Daily: Presence in the Darkness

Bridgetown Audio Podcast

Bridgetown Church

Religion & Spirituality:christianity, Christianity, Religion & Spirituality

4.8 • 2.9K Ratings

🗓️ 24 February 2021

⏱️ 12 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

A daily meditation on scripture, a quote, or the life of a saint to ground you in God and his peace.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Greetings. This is the Bridgetown Daily. I'm Tristan Collins and today is Wednesday, February 24th.
0:09.3	Here in Portland, we are still in the shorter days of the year. The sun comes up late,
0:14.4	the skies are gray with rain, and then the sun goes down early. These are dark days, both
0:20.4	literally and metaphorically. For some of us, there is an inner darkness due to all these
0:26.0	social constraints caused by the pandemic. Many of us are feeling the darkness we hear from the news,
0:32.6	and some of us are dealing with conflict with our spouse, family, or friends, and it feels so dark.
0:40.3	The story of the Bible begins in the dark, and this isn't any ordinary darkness. It's described
0:45.9	as a darkness hovering over in a bis. This abyss is also described as formless and void,
0:52.3	meeting a chaotic, lifeless wasteland. What is God's response to this darkness? We read,
0:59.5	darkness was over the face of the abyss, but the spirit of God was hovering over the waters.
1:05.9	I love this image. God enters into the darkness. God settles over it like a bird hovering
1:12.6	over an endless dark chaos. It's an image of hope. The rest of the Bible continues with this theme.
1:19.8	God enters into the darkness. This is what the story of Jesus entering into the world is all about.
1:26.4	The Gospel of John describes Jesus as the true light that gives light to everyone.
1:32.1	In Jesus, God's light, main human, experienced the darkness we experience. This is why the author of
1:39.9	Hebrews can say this of him. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our
1:45.8	weakness, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are, yet he did not sin.
1:52.4	Let us then approach God's throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and
1:57.5	find grace and help in our time of need. Throughout scripture, God tells us people that he will never
2:03.8	leave them. Even though they are in pain and chaos, God shows up. He's always there. Some 34-18
2:11.0	says that God is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.
2:16.8	God draws near to us in our pain. God listens to us, and God suffers with us. In the book of
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Bridgetown Church, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Bridgetown Church and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.