GPS Guide – December 17, 2018

LIGHT OF THE WORLD

Monday

Read: John 1:1-5

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” (NIV John 1:1-5)

Study:  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 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 by “the Word.” “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’slight 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. Continue to change me from the inside out to be a beacon reflecting your light to those around me.  Amen.