Radical Reality of John 1:5

John 1:5

The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.

The radical reality of that verse may be that we cannot understand a thing about God because we live and walk in darkness. I cannot tell you the number of times that I have seen folks, including yours truly, look absolutely dumb founded over who God really is and clueless as to what He is saying. We have accumulated centuries of man made perceptions about God and most of us rely upon those perceptions. What if they are wrong? Is it possible that we are doing this all wrong? Shouldn't each and every one of us have our own journey? What if these perceptions are darkness and not reality. What if our traditions have actually hindered our soul searching and replaced it with a religious life style. What if all this religious duty is a waste of time?

If Jesus paid for our sins, why are we counting them and keeping track as if we can do something about them. I can see why the "God is Dead" slogan became a modern day perception. There certainly doesn't seem to be any real intervention by God in Christian America. Why is He silent? There is a perception that things are happening but in reality the church is in decline. There is some joy and there is some community. There is some good teaching but where is God? Have you ever wondered why He doesn't break into what we are doing and shake the very ground we stand on? Why does He give us so much freedom? I don't think we know the answers to those kind of questions because religion wants no part of the risk involved in asking them. We cannot rock the boat of the economic machinery that we have built. It may actually cost us something to seek God about these things and He may no longer leave us in control anymore. We just do not want to believe that what we are doing may actually be quenching the Spirit of God. I think that we live in our perceptions and our perceptions are not always reality and know this, a religious man does not want God to be in control. That is also the nature of darkness. It wants to deny us God's light and keep us in the dark about the real things of the Spirit.

Think about the radical reality of this verse in John. How much in the dark are we and how dumb and clumsy are we because of our sleep walking? We always use this verse against those who have not yet come to Christ but this verse is truth for anyone. It is radical and it is reality.

This whole topic sounds like an awesome idea for the lyrics to a new song.

Want to join the band?