Cook County Star THE GOOD NEWS for 5-29-2010
Who knew there were so many different kinds of fog? Fog can form in a number of ways, depending on how the cooling that caused the condensation occurred. There is radiation fog caused by the cooling of land after sunset. The cool ground produces condensation in the nearby air by heat conduction. There can be ground fog which is “fog that obscures less than 60% of the sky and does not extend to the base of any overhead clouds.”
Advection fog seems to fit the North Shore fog of May. This fog occurs when moist (warmer) air passes over a cool surface (Lake Superior) causing the moisture in the air to condense around particulates in the air. Other types of fog include evaporation fog, precipitation fog, upslope fog (or hill fog), valley fog, freezing fog, frozen fog, and of course, artificial fog. We should not neglect to mention Garua fog, which occurs along the coast of Chile and Peru, hail fog, and the very rare pogonip, which can occur at temperatures below -40 degrees F.
Fog is produced by condensation of water molecules around airborne dirt or salt particles. The resulting tiny droplets remains airborne and can create a wall that significantly reduces visibility. So here’s a question: If I can see through a glass of water, why can’t I see through a wall of water droplets? Why isn’t fog transparent?
I think refraction must be part of the answer. Light traveling through a drop of water can be “bent” in much the same way that light passing through a glass lense can be “bent” to reveal the color spectrum we see reflected on the wall when we hold up a prism to the sunlight. Now take a bazillion little prisms of water, each bending the sunlight and the end result is opaque fog. That means a wall of water you can’t see through.
By now you must be asking yourselves, “McIntire, where are you going with all this?” A couple days ago as I was driving through the fog near the mine at Silver Bay I suddenly realized that I knew the mine was there, covering ground on both sides of the road. I knew the towers were there putting out steam. I knew the yard was there full of taconite pellets. I knew the mechanical building was uphill. But I couldn’t see what was there. The fog didn’t define the mine structures or in any way reflect the truth of the reality sitting just yards to the side of the road upon which I was driving. The fog simply refracted the light and hid the truth; it didn’t change the truth.
There’s another kind of fog that rises in the world. It is a fog that clouds the mind and heart. It is a fog that refracts the Light of truth and blinds the observer to reality. The fog does not define reality, it merely covers or distorts it. Sin is such a fog in the human experience. Arrogance and pride are truth hiding, truth denying fogs. Error and lies form a fog that can prevent the casual observer from regarding the truth. Selfishness, ignorance, and indifference can coalesce in the human heart to produce a thick spiritual fog that results in spiritual darkness and spiritual blindness.
Every human being lives in a spiritual fog until God in his mercy lifts the veil and reveals himself to them. For some that revelation comes through God’s word, the Bible. For others it may come through an encounter with God as he reveals himself in the natural world. But that fog will not clear entirely until there is an encounter with Jesus Christ, the Son of God himself, who is the full and perfect revelation of God to us foggy hearted human beings.
I know what it is like to be lost in a spiritual fog and bear the burden of guilt and of shame, addicted to false joys and earthbound pleasures. I also know what it means to meet the Savior and set aside the guilt and shame forever, and find eternal joy in a life full of meaning and purpose, being, by God’s grace, what he created me to be.
And “a man with an experience is never at the mercy of a man with an argument.”
That’s the Good News.
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
What Happens When the Trappings of Love are Lost?
Cook County News Herald THE GOOD NEWS for 5/21/2010
Le Ponts des Arts. The name sort of rolls from the tongue. It shouts, "Paris! Paris!," in quiet tones that whisper of love and romance and starlit moments when lovers caress one another with longing eyes and unspoken words.
At least, it used to. The Ponts des Arts is a seven arch iron bridge that spans the river Seine in the heart of Paris, France. The original bridge, the first metal bridge in Paris, was constructed between 1802 and 1804. It links the Institut de France with the central court of the Louvre. For years however, it was the scene of far more personal, and perhaps more beautiful connections.
Until last Wednesday, the Ponts des Arts was a favorite place for lovers to proclaim their lasting devotion to one another. Couples would come and stroll the famous pedestrian bridge and bring along a padlock and keys. That's right, a padlock. Some were very handsome locks. Others, not so much. Some were inscribed with names and dates and proclamations. Others bore decorations and symbols. Still others, small and silver or brass, glowed in their simplicity.
These love-struck couples would stroll by the iron mesh of the guardrails and fasten their padlocks to the rails, then toss their keys into the river to symbolize their eternal love. Yeah. I know. That's really sweet. Very romantic. So French. So Paris.
But apparently, not everyone in Paris thinks so. Sometime before morning last Wednesday, they all disappeared. All the locks are gone. All the trappings of undying love have vanished. Poof! Gone. According to the town hall in Paris, in an effort to preserve the 19th century bridge, pragmatism displaced romance.
What happens when the trappings of love disappear? What happens when the warm fuzzy fades, when the moonlit glow gives way to the full reality of the daytime sun? What happens when the whispers of love give way to the cries of infants, the demands of careers, the wail of alarm clocks, and the general cacophony of life? Does love die when a relationship no longer bears the original decorations?
Love never dies, but is has been known to succumb to less noble choices. More than it is anything else, love is a choice. The padlocks represented choices. The keys represented choices. The inscriptions represented choices. The choice of love is the choice to put the interest of another ahead of one's own interests, no matter what. The padlocks and keys, the trappings of love, expressed love, but they were not love. Their disappearance is sad, but it does not signal the end of love for those who maintain their commitments. You can lose the decorations and still maintain the choice. The trappings of love can vanish but love remains. How can this be? Because love is a choice.
God chooses to love us. He chooses to seek our best interest no matter what. He chooses to forgive and restore us even when it costs him the life of his dearly beloved Son. Jesus chooses to die for us. He chooses to lay down his life on our behalf. And what is that choice, the choice of our benefit at even the most precious price? Love!
The padlocks are gone, but the love is not. Sometimes we think blessings are love, and when the blessing turns to sorrow, we think love has left. It has not. Sometime we think joy and peace and ease and wealth and luxury are love, and when we are in turmoil and sad and troubled and barely getting by, we think we are abandoned by love. We are not. Sometimes we think that when our life experience is good and pleasant God loves us, but when life is painful and uncomfortable God hates us (or has lost interest in us altogether.) Not true.
God made a choice. It is a choice he continues to make, to love, to seek the very best interest of those he created. He continues to apply the justifying blood of his Son to the soul of all who believe in him. That is the "no matter what" love that you can experience through faith in Jesus Christ.
That's the Good News.
Le Ponts des Arts. The name sort of rolls from the tongue. It shouts, "Paris! Paris!," in quiet tones that whisper of love and romance and starlit moments when lovers caress one another with longing eyes and unspoken words.
At least, it used to. The Ponts des Arts is a seven arch iron bridge that spans the river Seine in the heart of Paris, France. The original bridge, the first metal bridge in Paris, was constructed between 1802 and 1804. It links the Institut de France with the central court of the Louvre. For years however, it was the scene of far more personal, and perhaps more beautiful connections.
Until last Wednesday, the Ponts des Arts was a favorite place for lovers to proclaim their lasting devotion to one another. Couples would come and stroll the famous pedestrian bridge and bring along a padlock and keys. That's right, a padlock. Some were very handsome locks. Others, not so much. Some were inscribed with names and dates and proclamations. Others bore decorations and symbols. Still others, small and silver or brass, glowed in their simplicity.
These love-struck couples would stroll by the iron mesh of the guardrails and fasten their padlocks to the rails, then toss their keys into the river to symbolize their eternal love. Yeah. I know. That's really sweet. Very romantic. So French. So Paris.
But apparently, not everyone in Paris thinks so. Sometime before morning last Wednesday, they all disappeared. All the locks are gone. All the trappings of undying love have vanished. Poof! Gone. According to the town hall in Paris, in an effort to preserve the 19th century bridge, pragmatism displaced romance.
What happens when the trappings of love disappear? What happens when the warm fuzzy fades, when the moonlit glow gives way to the full reality of the daytime sun? What happens when the whispers of love give way to the cries of infants, the demands of careers, the wail of alarm clocks, and the general cacophony of life? Does love die when a relationship no longer bears the original decorations?
Love never dies, but is has been known to succumb to less noble choices. More than it is anything else, love is a choice. The padlocks represented choices. The keys represented choices. The inscriptions represented choices. The choice of love is the choice to put the interest of another ahead of one's own interests, no matter what. The padlocks and keys, the trappings of love, expressed love, but they were not love. Their disappearance is sad, but it does not signal the end of love for those who maintain their commitments. You can lose the decorations and still maintain the choice. The trappings of love can vanish but love remains. How can this be? Because love is a choice.
God chooses to love us. He chooses to seek our best interest no matter what. He chooses to forgive and restore us even when it costs him the life of his dearly beloved Son. Jesus chooses to die for us. He chooses to lay down his life on our behalf. And what is that choice, the choice of our benefit at even the most precious price? Love!
The padlocks are gone, but the love is not. Sometimes we think blessings are love, and when the blessing turns to sorrow, we think love has left. It has not. Sometime we think joy and peace and ease and wealth and luxury are love, and when we are in turmoil and sad and troubled and barely getting by, we think we are abandoned by love. We are not. Sometimes we think that when our life experience is good and pleasant God loves us, but when life is painful and uncomfortable God hates us (or has lost interest in us altogether.) Not true.
God made a choice. It is a choice he continues to make, to love, to seek the very best interest of those he created. He continues to apply the justifying blood of his Son to the soul of all who believe in him. That is the "no matter what" love that you can experience through faith in Jesus Christ.
That's the Good News.
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Pure Religion
Cook County News-Herald THE GOOD NEWS for 5/15/2010
People have opinions, in case you hadn’t noticed. I read an article this week about current Supreme Court justice nominee Elena Kagan. The AP article by Tom Breen noted that if Kagan is confirmed there will be no Protestants on the Court and that would mean “none of the justices would be rooted in the Protestant Reformation traditions that shaped the country from its earliest stages.”
While that has intriguing implications which Breen’s article explored, what I found more intriguing were the blunt comments that followed the article on the Yahoo! page. Most of the remarks were fired like flaming arrows at “religion.” One amateur commentator defined religion as one of the world’s great problems. He cited his reasons for his opinion: “genocide, child molestation, 911, stoning of women, etc.” These atrocities comprise “religion” to that person. Those atrocities define “religion” for a lot people.
And frankly, if those acts of indecency, immorality, and injustice were in fact a full and adequate description of “religion,” I’d be hard pressed to have much faith in religion either. Fortunately (or “providentially”), though sin and human moral failure do cloud both the expressions and experiences of “religion” they do not encompass the real, true religion which God by His own testimony affirms and accepts.
Did you know God has an opinion about “religion”? Did you know that He actually sets out in writing what tenets of “religion” He finds acceptable and pleasing to Him? The New Testament letter of James provides a stark, bold faced definition of “religion”: Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world (James 1:27, ESV).
Religion, according to God, should accurately reflect two essential characteristics of God Himself: active compassion towards the culturally, physically, socially, economically vulnerable in their need, and persistent, personal, practical godliness. True religion is not one or the other, according to the Bible, but both together. Perhaps the general public’s view of religion has been twisted because those who practice “religion” have been tilted toward one or the other to the exclusion of one or the other.
Some have understood “religion” strictly in terms of one’s personal relationship with God without concern for compassionate interaction in the lives of those around them. Others have understood “religion” solely on the basis of social intervention without considering any personal relationship with or accountability to God. Both situations are inadequate expressions of true religion, from this New Testament standpoint.
When a man came to Jesus and asked him what was the greatest commandment, a question not unlike “what’s your opinion of the best religion,” Jesus answered, “The greatest commandment is this: You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, your mind, your soul, and your strength.” But he did not stop his answer there. He continued, without being asked, “And the second is like to it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” True religion, pure and undefiled before God, the Father, loves God and loves others. There is not one or the other. There is both or there is not true religion. Jesus would not let us get away with thinking otherwise.
True religion, then, excludes genocide. It leaves no room for molesting children or destroying buildings and lives with airplanes, or ignoring the poor, or ignoring the condition of one’s own heart. True religion, though still subject to being rejected by the selfish or uninformed, lives to love. Just like Jesus. There is love for God and there is love for people, and that love is neither theoretical or hidden, but active, open, public and powerful.
I suspect there is a great deal of opinion about “religion” based not on truth but on failure, the failure of some, even many, to live a “true religion.” It is never wise, however poor the prevailing example might be, to “throw out the baby with the bath water.” Don’t settle for the regurgitated disgust of some disheartened complaint. Come and see for yourself. Come and see the love God offers in Jesus Christ.
Jesus exemplifies true religion and offers to live the life of love in and through those who put their faith in him.
That’s the Good News.
People have opinions, in case you hadn’t noticed. I read an article this week about current Supreme Court justice nominee Elena Kagan. The AP article by Tom Breen noted that if Kagan is confirmed there will be no Protestants on the Court and that would mean “none of the justices would be rooted in the Protestant Reformation traditions that shaped the country from its earliest stages.”
While that has intriguing implications which Breen’s article explored, what I found more intriguing were the blunt comments that followed the article on the Yahoo! page. Most of the remarks were fired like flaming arrows at “religion.” One amateur commentator defined religion as one of the world’s great problems. He cited his reasons for his opinion: “genocide, child molestation, 911, stoning of women, etc.” These atrocities comprise “religion” to that person. Those atrocities define “religion” for a lot people.
And frankly, if those acts of indecency, immorality, and injustice were in fact a full and adequate description of “religion,” I’d be hard pressed to have much faith in religion either. Fortunately (or “providentially”), though sin and human moral failure do cloud both the expressions and experiences of “religion” they do not encompass the real, true religion which God by His own testimony affirms and accepts.
Did you know God has an opinion about “religion”? Did you know that He actually sets out in writing what tenets of “religion” He finds acceptable and pleasing to Him? The New Testament letter of James provides a stark, bold faced definition of “religion”: Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world (James 1:27, ESV).
Religion, according to God, should accurately reflect two essential characteristics of God Himself: active compassion towards the culturally, physically, socially, economically vulnerable in their need, and persistent, personal, practical godliness. True religion is not one or the other, according to the Bible, but both together. Perhaps the general public’s view of religion has been twisted because those who practice “religion” have been tilted toward one or the other to the exclusion of one or the other.
Some have understood “religion” strictly in terms of one’s personal relationship with God without concern for compassionate interaction in the lives of those around them. Others have understood “religion” solely on the basis of social intervention without considering any personal relationship with or accountability to God. Both situations are inadequate expressions of true religion, from this New Testament standpoint.
When a man came to Jesus and asked him what was the greatest commandment, a question not unlike “what’s your opinion of the best religion,” Jesus answered, “The greatest commandment is this: You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, your mind, your soul, and your strength.” But he did not stop his answer there. He continued, without being asked, “And the second is like to it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” True religion, pure and undefiled before God, the Father, loves God and loves others. There is not one or the other. There is both or there is not true religion. Jesus would not let us get away with thinking otherwise.
True religion, then, excludes genocide. It leaves no room for molesting children or destroying buildings and lives with airplanes, or ignoring the poor, or ignoring the condition of one’s own heart. True religion, though still subject to being rejected by the selfish or uninformed, lives to love. Just like Jesus. There is love for God and there is love for people, and that love is neither theoretical or hidden, but active, open, public and powerful.
I suspect there is a great deal of opinion about “religion” based not on truth but on failure, the failure of some, even many, to live a “true religion.” It is never wise, however poor the prevailing example might be, to “throw out the baby with the bath water.” Don’t settle for the regurgitated disgust of some disheartened complaint. Come and see for yourself. Come and see the love God offers in Jesus Christ.
Jesus exemplifies true religion and offers to live the life of love in and through those who put their faith in him.
That’s the Good News.
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
The New Bible
I meet every Wednesday with one of the local Lutheran pastors. We talk theology, Bible, ministry, you know . . . pastoral stuff. Today he mentioned the new Bible I have on my desk. Several months ago I opened the ESV I've been using and Revelation fell out. Took the entire Concordance with it. The glue that held that section to the binding simply surrendered its mission. Now, whenever I take my Bible into the pulpit I have to leave out some of the God's word, and you know what the Bible says about those who add to or take away from what is written!
So, I've been looking for a new Bible. I want the same version, but since I make notes in my Bible, I like the wide margin format. I stopped by the Crossway Publisher's table at a recent conference I attended and asked the representative if there was another Crossway wide margin Bible that was sewn and not glued. He asked why I had asked that particular question and I told him about my prodigal pages. He then asked me how long I'd had the Bible and I told him. Then he said, "It doesn't matter. It should have held up much, much longer. You don't need to buy another Bible. We need to replace it. Let me have your contact information and I'll find a new Bible for you."
Well, you can imagine how pleased that made me. I handed over one of my cards and was equally pleased when a new, wide margin, genuine leather ESV Bible arrived at my office. It's a beautiful Bible with 1.25" margins to write in. There is just one tiny problem. Crossway has apparently changed the format between what they called a wide margin Bible when I first bought mine and what they are offering as a wide margin format today. The new font is half the size of the old format. Now, not only do I get to take the full counsel of God into the pulpit, I literally have to take my glasses with me and put them on in public to read the print.
<> I got exactly what I asked for, but not what I wanted.
Anybody else have an experience where someone provided exactly what you asked for, but it wasn't what you wanted? I think the idea will make a great sermon, but I'm interested in what that phrase suggests to you. Leave me a comment and let me know: How have you had this experience, "I got exactly what I asked for, but not what I wanted"?
So, I've been looking for a new Bible. I want the same version, but since I make notes in my Bible, I like the wide margin format. I stopped by the Crossway Publisher's table at a recent conference I attended and asked the representative if there was another Crossway wide margin Bible that was sewn and not glued. He asked why I had asked that particular question and I told him about my prodigal pages. He then asked me how long I'd had the Bible and I told him. Then he said, "It doesn't matter. It should have held up much, much longer. You don't need to buy another Bible. We need to replace it. Let me have your contact information and I'll find a new Bible for you."
Well, you can imagine how pleased that made me. I handed over one of my cards and was equally pleased when a new, wide margin, genuine leather ESV Bible arrived at my office. It's a beautiful Bible with 1.25" margins to write in. There is just one tiny problem. Crossway has apparently changed the format between what they called a wide margin Bible when I first bought mine and what they are offering as a wide margin format today. The new font is half the size of the old format. Now, not only do I get to take the full counsel of God into the pulpit, I literally have to take my glasses with me and put them on in public to read the print.
<
Anybody else have an experience where someone provided exactly what you asked for, but it wasn't what you wanted? I think the idea will make a great sermon, but I'm interested in what that phrase suggests to you. Leave me a comment and let me know: How have you had this experience, "I got exactly what I asked for, but not what I wanted"?
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
The Cave and the Sun (or Us and the Son)
Cook County News Herald THE GOOD NEWS for 5/8/2010
Once upon a time, not so long ago as you might be inclined to think at an opening like this, a Cave lived under the ground, as caves have the habit of doing. The Cave had lived its entire life in darkness. One day (not the Cave knew whether it was day or night. You see the Cave was hampered by the fact that its nature is darkness), one day the Cave heard a voice calling to it, “Come up into the light; come and see the sunshine.” The Cave retorted, “I don’t know what you mean; there isn’t anything but darkness.”
Again and again the Cave responded the same way, “I don’t know what you mean; there isn’t anything but darkness.” The Cave had only known darkness for all of its life. Every Cave he knew of in all the world knew only darkness. Based on the Cave’s personal experience and general observation to date, the world was all Cave and darkness. It made no sense to the Cave that someone should call him to sunshine, since he could not, based on his observations and experience, imagine such a thing. Surely there could not exist something that could not be fully embraced by observation and experience.
Still the voice persisted, “Come up into the light; come and see the sunshine. It is beautiful up here. The light reveals all the darkness hides. Come and see. Come and see. Come and see for yourself. Come and see the sunshine.” Finally the Cave ventured forth and was surprised to see light everywhere. In the light the Cave saw revealed what the world really looked like. He saw what had been hidden to him. His observations and experience were expanded to encompass all that was real, and wonderful, and marvelous, all that he had missed in the narrow confines of the darkness that filled his observations and experience.
Filled with wonder at the truth revealed by the light, the Cave looked up at the Sun and asked, “Won’t you come with me now and see the darkness?” The Sun was puzzled and asked, “What is darkness?” The Cave replied, “Come and see.” One day the Sun accepted the invitation. As it entered the Cave the Sun said, “Now show me your darkness!” But there was no darkness.
An eyewitness to Jesus, a friend who knew him well and whose testimony withstands the passing of time, shares this with us about God’s Son: “In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it . . . . The true light, which enlightens every man, was coming into the world” (John 1:4-5, 9). We human beings live in darkness. We survey our experiences and the experiences of others and conclude that all is darkness, vanity, emptiness. Sometimes, in the narrow confines of darkness, we even insist that darkness is all there is, all that can be, all that ever will be. Occasionally, we even attempt to persuade one another to find what joy we can in our darkness since we have no inkling that there may be anything but the darkness we know so well: the disappointment, the anger, the failure, the discouragement that colors our observations and experiences. We will even, from time to time, proclaim the light non-existent. But our rantings in the darkness do not affect the Truth, the true Light that enlightens every man, of whom John wrote.
God, in love, sent his Son, Jesus, into the world with an invitation, “Come and see. Come and see the Light. Come observe and experience God for yourself.” God reveals himself, he pours the Light upon himself for all to see in his word, the Bible, and in his Son, Jesus Christ. Come and see for yourself. Are you not sure if there is truly any Light? God says, “Come now, let us reason together” (Isaiah 1:18, ESV). This is an invitation from God himself to engage God through the Bible and find the Light for yourself.
God’s intent in making himself known in the Bible is so that you can know him for yourself, and not merely know what someone else says about him. He knows you and wants you to know him. He wants to shed some light on your life, light that will bring the realities of your life and his love into focus. Come and see. You can come and see for yourself.
That’s the Good News.
Once upon a time, not so long ago as you might be inclined to think at an opening like this, a Cave lived under the ground, as caves have the habit of doing. The Cave had lived its entire life in darkness. One day (not the Cave knew whether it was day or night. You see the Cave was hampered by the fact that its nature is darkness), one day the Cave heard a voice calling to it, “Come up into the light; come and see the sunshine.” The Cave retorted, “I don’t know what you mean; there isn’t anything but darkness.”
Again and again the Cave responded the same way, “I don’t know what you mean; there isn’t anything but darkness.” The Cave had only known darkness for all of its life. Every Cave he knew of in all the world knew only darkness. Based on the Cave’s personal experience and general observation to date, the world was all Cave and darkness. It made no sense to the Cave that someone should call him to sunshine, since he could not, based on his observations and experience, imagine such a thing. Surely there could not exist something that could not be fully embraced by observation and experience.
Still the voice persisted, “Come up into the light; come and see the sunshine. It is beautiful up here. The light reveals all the darkness hides. Come and see. Come and see. Come and see for yourself. Come and see the sunshine.” Finally the Cave ventured forth and was surprised to see light everywhere. In the light the Cave saw revealed what the world really looked like. He saw what had been hidden to him. His observations and experience were expanded to encompass all that was real, and wonderful, and marvelous, all that he had missed in the narrow confines of the darkness that filled his observations and experience.
Filled with wonder at the truth revealed by the light, the Cave looked up at the Sun and asked, “Won’t you come with me now and see the darkness?” The Sun was puzzled and asked, “What is darkness?” The Cave replied, “Come and see.” One day the Sun accepted the invitation. As it entered the Cave the Sun said, “Now show me your darkness!” But there was no darkness.
An eyewitness to Jesus, a friend who knew him well and whose testimony withstands the passing of time, shares this with us about God’s Son: “In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it . . . . The true light, which enlightens every man, was coming into the world” (John 1:4-5, 9). We human beings live in darkness. We survey our experiences and the experiences of others and conclude that all is darkness, vanity, emptiness. Sometimes, in the narrow confines of darkness, we even insist that darkness is all there is, all that can be, all that ever will be. Occasionally, we even attempt to persuade one another to find what joy we can in our darkness since we have no inkling that there may be anything but the darkness we know so well: the disappointment, the anger, the failure, the discouragement that colors our observations and experiences. We will even, from time to time, proclaim the light non-existent. But our rantings in the darkness do not affect the Truth, the true Light that enlightens every man, of whom John wrote.
God, in love, sent his Son, Jesus, into the world with an invitation, “Come and see. Come and see the Light. Come observe and experience God for yourself.” God reveals himself, he pours the Light upon himself for all to see in his word, the Bible, and in his Son, Jesus Christ. Come and see for yourself. Are you not sure if there is truly any Light? God says, “Come now, let us reason together” (Isaiah 1:18, ESV). This is an invitation from God himself to engage God through the Bible and find the Light for yourself.
God’s intent in making himself known in the Bible is so that you can know him for yourself, and not merely know what someone else says about him. He knows you and wants you to know him. He wants to shed some light on your life, light that will bring the realities of your life and his love into focus. Come and see. You can come and see for yourself.
That’s the Good News.
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