trusted online casino malaysia
Realizing the presence, promise, and power of the Kingdom of God.
ReVision

The Word of Life

What "word of life" are you pursuing?

The Explanation: Before (6)

1Before the universe began to be,
and all that it consists of and contains,
the Word already was. He is the Power,
the Explanation, and the Reason for
all things. He was before all things with God,
and He was God. 2Yes, He was with God when
the universe and all that is began
to be, 3and He created everything.
Apart from Him, without His will and power,
not anything that has been made was made.
4In Him was life, eternal life, the light
of men, 5which shines into the darkness to
expose unrighteousness with grace and truth,
and show the way to life. And darkness has
not overcome it, no, nor ever shall. 

-          John 1.1-5

The promise of a worldview
Part of what any worldview offers is the promise of a better life tomorrow. It doesn’t matter how this is defined. Every worldview holds out, as part of its raft of unseen things, some “word” about the future – what it will be like, why it is desirable, what we will experience and how we will feel as we realize it – and this word of promise shapes and guides our conduct in the present.

For example, if the word of promise you have projected into your future, based on whatever inputs and information, is a word about prosperity, leisure, and an untroubled life for your remaining years, then your behavior in the present will conform to that hoped-for promise. You will seek a job that pays well and offers future-oriented benefits, find an agreeable mate, learn to manage your money, make sure you are building an adequate retirement fund, and prepare for your leisure years by learning to play golf, planning your travel destinations, designing your dream home, or whatever constitutes your particular word of promise.

Every worldview works this way, toward promises, in the form of mere words, which we chose to believe and embrace, and to which we submit all our present experience.

It behooves us to consider well the promises which define our lives and guide us each day. Are they reliable? Do they indeed describe a full and happy life for the duration? Have I really thought about this or am I simply following the “spirit of the age”, the meanderings of the “herd”, or merely “what everybody knows”? Are there other “words” of “promise” I may not have considered, which may portend even greater fullness, abundance, and happiness? Ought I at least consider some alternatives to what our getting-and-spending, materialist lifestyle holds out as “as good as it gets”?

I should add, in case we have forgotten, or this is simply not self-evident, all such words of promise are acknowledged, embraced, and pursued as an act of faith. “The future’s not ours to see,” as Doris Day sang in the Alfred Hitchcock film, The Man Who Knew Too Much. Because we can’t “see” it, we have to pursue it by faith, trusting in whatever sources of that vision of the future we hold to be most reliable and sure.

The Word of Life
Suppose there was something like a word about the future that promised life such as nothing else could – fullness of joy and pleasures forevermore, let’s say. And suppose that word were from an admirable and impeccable authority and had been validated in the experience of untold millions of people from every age, culture, and walk of life?

And further suppose that “word of life” was able, in the present, to enhance everything else about our lives, even as we order our experience toward that life-promising word for our future?

Would that be a word, a worldview promise, worth considering?

This is precisely what the Christian worldview boasts. The Creator/Word Who is God is the Word of Life – the Source of all life, the Definer of full and abundant life, the Sustainer of all life, the Lord of all life, and the final Judge of life and of every living thing. Because He is the Explanation of all things, He explains life to us in terms that are completely and wholly satisfying.

Perhaps you do not agree with this at this time. But is that because you have seriously and soberly considered this possibility? Or because you are guided by some pre-conceived belief about the Christian worldview that keeps you from thinking it might just be true? Christians believe this Word-of-Life-promise with no less fervor than the most ardent materialist believes in his 401(k) and the home he envisions in the Bahamas. Do you “just believe” that your word of promise is superior to the Christian’s Word of Life? What’s your basis for such a faith?

Light in the darkness
The Word of Life promised in the Christian worldview is so different and so much more satisfying than anything else that it is frequently referred to as “light” contrasted with the “darkness” which every other worldview offers.

That light takes the form of eternal life – fullness of life as defined and made possible by the Word of Life, forever. We shall have more to say about this in due course. The Word of Life brings this life to men, to enlighten their minds, illuminate their hearts, brighten their prospects, light their paths, and shine in and through them. And that light of eternal life drives back all darkness of confusion, uncertainty, fear, doubt, disappointment, discouragement, and defeat. The natural enemy of this light is unrighteousness, that is, spiritual and moral corruption. Where the light of the Word of Life shines, all such corruption is illuminated and exposed, and, if it is not overcome by the light, it either flees the light or seeks to put it out.

But every effort at avoidance or extermination has proved altogether unsuccessful now for nearly 2,000 years. The light of the Word of Life continues shining in the darkness everywhere in the world. In large towns and small, throughout country sides, in all kinds of cultures, among people of diverse social and economic standings and various languages, the Word of Life is alive and describing and bringing a future which untold millions have pursued and continue to pursue, and which is validated for them, to an increasing extent, in all their daily experience.

Perhaps you have not noticed this. Or perhaps you have considered these people simply naïve? Which is just another way of saying that you regard your word of promise, and the faith with which you pursue it, to be superior to the Word-of-Life-promise and faith of a multitude too great to be numbered, stretching back centuries, and covering the entire globe.

If that’s where you are, that’s fine. It’s good to know what you believe. What you’re hoping to achieve or attain in this life.

And what you might be missing.

Of course, we all want to think that, in some sense, if only to us, our vision of the promised future is a kind of “word of life.” It’s at least our best attempt to represent to ourselves what we understand to be the “good life” we hope to realize increasingly. So every person’s unseen-hope-for future is a word of life. The difference between this and the Creator/Word Who is the Word of Life is that the one comes from below, from within the times and minds of men, while the other – claims at least – to come from above, from that which is eternally existent, unchanging, reliable, and true.

If He is truly such a Word of Life, then it behooves us to consider Him further.

Let’s try this: Describe, as fully as possible, the “word of promise” of your worldview. Why do you find this to be the best vision of the future for you? Where have you learned this vision? How do you know it can be relied upon? If you are a Christian, how confident are you that your vision of the future is consistent with the Word of Life promise that John is beginning to describe in John 1? Talk these questions over with a friend.

If you’re not yet receiving our thrice-weekly devotional letter,
Crosfigell, we invite you to visit our home page and register to receive it in the box to the lower left, just beneath the “fold.”
T.M. Moore

T. M. Moore is principal of The Fellowship of Ailbe, a spiritual fellowship in the Celtic Christian tradition. He and his wife, Susie, make their home in the Champlain Valley of Vermont.
Books by T. M. Moore

Subscribe to Ailbe Newsletters

Sign up to receive our email newsletters and read columns about revival, renewal, and awakening built upon prayer, sharing, and mutual edification.