Jesus continues with his last night with his disciples.
Click here for an online Bible John 14:1-11
Jesus told them in chapter 13 that he was leaving and they couldn’t follow him. Apparently that caused them some distress because he begins chapter 14 with the assurance that they can trust him and the Father. He told them that he was going to prepare a place for them.
Thomas repeats Peter’s concern, “We don’t know the way.” Jesus says, “I am the way.” Philip asked Jesus to show them the Father. Jesus said, “If you want to see the Father, look at me.”
If you want to find God, look to Jesus. If you want to know the truth, look to Jesus. If you want to have life, look to Jesus. We just need to make sure we actually look to Jesus, and not some made-up Jesus. The question, “What would Jesus do?” was popular a few years back. Too often we answered the question more of a, “What would I do if I were Jesus?” The real question is not “What would Jesus do?”, but “What did Jesus do?” and “What did Jesus really say?”
We need to know the Bible.
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Amen, Pastor Cliff. We do need to know the Bible, but the knowledge here is experience, or the knowledge gained through practice and the conditioning of our souls. We can go on and on attacking each other for there shortcomings, but this is not the way. Jesus says plainly in the last chapter to love one another as He has loved us. This is the truth and we can learn more through reading the scripture, which merely give testimony of this truth. We do not have to read the Bible to know this truth and consequently know the Bible. This has been revealed to me time and time again. I've actually read the Bible many times in the ESV, NIV and KJV and I can testify that there is a great deal of testimony given to the truth, but you have to seek and want to know the truth that comes from God. The new commandment trumps all other commandments it is the single most important goal to strive for. This striving is not a tongue-in-check catch all, to allow us to constantly love on the one hand only to hurt with the other and then say well i'm striving for love. No, LOVE first, sacrifice the flesh, so when you hurt someone, sincerely ask from the heart their forgiveness to the point of true repentance. So you see there is no reason to ever defend your actions or even save face, simply let your yes be yes and your no be no and in all things Love. So, is love never saying no? No :) Love says no without hurting. But what if we hurt the flesh, is that okay? Well if you ask if it is okay, then you have your answer, no it is not okay to hurt even the flesh. Although it may seem that Jesus was hurting the religious leaders by calling them sons of the devil, but in truth Jesus gave them ample opportunity to simply love Him, but instead they tried to kill Him and continued to hate Him and they hate Him even today, they can not accept anyone claiming to be Christ; can not see the truth; grit and gnash their teeth when confronted with sin; you know the list. If we verbally attack someone for their sins, it is rare that this will yield much fruit, this is not Love. Love is showing the other their offenses without the verbal attack, if you think there is a remote chance that the other will become offended by what you say, then do not use words to say it. Either wait until the time is right, but if the time does not come soon (its okay to wait for the next opportunity or maybe even the opportunity after) and you still feel the need to address the problem because it is still present try indirectly talking to the problem, via example or use a puppet (saying the problem is with someone else, but not them directly), these are important points in successful communication that I think amplify the Love Jesus is speaking of. Find love my friends and use it for the sake of Godliness. I think it is in this way that the Lord prepares our abode with Him and He in us. It is up to us to decide how large His abode with us will be.
Look again at the amount of Love Jesus had in His earthly ministry: He took the disciples of John from John (amazing); He increased in followers from 3000 to 5000 (do we even have 5 followers); He healed many people, because of their belief in Him; and many more examples. Now, when it became to difficult to continue in His teachings, many turned away. But this does not change the fact that He drew them to Him because of His Love for them. It is this aspect of Christ that I see so readily in ministers such as Joel Osteen, Robert Schuler, Billy Graham and many other ministers with a large set of followers. Certainly Joel is lacking, if He does not increase the difficulty of His message, but it does not have to be left up to him alone, the Holy Spirit is readily available to all who seek Him and He will increase the difficulty level of the teachings to show you who you really are. Be steadfast!
love...
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