in the absence of light;

the world is a broken candle¹ right now. 

 

lately i’ve gone back to the gospels, to the teachings of Jesus. almost like the dark dark world has kicked me towards the light. 

 

and you know what i’ve realized? the very word “gospel” has been taken advantage of. do we even know its literal meaning? 

 

the word gospel is derived from the anglo-saxon term god-spell, meaning “good story,” a rendering of the latin evangelium and the greek euangelion, meaning “good news” or “good telling.” 

 

(thank you, britannica.com).² 

 

it’s good news – that God (YHWH) of the Old testament is not only the true God but that Jesus is the charakter³ (Hebrews 1:3)--the exact expression, exact impression--of God the Father. when God says in Exodus 34 that He is “The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness,” this means that JESUS, being the exact imprint of God's nature, is a God merciful, gracious, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.

 

the good news isn’t just that Jesus came to save sinners⁴ – the good news is, also, that He came to show us the TRUE GOD.

 

i’m tired of all the hate – when i check the news, almost everything sounds negative, and the degree of the world’s brokenness keeps on increasing. negative, not as in, there is no “progress” as the media would term “progress”, but negative as in, the way that human beings have been treating each other is full of brokenness and hate. MAN, we are such a hateful bunch, it’s seriously a miracle that God remains merciful and gracious and slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love towards us, but then i remember that He’s also the kind of God that “does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities” (Psalm 103:10), that He’s the kind of God who is “good and upright…therefore he instructs sinners in the way” (Psalm 25:8). 

never miss that “therefore”. it means that, BECAUSE He is good and upright, He instructs sinners. He doesn’t wait for them to be perfect before making the first move. He never did. the world knows of a God that is a punishing god, sitting up in his throne in heaven, laughing at the misery of human beings, separate from the reality of suffering. true disciples of Jesus know that God is a loving God, who, in the name of love, took on flesh in Jesus Christ, entered the reality of suffering--our world--to save us from the Father's wrath and from our sin, and then drew us closer into a relationship with Him, and THEN showered us with every good gift from above, and THEN promised us an inheritance.

 

…boy, this got heavy.

 

going back to the gospels has been a refreshing drink in the well of eternal life. i remember that Jesus doesn’t call “righteous” the people who go to church or check off the “perfect Christian” boxes. no, Jesus says, “For whoever does the will of God, he is my brother and sister and mother.”

 

and the will of God, i guess, is a lot of things, but one of them includes praying for this broken world.

 

in the absence of light, i remember Hallelujah for the gospel, the good news, of Jesus Christ. i remember Him, the light of the world, who said, “Is a lamp brought in to be put under a basket, or under a bed, and not on a stand?(…) if anyone has ears to hear, let him hear” (Mark 4:21, 23).

 

i’m trying to hear. i’m trying to listen. i’m trying to pray more. i’m trying to shine the light.

 

because right now, in the darkness that is this world, hiding the light just seems like a real, self-defeating, lunatic move.

 

know what i mean?

 

--

¹  NOT an original phrase: gotta give credit where credit is due: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KdKu_J5ebMg

² https://www.britannica.com/topic/Gospel-New-Testament

³ https://www.biblestudytools.com/lexicons/greek/nas/charakter.html

⁴ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLOsM3ON-24