As The Sun Rises

Out my kitchen window it is still night. There is one bright shining star in the west. My indication that it will be another clear, sunny day in Shiprock. I am thinking of Isaiah 60.
"Arise, shine, for you light has come. And the glory of the Lord has risen upon you. For behold darkness (great darkness) has covered the earth, and deep darkness the peoples, But the LORD will rise upon you..." Shine Jesus Shine. I think one of the most beautiful, most important passages of Scripture is the first chapter of John. The apostle John was a remarkable man wasn't he? He alone of the twelve was not successfully martyered. Not that the Romans didn't try. And to him was revealed the mysteries of the last and future days. And he began his gospel with the very words that the whole of Scripture begins. "In the beginning..."
In the beginning was the Word...and the Word was God
In Him was life and the life was the light of men, and the light shines in the darkness and the darkness did not comprehend it...
There was the true light, which coming into the world enlightened every man...
the word became flesh and dwelt among us.
Shine Jesus Shine!
In Chapter 3:19, right after the all too famous verse...For God so Loved the World...
John quotes Jesus as saying: And this is the judgement, that the LIGHT is come into the world and men loved the darkness rather than the light, for their deeds were evil...He who practices the truth comes to the light...
and in Chapter 8: 12
I Am the light of the world, he who follows me shall not walk in the darkness but shall have the light of life.
And toward the end of his life, many years after witnessing the cross and what followed, John wrote: God is light and in Him there is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.
Once I was lost in the darkness, and began a quest for enlightenment. I knew about Jesus, but I thought there had to be more. I searched diligently and sincerely. On my search I met a man who told me to lay blame and to accept the fact that to achieve true power I would have to be willing to hurt others. That if others were hurt by my actions it was their own fault for letting themselves be vulnerable. Darkness. Yin and Yang. The balance of good and evil. But instead I chose the LIGHT.
That is why I am where I am now. That is why I am who I am.
I liked that Einstien thing I posted because it explained darkness as the absence of light and evil as the absense of God. That makes a lot of sense to me.
By the way, it was Augustine in the third or fourth century that set the foundations of the doctrine of personal predestination and divine election. It was he who explained what those verses meant. And even Augustine saw a problem with the logical conclusion that would be drawn if one brought the argument to its final conclusion. If and Then...If and Therefore...
Is the Sovereign God the author of evil? Is the sinful nature of man, and are the consequences of man's sinfulness all part of God's perfect and divine plan? Is sin darkness? In God there is NO Darkness. Use that as the premise when searching the Word for Truth. Go back to the time and place that our LORD walked this planet in the flesh, and see how the scholars of that time would understand His words. Understand that first the writers of the New Testament were Jews, and although they all experienced a paradime shift because of their encounter with Jesus, what they wrote was still based on Jewish understanding. Understand that God not only chose the time and the scribes but also the languages through which to reveal His Truth. Not that we need to understand Hebrew and Greek to understand that truth, but it was not just to make things tough on young Seminarians that in years past, a man called to be a minister of the gospel was expected to study those languages. The sky out my window is lighter now, and if I don't gulp down my coffee and run out the door I will be late for work. I know what song will be my prayer as I drive down the road. An oldie but holy...Shine Jesus Shine!.