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Soul Medic Christian Ministries

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Soul Medic Christian Ministries

We do these things that others may live… eternally. Luke 15:1-7 State Department and as an EMT for a local medical transport company.

Who we are:

Founder-James Scanlon

James has been a licensed Southern Baptist minister now for over two decades and has preached in churches throughout New England. Recently he and his family moved to Lynchburg, Virginia where James is finishing his master's in divinity and pastoral counseling at Liberty University. As a prolific writer, he often blogs about religion, politics, and family life on

social media finding inspiration from his life growing up in New England as well as his previous work as a contractor for the U.S. James accepted Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior at the age of 18 while attending Basic Military Training at Lackland Air Force base in San Antonio, Texas. After 21 days of service, he was diagnosed with a severe astigmatism that affected his depth perception and chronic depression. As a result, James was given an entry-level separation receiving the National Defense Service Medal and retaining the rank of Airman 1st Class from his time previously served in the Civil Air Patrol / U.S. Air Force Auxiliary while in High School. Since his childhood James and his family have been members at several denominations including Southern Baptist, Independent Baptist, Non-Denominational, Assemblies of God and United Methodist giving him a unique theological experience and training. Certifications:
May 29, 2005 - Licensed Minister of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, Providence Baptist Church, Epping, NH

03/10/2026

"You will seek me and find me. When you seek me with all your heart..." Jeremiah 29:13 (ESV)

There have been times in my life when I've wandered from God. Surprising I know but true 😉 Oh I'll post a religious meme or maybe even a Bible verse that caught my eye but then, throughout the day, caught up in the hustle and bustle of life, I'll forget God is even there! 😬

Reading through the Old Testament you see that whenever God's people, the Israelites, wandered from God it didn't go well for them. Ultimately it led to their defeat and exile in Babylon to whom the prophet Jeremiah is writing here. After years of a neverending cycle of rededication to God, getting comfortable, and then falling away again God's patience ran out! Yet today, for even the most pious among us, the cycle continues. As the writer of the hymn Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing wrote:

O to grace how great a debtor
Daily I’m constrained to be!
Let Thy goodness, like a fetter,
Bind my wandering heart to Thee.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
Prone to leave the God I love.
Here’s my heart, O take and seal it,
Seal it for Thy courts above.

Our nature, like sheep, is to wander. This is why God sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to be our Great Shepherd. Oh, the love He has for us that He would die in our place as the sacrificial lamb so that we might have our sins forgiven and the promise of eternal life! "Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love...", yes but here is the key, "Here’s my heart, O take and seal it, seal it for Thy courts above." I pray you will make this your prayer today. Amen! 🙏♥️

03/06/2026

"These are the names of the twelve apostles: first, Simon (who is called Peter) and his brother Andrew; James's son of Zebedee, and his brother John; Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James's son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; Simon the Zealot and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him." Matthew 10:2-4 (NIV)

Difficult people are a part of the human experience. Like the noisy crows outside my bedroom window this morning, they are part of the symphony that God has created here on Earth. He has a plan and a purpose for their life and somehow you factor into that plan. Maybe it's a long-term thing, like at work. Or a momentary meeting on the highway or in line at a drive through. Whatever it is, these chance meetings are ordained by God and therefore have purpose.

I often wonder what it was like to be one of the 12 disciples. You had Peter, who some would consider a major butt kisser with the whole, "I would never betray you, Lord!" - we'll see about that Pete 😉 Then there were James and John who were so arrogant they thought they deserved to sit at Jesus' left and right hand. Thomas was a sceptic, and then there was even a zealot - who today would be considered a MAGA lovin', Christian nationalist! With so many different personalities you know there had to be internal conflict and strife, yet it was this motley crew of men that Jesus chose to start His church here on Earth. What was He thinking???!!! 😉😁

Giving grace to someone is not easy yet as Christians we are required to follow Jesus' example and to love our neighbors regardless of whether they deserve it or not. Why? Because that's what Jesus did for you and for me. He takes the broken and who many would consider unlovable and turns them into something useful and deserving of love, and sometimes you are blessed enough to be a part of that process. So, the next time there is a noisy crow outside your window preventing you from sleeping, remember God could be trying to tell you something. Are you listening or do all you hear is noise? Something to think about 🤔 Amen. 🙏♥️

03/04/2026

The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” John 4:9-10 (ESV)

My wife and I just came off a social media fast last month - she didn't go on at all; I was weaker, occasionally went on but didn't post 😉. We were talking recently about what God had shown us in that time and one of the big things we noticed was how much social media and the things we post are just noise. For many of us we preach to the choir, getting yes and amen from those who think and act like us and hate and ridicule from those who don't. It made me think about how do we get others to listen to us? It starts with learning how to listen to others and Jesus is the example.

The story of the woman at the well is a common one. Jesus was returning to Galilee from Jerusalem and instead of going around Samaria like the other Jews, Jesus decided to go straight through. To the other Jews, the Samaritans were a lost cause. They had defiled themselves by intermarrying with Gentiles. They were unclean and wretched. Kind of like our political system today and how we treat others across the aisle.

Jesus and his disciples come to the city of Sychar and while his disciples go to find food, He sits by the well and waits - not for them to return but for the woman who was considered unclean even by her own people. She was u***d, living with a man who wasn't her husband, and had a reputation for being promiscuous. Yet when she came to the well, Jesus asked her for a drink surprising even her.

You see people who live life differently than we do are not our enemies but our mission field. As followers of Christ, we can never condone the sinful behavior that put Christ on the cross, but neither can we condemn our neighbors to an eternity separated from Him either. Just like Jesus we are called to be God's ambassadors to those who may have lost their way. Our job is to help them find The Way, The Truth, and The Life. How we do that is not by being more noise in the echo chamber around us but instead being intentional with our friends and family. Be genuine but caring. Patient and kind. Prayerful and willing to show the grace, mercy, and love that was shown to us.

As Christians we are called not to go around but to go to. Take the time to sit down, ask for a drink, listen, and then share the Good News of the Gospel. We may not be as successful as Jesus was or we may, that's up to God. Either way the door remains open for possibly more meaningful conversations and less noise. Amen! 🙏❤️

02/18/2026

Lent: Day 1 - Ash Wednesday

" ...for dust you are and to dust you will return.” Genesis 3:19 (NIV)

Ash Wednesday. Today whether Catholic or Protestant I pray you will take the time to consider your own mortality and what that will mean on the day you die. The one thing that the human race as a whole can agree upon is that we hate death. We hate talking about it, hate witnessing it, hate dealing with it but dealing with it we must, because "...it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment." (Hebrews 9:27)

I don't know about you but for me the idea of standing before an all holy, all righteous God who knows EVERYTHING about me, both good deeds and bad actions, proud moments and darkest of secrets is horrifying. The Bible says all will be revealed on the day of judgement. Something else modern man hates with vehement fury 😉 But Jim, I go to church, say my prayers, believe in Jesus. What have I to worry about? Notice those are all things YOU did. No mention of Christ on the cross, dying for your sins, atoning for every sin you ever committed. Being religious is not enough, being spiritual doesn't even come close. Only he or she who claims Christ will be saved, not because any of us are good but because Jesus lived a perfect life, died a sacrificial death, and rose again proving once and for all there is indeed life after death. The only question is where you will live it?

This, my friends, is the Gospel. It is Good News because it says that pile of dust is not the end but a beginning with no end. Free from the curse of sin, eternally secure because of Christ and Christ alone. It is Jesus who turns out curses into blessings. He is the way, the truth, and the life. I've gone to church my entire life, from the womb and hopefully to the tomb, but it wasn't till I was 18 years old, far away from home during Air Force basic training, that I realized that without Jesus all I was, was a pile of dust. That is until He came along, saved me from my sins, and showed me that in Him I am so much more. No, I'm not perfect, and you won't be either, but we follow Him who is and who is able to forgive us of our sins and cleans us from all unrighteousness. That is the God we as Christians serve and that is who we should be remembering today. Amen. 🙏♥️

01/29/2026

"Then Jesus laid his hands on his eyes again; and he opened his eyes, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly." Mark 8:25 (ESV)

I've worn glasses most of my life. Which means even before they became the cool thing to wear. 😎 We're talking thick, huge "Coke-bottle" lenses 🤓 which didn't help me at all with the ladies 😉 but allowed me to see more than just a blur of people walking by. My eyesight was so bad it hindered me from becoming a pilot but it didn't stop me from becoming a voracious reader helping me to "see" things that often others did not.

The blind man in this story was brought to Jesus, no doubt, because they cared for him and knew that Jesus could heal him. Jesus, full of love and compassion, did so but only after taking the blind man out of the village. Why? 🤔 Although the people who brought the blind man to Jesus had good intentions, they were only there for the show and Jesus knew it. Jesus first heals him from blindness to blurriness to make a point. The people believed that Jesus was a great man who could do great things but they missed the point that He is so much more. Jesus then laid hands on the blind man a second time and now He could see clearly. Jesus then sent him home but commanded him to "...not even enter the village." Refusing to give the people what they truly wanted.

Today, many need spiritual glasses. Most are not true atheists. They believe in something, a "higher power", a "spiritual force", but they are blind to who exactly that "higher power" or "spiritual force" is. Oh, they believe that Jesus was real and a good man who did great things, but when you tell them that He is the Son of God who died for their sins and ours, that is a line they cannot cross. Why? The answer is easy really. Why would "good people" need a Savior? Most of us are not killers or thieves. We help where we can and be kind when the opportunity arises. Most of us would bring our blind friends to Jesus today but just to heal their physical needs and not their spiritual ones. We ALL need Jesus to heal our blindness so that we can see Him as He truly is, our Lord and Savior who died in our place and rose again so that we can have everlasting life. When you are able to "see" that then your blindness has been healed and you can truly see. Amen! 🙏♥️

01/28/2026

2 MINUTES AND 45 SECONDS

"Lift up your eyes on high and see: who created these? He who brings out their host by number, calling them all by name" Isaiah 40:26

“The crew of the space shuttle Challenger honored us by the manner in which they lived their lives. We will never forget them, nor the last time we saw them, this morning, as they prepared for their journey and waved good-bye and 'slipped the surly bonds of earth' to 'touch the face of God.” Ronald Reagan

January 28, 1986, was a bitterly cold, winter day in South Berwick, Maine. I was a third grader in Mrs. Grant’s class struggling to do my vocabulary words on that horrible yellow paper that always smudged when you erased on it. I remember I was deeply engrossed in my work when I noticed the principle, Mrs. Applebee, enter the room and whisper something into the ear of Mrs. Grant. An old-school teacher, Mrs. Grant’s face showed little to no emotion as the shock of the day’s events was relayed to her. I would not find out what that secret was until I went home later that day and watched again and again my heroes ascend into the heavens aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger and then 73 seconds later suddenly be gone, consumed by a giant fireball. The next day, Mrs. Grant pulled us all into a circle and talked to us about what had happened. In reality, this was one of the first times I had ever come face to face with death, and the emotions of tragedy had a profound effect on me.

From the first moment I saw the space shuttle I fell in love with it. The excitement of lift off! The cool images of the astronauts floating around the crew cabin in space. The way it glided down from space completely unpowered but graceful. It was my whole purpose for becoming a pilot. I would play for hours pretending I was sitting in the pilot’s seat. My imagination so vivid it felt like I was really there sometimes. It was that same imagination that also gave me the nightmares that soon followed, the images of the flight deck, the blue flight suits, and the sounds of the rockets firing. The nightmare would always end the same way with the words, “Go for throttle up….,” followed by a bright light and then nothing. I would wake up in a sweat, fear compressed on my chest like an elephant suffocating me. This same nightmare would be with me for years, sometimes twice a week, sometimes twice a month, but always there and with it the sadness of knowing that in real life hero’s die.

Several months later a coffee table style book came out about NASA dedicated to the Challenger crew. My parents got it for me, and I remember carrying it around school as my own personal memorial. I still have it, a little worse for wear but still there. Years later, after the wreckage had been found and the bodies of the astronauts were discovered, I was horrified to learn that it was very likely that the astronauts did not die instantly in the initial explosion but were alive until the crew cabin slammed into the Atlantic Ocean. This is what NASA now believes were the final moments for the Challenger 7:

73 seconds after liftoff, the huge external fuel tank located on the belly of the orbiter Challenger was compromised by flame from a cracked O-ring seal in the right solid rocket booster. The Challenger was at an altitude of 48,000 feet when the explosion took place and although most of the space shuttle was obliterated at that time, the crew cabin was blown free, completely intact and continued to ascend up to approximately 65,000 feet, at which time it began its decent. At first NASA believed that the astronauts inside were knocked unconscious either from the force of the explosion itself or the tremendous G-forces the now decapitated crew cabin experienced during freefall. However, once the bodies were recovered and the crew cabin meticulously investigated it was discovered that sometime during freefall, the reserve oxygen packs of both the pilot and the commander were turned on in one last futile attempt at survival. It took an estimated 2 minutes and 45 seconds for the crew cabin to make its way down to the Atlantic Ocean from 65,000 feet. 2 minutes and 45 seconds of horror. 2 more reserve oxygen packs were later discovered in the on position and totally breathed down.

If the nightmare of that day wasn’t bad enough, it now had gotten worse. I soon became very angry at God for allowing such an awful death to occur. “Why couldn’t they have just died in the explosion,” I asked again and again? “Did they really deserve to die this way?” Death soon became my enemy as I came to the realization of the horror associated with it. However, as sometimes happens, my fear soon turned into intrigue as I desired to know more about this unknown event that occurs in everyone’s life. As I read more, I came to the conclusion that the “lucky ones” die quickly, and again, I got angry at God and wanted to know why? If God is so good, why does he allow bad things to happen? If God is so good, where is the compassion, the mercy, the love? I would struggle with these questions through my teen years, into adulthood and even after I got saved.

Years passed and one day the Lord graciously answered me. Maybe it was the anniversary of this tragic event, maybe it was my own personal struggles in my walk with the Lord, either way He did answer in His timing and not mine. The truth is nobody knows exactly when he or she is going to die; only God knows for sure (Job 14:5). The question is what if God gave you a heads up? What would you do? There have been countless songs (Live Like We’re Dying) and movies (The Bucket List) that have talked about the issue but haven’t really dealt with it. If God were to tell you right now you were going to die in the next 2 minutes and 45 seconds, what would you do; would you get angry with God and scream out “WHY?!!” or would you get down on your hands and knees and scream out “SAVE ME!!!!!!”? Sometimes the curse is the blessing and what the devil meant for evil God can turn into good. Nobody likes pain and suffering, but would it be merciful to end it quickly when that person, whoever he or she is, is not yet ready to meet their maker. The fact of the matter is we as sinners all deserve death no matter how it may come, and it will come! In the end it’s not where you’ve been or even who you are that’s important, it’s where you're going and Who you know.

Jesus said, "For God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son. That whosoever believes in Him will not perish but have everlasting life," (John 3:16). Tragedies are reminders to us that the world in which we live are not our eternal homes. This is not the end, but someday there will be a beginning with no end. When we shuffle off our mortal coil and step into eternity, we will come face to face with our Maker who is holy, and righteous, and just. In that moment we will know that we were not enough, that we are sinners in need of a Savior. I pray you already know who your Savior is so that day is not a day to fear but a day to rejoice in the arms of Him who died for you, Jesus Christ. He, and He alone, can change fear to joy and tragedy into fortune regardless of how much time you have left. Amen! 🙏❤

01/27/2026

Jesus in Our Image

And Jesus went on with his disciples to the villages of Caesarea Philippi. And on the way he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that I am?” And they told him, “John the Baptist; and others say, Elijah; and others, one of the prophets.” And he asked them, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter answered him, “You are the Christ.” And he strictly charged them to tell no one about him.
Mark 8:27-30 (ESV)

There's a common theme throughout the book of Mark of Christ telling people to, "tell no one about me." On the surface this command would appear to be detrimental to the mission of telling the world about Christ and frankly makes most evangelicals today cringe 😬, but in context in all makes sense.

At this point in history the Jews had been occupied for centuries - Babylonians, Persians, Greeks, and now the Romans. It's hard, especially for Americans, to relate because by God's grace, we've never experienced anything like that. For the Jews, however, this took precedence. They were not looking for the suffering servant or a lamb that would take away their sins - they could care less, what most were looking for was the conquering hero that would finally defeat the occupiers once and for all and set up His kingdom that would never end. What they got was Jesus, someone who cared little about the politics of the day and everything about the eternal destiny of the lost around Him. Not much has changed in 2000 years 😉

Whether far-left Democrat or MAGA Republican, Americans today are looking for a political Messiah. They are searching for someone who they think will right the wrongs of the past and create a utopian future - in their image. Makes me wonder what would happen if Christ came back today and instead of heading to Washington, He did what He did in Israel and preached to repent and believe throughout every town and city in America. Disappointed, it might me the one thing that would unite Americans who would get fed up and cry out, "Crucify Him!", all over again. Something to think about for sure. Amen. 🙏♥️

01/22/2026

And as they continued to ask him, he stood up and said to them, “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.” John 8:7 (ESV)

As an evangelical Christian I am often on the receiving end of this verse, especially when I give a Biblical stand on a controversial topic on social media. I can’t even count the number of times this and the proverb, "People who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones," has been hurled my way like the stone of which they speak. Conviction will do that to a person. Anger turns to rage and emotions become unbridled, especially when the subject matter personally affects either the person you’re talking to or someone they love.

This story has become popular in liberal circles because on the surface it looks as though it fits their narrative so well. Jesus takes a stand against the “wicked” religious leaders, flipping the tables on them by pointing out their hypocrisy. Yet, just below the surface, within the context we find so much more. The facts do not change throughout. The woman was indeed caught in the sin of adultery, a capital offense under the Mosaic Law (Leviticus 20:10, Deuteronomy 22:22). Therefore, the death sentence wasn’t wrong in God’s eyes, including Christ. The judgement was fair. However, there was no one there (except Christ) without sin qualified to carry out the sentence. Hence, “ye without sin…” What our liberal friends get wrong in their interpretation is that nowhere in this story did Christ excuse, condone, or affirm the woman’s sin. He did not become an “advocate” or a “safe place” for adulterers. On the contrary, when all the noise had gone, he looked deep within the woman’s eyes, forgave her of her sins, and commanded her to “…go, and from now on sin no more.” (John 8:11)

The last time someone accused me of, “…living in a glass house and throwing stones," was a dear friend whose child is LGBTQ. She responded to a post I did regarding a clergy person who was affirming homosexuality and I had for obvious reasons disagreed with. She was angry and emotional, the hurt palpable, and her feelings understandable. To her my inability to support the LGBTQ community was at the least cruel and at the most a betrayal. However, as Christians we are not called to be silent but instead commanded by Christ to do as He did with the woman caught in adultery, call all sinners to repent and believe in Christ Jesus.

The reality of this life is that judgement has already been made and it’s not Good News because we are ALL guilty. Without Jesus we are damned to an eternity in hell, which is what motivates most evangelicals to have those difficult conversations. The Good News is that Jesus came and lived the perfect life we can’t, died to pay the penalty for our sins, and offer us a way – through Him alone-to eternal life. When we affirm, condone, and advocate for sin, we are pushing our friends and family, co-workers and neighbors literally into the abyss instead of saving them from it. Therefore, as true, born-again believers in Christ we are duty bound to love them enough to tell them the truth about sin and the hope that we have found in Jesus. It is a one / two punch to salvation and quite possibly the most important words you will ever speak. To God be the glory. Amen! 🙏❤

01/14/2026

When The World Is a Scary Place
..because they all saw him and were terrified. Immediately he spoke to them and said, “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.” Mark 6:50 (NIV)

Fear of the unknown can be a powerful thing. It can stop us in our tracks, hinder us from taking that leap of faith before us, and rob us of the blessing that could have been. Yet, at the same time, it's comforting to know that when our faith fails, Jesus is still there with us.

The story says that the disciples were struggling; they were making headway but "painfully". Jesus meant to pass them by, meaning that sometimes God allows us to struggle - most of the time to build our faith. However, the disciples saw him but not knowing it was him crying out in terror because they thought he was a ghost. Even those who were daily with Him had trouble seeing God within the man. Isn't it a comfort that when our faith fails and fear threatens to overtake us, the words of Christ our Savior are an immediate comfort, "Take heart. It is I. Do not be afraid."

Maybe today your faith is failing, the mountains before you are too high or the sea too deep. Guess what? It's not too high or too deep for Him who can walk on water and who can control the wind and the rain with His word. Take heart! Trust in Jesus and He will get into the boat with you. Amen! 🙏♥️

01/09/2026

He Will Protect You

“He will cover you with his feathers. He will shelter you with his wings. His faithful promises are your armor and protection. Do not be afraid of the terrors of the night, nor the arrow that flies in the day.” (Psalm 91:4-5 NLT)

Not many know this about me but at one point I had wanted to be a police officer. Right after I came home from the Air Force I was desperately searching for purpose. I felt lost and craved the friendship and brotherhood I briefly had while in the service. My Great Uncle Joe, who everyone called Ducky, had been a cop in my hometown of South Berwick, Maine for years. His dedication and love for our town inspired me to investigate further which led me to go to college for an associate’s degree in criminal justice. My lead professor, Jim Phalen, a former FBI agent and head of the bomb squad, was a wealth of knowledge that I soaked up like a sponge. After graduation I applied to Portsmouth PD. I passed the written exam but unfortunately failed the PT test, specifically the bench press, having never lifted weights and certainly not the amount I was required to do. Not long after that I got married and started working for the government, which had better hours and was far less dangerous. Later in life as an EMT and while working for local funeral homes I would have much interaction with local law enforcement, some even becoming dear friends who respected both me as a person but also my professionalism in the field. Although never officially a part of the blue brotherhood, I have always had their backs and have prayed for them, often knowing specifically what they face every day on the job.

Recent events have weighed heavily on my heart and in my prayers. Although never officially a part of law enforcement, like the military, I was close enough to it to know that there are some within their ranks that have no business being their and are probably more of a burden than a help to the public. However, my firsthand experience has also taught me that there are far more good officers in the field than bad that need our support, in many ways, now more than ever. Police work is often a thankless job where you spend more time with a target on your back than a grateful hand on your shoulder. Long hours, endless stress, and constant worry result in high numbers of divorces, drug and alcohol abuse, and worse, su***de. It leaves a sane person to ask, “Why would anyone ever do this job?” Yet thousands a day leave their homes and their families not knowing if it is going to be their last time to do just that, to serve and protect a community that often hates them and what they stand for. One of the first things I learned in college was that police officers are unique in that in our legal system they are guilty until proven innocent and tragedy is often a daily experience.

Today, I ask that you say a prayer for law enforcement throughout our country – state, local, county and federal. Pray for their health and for their safety. Give thanks for their commitment to serve and protect. Pray for their families whose sacrifice is often overlooked. Crystal and I will be praying as well, not just as concerned citizens but also as possibly the parents of a future police officer. Our youngest boy Lucas is seriously considering a career in law enforcement, which is scary but also makes us proud that he would be willing to make such a sacrifice. Life is full of good days and bad. May we all celebrate the good, hold each other up during the bad, and thank God for those willing to run towards the bullets instead of away. Heroes indeed! Amen! 🙏❤💙🖤

01/07/2026

Out of the darkness… Light

And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day. Genesis 1:3-5 (ESV)

Did you ever wonder why God created light first? For many the sequence of events in revelation is inconsequential. In six days, God created the world and on the seventh he rested, nuff said. However, there is logic to the sequence things that were created which proves without a shadow of a doubt that what happened in the beginning was not random but of an intelligent design.
The opposite of chaos is order and the opposite of darkness is light. To help us understand light and darkness we tend to use color which is a great metaphor for what happened on the first day of creation. Science, specifically physics, describes the color black as the absence of all visible light aka darkness. What is important in the scientific definition is the word absence. Merriam-Webster defines absence as, “the state or condition that is not present or does not exist.” In theology we use the Latin term ex nihlo to state that God on the first day of creation created out of literally nothing. Genesis 1:2 states, “The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.” So, to use what we just learned from science, the earth being without form and void meant the earth and nothing else in the universe existed at all, there was nothing. This is a difficult concept for our finite brains to grasp because even the vastness of space is full of stuff-stars, planets, comets, asteroids, etc. Humanity has never experienced “nothingness” after man was created. We have always been in the light.

So, into this nothingness, this darkness, this black, God spoke, “Let there be light!” Suddenly what was nothing became literally everything. Going back to the scientific definition, whereas black is the absence of all visible light, white contains all wavelengths of visible light-again the perfect metaphor. White has in it literally all the colors of the rainbow. Imagine the brightest light you ever saw. Now multiply that by an infinite amount more and you would still come nowhere close to what “nothingness” experienced that day. Science calls this the “Big Bang”; I call it the “Big TA DA”!!! The only thing that can conquer darkness is light and therefore the only thing that could be created first in perfect order was light.

The Apostle John goes further in his letter to the church. In 1 John 1:5 he states, “This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.” God, being the very essence of light means that darkness cannot even exist in His presence. This is important to note when it comes to the relationship between man, sin, and God. Man, created in the image of God (light), has been infected to the core of his/her being by sin (darkness)-see Romans 3:23. As stated and proven, the only thing that can conquer darkness is light, so man has no power at all to save himself from the consequences of sin (death)-see Romans 6:23. Therefore, God by His Son, Jesus Christ, who is both fully-God and fully-Man, came bringing light into darkness, paying the penalty for sin, and then rising again conquering it. See John 3:16. Now we, who accept Christ, through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, become His light bearers to a world shrouded in darkness to be used by God to bring others into the light, into relationship with Jesus Christ-see John 5:24.

So why did God create light first? It’s simple because from the very beginning of time the Good News of the Gospel message was there as a testimony to all who would hear and embrace Him. For those trapped in the darkness of sin and shame there is hope; no, you and I cannot save ourselves through being good, or evolving to a higher plane of existence, or embracing a loving and peaceful religion, philosophy, or mantra. Why? All those things will leave us in the dark. We need the light to break through the nothingness that is life apart from Christ and embrace the light that only He provides and that He is. John Newtown wrote these lyrics in his famous him Amazing Grace, “I once was blind (in the dark) but now I see (in the light).” I pray you too will see the Amazing Grace that is our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen! 🙏❤

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