John 14
Jesus Comforts His Disciples
1"Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God[a]; trust also in me. 2In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. 3And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. 4You know the way to the place where I am going."
Jesus the Way to the Father
5Thomas said to him, "Lord, we don't know where you are going, so how can we know the way?"
6Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7If you really knew me, you would know[b] my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him."
8Philip said, "Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us."
9Jesus answered: "Don't you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, 'Show us the Father'? 10Don't you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you are not just my own. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. 11Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves. 12I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. 13And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. 14You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.
Jesus Promises the Holy Spirit
15"If you love me, you will obey what I command. 16And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever— 17the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be[c] in you. 18I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. 19Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. 20On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. 21Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him."
22Then Judas (not Judas Iscariot) said, "But, Lord, why do you intend to show yourself to us and not to the world?"
23Jesus replied, "If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. 24He who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.
25"All this I have spoken while still with you. 26But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. 27Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.
28"You heard me say, 'I am going away and I am coming back to you.' If you loved me, you would be glad that I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I. 29I have told you now before it happens, so that when it does happen you will believe. 30I will not speak with you much longer, for the prince of this world is coming. He has no hold on me, 31but the world must learn that I love the Father and that I do exactly what my Father has commanded me.
"Come now; let us leave.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion:
Psalm 34
Of David. When he pretended to be insane before Abimelech, who drove him away, and he left.
1 [a] I will extol the LORD at all times;
his praise will always be on my lips.
2 My soul will boast in the LORD;
let the afflicted hear and rejoice.
3 Glorify the LORD with me;
let us exalt his name together.
4 I sought the LORD, and he answered me;
he delivered me from all my fears.
5 Those who look to him are radiant;
their faces are never covered with shame.
6 This poor man called, and the LORD heard him;
he saved him out of all his troubles.
7 The angel of the LORD encamps around those who fear him,
and he delivers them.
8 Taste and see that the LORD is good;
blessed is the man who takes refuge in him.
9 Fear the LORD, you his saints,
for those who fear him lack nothing.
10 The lions may grow weak and hungry,
but those who seek the LORD lack no good thing.
11 Come, my children, listen to me;
I will teach you the fear of the LORD.
12 Whoever of you loves life
and desires to see many good days,
13 keep your tongue from evil
and your lips from speaking lies.
14 Turn from evil and do good;
seek peace and pursue it.
15 The eyes of the LORD are on the righteous
and his ears are attentive to their cry;
May 1, 2008
He’s Waiting
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READ: Psalm 34:1-15
I sought the Lord, and He heard me. —Psalm 34:4
Jane Welsh, secretary to Scottish essayist Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881), married him and devoted her life to him and his work. He loved her deeply but was so busy with his writing and speaking that he often neglected her. Some time into their marriage, she became ill and suddenly died.
In a new book by John Ortberg, I read that after the funeral Thomas went alone to Jane’s room and looked at her diary. He found these words she had written about him: “Yesterday he spent an hour with me and it was like heaven. I love him so.” On another day, she wrote, “I have listened all day to hear his steps in the hall, but now it is late. I guess he will not come today.” He wept brokenly, realizing his neglect of her and her desire just to talk with him.
As I read that, I couldn’t help but think, God loves me dearly and waits for me to fellowship with Him. How many days do I forget Him?
The Lord welcomes our worship, our prayer, our praise. He has told us in His Word to pray all the time (1 Thess. 5:17). As He did with the church in Laodicea in Revelation 3, Christ knocks on the door of our heart and patiently waits (v.20). He listens attentively for our call, our cry, our prayer. How often does He wait in vain?
— David C. Egner
We can know that God is watching,
Always present, everywhere,
And with hope and joy and patience
He is waiting for our prayer. —Roworth
Talk with God—He longs to hear from you.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers:
May 1, 2008
Faith— Not Emotion
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READ:
We walk by faith, not by sight —2 Corinthians 5:7
For a while, we are fully aware of God’s concern for us. But then, when God begins to use us in His work, we begin to take on a pitiful look and talk only of our trials and difficulties. And all the while God is trying to make us do our work as hidden people who are not in the spotlight. None of us would be hidden spiritually if we could help it. Can we do our work when it seems that God has sealed up heaven? Some of us always want to be brightly illuminated saints with golden halos and with the continual glow of inspiration, and to have other saints of God dealing with us all the time. A self-assured saint is of no value to God. He is abnormal, unfit for daily life, and completely unlike God. We are here, not as immature angels, but as men and women, to do the work of this world. And we are to do it with an infinitely greater power to withstand the struggle because we have been born from above.
If we continually try to bring back those exceptional moments of inspiration, it is a sign that it is not God we want. We are becoming obsessed with the moments when God did come and speak with us, and we are insisting that He do it again. But what God wants us to do is to "walk by faith." How many of us have set ourselves aside as if to say, "I cannot do anything else until God appears to me"? He will never do it. We will have to get up on our own, without any inspiration and without any sudden touch from God. Then comes our surprise and we find ourselves exclaiming, "Why, He was there all the time, and I never knew it!" Never live for those exceptional moments— they are surprises. God will give us His touches of inspiration only when He sees that we are not in danger of being led away by them. We must never consider our moments of inspiration as the standard way of life— our work is our standard.
"A Word With You" by Ron Hutchcraft
Footprints the Tide Can't Touch
Thursday, May 01, 2008
Oh, we love the ocean! We love to walk the beach and if my wife has a head-start on me, I can figure out which way she went - Oh, I kid her about being a little paddle footed - she leaves behind footprints that make a slight "V" in the sand. Of course, when the tide starts coming in you can forget all the footprints any of us left that day! When the waves finish giving the beach a bath, you can't even tell anyone walked there today. Notice when they want to commemorate the careers of those Hollywood stars, they have them put their footprints in cement in the sidewalk, not in sand at the beach.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Footprints the Tide Can't Touch."
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Daniel 12:2. You see, we only get to walk this beach once. What kind of marks do we leave behind? How much will it matter that you or I have ever walked this way? Daniel 12:2-3 says this, "Those who are wise will shine like the brightness of the heavens, and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever." Now, the verse before it talks about eternal issues. It says, "Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt." That's why it's so important to lead people to righteousness. Two eternal destinations: everlasting life - that's heaven of course, and everlasting shame and contempt - that's hell. Now, he goes on here to say that you and I can have a vital part in which destination it will be for the people we know. If we lead them to righteousness, we'll shine like the stars forever and ever. People you influence for Jesus Christ will be the lasting legacy of your life. Everlasting! Footprints that are in cement, not in sand!
The problem is we get distracted from the eternal. We spent most of our time and our energy on earth stuff. We want to make a financial mark, a career mark, an educational mark, but the tide will one day come along and erase all those footprints we left in the sand. Someone else will get your position, your money, or your house. Or maybe we'll get involved in causes that will help improve things a little but have no impact on eternity - sand. Or we'll just get so busy or self-occupied that we neglect the people around us for our schedule, our goals, and our activity.
There's a poem I heard often as a young man and it puts everything in perspective, "Only one life, ‘twill soon be passed, only what's done for Christ will last." Daniel affirms the ultimate lasting thing you can do with your life. It's to lead someone else to eternal life. Take somebody to heaven with you! Is there going to be anybody there because of you? Are you working on leaving that kind of mark on the people around you? Maybe you've become distracted by leaving marks in the sand; marks that won't matter at all in eternity. The Lord's saying, "I've planted you among those people because I'm trusting you to tell them about Me. To let them know I love them enough to give my life for them. To tell them the difference I've made for you and how I can make all the difference for them."
How are you doing on the project that really, really matters; bringing the people you know to heaven with you? It is, after all, what Jesus gave His life for. It ought to be what our lives are about. Could it be that you've misplaced your priorities? That most of the marks of your life are in the sand of earth stuff rather than in the cement of eternity? Why don't you begin to use your influence to bring people you know to Jesus Christ - the relationship they've been looking for their whole life? The tides of time can never erase a life you have brought to Jesus.
You may not have made many tracks in the sand of earth, but there may be marks you have made in eternity cement. And if you do that, those will be there for a hundred billion years and more. There'll be people there in heaven because of you!
May 1
Daily Devotional by Max Lucado
Prophecy Fulfilled
Those who look to the LORD will praise him.
Psalm 22:26 (NCV)
The fulfillment of Scripture is a recurring theme in the passion.
Why; in his final moments, was Jesus determined to fulfill prophecy? He knew we would doubt. He knew we would question. And since he did not want our heads to keep his love from our hearts, he used his final moments to offer proof that he was the Messiah. He systematically fulfilled centuries-old prophecies. . . .
Did you know that in his life Christ fulfilled 332 distinct prophecies in the Old Testament? What are the mathematical possibilities of all these prophecies being fulfilled in the life of one man?
1,840,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000, 000,000,000,000,000,000
(That's ninety-seven zeroes!) Amazing!
