PRICELESS BUT FREE GIFT - LIGHT

Newsletter 191  May 1, 2010

Bob Mills

In this case the precious but free gift is guaranteed by the creator of all things, Jesus Christ. He is identified as having been not only with God but that he is God. As he said to his apostles, “He that hath seen me has seen God.“ His guarantee is absolute. His gift is certain. He created light.

Light eliminates darkness. I recall, that as a sailor, we were instructed that when we were going on watch at night, we were to be in darkness for several minutes before we went on duty. That was to allow our eyes to adjust, but also to prevent any light when we opened the hatch to go out. Once on duty, even the glow of a cigarette was forbidden. It could be seen for great distances.

As a former radar operator, I am aware that the radar, at that time, was the eyes of the ship. The navigator depended on the information supplied by the radar. The same was true of the men operating the big guns for our defense, we supplied the height, distance, speed and direction of flight of incoming enemy ships or planes.

John 1:1-13 (King James Version)

THE WORD ALWAYS EXISTED

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. (Genesis 1:1, Colossians 1:17, 1 John 1:1, John 1:14, Revelation 19:13, John17:5, 1 John 1:2, Philippians 2:6)
2 The same was in the beginning with God.
HE WAS THE CREATOR
3 All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. (John 1:10, 1 Corinthians 8:6, Colossians 1:16, Hebrews 1:2)

4 In him was life; and the life was the light of men. (John 5:26, John 11:15, John 14:6, John 8:12, John 9:5, John 12:46)
HE WAS THE SOURCE OF LIGHT
5 And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.
(John 3:19)
HIS CHOSEN PEOPLE REJECTED THE LIGHT
6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. (Matthew 3:1)
JOHN WAS SENT TO PREPARE THE WAY
7 The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him might believe. (John 1:15, John 1:19, John 1:32, John 3:26, John 5:33, John 7:12, Acts 19:4, Galatians 3:26)

8 He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light. (John 1:20)
THE TRUE LIGHT IS NOW FOR THE WHOLE WORLD
9 That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. (1 John 2:8)
10 He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. (1 Corinthians 8:6, Colossians 1:16, Hebrews 1:2)
MOST OF THE WORLD ALSO REJECT HIS TRUE LIGHT
11 He came unto his own, and his own received him not.

BUT BELIEVERS ARE OFFERED SALVATION
12 But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: (John 11:52, Galatians 3:26, John 1:7, John 3:18, 1 John 3:23, John 5:13)
PROVIDED THEY BELIEVE AND ARE REBORN THROUGH BAPTISM
(Mark 16:16, Matthew 28:19-20, Acts 2:38, John 3:)
13 Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. (John 3:51, James 1:18, 1 Peter 1:23)

Light can be “true light” or it can be deceptive. I well remember the first time I reported a small island to be traveling, forgetting that it was we who were traveling. It was standing still. The true light is of the Lord, we only reflect it. Most of what we call stars in the sky, really have no light of their own. They are reflecting light from another source.
The creator of all things, loves his handiwork. He breathed life into mankind, and he sent his Son to make possible the salvation of all. His Son carried the plan to save sinners like us. It had to be a simple test of our faith, and it had to be free.

He gave himself to take away our sins and prepare us to live with God, but we have to have faith enough to do as he asked. Nothing can bring light, nothing can save, but through Christ Jesus. No one an buy acceptance. The price is not measured in wealth. He alone gives us the power to become his sons. (John 1:12) There is no other way. The plan so simple that it is summarized in one verse, (Acts 2:38, Mark 16:16) Light your lamp. Let your light shine.
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RESOLVE TO READ THE BIBLE THROUGH AGAIN IN 2010

MAY
2nd. Sunday – Judges 2:16-3:31, John 1:29-51, Psalm 55:1-11

3rd. Monday – Judges 4,5, John 2, Psalm 55:12-23

4th. Tuesday – Judges 6, John 3, Proverbs 11:7-12

5th. Wednesday - Judges 7, 8, John 4:1-26, Psalm 56

6th. Thursday – Judges 9, John 4:27-54, Psalm 57:1-6

7th. Friday - Judges 10,11, John 5:1-23, Psalm 57:7-11

8th. Saturday – Judges 12, 13, John 5:24-47, Proverbs 11:13-21
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THIS WEEK'S SCRIPTURE


“Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me.”

John 5:39

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What's Your Business?

A cowboy named Bud was overseeing his herd in a remote mountainous pasture in California when suddenly a brand-new BMW advanced out of a dust cloud towards him.

The driver, a young man in a Brioni suit, Gucci shoes, RayBan sunglasses and YSL tie, leans out the window and asks the cowboy, "If I tell you exactly how many cows and calves you have in your herd, Will you give me a calf?"

Bud looks at the man, obviously a yuppie, then looks at his peacefully grazing herd and calmly answers; "Sure, Why not?" The yuppie parks his car, whips out his Dell notebook computer, connects it to his Cingular RAZR V3 cellphone, and surfs to a NASA page on the Internet, where he calls up a GPS satellite to get an exact fix on his location which he then feeds to another NASA satellite that scans the area in an ultra-high-resolution photo.

The young man then opens the digital photo in Adobe Photoshop and exports it to an image processing facility in Hamburg, Germany. Within mere seconds, he receives an email on his Palm Pilot that the image has been processed and the data is stored. He then accesses a MS-SQL database through an ODBC connected Excel spreadsheet with email on his Blackberry and, after a few minutes, receives a response.

Finally, he prints out a full-color, 150-page report on his hi-tech, miniaturized HP LaserJet printer and finally turns to the cowboy and says, "You have exactly 1,586 cows and calves."

"That's right. Well, I guess you can take one of my calves," says Bud. He watches the young man select one of the animals and looks on amused as the young man stuffs it into the trunk of his car.

Then the Bud says to the young man, "Hey, if I can tell you exactly what your business is, will you give me back my calf?"

The young man thinks about it for a second and then says, "Okay, why not?"

"You're a Congressman for the U.S. Government", says Bud.

"Wow! That's correct," says the yuppie, "but how did you guess that?"

"No guessing required", answered the cowboy. "You showed up here even though nobody called you; you want to get paid for an answer I already knew, to a question I never asked. You tried to show me how much smarter than me you are; and you don't know a thing about cows...this is a herd of sheep.

Now give me back my dog."