John 14:15-31

15 "If you love me, you will obey what I command. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever-- 17 the 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 in you. 18 I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. 19 Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. 20 On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. 21 Whoever 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." 22 Then Judas (not Judas Iscariot) said, "But, Lord, why do you intend to show yourself to us and not to the world?" 23 Jesus 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.24 He 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. 26 But 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. 27 Peace 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. 29 I have told you now before it happens, so that when it does happen you will believe. 30 I will not speak with you much longer, for the prince of this world is coming. He has no hold on me, 31 but 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.

"On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you."  Have you ever really thought about this, that your are in Jesus and He is in you?  What does covenant mean to you?  I'm wondering if we can get a bit of discussion about this.  Would you be willing to share your understanding of what covenant is? 

John 14:5-14

5 Thomas said to him, "Lord, we don't know where you are going, so how can we know the way?"6 Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him." 8 Philip said, "Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us." 9 Jesus 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. 11 Believe 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. 12 I 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. 13 And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. 14 You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.

Beautiful description of the Triune God, how they work so closely together they have to be one.  I always think of this passage too when I'm trying to figure out how the Holy Spirit works in me.  When I do things or say things that are right and glorify God, those "words and actions are not just my own, Rather it is the Holy Spirit living in me, doing His Work."

John 14: 1-4

1 "Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. 2 In 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. 4 You know the way to the place where I am going."

I find these words SO incredibly comforting.  I imagine falling back into God's arms and Him carrying me across the threshold into my room that He has prepared especially for me.  I don't have to fight anymore with anyone else, but especially with myself as I try to control everything.  What a relief!  I pray that God may remind me of these verses each and every day, every minute of the day.

John 13:31-38

13:37,38pp -- Mt 26:33-35; Mk 14:29-31; Lk 22:33,34

31 When he was gone, Jesus said, "Now is the Son of Man glorified and God is glorified in him. 32If God is glorified in him, God will glorify the Son in himself, and will glorify him at once. 33 "My children, I will be with you only a little longer. You will look for me, and just as I told the Jews, so I tell you now: Where I am going, you cannot come. 34 "A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35 By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another." 36 Simon Peter asked him, "Lord, where are you going?" Jesus replied, "Where I am going, you cannot follow now, but you will follow later." 37Peter asked, "Lord, why can't I follow you now? I will lay down my life for you." 38 Then Jesus answered, "Will you really lay down your life for me? I tell you the truth, before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times!

Jesus was very aware of Self in this moment - He knew His time was coming to be glorified on the cross, He knew He would be going away and that it had to happen so that the Counsellor might come after to help His people.  Therefore He was also very Other aware - He recognized that His life was an example for others, "As I have loved you, so you must love one another."  He recognized that in His being glorified on the cross God would be glorified in Him.  Which also shows how God aware He was.  His whole life was one in which He lived to glorify God.  I challenge you all to become more SOG aware in every detail of your life.

John 13:18-30

18 "I am not referring to all of you; I know those I have chosen. But this is to fulfill the scripture: 'He who shares my bread has lifted up his heel against me.' 19 "I am telling you now before it happens, so that when it does happen you will believe that I am He. 20 I tell you the truth, whoever accepts anyone I send accepts me; and whoever accepts me accepts the one who sent me." 21After he had said this, Jesus was troubled in spirit and testified, "I tell you the truth, one of you is going to betray me." 22 His disciples stared at one another, at a loss to know which of them he meant. 23 One of them, the disciple whom Jesus loved, was reclining next to him. 24 Simon Peter motioned to this disciple and said, "Ask him which one he means." 25 Leaning back against Jesus, he asked him, "Lord, who is it?" 26 Jesus answered, "It is the one to whom I will give this piece of bread when I have dipped it in the dish." Then, dipping the piece of bread, he gave it to Judas Iscariot, son of Simon. 27 As soon as Judas took the bread, Satan entered into him. "What you are about to do, do quickly," Jesus told him, 28 but no one at the meal understood why Jesus said this to him. 29 Since Judas had charge of the money, some thought Jesus was telling him to buy what was needed for the Feast, or to give something to the poor. 30 As soon as Judas had taken the bread, he went out. And it was night.

Can you imagine, your best friend, your closest colleague, one of your church family turning on you and telling everyone you had done something so terrible, that no one wanted to associate with you anymore?  I kind of think that is what Jesus went through when He told the other disciples that Judas was going to betray Him.  I often think Judas' betrayal was so hard and yet I think I betray God/Jesus everyday.  When I do something that I know God would not like or forget to read His Word, skip church, (forget to visit with Him), that must be such a slap in the face for God/Jesus.  And then when I come to Him again He loves me and puts clothes on me, His royal robe, as though I had never turned away from Him in the first place!!  I know that if I stay away too long He will make my life harder as He works to convict me that I need to come closer to Him again.  Tough, but loving stuff!

'Daily' devotional'

I have been doing a reading of John with my family and thought perhaps it might be nice to share what I have been doing for them at this blogspot as well.  So here goes and I welcome any and everyone's comments as we seek to serve God faithfully and learn about who He is.

John 13: 1-17
I have been reading about love lately and some of the stuff I have read is about the fact that Jesus IS love.  We so often just think of it as a feeling but when you start thinking of it as Jesus, it kind of changes your thinking.  Often we think to love someone is to make things better for them, yet Jesus didn't always do that.  Think of the story of Lazarus' death (John 11).  Jesus knew Mary and Martha were hurting and we know Jesus loved them but even though He could have gone immediately to heal Lazarus, Jesus didn't.  Would we describe that as love?  Probably not but when we know that Jesus IS love we learn a bit more about love in that instance and this one above.  Love isn't always about making people feel better immediately so maybe this might help us feel less guilty about not doing something for someone.  We all have to set God-fearing boundaries and respect others boundaries.

Speaking

I have just added another page about my speaking.  I would be honoured to speak at one of your events, so please check out my speaking page to see the different topics I am willing to speak about, or if you would like a custom event please contact me.