TURN THE LIGHT ON

John 1: 1-18 (MSG) 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.

6-8 There once was a man, his name JOHN, SENT BY GOD to point out the way to the Life-Light. He came to show everyone where to look, who to believe in. John was not himself the Light; he was there to show the way to the Light.

9-13 The Life-Light was the real thing: Every person entering Life HE brings into Light. HE WAS IN THE WORLD, the world was there THROUGH HIM, and yet the World DIDN'T even notice.He came to HIS own people, but they DIDN'T WANT HIM. 

But WHOEVER DID want him, WHO BELIEVED He was who He Claimed and would DO what HE SAID, He made to be their TRUE SELVES, their CHILD OF GOD selves.These are the GOD BEGOTTEN, NOT blood-begotten, NOT flesh-begotten, NOT sex-begotten.

14 THE WORD BECAME FLESH AND BLOOD, AND MOVED into the neighborhood. We saw the GLORY WITH OUR OWN EYES, the ONE-OF-A-KIND GLORY, like Father, like Son, GENEROUS inside and out, TRUE from start to finish.

15 John pointed HIM out and called, “THIS IS THE ONE! The One I told you was coming after me but in fact was ahead of me. HE has always been ahead of me, has always had the FIRST WORD.”

16-18 WE ALL LIVE OFF OF HIS GENEROUS BOUNTY, gift after gift after gift. We got the basics from Moses,and then this EXUBERANT GIVING AND RECEIVING,This ENDLESS KNOWING AND UNDERSTANDING—

ALL CAME THROUGH JESUS, THE MESSIAH.

No one has ever seen God, not so much as a glimpse. This ONE-OF-A-KIND God-Expression, WHO EXISTS AT the very HEART of the Father, has made HIM PLAIN as day."

Our LIFE CHANGES for the BETTER (inwardly first) as we BELIEVE in what HE SAYS! We've done it all BEFORE...WITHOUT Him...and can SEE what a MESS of things we have made on our own. 

Just like FUMBLING AROUND in the dark TRYING to find something...we can't SEE what we are SEEKING too clearly. Oh but when we TURN the LIGHT ON we can SEE the MESS we've made along away when we didn't KNOW what was HIDDEN in the dark. But we are also are ABLE to SEE where we are GOING and FIND what we are SEEKING much FASTER!

You know like...

That MAN you KNOW you SHOULDN'T have gotten involved with just because he paid you some attention that you hadn't felt in awhile.

That credit card/loan that you AGREED TO even though you KNOW you said you were TRYING to get out of debt.

That job you thought would bring in MORE MONEY but is KEEPING you from spending MORE TIME with your family and getting to church.

That decision you made WITHOUT given one thought to ASKING GOD about it because YOU WANTED what YOU wanted at that moment.

Those people you've been spending TOO MUCH TIME with who are helping to LEAD you further from God than TO HIM.
In THIS LIFE...We NEED THE LIGHT...of HIS WORD!.HE makes things SO MUCH CLEARER... more VISIBLE...and QUICKER to FIND!

No More MOVING in the dark for YOU, YOUR FAMILY, or YOUR COMMUNITY...TURN on the LIGHT! LET THE WORD ILLUMINE your path...for what you need to KNOW for YOUR JOURNEY! It all STARTS with HIM anyway...The LIGHT...The LIFE...THE WORD!

~ALH, Always Loving Him/Her 

The Right Relationship

 
"If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have LOVE, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. ² If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have LOVE, I am nothing. ³ And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have LOVE, it profits me nothing.

⁴ LOVE is patient, LOVE is kind and is not jealous; LOVE does not brag and is not arrogant, ⁵ does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, ⁶ does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but REJOICES with the TRUTH; ⁷ bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

⁸ LOVE NEVER FAILS; but if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away. ⁹ For we know in part and we prophesy in part; ¹⁰ but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away. ¹¹ When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things. ¹² For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known. ¹³ But now faith, hope, LOVE, abide these three; but the GREATEST of these is LOVE." (1 Corinthians 13:1-13 NASB)

As a teenager, I was angry.  Others said I had good looks, a shape that stopped men dead in their tracks, high intellect, and an attitude that made others feel somewhat intimidated. After a few heartbreaks and disappointments, my anger grew to bitterness. This bitterness made me appear confident, sarcastic, and honest to a fault, and wanting attention/affection but responding in a way that pushed others away. I often offered help to others but never seemed to get it back in return.

Always looking for love in all the wrong places – men!  Men who were mostly unavailable emotionally and leaving me wanting for more than they would offer. I was hoping that the words coming out of their mouths were true but not trusting that they could ever be true. Using work, men, fashion, and giving as a means to validate who I was.

When, in fact I had low self-esteem. Never quite measuring up to my mother’s standards, I seemed to hold on to the perceived criticisms in my head. My dad being too preoccupied with a life of partying, philandering, and sports to give me the fatherly love that every girl needs and desires.

Still God was in control. The final bad breakup that broke me to the core was with someone I thought to be a friend. He was just playing the game until he had the opportunity to catch me in a vulnerable state to compromise myself to fulfill his goal – sex. After a few years of allowing the booty calls and the unrealized disrespect, I wanted more. I thought it was a relationship with him, but in fact it was my soul crying out for the LOVE of God.

How wonderful it has been to date Jesus. I’ve gotten to know myself better and to know God better. All that energy I seemed to spend on people and things that really couldn’t appreciate or see me for who I am. I am a wonderfully, precious, beloved and great woman of God who is what God says I am – His!

I can do all things through Jesus Christ who strengthens me! With Jesus, I have chosen to walk by the Spirit within me and not by my fleshly emotions…sexually pure, drug and alcohol free, anger managed by God, and believing Jesus will walk with me through life’s struggles as I walk in obedience to His Word – The Bible.

There is nothing like the FREEDOM found in the RIGHT RELATIONSHIP... with God by HIS Love!