What's good without God?

I was sitting in class the other day and the discussion was on how to solve the insurgency problem in the middle east. In truth, it was about how to counter insurgencies - groups that try to disrupt the current state of affairs in a nation and eventually gain some form of control.

We were talking about different ways of working with people and governments in such nations and how to effect their hearts and minds so that the people would feel that their needs were being met and that their government was doing a good job. Some of the ideas had to do with educating the people, others with instilling confidence through military force, and others were about humanitarian assistance.

And then it occurred to me. The answer was simple. What these people needed was the same thing that everyone needs. It's what we are all looking for to meet our needs and yet for some reason we go around in circles trying to find it.

It's Jesus. These people need Jesus just like so many other's do.

At this point I realized that anything we came up with was futile. The best answer we could possibly come up with would be the one that was closest to God.

That's all we were doing - we were trying to think up good things that could be done without God. It's done all the time in our nation and around the world. People recognize goodness; it's hard to miss. We like things that are good. It makes us feel good to know that things are good or can be good. However, what often makes things uncomfortable is recognizing the source of any goodness as being God.

Jesus himself, when called "good teacher", replied saying, "only God is good."

Yet, instead of acknowleding God as good, we try to strip God out of any goodness we come up with or see. It's foolish. And yet we continue, trying our best to solve the world's problems using the things that are of God (i.e., good things such as love, charity, respect, discipline, security, peace, equality) and yet try to make them appear as Godless (I mean without recognition of God) as possible.

So what is good without God? Looking at the letters in "good" and then taking out "God" leaves us with "o". That's right, we are left with nothing, zero, a circle that we go round and around unaware that what we are really looking for is surrounding us on every side.

May you look up from going in circles today and see God's goodness. It is there.

Blessings to you.

And then there was light

I was reading Genesis this morning. It's not the first time I have read it, nor will it be the last. Something struck me about it however. God said, "Let there be light". This would imply that before light, there was only darkness. However, if God is light, then how could there have been darkness? Of course, perhaps when we say God is light, we don't mean that God is physical light, but rather the metaphysical light.

besides, it's not like God was living in physical darkness, such a statement would have no meaning, unless of course God had to use the same eye's that we do, which need light in order to see. However, I sincerely doubt that the God of the universe requires eyes like ours in order to see clearly. In which case there would have been no need for physical light. No, that light was for our sake. It was given to us as a gift. However, it was not the only light that was given to us as a gift and nor was it the most important light that was given to us as a gift.

No, the true light that we need to live, not just in this life but for eternity, was Jesus Christ who came and died for our sins so that we might have life and have it abundantly. This is a life that has true light, which sustains us beyond our mere physical bodies.

blessings to you today. may you receive the light of Jesus today and walk in it with Him.