Tag Archives: Jesus

The Light

Posted in Religious, Religious type, Spiritual by

We are ALL on a ride to a destination! The journey is a short one in comparison to the existence of time itself for how long we exist, here on Earth.

The trip is loaded with experiences, both good and bad. How we handle the bad gives credence to how good things are appreciated and enjoyed to a degree.

In essence, we allow all the various episodes we have in life to somewhat control our actions and feelings, and that is probably normal.

We also allow our lives to go on, move forward to the next levels of life that occur to have feelings of positive consolation and desolation, which is a negative event.

Since we are creators of our very daily lives, we could demand of ourselves the ability to dispose of the bad and resolve to make the good things prosper. That is sometimes a hard task to follow.

The light of the light can help us overcome the darkness that tries to bring us down. This darkness could be a black pit of despair that overcomes us. 

As John said in Chapter 1:5 in Scripture, “The light shines, in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.” And sometimes, neither do we when the darkness invades our minds. I could also quote from John 8:12, when Jesus stated “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

I do not believe he meant that we will always be free of the anguish of bad things happening, or bad negative experiences in general, which could be looked at as periods of darkness. I do believe if we follow Jesus, we will have a positive light that will persevere and the outcome of our journey, although a short one on Earth, will be a very long one in eternity.

Jesus is the spiritual illumination and light of the world then in His time, now in our time and will forever be the hope for humanity and all creation.

So be it!!!!

Light of Life

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Light of Life

When does a person see the light?  No, not the light of day, but instead, the Light of Life!

The Light of Eternal Life to come and not the light of the new tomorrow.

To have life through Him will give this eternal life and is a life He brought from God and a dying world.

A chance to climb out of the black pit of darkness and to see The Light and walk in this brightness is to live in a lifestyle or way of Life’s walk.

As He was the Light, is the Light and will be the Light, He did and will influence people for good and prepare us to receive the Holy Spirit into our lives; IF we allow Him to do so.

The Spiritual Disciplines are a step in a way to hear God’s word and to ascertain what plans He has for us.

It is our choice to do nothing or something in life and either walk in the darkness or be a Light of Life, which can mean happiness, prosperity or a perfect being of self.

Our decision, our outcome and our mortal and immortal existence is and will be decided by self.

The light is there!!!! We have to look for Him, acknowledge Him, accept Him!!!!!!!

John 8:12             “I am the light of the world, whoever follows me will never walk in darkness,

but have the Light of Life.”

So Be It

Jesus is the Light 2018-93

Posted in Contemplation, Religious, Religious type, Spiritual by

Jesus is the Light   2018-93

I have heard this expression before, but never gave it much thought, through ignorance of either not caring or not knowing.  Anyhow, something lit up in my mind and this thought that Jesus is the Light is something that triggered my brain to contemplate what it meant.

First off, I looked up “Light” in the Bible references and the three passages listed at the end of this discourse, came up to give me illumination of the question, why is Jesus the Light of the world.  

Well, at that time, for Him to declare himself the Light of the World meant that He was the exclusive source of spiritual life and no other source was available to mankind then, or even now.

In His time, he was saying that the light of His TRUTH, the light of His WORD, the actual eternal LIFE was what He declared of Himself, the very light of the world and anyone that perceives the true light, will NEVER walk in spiritual darkness.  

Of course, we will walk in darkness if it is dark outside.  A fact! BUT, we, with Jesus being the one we will follow, we will have the light, the truth and most importantly, eternal life.  Yes, eternal life will be the opposite of darkness, the light of eternal life…  Simple as that.

That means something about us too.  Just like the moon reflects the light of the sun, we as followers of Jesus Christ, will reflect the light of Jesus so that all can see it in us as believers. Through the Holy Spirit, we do things, we do deeds based on faith, and through the power of the Holy Spirit, the light of Jesus shines through us to others.

This is somewhat of a burden for us in a way. To be witnesses to the world ourselves, we must be people of faith, honor God, be trusting, honest in all that we do and say. We want or should want the light we have, that is given to us, be there for all to see and enable others to also leave the darkness and come into the light of love, through Jesus Christ, the savior of mankind.  We WILL become sons and daughters of light, if we try to do so.

I had some help from the Scriptures in writing this, based on various passages, which I admit.

 

JESUS IS THE LIGHT!!!!!

John  8:12   “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life”.

John  12:36 “Put your trust in the light, while you have it, so that you may become sons of light.”

John  12:46 “I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in the darkness.”  

Was Jesus Christ a Liar or Just Crazy? 2017-51

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Was Jesus Christ a Liar or Just Crazy? 2017-51

The other part of this question is – OR was he God?

He claimed to be God, as the son of the Heavenly Father, but was he?

It was important to Him that others thought so.  Either we believe Him, or we do not; no in between thoughts about this; Yes or no!

If we think he was just a good moralistic teacher, we have to think that what He said way back then, goes beyond being just a moral teacher.

What He said goes beyond what a mere man would say.  Maybe, we would think He was a borderline crazy, equal to a drifter thinking they are Napoleon, or the like; again, nothing in between!!!!

If He was lying, he was also deceiving his followers and disciples. Those He taught in His three years of known and written ministry, He would have been giving false hope to these followers, of all sorts. He also faced Cruxificition and would have backed off to save His life if he was lying; I would have done so, and many others then and now would have also.

Another if!  If Jesus was crazy, he did not act so.  He said too many profound things that have been chronicled. He did so many unique and great things and all he did and said were from a stable and sound mind, in the process.

A mere man does not create miracles, cure people of afflictions and raise the dead as He did. NO, I do not think He was lying, nor do I believe Jesus was crazy, but instead, He was God, as the Son of God. He sits on the right side of God and is there waiting to greet us when we make the final journey from here on Earth.

God and Jesus are alive, they are active, they are aware and present always, around and within us as the Holy Spirit, always.

Peace,                                                         Comments or Questions

                                                                                        @

Den Betts                                                         bettsden@gmail.com

 

Thanks to Josh McDowell from “More Than a Carpenter”. I encourage you to read this book and, also the one from C.S. Lewis entitled “Mere Christianity”, both being available from Amazon.

Jesus Came 2017-05

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                                                                                    Jesus Came 2017-05

Jesus came – NOT just to prepare us for living for eternity, but to teach us how to live daily. The early Christian church life was originally called” The Way”. The way of life that was so different than the rest of the world at that time. Jesus was a teacher; a teacher of life and He still is as such. His words from before, written in the Scriptures are His words for us today, and we have just to listen and learn. He came for those then and for us now and His words are not stale, ancient or void of meaning. The “Way” is here today for us to find redemption and understanding. Listen to the words, Listen………

Den Betts

Faith 2015-06

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Faith     2015-06

A simple word about a complex subject!!  I have used this word in the context of explaining things like Spirituality and the Holy Spirit.  BUT, what is it and how easy is it to explain?

Webster defines it in many ways, but the easy one is— where there is a belief in God or in the doctrines or teachings of religion. This could be in reference to any religion of course, so I will go where he expounds on it further—- the trust in God and in His promises as made through Christ and the Scriptures by which humans are justified or saved. The second one is under the title of Christian Theology, which makes sense to state it that way.

I could stop right there and say it is that easy. I will stick with the doctrines or teachings pertaining to Christian religions for now. As a point of interest, not all religions use the concept of faith in their practices, but let me stay with Christianity for now.

Because the word itself includes Christ faith is based on His workings in His lifetime and His teachings. I would think that Christians are not distinguished by the word faith itself, but instead by what Christians look as the examples of His life as written in the scriptures. If someone does not have faith, I would think that person does not have the basic confidence as of what is written in the Bible.

That is not hard to understand. If that person of non-faith does not have the trust in believing in what is written, or thinks that the Bible is not reliable, then the faith may not be there. I wrote a history of the Bible a few years ago for Sunday school. To read the history and to know how it morphed into what is seen today is so very interesting.

I will not go into that now, but needless to say, it, the Bible, had its slow progression to what it is now. The King James Version is what most other versions take from and what was used before then was difficult to read and understand.

So, the Bible is where I said the trust begins.  I think that you would have to trust that what is written was inspired by God, even though it was not written by Him. I know some religions look at it as the absolute word of God, and they can do so, but I will use “inspired by God” instead for now.

It takes believers, scripture, traditions, personal experiences, a community foundation of belief to be assured about God and Jesus Christ. There is more written about the man names Jesus, than any other historical figure from the past. There are more manuscripts telling about His life than any other person from history, so that is part of it.

All well and good, but what is faith again? It still comes down to a feeling!!!  I wasn’t at the crucifixion, I did not see the miracles occur or hear Jesus pray and teach. So, I have to trust in the work or stimulation of the Holy Spirit where He endorses the Scripture writings, which comes about by the divine inspiration of Him. The finality of these dealings is what faith is all about.

I remember when someone I know had problems believing in God, and was basically a doubter and not really an unbeliever. I told him so, and he did not agree, saying he did not have doubts, just not enough hard facts to support his believing.  I understand that thought process. There are some things that are difficult to believe in, and without concrete, absolute, engineered, scientific evidences, it is not easy to come to terms with in life.

The Sun comes up from the East and sets in the West. The planet Earth is round, not square or flat. The word –faith comes up when the desire to substitute emotion for evidence is pronounced. If there are emotions by many people, faith cannot be rationally made into fact and friction can occur in the process.  So, faith is— believing without evidence. So, by my saying I have faith, I am saying to you, I think I know something or believe something that some may say I really do not know for sure. That is my faith, believing in the Father, the man God Jesus ,and the Holy Spirit of God, that has no physical proof laying around. Except, I know there is a God, and perhaps I will tell you why some day.

Peace,

Den Betts