Leawood, Kansas, United States - The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection Daily Guide grow. pray. study. for Monday, 22 December 2014 “The Word was God”

Leawood, Kansas, United States - The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection Daily Guide grow. pray. study. for Monday, 22 December 2014 “The Word was God”
Daily Scripture: John 1: The Life-Light
1-2 The Word was first,
the Word present to God,
    God present to the Word.
The Word was God,
    in readiness for God from day one.
3-5 Everything was created through him;
    nothing—not one thing!—
    came into being without him.
What came into existence was Life,
    and the Life was Light to live by.
The Life-Light blazed out of the darkness;
    the darkness couldn’t put it out.
Reflection Questions:
Opening with “In the beginning,” John deliberately echoed the first words of Genesis. The “life” and “light” images also echoed those “beginning” stories. Coming to earth, Jesus the creator was creating anew. John’s prologue connected Hebrew and Greek thought worlds when he wrote of “the Word.” Many Greek thinkers identified “the Word” as the great Idea behind the world. For Hebrews, meanwhile, Genesis 1 said God created by speaking (cf. Psalm 33:6), by “the Word.”
• John’s prologue, grounded in reality, was splendid philosophical poetry. Which is more “true”: a geologist’s precise technical report on the Grand Canyon’s sediments and rocks, or a poet’s imagery evoking the Canyon’s awe and grandeur? When have you had an experience that took you “out of yourself” or helped you “get “in touch” with depths in yourself, aware of realities that went beyond your ordinary day-to-day life?
• “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness doesn’t extinguish the light” (verse 5).
Have there been times when it felt to you as though darkness was trying to put out God’s light in your life? What spiritual practices keep the windows of your soul open, so that God’s light can keep shining in and through you?
Prayer: Lord Jesus, you were (and are) light in my darkness. ontinue to change me from the inside out to be a beacon reflecting your light to those around me. Amen.
Insight from Donna Karlen
Donna Karlen serves in Campus Communications at The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection.
I think the thing that really turned Scrooge against Christmas was tangled lights. I’m convinced my light strings move around while in storage, because it doesn’t matter how carefully I separate each string and wrap them up, by the next December, they’re a tangled mess. (Certainly makes me want to growl, “Bah humbug” or worse …)
And yet once the lights are up – twinkling in our Christmas tree, shining along the banister and fireplace mantel and framing the front door – the frustrating work of untangling that mess becomes so worth it.
Such is the light of Jesus. Our lives may get tangled up into a real mess sometimes. His light still shines. We may haul it out each December and then try to put it into storage for awhile. His light still shines. And when we let his light into our hearts – it becomes so worth it.
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