Joys of the Lord: Daily Meditations Based on the Writings of St. John

By Dr. H. Lawrence Zillmer

“JOYS OF THE LORD” is a sequel to “ Time Out With God,” or any book on meditation, such as “The Practice of the Presence” by Brother Lawrence. (1692) We need grist for our moments on the mountain, and who is better able to provide that than the Apostle John. No one understood better than John the joy
which Jesus planted in His disciple’s hearts. These short daily meditations are drawn from his Gospel, Epistles, and the Book of Revelation. Let the “one whom Jesus loved” be our source of joy that is our strength.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Nov 21, 2007
• ISBN: 9781462823758

Dr. H. Lawrence Zillmer

Dr. Zillmer has spent more than eight decades studying God’s blessed revelations in the Bible. Part of his PhD research introduced him to the great truths of cultural myths, none more powerful than the ten which begin the Bible. Modern mankind has lost the ability to understand the purpose and relevance of myths. As we recover our understandings of this art form, the great truths that begin the Bible will open up. We will understand more fully why God chose this art form to begin to answer the ten great human questions, which are ultimately the message of the messenger from heaven—Jesus.

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Copyright © 2007 by Dr. H. Lawrence Zillmer.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

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Rev. date: 05/23/2020

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Contents

Prologue

Foreword … A Joy Manifesto

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

The Good Shepherd Series

PROLOGUE

Where’s the Joy!

I walked into my trashed out and nearly empty house. My wife had moved out to live with another man. She had obtained a court order to allow her to come and take from our house that which belonged to her. She took nearly everything, including some of my own clothing!

That evening I sat in the remaining chair reading the Bible. I read, These things I have spoken unto you that My joy may be in you and that your joy may be made full. (John 15: 11) I put down the Bible and cried out in anguish, "Lord, where’s the joy?"

In a way I was a set up for that anger. When I was confirmed into the church I committed my life to God’s service. I became a college professor with a PhD in Speech arts and sciences. But I also got a diploma from a two year program in a Bible college. So throughout my career I taught in various universities but also taught Bible classes. I followed a strict code of ethics. Struggle I knew, temptation I knew, and love I knew, but where was the joy?

I felt a little like Job in the Bible. Everything had been stripped away. I even had a cancer problem. When Job asked why, all he got for an answer was "Where were you when the earth was created? You can’t understand it all so take it and make the Stoic best of it! Surely Jesus had something more to say about suffering and struggle when He said that He wanted His disciples to have His joy!

I am also a classical scholar, sometimes teaching philosophy and logic. There has to be something between the Stoic ideal of diligent and honorable struggle and the Greek concept of happiness! After all, Paul lists joy as the second of the fruit of the Holy Spirit, preceded only by love. (Galatians 5:22, 23)

With that I began the journey that resulted in this work. Slowly it dawned upon me that joy is a fruit of the work of the Holy Spirit. Like love, it is designed to grow. But it grows best in a particular environment—the Hebrew environment. People of the law can reach beyond happiness into another kind of feeling of well-being. That is the joy of which Jesus spoke.

The Stoic influence, struggle against sin, obedience to the Church, and confessing any and all sin, all but crushed the Biblical concept of joy—the joy Jesus talked about as the reason for His teaching, ministry, and coming death. These thing I have spoken unto you that you may have My joy . . . Original sin, obedience to churchly forms of worship, absolute and detailed confession so one can be forgiven so they can get past St. Peter into Heaven, became the message of the church. When the Reformation arrived, the ladder to Heaven changed, but the sin and salvation so one could go to Heaven didn’t.

And there is where too many people are today—locked into a sin and salvation so they can go to Heaven concept. In that environment, WHERE IS THE JOY THAT JESUS SAID WAS THE REASON FOR HIS TEACHING? Is it only a faith that they can go to Heaven? Surely there is more!

It took several years for my Heavenly Father, in His mercy and love, to answer my prayer for joy. It began with the recognition on my part of the rightness of consequential logic—the if/then premises of this Creation. It began with God’s command to Adam and Eve, "All the trees of the garden you may eat, but if you eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, then you will die." (Genesis 3:2,3)

Moses and the Israelites were told, "If you will obey the Law, then you will be blessed, if you disobey the Law, then you will die." (Deuteronomy 30:9-20)

Jesus said, "If anyone loves Me, then he will keep my word, and My Father will love him, and we will come to Him and make our abode with him." (John 14:23)

The Bible ends with the words, "If anyone adds to the words of this book, then God shall add to him the plagues that are written in this book; and if anyone takes away from the words of this book, then God shall take away his part from the tree of life and the holy city." (Revelation 22:18, 19)

Consequential logic is all about us. If we do thus and so, then thus and so are the consequences. The very fabric of this Creation is based upon the laws whereby order overlays the underlying chaos. Our problem, every human’s problem, was and is, to live in harmony with those laws. Furthermore, we need to perceive the rightness of those laws if we are to have joy. Beyond that, we need to find security and strength in the laws and in the rightness of those laws. We need faith in those laws and in the Lawgiver behind them.

And this works both ways. It works when we live in harmony with the laws of this Creation. But it works if we violate the laws and receive our just punishment. There is a definite social dimension. It works when we live in harmony with the laws and thereby build a better society. But it also works when we violate the laws and that violation extends out into consequences for our societies.

Given my ex-wife’s interests in life, her perceived goals, what she did was in harmony with her if/then belief system. That her system is not my system is irrelevant. She was doing her thing—carrying out her behavioral belief systems and there are inescapable consequences for that behavior! Every human is part of the choice and consequences system built into this Creation by the Creator. This Creation is based upon our choices and the consequences of those choices—and I have come to say, that’s righteous. That is as it should be. This Creation must operate on its principles or it will revert to chaos.

Joy is possible; a deep and abiding joy, begotten through the Jesus message, which is righteous, to say the least. I have found a comfort, a peace, a love of the underlying principle of love, all of which leads to joy. Yes, I’m happy from time to time, but joy is deeper, more abiding, part of the underlying strength needed for living.

Joy is mentioned sixty-two times in the New Testament. John understood this joy very well. It is my prayer that as you read through the meditations you will discover the joy that Jesus had that night when He faced His trial and execution. Way back in the often grim Old Testament, Nehemiah heard, The joy of the Lord is your strength. (Nehemiah 8:10) He knew something of the realities of life!

In our trials, when our heart cries out, where’s the joy? Jesus has the answer. Let’s spend time meditating upon this gift of the Holy Spirit. Let’s allow the rightness of the laws of this Creation to sink into our Souls. Let’s find a peace through our faith in the God who created this Creation, laying its foundation on the laws. God, in His love, has given us the Ten Commandments which delineate the basic rules upon which this Creation operates and depends on its existence. But let’s thank our Creator also for the ability to use the scientific methodology to discover more of the laws upon which this Creation rests.

There is but one system of truth in this Creation. As we discover that truth, and the beauty and order of that truth, our hearts can rest in peace, our feet can walk our path of life in faith, we can learn to love the harmony of it all; and through its wondrous symmetry, joy can grow and bear its fruit of spiritual wholeness. Happiness is a good feeling. But joy is more. It is a feeling of rightness, of trust in that rightness, based upon our love of harmony within this Creation and this Creation’s Creator.

FOREWORD

A Joy Manifesto

Jesus summarized His teachings and His ministry to His disciples with these words, These things I have spoken unto you, that My joy might be in you, and that your joy may be made full. (John 15:11)

In His High Priestly Prayer He said, Now I come to Thee; and these things I speak in the world, that they may have My joy made full in themselves. (John 17:13)

In the Book of Hebrews we read, Fix your eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross. (Hebrews 12:2)

In John’s 1st Epistle he writes, These things we write, so that our joy may be made complete. (1:4)

In John’s 2nd Epistle he writes, I hope to come to you and speak face to face, that our joy may be made full. (v.12)

In John’s 3rd Epistle he writes, I have no greater joy than this, to hear of my children walking in the truth. (v. 4)

James writes, Count it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials. (James 1:2)

Peter writes, Though you have not seen Him, you love Him, and though you do not see Him now, but believe in Him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory. (I Peter 1:8)

Paul lists joy as the second of the fruit of the Holy Spirit, preceded only by love. (Galatians 5:22)

Joy is listed sixty-two times in the New Testament. Why is it not a greater part of our spiritual vocabulary today?

When the Jesus Message spread out into the Greco-Roman world, it encountered the unofficial religion of the Roman Empire—Stoicism. Stoicism centered on duty, honor, not allowing our mental equilibrium to be disturbed by outside events. The goal is a well-ordered life, directed by a mind undeterred by emotion. It produced wonderful Roman soldiers, akin to our Marine Corps today.

On the other hand the Judeo-Christian message encountered the Greek idea of happiness, as the ideal for human well-being; perhaps best illustrated by the Greek philosopher Epicurus. He said that pleasure is the goal of all human ethical choices. Happiness, based upon the pleasure principle, became the ideal in human affairs for many Greeks, whether Epicureans or not!.

The Hebrew idea of joy was very different from the Stoic ideal of duty but also from the pleasure principle. The Israelites were people of the Law. Yahweh, the Creator, overlaid chaos with order. We humans need to live in harmony with that order if we are to live well within this Creation

God certainly does have a plan based upon order and harmony contingent upon human choices. It is stated in many if/then consequential statements throughout the Bible. From the Garden of Eden, if you will eat of the forbidden fruit, then you will be in trouble, to the end of the Book of Revelation with the final invitation, if anyone comes to the fountain of life without cost, then they will be blessed. The Bible is filled with if/then consequential logic.

So how does joy fit in, as the Hebrew writers understood it? We need to remember that Jesus was a Jew, not a Greek. Joy, in the Hebrew sense, is a feeling of euphoria, of well-being, in the rightness of the way God made this Creation and how it functions. In a colloquial phrase, when we survey this Creation and how it operates, we can say with relief and trust, That’s righteous! What a relief to know how this Creation works, its rules, the dominion of our Heavenly Father, the work of Jesus, the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Angels. And it runs so very well! Such beauty! All based on the love of the Father for it all, including we humans. Now that’s righteous!

That is why Jesus could have such joy hours before He faced His arrest, trial, and even the temporary separation from the Heavenly Father on the Cross. HE KNEW IT WAS ALL WORKING AS IT NEEDED TO. And that is the joy, based upon faith and trust, He wanted to impart to His disciples—it’s all going according to the plan of salvation, JUST DO WHAT YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO! Be faithful! And that was the joy of John, James, and Peter, even in the midst of trials, IT’S ALL WORKING AS IT SHOULD IN CONSEQUENTIAL LOGIC! We can understand it all because Jesus has told us and shown us how it works. Our indwelling Holy Spirit will guide and empower us into existential acts of love whereby we learn how to walk the spiritual walk. Sure we are going to fail at times. But that is provided for in Jesus. Sure we are going to have frustrating days, but it is all part of that if/then consequential logic. In the midst of the worst day, it is still part of how God made this Creation. We can learn from any and all of it. It works, praise God it works!

And we can be a part of it! We are a part of it without our choosing, but we can choose to learn the rules, the ways of love, and the rest of the spiritual attributes, and thereby live in harmony with God, ourselves, other people, and the rest of this Creation. It is all possible, not from a Stoic grit and bear it through sin, forgiveness, and salvation; and certainly not through the pleasure principles, but through a sense that it is going as it should, even when we are in the midst of trials and troubles. It is all part of the formula, if we choose this or that, then the consequences are this or that.

The worst humans our humanity has produced, with all the sorrow they caused, chose their path of actions, and those paths had inescapable consequences by the rules through which this Creation operates. It is part of the iron law of this Creation. No one can escape it! We can trust in that law and the consequences of human actions, whether we act in harmony with the laws or in harmony with the breaking of those laws. Nothing and no one is going to escape the consequences of their actions—we can trust to that!

Early on we got mired down in fighting sin and the devil, confessing each sin, and through the death of Jesus, being forgiven so we can go to Heaven. That is the first part of the five R’s of repentance. We do indeed need to Recognize our sins, Repent of them, but then Reject them, Remember our Higher Power, and then Rebuilt our lives in new and better ways. But then what? Is that all there is to this life? Where is the joy?

How we need to take time out to be with God in His Creation. We need to hear the songs of life around us and perceive the patterns of it all. WE NEED TO LISTEN ESPECIALLY TO WHAT THE HOLY SPIRIT HAS BUILT INTO OUR LIVES. Time for celebration! Time for that deep feeling of well-being over the rightness of it all! All of Creation about us is in harmony with the laws by which this Creation operates. Human beings alone have the choice—to follow or to rebel. But that, too, is righteous!

Joy, like love, is a fruit of the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. It does not and cannot happen all at once. But when we look about us and sense the harmonies of it all, when we sense the rightness of how God made this Creation, a joy over the well-being of our individual role within this Creation is born, and if allowed to grow, it will become the strength of our very living. (Nehemiah 8:10) Why? Because we are in harmony with the love motivation of it all! We are in harmony with the rest of this Creation.

But our human ideas of how-it-ought-to-be get in the road. Why didn’t God make it so and so? Why isn’t it happening this or that way? Many people spend much of their lives angry with God. Perhaps all of us have spent time piqued that it isn’t going as I think it should!

If we are going to find joy we need a positive attitude. We will need to seek the truth, not just my version of it—the version of truth that is in harmony with how this Creation was put together! We will need not only knowledge of the reality of life but a thankfulness for it. We need a sense of appreciation for the systems of order within which we live.

With thankfulness for the order and harmony will come color into our sometimes grey living. A sense of being needed, of being useful, develops. We will find ourselves focusing upon the immediate, noticing the details of our sensory world. Life is good; it is full and real. We will listen more to the music about us, revel in the patterns of light, color and composition. We will welcome the new day. We won’t enter into life with a defensive posture. Sure temptations and diversions will buzz about, but our focus is not on that but on the interesting interactions about us guided by our eyes of compassion. We will live more and more in the now of sensory experiences. Our faith in the divine order of it all, and the rightness of that order, will give us a new attitude, a new perspective on life.

This is not some sentimental pollyanna view of living. Evil exists. Evil is real. Temptations and sin and iniquity are real. But we do not stay there. We admit our shortcomings, and the shortcomings of others as they affect us in forgiveness, but then we move on. New life, new beginnings in the cycles of our living become the way of life. Every cycle of our living has a beginning, a growing, an aging, and a dying SO A NEW BEGINNING CAN BE MADE. Thanks be to God, our lives are based upon cycles, lived in the ever now. We can turn the page! A new cycle awaits us with all its adventure and potential.

So the joy of Jesus is a developmental thing, growing and becoming as we grow into harmony with the ways and means of this Creation AS WE LIVE IT! The more we let go and let the Holy Spirit guide and direct us, the sooner the harmonies of God will build into our lives, and the sooner joy will become a major factor in our living.

Joy follows love in Paul’s listing of the fruit of the Holy Spirit’s work. That is as it should be. When, through love, we are in harmony with the basic rightness of this Creation, a great peace follows. Then our patience can grow as we are in ever greater harmony with the Holy Spirit’s work. We become increasingly aware of the goodness of it all. We develop kindness as we begin to see the work of the Holy Spirit in others. We become increasingly faithful to what we know from our heart works. Gentleness replaces a desire to fix things my way now! And our self-discipline is molded by love into more and more of the patterns of God.

That is the joy Jesus wants each of us to have—that deep sense of well-being that God is in charge and, as we learn what to do and what not to do in harmony with the laws and rules by which our Creator overlaid and keeps chaos in its place, our joy will grow and become an ever larger factor in our lives.

These daily meditations are designed to do just that. They are designed to daily remind us of the various factors and meanings of the Jesus Message so that we can find that harmony within our Souls that leads to the kind of joy that is and will be the strength of our lives. And who better to do that than John? Perhaps the youngest of the disciples, he apparently lived to be a very old man. He described himself as the one whom Jesus loved. (John 13:23, 21:7) His writings reflect a life lived in the Jesus Commandment, Love one another, as I have loved you. (John 13:34, 15:12)

Joy is so much lighter and transcendent than the stoic fighting of sin for salvation. Joy is so much more abiding than ephemeral happiness. Joy follows love in the spiritual fruit which the Holy Spirit will work in our Souls as we look about us, and say from our hearts, That’s righteous! That is so righteous! It is as it should be. It is good. I can trust, rest, relish the peace that can rule in my heart when I sense this great truth from my heart. That is joy. That is the Jesus joy He wants everyone of His disciples to have growing in their hearts.

Let’s put the Jesus joy back into its rightful place in our lives. It can be the strength of our living, this moment, and for all eternity.

January 1. In The Beginning

In the beginning was the Word. (John 1:1)

In the beginning! What a beautiful way to start a new year, especially if we understand the time format of the Bible. Most people think in terms of the time-line developed by the Greeks, reaching from the past into the present, and into the future. That is a human invention designed to simplify time related dates. The Hebrews, and all ancient peoples, thought of time in cycles, the way it appears in nature. Every cycle within this Creation begins, develops, ages, and ends, so a new cycle can begin.

We have day cycles, seasonal cycles, year cycles, plus the life cycles of every living, and even non-living entities within this Creation. What a blessing—these cycles! Everything has an ending so a new beginning can happen. Day and years don’t just string along day after day. Something ends so a new beginning can happen. Today was a new start. This day has a development, a consequence, and an ending. It does end SO A NEW BEGINNING CAN BEGIN. Will it be the same as yesterday?

This Creation is a creation of change. This moment is not the same as yesterday or the day before or the year before. Let’s accept this fact and make it part of the hope of our living. Let’s begin this moment as John begins this Gospel—with reference to that which we can depend upon—God. Our joy depends upon our feeling of the rightness of the order of our Creator.

A Meditation Prayer

In the beginning God

In my beginnings—God.

In the beginning of this new day and this new year—God

Remind me, Heavenly Father

To begin each day

Each enterprise of my life

Laying aside the old

Taking on the new

Living the new in Your power and strength

Living in the joy of hope.

January 2. Our Divine Messenger.

And the Word was with God, and the Word was God. (John 1:1)

How we need a Messenger from Heaven to tell us how it is! From time out of mind we have had humans who told us how it is. The problem is that every one of them was another human being—with all the weaknesses every other human has. And so we have our human messes, fighting, killings, over which one is right. We need truth that is real truth. How do we know which one is right? How do we know Jesus is right?

Jesus told us, what every thinking person knows, that we can judge the bush by its fruit! (Matthew 7:15-20) So what did Jesus bring to us? This Prince of Peace brought us the way of righteousness through love. He left but one commandment: Love one another as I have loved you. (John 15:12) Does the human race need this? Absolutely! Have we yet to practice it? Some work on it. Does it work? Every time it’s tried!

So Jesus is the Word, the Messenger from God who was God. How do we know? By what He lived and did. How do I know? By practicing what He lived and did. And He said that the final judgment was whether or not we lived and did what He did. (Matthew 25:31) What could or would make better people, better citizens?

All arguments aside, the simple fact remains: Jesus came with the Message that works. Let’s find the joy of living by the way He told us and showed us?

A Meditation Prayer

Dear Heavenly Father

Thank you for Your gift of love

For sending Your Son Jesus into our world

Into my world

With the Message that I know in my heart to be true

That I have love as I give love

That I get as I give what I have

I wish to start each cycle of my living with this simple fact

The joys of life are tied with the joys of love.

January 3. Divine Harmony

He was in the beginning with God. John 1:2

This Messenger from God was with God. When it comes to religious ideas and views, what an amazing babble of conflicting ideas and usages! So who was and is right? The Jesus message, His commandment to love one another as He loved us, makes perfect sense. When it is practiced it works. But there is more.

We are witnesses of three revelations of divinity. We can find the ways and means of the Deity within His creation. We can find the ways and means of the Deity in the historical Jesus. And we can find the ways and means of God within our own being, in the Spirit that is Holy which resides in our unconscious but rises into our consciousness with moral directives, warnings, special dreams, and even visions. Just as there is but one set of laws in this Creation, there is but one message of truth within the three revelations of the Deity.

Whatever some teacher or religious leader says is the message of God, MUST BE IN HARMONY WITH THE THREE REVELATIONS OR IT IS NOT OF THIS DEITY. Jesus would say over and over again that He and the Father are one. (John 10:30, 17:11, 21) Jesus came from a close personal oneness with the Heavenly Father to show any who would walk it, the Jesus commandment, Love one another as I have loved you. (John 15:11) It is the way to harmony with God, but also within ourselves, with others, and with the rest of this creation.

A Meditation Prayer

Dear Heavenly Father

You are love

And the harmony of love

I pray for guidance and empowerment from Your Holy Spirit

That I might so practice love

That I may have the joy of greater harmony

In my life and living

This day

And through the cycles of my living

January 4. God Has A Plan.

All things came into being through Him, and without Him nothing has come into being that has come into being. (John 1:3)

With the aid of science we can look about us in this marvelous Creation and perceive one plan, one unity, one set of laws everywhere and anywhere. Every human is made with a drive to find meaning in their lives—we must make sense out of our own existence! We do know more about our environment today than at any time previous in history. But is it all an accident, a happening?

So what is the meaning of it all? Where can we go for those answers? How about to the One who made this Creation? If we want to know the why of it all, why not get it from the horses mouth, so to speak? And we do have that Message from the Word, the Messenger with the facts. How do we know? Because the Message, which He gave to us, works in this Creation AS IT IS MADE.

And that is the test. Does it work? And the Jesus Message certainly does. His is the one commandment, Love one another, as I have loved you. (John 15:12) His is the way of harmony through that commandment. Why does it work? Because Jesus was in on the Creation when it happened. He was there. Nothing in this world was made that he didn’t have a hand in. As we study the ways and rules of the wonderful Creation, and our human need for love through the labor of love in this Creation, a wondrous reality unfolds before us.

A Meditation Prayer

Lord Jesus

The more I know of how this Creation is made

The more I realize of Your wonderful love for this Creation

So when I do not understand

When I am confused and bewildered by it all

I will come into Your wonderful arms of love

And trust

And so find the great joys of Your harmony

In Your beautiful plan of life through love.

January 5. His Life Is Our Light.

In Him was life, and that life was the light of men. (John 1:4)

Is there a more beautiful statement of the truth of it all? Life! Life was in the Creator of life. And that life began, and grew, and developed through the cycles of life in the processes which made this earth what it is. That life is all about us, from the coldest tundra to the tropical rain forest. Life bursts into its full force with every Spring time.

Every human comes into this world knowing little more than how to nurse. Everything we need to know for our living we learn from other people. In this ever-changing Creation we look for ways and means to live our life in the most satisfying means possible. We must make sense out of our own existence. The burning questions of how and why are a part of every human existence. So where do we need to go for the answers. Other humans? Aren’t they as messed up as we are, maybe even worse? Yet our very well-being is based upon making the multitudinous choices we must daily make in such a way as will lead to a good life.

The Messenger from Heaven has the truth we need for living well in His commandment, Love one another as I have loved you. It is in the fulfillment of that commandment that we find life. It is in the living of that love-based life that we find the light we need for our living. In the living out of the Jesus message of the Way of Love He brought from Heaven we are to find our life, and that life is our light for our abundant living.

A Meditation Prayer

Thank you, blessed Heavenly Father

May I never forget this blessed truth

There is a light in this world in which I live

And that is the light of a life lived in love

Love as Jesus demonstrated

By His life and teaching

The joy of life is tied to the order and harmony of living

There is blessed peace in Your order

There is Your joy in the light of love in Your way of living.

January 6. Light For Our Darkness.

And the light shines in the darkness. (John 1:5a)

No one can argue the simple fact of human darkness. All about us we can witness the assault on the order and patterns of the laws of this Creation. Through human history our very survival has depended upon our ability to understand and live by those laws. It is a simple fact that human rebellion and lawlessness has made a mess of this otherwise orderly Creation. Every moment of every day we decide to follow, ignore, or break those laws. Human greed, willfulness, ignorance, rebellion, and lawlessness has cast a pall of darkness over this otherwise orderly Creation. We did it.

But our Creator didn’t leave us there. He gave us those Ten Commandments to help us understand how we need to live in this Creation. Then Jesus came into this world to help us understand and live in such a way that we could find the kind of life our Creator intended for us. We have the Holy Spirit to guide and empower us for righteous living. We have the ministry of the Holy Angels. We have been given the ability to learn, to change, to correct our mistakes.

Why didn’t the Creator simply give us all the goodies and thereby give us some kind of idyllic life. We humans are not just to exist, we are to grow up in this changing Creation to be something like the Angels. So the light needed to shine in our human-created darkness. And it has, and it does, and it empowers us to become something the Creator had in mind when He made us the unique creatures we humans are.

A Meditation Prayer

Dear Heavenly Father

Thank you that You didn’t give up on us

That You didn’t and don’t give up on me

You have caused a great light to shine in my darkness

Showing me the way of life in love

Showing and empowering me through Your Holy Spirit

That I might find the Way of Life in this darkness

That I might find the joys of living

Even as I learn to live that Way

January 7. Triumphant Living.

And the darkness could not overcome it. (John 1:5b)

Overcome! The Greek word is katalambano. It means to seize, overcome, traduce, or overpower. So the light which Jesus brought into our world has appeared in the mess we have made of this Creation, and the darkness could not overcome or overpower it. What is this darkness?

We do not live in a neutral universe. There is that which attempts to make us feel worthless, to deceive us, to destroy us, and to hypnotize us with the ugly. Sometimes evil tries to convince us that it is triumphant, why fight it, it rules the world!

That is the greatest lie of all. Jesus is King of kings. But we must choose His lordship in our lives! When we are tempted to feel worthless, to follow the lie, when we choose badly, we have contributed to the mess of this world. But no one’s story need end there. There is repentance, relearning and rebuilding our lives on truth, beauty, love, and trust in our Heavenly Father. Evil does not rule, cannot rule, UNLESS WE CHOOSE TO ALLOW IT. We are the choice makers. We can choose this and not that. However, we choose, we become what we choose. It is the iron rule of this Creation.

We humans are a marvelous creation. We can learn, we can redo the tapes of our belief system. We cannot do it on our own. Jesus has shown us the way. Let us not focus upon the darkness and its power; let us focus upon the light and the power of love. Let us live triumphantly, hand in hand with the Lord of light and love.

A Meditation Prayer

Dear blessed Lord of all life and living

You have come into our world, into my world,

Bringing the gifts of love, truth, and beauty

No power of evil can overcome Your light and love

Walking with You I have the light of love in my heart

In Your love I have the power to live triumphantly

How can I ever thank You enough for the light of truth

And the joy You have given me for living triumphantly

This day, and forevermore

January 8. The Light That Enlightens Everyone.

There is the true light which, coming into the world, enlightens every man. (John 1:9)

Every human being has a spark of this light. This potential, this spiritual dynamic, is part of being human. We are so much more than a mind, a body, and feelings. It is this more, the spiritual aspect of our humanity, that is part of the Gestalt, the unity that is every person. The question is, what do we do with that more?

The more is designed to be the crowning glory of every human being. This more is what will leave the body, with all its physical facilities, including the mind, and proceed into the Spiritual World.

We humans are developing, changing creatures; no more so than in our spiritual dimension. What begins with a spark, a spiritual beginning, is designed to grow and develop into something like the Angels. But it can atrophy, shrivel, and eventually die.

Jesus has the message of light, a confirmation of what every human knows in their heart, that their spiritual life is to be fed in such a way that the fruit of the Holy Spirit, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness faithfulness, gentleness, and self-discipline will cause the Soul to develop into a being that can inhabit eternity. We can choose that which starves our spiritual essence, but why not choose that which feeds our spiritual growth.

A Meditation Prayer

How can I ever thank You enough

For the seed of light You have planted in my soul

And for the hunger You give me to feed my spiritual essence

And especially for the truth You have given me

To love is to live

To live is to grow into the fruit of the Holy Spirit’s work

To grow is to become something of my potential

How can I ever thank you enough

For this Way of Life through love

For the joy of growing spiritually empowered by Your love

January 9. Knowing Our Creator

He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. (John 1:10)

We would not expect the birds, the animals, or other living things within this Creation to know their Creator. How could they understand the act of Creation and the One who performed it? But God’s human creation is different.

We are able to use causal logic. We are able to reason, and choose, based upon what works in this Creation, as it is made. We are able to use if—then consequential logic. Why?

Our Creator evidently wanted a being who could return His love based upon caring, responding to needs, respecting the individual, and understanding. No other creature can choose to love in this manner. Every human has this capacity, when it is awakened. And that is the key to it all, isn’t it—that love’s awakening.

When we realize something of the how and the why of it all, a love-bonding should develop with our Creator. Why doesn’t it? We can understand why a squirrel cannot understand its Creator, but, given our gifts, why can’t we humans?

This is not a neutral universe. We can choose to ignore the obvious all about us. But the story doesn’t end there. From every time and place there are those who come to "know