Life in the Sun
15 May 2007We continued our series, “The Life You Were Meant to Live” this week at C4 by taking a look at Life in the Sun. From John 1 we saw how Jesus is the Light. Then we moved to John 3 to see the invitation to Come to the Light. And finally, John 8 encourages us to Be the Light.
We looked at several illustrations about the LIGHT that help us to think about our relationship with God. We talked about MOVING IN AND OUT OF THE LIGHT, ANA’S GLOW IN THE DARK PAJAMAS, THE MOON, AND PLAYING IN THE SHADOWS. Which one of these illustrations was most helpful? Is there another illustration about LIGHT that is helpful for you?
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on May 17th, 2007 at 4:52 am
The other night was my first night attending C4. Although, I have heard about C4 for years from friends and family, namely my brother, Jeremy. So, I finally had the opportunity to go last night being home from school (Philadelphia Biblical University). I tend to be a bit of a radical (but as believers are we not supposed to be), so I’m still processing the discussion from last night. I’ve been reading through John for awhile now, mainly giving attention to his in-your-face theme of belief and unbelief. It was, however, refreshing to focus on his theme of Light. Our discussion brewed for awhile in the area of we as believers reflect God’s light. As believers, it is important to be continually aware that we reflect him (the act of reflecting speaks to what we believe), and I was hoping that we were going to explore this notion of reflecting a bit more. I think it’s a bit deeper than we reflect His light. We moved on to an analogy, but then we went deeper and I was thrilled. As believers, we have His light with us, because God is with us. He has given us his Spirit. As people of God, children of The Light, I firmly believe that we live in the absence of the truth that God is with us and that is real, alive, and powerful. It is powerful to take that truth from Scripture and grow in your understanding of it. He is dwelling with us. Thus, the conflict of self and our new creation. His light shines from within our new creation. Might we pray that when we live our self does not taint his Light. It was interesting however, your point of nonbelievers being able to reflect God’s light, because we are all created in the Imago Dei (image of God). I’ve recently study this very issue, and while I have not personally resolved it; I think it is something that the people of God need to be thinking about. It’s a tough one to reconcile. Thanks for the thoughts and discussion of the Word!
on May 17th, 2007 at 4:12 pm
brit - welcome to C4, glad that you could join us this week and hope to meet you in person soon. Your thoughts about Christ being in us and us having His Light are right on. Our life is much more than just reflecting that light. The struggle sometimes is knowing how Christ works in us even though we still struggle with the flesh and sin. I am continually thinking about and looking to the Scripture to support that idea of others reflecting God’s Light. Certainly some interesting thoughts to process . . .
on May 18th, 2007 at 4:40 am
God and others. Life is about our relationship with God and our relationship with others. That is what I have been shown through my study of the Scriptures, and what I believe is to be the core teaching of the Bible. As believers, there is a common identity as Children of the Light. We are bonded together by the Light of God within us (what powerful effect we may have on one another), and identified as Beloved. But, as I question the role of nonbelievers… I want to and I hope we all allow the Scriptures to speak what is true, and not having the Scriptures support the idea I hold to. In this case, I’m in limbo so…. So, okay, nonbelievers reflecting God’s Light. I understand the Imago Dei (we are all created in the image of God; therefore, everyone pictures characteristics of Him), but how do you/we reconcile passages like James 4:4, john 11:5,14 (and the like speaking to unbelief, the Lord hating wickedness and he does not know the world) with the Imago Dei? It’s difficult to reconcile, as a social work major I struggle with this, because sometimes I see people of the world displaying more characteristics of the Lord (love, patience, justice of the poor, community, endurance, nonjudgment) than what i see within the Beloved…