No one who follows me stumbles around in the darkness. I provide plenty of light to live in. – John 8
When I was younger I used to like to play baby dolls. I pretended they were my own children. I loved feeding them their bottles. You know the magic bottles where the liquid inside seems to disappear into the baby’s mouth? Then you turn the bottle upright again and the bottle refills. Sometimes I would just tip the bottle back and forth just to watch that liquid appear and disappear. It was like a trick to my eyes where my mind logically knew the liquid should be gone but somehow every time the bottle tipped back the liquid came back. Like when the magician rolls up what seems to be a roll of regular newspaper and fills it with water and it doesn’t leak. The liquid just disappears…POOF!
Light is one of the most fantastic pieces of God’s creation. Our photos above show a large variety of versions of light. The sunshine, fire, and electricity – shown in multiple ways. We see just six ways light is provided in this world in our photographs, but God provides countless more! It is a perfect visual for our story today that is called You’re Missing God in All This. Jesus is teaching the people yet again trying to get them to understand just Who he is and Where he came from.
Jesus once again addressed them: “I am the world’s Light. No one who follows me stumbles around in the darkness. I provide plenty of light to live in.”
The Pharisees objected, “All we have is your word on this. We need more than this to go on.”
Jesus replied, “You’re right that you only have my word. But you can depend on it being true. I know where I’ve come from and where I go next. You don’t know where I’m from or where I’m headed. You decide according to what you can see and touch. I don’t make judgments like that.
Sometimes the things that we see or touch can actually be deceiving. As with the magic baby bottle or the disappearing liquid into the newspaper. Our eyes think one thing but in actuality something else is happening altogether. There are times when we need to rely on other things to make decisions. Jesus doesn’t rely on things that can just be seen or touched. He wants us to step into the light he provides. The light of faith. Faith in what he represents. Faith in what Jesus love means in your lives. He was asking the people at the Temple that day to step out in faith and believe in things they couldn’t see, couldn’t touch, and couldn’t even fathom.
Jesus said, “You’re tied down to the mundane; I’m in touch with what is beyond your horizons. You live in terms of what you see and touch. I’m living on other terms. I told you that you were missing God in all this. You’re at a dead end. If you won’t believe I am who I say I am, you’re at the dead end of sins. You’re missing God in your lives.”
We must remember these words of Jesus.
DON’T MISS GOD IN YOUR LIVES!!
We cannot just rely on God’s provisions that we can touch and see. We must step out in the faith that his provisions for us go well beyond our horizons. And stepping out in the light of faith is all you need because God will provide the rest. You must just believe!
STUDY – John 8 (You’re Missing God in All This) – The Message Bible
Jesus once again addressed them: “I am the world’s Light. No one who follows me stumbles around in the darkness. I provide plenty of light to live in.“
The Pharisees objected, “All we have is your word on this. We need more than this to go on.”
Jesus replied, “You’re right that you only have my word. But you can depend on it being true. I know where I’ve come from and where I go next. You don’t know where I’m from or where I’m headed. You decide according to what you can see and touch. I don’t make judgments like that. But even if I did, my judgment would be true because I wouldn’t make it out to the narrowness of my experience but in the largeness of the One who sent me, the Father. That fulfills the conditions set down in God’s Law: That you can count on the testimony of two witnesses. And that is what you have. You have my word and you have the word of the Father who sent me.”
They said, “Where is this so-called Father of yours?”
Jesus said, “You’re looking right at me and you don’t see me. How do you expect to see the Father? If you knew me, you would at the same time know the Father.”
He gave this speech in the Treasury while teaching in the Temple. No one arrested him because his time wasn’t yet up.
Then he went over the same ground again. “I’m leaving and you are going to look for me, but you’re missing God in this and are headed for a dead end. There is no way you can come with me.”
The Jews said, “So, is he going to kill himself? Is that what he means by ‘You can’t come with me’?”
Jesus said, “You’re tied down to the mundane; I’m in touch with what is beyond your horizons. You live in terms of what you see and touch. I’m living on other terms. I told you that you were missing God in all this. You’re at a dead end. If you won’t believe I am who I say I am, you’re at the dead end of sins. You’re missing God in your lives.”
They said to him, “Just who are you anyway?”
Jesus said, “What I’ve said from the start. I have so many things to say that concern you, judgments to make that affect you, but if you don’t accept the trustworthiness of the One who commanded my words and acts, none of it matters. That is who you are questioning – not me but the One who sent me.”
They still didn’t get it, didn’t realize that he was referring to the Father. So Jesus tried again. “When you raise up the Son of Man, then you will know who I am – that I’m not making this up, but speaking only what the Father taught me. The One who sent me stays with me. He doesn’t abandon me. He sees how much joy I take in pleasing him.”
When he put it in these terms, many people decided to believe.
Simply. Honestly. Emily. 