.
All through him was made,
and without him was made not any what was made.
In him life was, and the life was the light of men.
And the light in the darkness shined,
and the darkness it not did understand (comprehend, receive, seize upon).”
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