Daily Radio Bible - August 20th, 21

God is light, and there is no darkness in him at all. Verse 5, God is light, there's no shadow with him.  God is light, and only light. And john says that we saw him with our own eyes and touched him with our own hands. So many of us have grown up believing in a God who is light and dark. You hear it when people say things like God is love, but he's also just, or God is love, but he's also holy. God is love, but he's also righteous, as if God has two sides, to him, a light and loving side and a dark and wrathful side. And we're left with the unfortunate task of trying to figure out how to stay on the right side of God. Because you don't want to know the other side. That would not be a good idea. And so we live with all kinds of uncertainties, all kinds of anxiety related to God, a kind of uncertainty that leads us further into shame, driving us further into the shadows further into the darkness. But John says God is light. That's who he is. And John also says God is love. Light and Love are who God is, and everything about him emanates from his light and his love. His holiness is loving, his righteousness is loving his judgments, and even his wrath are full of love and light. There is no shadow behind the back of Jesus. Jesus isn't the good cop and God the Father isn't the bad cop. No, John has learned that everything about God who he is, and what he's like, is seen in the face of Jesus, that light has invited you and all of humanity into fellowship with himself. And we can live in that light without fear. Even though we sin, even though there are shadows still lurking within us, even though we are broken, we can bring it all into his loving light. He can show us the lies that have drawn us into that darkness and set us free. And he can draw us into the fellowship that is already ours. We can come into his light, confess our sins, and receive the forgiveness and healing that is already ours. God is light and there is no darkness in him at all. And the prayer of my own heart today is that I will. I will learn the ways of shadow free living and shadow free, believing shadow free thinking that like john, that I will see him with my own eyes and touch him with my own hands. That's the prayer that I have for my own soul. That's the prayer that I have for my family, for my wife and my daughters and my son. And that's a prayer that I have for you may, be so.

You are loved!