The Offender, the Victim, and the Child

"The Offender's mistake"

You've made a mistake with someone in the family, the body of Christ, the church, of which we are all members as adopted children.  You've hurt one of your brothers of sisters, now what? 

“I assure you,” He said, 

"unless you are converted 

and become like children, 

you will never enter the kingdom of heaven."

Only God's children will inherit God's kingdom. 

"Child at heart" just means a tender heart.  Remember who you are when the temptation to offend or the sin of offense comes up.

A childlike heart easily trusts their parent because they have an openness to the parent.  We all started there once, but we probably got burned sooner or later along the way and slowly began to harden our hearts, but when we meet God and He calls us His child and we realize He is or good father, it is a new relationship with the heart of a child afresh.  Only this time, our parent is perfect in all His ways, rather than a broken sinner like our earthly parents.  The point is not that our first parent was a mistake, but that they were a glimpse and preparation for our union with our true parent.  You've been hurt before and that shows you how sin destroys us and why Jesus had to die, but now with that similar childlike heart we once had toward are parents, we bring that before God in how we relate with Him as our perfect and true parent. 

"Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child — this one is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven."

It does not mean they don't make mistakes!  Children make many, many, many mistakes!  It is regarding their humility, in that they know they need help, protection, love, and care. 

"Like a child" or "childlike" is different from "childish".  To be like a child here is referring to a child's humility only.  This includes such things as the weakness and dependence of a child's disposition.  

Whereas to be childish, we all know, is often the negative connotation we use to mean things like whining, selfish, petty irresponsible, etc.  

"And whoever welcomes one child like this in My name welcomes Me."

How we treat one another is how we treat God Himself!  

That needs to sink in...sink in deeply.  The way you treat another person in the family of God (and this is something you cannot easily judge, so it might even be best to say anyone) is a direct dealing with God Himself.  You are, everyday, encountering God in the people you meet with, see, hear, and talk to or talk about.  So it begs the question: how do you treat God?  And the answer lies in how you treat other people.  We bear the image of God in us, and that is not something to be ignored. 

On the positive side, if you've ever found yourself praying that you "welcome God into the room" or that you desired Him to be with you or anything like that, then the surest way to welcome God into your life is to welcome the childlike-hearted person into your life!  Find them because those kinds of people are far greater than treasures of wealth!  

How cool is that?  

God gave us a way to find Him and to welcome Him into our lives, and this is by seeking and searching for those who are like children in the world....the needy, the dependent, the weak, and the tender-hearted person who humbly recognizes their condition.  

This is quite a contrast to what culture deems as the "in crowd," yet here are the words from the very mouth of God Himself!  Who are you welcoming into your life everyday?  Do you search out the people of treasure or the people of trash?  I'm not saying we can know if someone is trash or treasure, but I'm saying that the criteria for which we consider giving our time to someone should be based on this very method of seeking people who have a childlike heart not people who are merely rich and beautiful or admired by people...although these can also be children at heart, it is the way in which we look at people that matters.  Do you look first at their exterior or do you search for what's inside?  Do you have a trained intuition for seeking out character rather than clothing, reputation rather than rank, that kind of thing.  Consider the things that draw you to a person and be aware of certain areas in your own character that God might be transforming you in.  

That was a tangent! Haha I'm personally very passionate about that sort of topic because I was once full fledged in the work of the enemy by placing trash over treasure when it came to the criteria for which I measured other people.  I wanted beautiful people who were rich and smart and popular to be my friend, and I looked down on the timid people who lacked in those areas.  Glory to God I have been redeemed!  Haha.  Back to where I was going with the text:

If you have ever sought after God this is a helpful measure of your quest in that you have sought after the broken-hearted.  For that is where you will find God.  

*hint: going back to the first verse, all of God's children are such as these, meaning the one you seek is the one who is just like you." 

"But whoever causes the downfall of one of these little ones who believe in Me — it would be better for him if a heavy millstone were hung around his neck and he were drowned in the depths of the sea!"

Last night, conveniently (in preparation for this talk), I had a dream where a friend of mine got into a quarrel with someone and I urged him to apologize because I knew it would only spoil his day and his relationship with God if he let that moment fester inside of him because of pride or his emotions.  In my dream I accompanied my friend who, after some time to cool off, agreed with a feasible amount of contriteness to saying sorry.  However, as he delivered his sincere words of apology to the person an unexpected firing back took place on the person's part and my emotions of wanting to protect him for doing the right thing (justice) made me call her a "b#%ch!" in fury! 

I realized afterward that I was now the one who needed to say sorry, because my own emotions took over.  Now if injustice does that much to someone like me who does not see the entirety of what is going on to make judgment calls, how much more will actual injustice do to the God who does see all things!?  Don't mess with God's children, or He will mess you up and you don't want to be going up against God.  This passage is declaring just that kind of thing when Jesus says:

"But whoever causes the downfall of one of these little ones who believe in Me — it would be better for him if a heavy millstone were hung around his neck and he were drowned in the depths of the sea!"

He means business people.  You mess with His family then you're gonna wish you had a heavy rock tied around your neck, flung into the sea, and drowned!  If you think He's joking, think again. 

"Woe to the world because of offenses. "

God is serious about His family, and that's why when we belong to God we start to get serious about our family too.  If someone messed with your loved one (mom or dad or sibling) what would you do?  Get angry in order to protect them?  Well, imagine if the family messed with was God's....he says "WOE to that man by whom the offense comes"

"For offenses must come, 

but woe to that man by whom the offense comes."

God is saying, I know people are going to make mistakes everyday, but if you're on the side of being okay with bringing down My family rather than humbly admitting your wrongs like a child then you're going against God's beloved ones...and that will not go over so well with you.  You go against one of God's children then you go against God.  Because family protects family and no one in My family gets messed with.  You're either for Me or against me.  

We've all been given a bag of endless sorry's not because they're neat, but because they are one of our greatest weapons against the enemy!). We make mistakes even to our own family, but the family of God is not one to be okay with causing offenses, which is why we are called to cultivate a character of forgiveness toward one another.  God is raising up His children for the purpose of being one family. 

How serious does God take this raising up of His family?...

 

"If your hand or your foot causes your downfall, cut it off and throw it away. 

It is better for you to enter life maimed or lame, than to have two hands or two feet and be thrown into the eternal fire. 

And if your eye causes your downfall, 

gouge it out and throw it away. 

It is better for you to enter life with one eye, rather than to have two eyes and be thrown into hellfire!”

Matthew 18:3-9

How serious? Hellfire serious.  We are talking about eternity here. 

“See that you don’t look down on one of these little ones, because I tell you that in heaven their angels continually view the face of My Father in heaven.”

Matthew 18:10

The person with a childlike humility is the person who knows their Heavenly Father.  

"The Victim's response"

“If your brother sins against you, 

go and rebuke him in private. 

If he listens to you, 

you have won your brother. 

But if he won’t listen, 

take one or two more with you, 

so that by the testimony of two or three witnesses every fact may be established. 

If he pays no attention to them, 

tell the church. 

But if he doesn’t pay attention 

even to the church, 

let him be like an unbeliever and a tax collector to you.”

Matthew 18:15-17

In other words, we are called to develop a childlike humility, but those who are offended must also recognize that God takes this to be a humility of depending on God for your protection.   

If someone offends you then if you offend them back, whether by committing a sin in return or by failing to care to mend the division, you are the same as the offender.  You went from victim to offender in a matter of seconds!  (Which means you now have to read the above section again haha) 

God calls us to have a childlike humility not because we are without help, but because we are helped by our Father!  So as a "victim" of offense in any given situation we, too, are called to be aware of whether we are living as children of God by seeing whether or not we desire or desire to desire for our offender to be unified back to us.  And pray accordingly for help. 

Jesus even gives us the very steps to take which include a private confrontation, but if that doesn't work we try again!  The point here is that we care, and we don't just give up after the first try of reconciliation.  We go at it by bringing two or three more of our mutual family into the matter because it helps when someone sees that more people can be present to give a more unbiased presence in the matter.  Then if that still doesn't work we care enough for that person (despite being our offender) that we bring the matter before the church as the final authority to help bring this person back into unity.  However, after that person still refuses to be corrected, it says "let him be like an unbeliever and a tax collector to you.”

Now, this is the point I think many people mistake to mean, cut them off!  Do we cut off the unbeliever?  Do we go around in life only sticking to our holy huddles?  Not at all!  I believe this very last call to consider that person as an unbeliever and tax collector is not a call to finally let all your evil feelings toward them flow freely, but a call to be EVEN MORE gentle and understanding of them, because they are the lost.  We can have compassion on such souls because we, too, were once hopelessly lost and it was His kindness that lead us to repentance.  

"The Child"

So my final encouragement to the victim is to be a child of God just as my encouragement to the offender is also to be a child of God.  For whether we are more prone to offending or to feeling victimized, both are simply conditions for which the enemy uses to turn us away from our identity as God's children.  Some days we are the offender and other days we are the victim, but in everyday we are called to be the child of God. 

This process of knowing who we are is tumultuous because there are many mistakes, fails, sorrows and pains along the way, but we are called to such a journey in order to receive the prize of getting God.  There is no higher love or greater joy than to know God and be with Him forever.  Keep your eyes on prize.  

Jesus prays for you and me in John 17 and repeatedly emphasizes our being one with each other.

“I pray not only for these, 

but also for those who believe in Me 

through their message. 

May they all be one, 

as You, Father, are in Me and I am in You. 

May they also be one in Us, 

so the world may believe You sent Me. 

I have given them the glory You have given Me. 

May they be one as We are one. 

I am in them and You are in Me. 

May they be made completely one, 

so the world may know You have sent Me and have loved them as You have loved Me. 

Father, I desire those You have given Me to be with Me where I am. 

Then they will see My glory, 

which You have given Me 

because You loved Me 

before the world’s foundation. 

Righteous Father! 

The world has not known You. 

However, I have known You, 

and these have known that You sent Me. 

I made Your name known to them 

and will make it known, 

so the love You have loved Me with 

may be in them and I may be in them.”

John 17:20-26

Not an offender and not a victim, 

but a child of our Heavenly Father,

Jmegrey 

Do you gather or scatter?

“God also said to him: I am God Almighty. Be fruitful and multiply. A nation, indeed an assembly of nations, will come from you, and kings will descend from you. I will give to you the land that I gave to Abraham and Isaac. And I will give the land to your future descendants.”

Genesis 35:11-12

“And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, heirs according to the promise.”

Galatians 3:29

This is a repeat of the first words God said to Adam and Eve, to be fruitful and multiply.  

Gen 1:28

"God blessed them, and God said to them, "Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it."

God never changed His mind nor did His character and heart grow in stages as ours do.  He didn't go from mean and senile to meek and gentle in the New Testament through His Son.  The same God of the First Testament is still the same one in the New, and both testaments together help us understand and know God.  What He wanted from His people in the First testament is still what He wants from us today.  

In fact, a theologian named John Goldingay put it quite well saying: "we need the New Testament to give us hope for resurrection life, but we need the First (Old) Testament to remind us of the importance of this life, and to give us hope for this life." 

In other words, the Old Testament is actually more relevant for our lives in the now than is the New, because the New Testament focuses our gaze on what is to come when Jesus returns, but the Old Testament shows us who God is and how we relate to Him in this life now.  

In the Old Testament God began His self-revelation to us ...meaning the Old Testament helps us understand how God relates to us today!  It is not irrelevant after Jesus came as if now animal sacrifices have no significant meaning in helping us understand God.  Quite the opposite.  The stories in the Old Testament are just as important to knowing God as our past stories are when we share them with others.  I shared my history or my life map (significant events in my past that were good and bad) with my friends and it helped them understand and know me better, and in the same way, God is sharing not only His life map and story with us, but our own human life map to help us better understand and know ourselves!  The Old Testament helps us know God more as well as know ourselves more. 

This makes me want to study the First Testament all over again.  

“God also said to him: 

I am God Almighty. 

Be fruitful and multiply. 

A nation, indeed an assembly of nations, 

will come from you, 

and kings will descend from you. 

I will give to you the land that I gave to Abraham and Isaac. 

And I will give the land to your future descendants.”

Genesis 35:11-12

God had it in mind to use Abraham as the starting point for bringing the nations to Him, not just to keep His people confined into one nation of the Jews, but God is the God of being fruitful and multiplying.  However, in order to get to many He had to begin with one.  You can't start getting from one point to another without first taking one step, or you can't build a house before laying down one stone.  It always begins with one for the purpose of many greater things.  So here we see that the First Testament reveals God's plan for humanity before Jesus or Paul even mentioned the Gentiles as being part of God's family.  God already revealed that!  Haha. 

“And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, heirs according to the promise.”

Galatians 3:29

Then Paul reiterates the First Testament's promises as being the starting point and reason for why we are here when he mentions that the promise of Abraham is the promise we are entering into.  God's promise to Abraham has been in effect to this day.  We are being fruitful and multiplying from what started out as one man (Abraham) to now the countless nations and people who have entered into that promise!  

That same God is still the same!  His plans are for us to be fruitful and to multiply.  This means that people are important to God. 

Our dealing with other people matter to God, and that means our lives are not just our lives, but we affect others around us all the time with our lives.  There is no such thing as being someone who does not affect people.  You are either working to affect people for the kingdom of God or you are working against God.  

Matthew 12:30 says:

"Anyone who is not with Me is against Me, and anyone who does not gather with Me scatters."

Gather or scatter.  Are you someone who gathers people around you or scatters away from people? 

God's heart from the very beginning has not changed, He had desired for many nations to know Him by using Abraham first and proceeding from there to get to others.  He simply picked one nation because that's how things start: with one.  And from there He shows us the way to be fruitful and multiply.  

It all starts with one. 

That is how God has always worked with mankind.  He uses one person who is willing to bring about the great plans He has that will happen, which is to increase and gather people to Himself.  And when one is willing, God uses that person as the starting point for His work: being fruitful and multiplying!  

Everyone wants the riches of being fruitful and the greatness of multiplying in an abundance of goodness, but they forget that it begins with one.  It always begins with one.  Even now and today, it begins with one decision, one heart (mine and yours) to begin the journey with  God of seeing His hand work in our lives to bring about fruit and multiplication of the grand Kingdom of God...through one person!  Me.  You.  Him or her.  Each of us have the ability to live with God, which is a big life of good things in abundance or a life without God which is a name in a lineage that will one day be boring and pointless.  (See lineage of Esau in Genesis 36?) haha

That chapter was full of names that seemed pointless, but as I read them I realized they probably did not feel like their lives were pointless!  It's funny how we all are so affected by what happens to us, what people say or think of us, and our circumstances, but in reality, we are the son or daughter of someone who was the son or daughter of someone and our lineage reads just like the ones I read about of Esau.  In the greater scheme of things our worries are probably pointless, but our relationship and belonging to God is not.  

Who we are in this life will one day turn into a pointless lineage that others could care less about (the way I could care less about Esau's lineage, haha). However, who we are in relation to God, our understanding of Him and our love for and from Him will be what remains constant and never fading.  I get caught up in this life as if I needed to matter, but I'm a name among names that will one day not matter in terms of what I did or how much I accomplished for the building up of my own name.  

What will matter is where I end up after my place in the lineage is read.  After the things of this life have passed away into boredom and pointlessness, it will reveal the life I carried inside that was not visible: my life with God.  

My identity in Christ.  

The promise I walked into by faith.  

The promise of eternal life and glory. 

With my mind set on the glory of His will, and with my heart open to being used as a starting point in some way for God to bring about fruitfulness and to multiply His growing body (the church) I not only see that I have entered into the growing seed of Abraham, but that I am being used to further that growth!  

Be fruitful and multiply. 

Love of God and others is the fulfillment of the law of God, which was never meant to rescue you from sin, but to guide you into the life God has given us through His Son.  

We have been saved, that is why we can love.  Not the other way around.  No amount of loving others will save you.  Only Jesus can save you by His blood, but once we have been saved we will realize that now we can love.  Love comes from an abundance not from a need. 

Live life and live abundantly! 

Jmegrey

John 10:10

"The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. 

I came that they may have life and have it abundantly."

A Word for you today

Today God has a Word for you. 

The thoughts we have 

become the life we live.  

God gives us the power to assess the thoughts we have that are not from God and demolish them!  If you have thoughts of guilt/shame, of self-glory, or of fear, look for those and go D-Day on them!  

There's a difference when you take hold of a thought or if a thought takes hold of you!  

But God says we live by what He says not by what those terrorist thoughts say...whether sweetly poisonous or strictly condemning. 

"We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.

"2 Cor. 10:5

When a thought goes against what God says, take that thought down like sniper.  Why?  How?

Because the God of peace gives you the peace of His, and He lives!  In you! 

You take those thoughts that are not of God and you meet them face to face with the Word of God. You basically bring God with you toward that thought and see what He says that overrides that thought.

"And the peace of God, 

which surpasses every thought, 

will guard your hearts and minds 

in Christ Jesus"

-Philippians 4:7

Wooooooooooo. Take em down.  Live in the truth.  Love you guys.

Something to take action:

Write down some terrorizing thoughts you have and then write down what God says in demolishing them!  (HINT: it helps to know what God says by reading His Word). 

Jmegrey

Hearing God's voice

How do I hear the voice of God? 

John 10:27

"My sheep hear My voice, 

I know them, 

and they follow Me

One of my students asked me this week:

"How can I hear the voice of God?"

I remember thinking first, (because thinking first leads to actions next) 

I absolutely love that you are asking me something, and that you're talking to me, because you give me opportunities to make God's glory be lifted higher when I get to talk to you about how gloriously awesome and beautiful He is...making my life a living story of glorifying God.  It's fun talking about God because the truth is powerful, and power is cool. 

Reality matters.  Alright moving on. 

Secondly, I looked at my mom across the table (that's when I got this text) and told her the question and we both shared a look and she said "that's a hard question."  I agreed because what was being asked was basically "how do I know God?"  Before I unravel that very strong relationship between knowing God's voice and knowing God, although it may now appear obvious, I want to write about why that question was hard to answer right away.  

It's not hard because it's complicated, it's very simple, it's hard because it takes time and we live in a culture that thrives off of instant gratification and quick fixes.  

Fast food that you drive thru and proceed to eat in the car rather than at a table because ain't nobody got time to actually sit down and enjoy their food.  Or addictions to drugs, sex, gaming, alcohol, food, clothes, attention, shopping, whatever!  Anything that you feel you just got to have it now!  It's right there! You can have it so culture has conditioned us to think that if it's available you should take it.  Fomo. 

The bible, Jesus, who is the truth says something different.  He says if it's available you should still ask Me.  He says if it's something you got to have otherwise you will die then that's called being a "slave" to that idol, being in bondage to anything or anyone other than the one true king is living in lies.  Living in a lie is living a lie.  It's not truly living.  Nothing about a lie is true.  It's foggy and convoluted.  

So when my student asked me this question it was because they thought they heard God's voice about something and they wanted to be able to verify right then and there that it was, in fact, God's voice they heard.  They wanted an answer and they wanted it now.  Basically they wanted to the truth about God from me about something He might have said to them.  Haha.  Do you see where this is going?  Clearly, the question they are asking me is not a question I am suited to answer because it has nothing to do with me, That conversation was between that person and God, and so asking me if that was really God is like asking me if I can read God's mind.  I can't.  I can, however clear out the weeds and get to work on being lead by God to help this person know God, because if you know God, you know His voice.  The question was how can I know God?  Because if you know God you will know His voice when you hear it.  So if you are already asking "how do I hear God?" then it's likely that the answer is to take a step back and answer the question that goes before that one which is how do I know God?  

How do you know God? 

Is it through other people? 

Is it through scripture?

Is it through a conniption experience you had one day?

Is it through a feeling?

Is it that one time or that one thing? 

Relying on anything other than a real relationship will not get you into a real relationship with God.  Relationships are hard, but as we walk in them with one another on earth we simultaneously strengthen the one we have in heaven.  God is #genius. 

How do you know God? 

What good has ever come from you assuming you knew someone because of something they said or did once or a few times?!  Jumping to conclusions based on a single event or even a few events?  How do you know you really know someone? If you know their heart, you know them.  And the heart is something that cannot be known from a single instance or by your assumption.  The heart can only be known by the Spirit of God who searches our hearts.  

So it's a hard question to discuss with my student, whom I am growing to love through our conversations, because I know that when I talk to any one of them there are a million different hurdles and filters that are in place to block me from getting to their core, blocking me from knowing the real them.  The core of who they are is the real them.  But the core of who we are is often hidden behind a lot of stuff.  

Filters are not necessarily bad because they can keep the junk out.  Hurdles are not bad either because they keep the lazy and careless out.  However, because we all have filters and hurdles, some of us use them to serve purposes other than God's purposes and His plan.  We use them to serve our plans and purposes, to make us feel safe or make us feel loved.  Rather than using them to keep our minds clear of the junk --we might be using them to bring junk in because we are feeding the junk at our core (which is anything or anyone other than God!). The throne of your heart is a seat meant for the King of your heart.  You are not the King.  You belong to the King, which has all the same benefits you can enjoy as His child, but you are not The King. 

So not only do I have to acknowledge that my student has filters and hurdles, but I have to ask the Holy Spirit if their filters and hurdles are the kind that are filtering out junk or the kind that take junk in because their King is not the real King.  Only the Spirit knows and if the Spirit dwells in your heart then He can tell you as a reliable source.  

Now what I'm about to say might sound tricky, but there's a difference between being tricky to trick you like the devil who wraps up an addiction with a coat of instant pleasure only to suck you into a destructive cycle beneath appearances compared to "tricking" your guard dogs, those junky filters and hurdles in your mind, to get past them and bring down your slave master, the idol controlling your thoughts via these junky filters. Because it's the inner idol that's controlling all the other parts of you, so if the idol is destroyed the whole network goes down.  God aims at the real issue, your heart.  It is the core of who you are that God is concerned with.  That's why the bible constantly reminds us that God sees our hearts, not the outward appearances. 

So when I heard the question I was agreeing with my mom that it was difficult because of the time it would take to work past the filters and hurdles.

It would take a lot of time.  And time is always difficult to work with because "ain't nobody got time for that."

But God has time, He has eternity in His power, so I give Him my time to remind myself that He has all time in His hands.  

So here's what I plan to teach my students this Sunday about hearing God and knowing God. 

Let's say one of you received a message from some stranger at your school who came up to you and said "jamie, your youth big sister (because I just refuse to call myself a youth pastor haha), said to tell you that she thinks your worthless and dumb, and she hates you because you never do anything for her."  Now, how valid is that message?  How would you know if it's from me or not?  

That depends on how well you KNOW ME PERSONALLY.  Would I say that?  How do you know that it's MORE LIKELY that that message was not from me?  Only if and because you know me.  I don't say things like that in front of you or even around you or behind your back.  In fact most of the experiences of me and encounters with me that you've had, I hope have been the opposite of that!  (If not, then that's another issue!)

Now let's turn it around.  What if some stranger showed up at your school and told you "Jamie told me to tell you that God is for you and that she hopes you're heart is resting in God's love, and she also wanted to encourage you to take some time to breathe and sit in the presence of God sometime today because you can.  Oh and she also said that she loves you."

Same level of unfamiliarity with that stranger, same time of day, same method of delivery...but different words.  Different message.  

How do you know that that second message most likely did come from me?  Because that's something I would probably say, from how much you know me and have heard me speak, and have experienced from being around me.

This post is being written for someone who's been wanting to hear from God about something in their lives.  

John 10:27

"My sheep hear My voice, 

I know them, 

and they follow Me."

So in response to my student's question I wrote back a bunch of different ways that hopefully would get past any filters or hurdles in order to infiltrate the idol and bring it down.  I have to be as shrewd as a serpent but as gentle as a dove when I am with my students because God gave them into my care.  I love the person's heart because it belongs in God's loving hands, therefore I hate the idols that will try and appear as if they are taking control.  We are not fighting to keep the devil from snatching souls up, because no one can snatch a soul from God's hands, but we are doing what God leads us to do because He uses our words, hands, feet, actions, attitudes, and abilities for His purposes that always win.  

Isaiah 30:21

"And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “This is the way, walk in it,” when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left."

God usually speaks for today and not about the whole month or year...but just about today and each minute.  You are sent into today for His purposes and those plans never fail. 

How do I hear God's voice?

By listening. 

The more I know God the more I know His voice, and the voice of a stranger I stop following.  

Jmegrey 

Don't do today on your own

The Way, Truth, and Life

Jesus said....and if Jesus speaks a word it's not a lie.  Because God cannot lie. 

“I came from the Father =life 

and have come into the world. =truth 

Again, I am leaving the world and 

going to the Father.” = way

I have told you these things 

so that in Me you may have peace.  

You will have suffering in this world. 

Be courageous!

I have conquered the world.” 

John 16:28, 33

“This is eternal life: 

that they may know You, 

the only true God, 

and the One You have sent — Jesus Christ.”

John 17:3

Jesus prays for you:

“I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to You. Holy Father, protect them by Your name that You have given Me, so that they may be one as We are one.

I am not praying that You take them out of the world but that You protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, as I am not of the world. Sanctify them by the truth; Your word is truth. As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world.

I pray not only for these, but also for those who believe in Me through their message. May they all be one, as You, Father, are in Me and I am in You. May they also be one in Us, so the world may believe You sent Me.

I made Your name known to them and will make it known, so the love You have loved Me with may be in them and I may be in them.”

John 17:11, 15-18, 20-21, 26

----

I'm all over the place, thinking this and that about now and the future, about my past, and about all of the problems in my life that I'm trying to detain from causing more trouble for me: my bad habits, my stubbornness, my unmet desires, my addictions, my selfishness, etc!  I'm thinking about the good things and the bad things.  I'm thinking about what if I do this or what if I do that and about should I do this or should I do that?  My thoughts are a million per half hour, and by the time I realize how many I have I am crushed by the weight of my inability to care for myself.  I have too many issues and too much of a chasm to be where I want to be from who I am now.  And as I fold all of those thoughts up into a bag and mush them all together, squeeze them all into a trash bag, I throw them into the chasm.  None of those being fixed or detained are going to get me to the other side, only Jesus.  So while I have many issues and many weaknesses, the more problems I have the more I will be awed and amazed when Jesus carries me to the other side.  We are all getting there by grace not by our strength, but by our weaknesses.  

I want so many things to change about me, my bad habits, my addictions, my attitude, my laziness, my self-critical disposition, my greed, my selfishness, my sinfulness!  

Who will save me from myself?

Only Jesus.  He prays for me, He saves me, and He walks with me by His Spirit each moment of every day.  There may be a million concerns before my eyes, but there is not a single one for which Jesus will not be with us, seeing us through to the other side.  Moving past the forgiveness of sins, let us move on to maturity that the things we are going through  as Christians are not about being saved or redeemed, but about being transformed into a person who has the character and likeness of Christ.  We are learning to feel what He feels, see what He sees, hear what He hears, and love the way He loves.  Today you may be lead by Christ to see what He sees and it might look terrible, but He might be showing you so that you feel what He feels, which is the pain and heartbreak, and with that He may then be preparing you to reach for what He reached for: the broken and the lost.  Or perhaps Christ is speaking to you about something else, maybe He wants you to untangle yourself from fear and to cleave yourself to grace, because in doing so you free yourself from shame and guilt and avail yourself to confidently do what is needed to be done in love rather than in fear.

Each day we have our troubles, and each day The Holy Spirit is leading us into the truth, on the way, and toward life.  

Jesus is the way, the truth and the life.  We are, in everyday, walking with Jesus.  Doing life together not to be saved since He finished that on the cross, but to be transformed.  What is God changing in your heart?  An attitude or a perspective or disposition or opinion.  Open your heart to the Spirit's truth today. 

Know what is going on and then know what God might be doing today to transform that part of you into the likeness of His Son.  We are all children of God and He is making us into a people who will walk in that truth.  

We don't ask "what would a child of God do in this situation" and then do that, but we ask "Lord, what is going on in my own heart right now about this situation?"  And from there open our hearts to the truth of who we are and then to the truth of who Christ is and what He has given us.

Know who you are, and know where you are going.  You were lost but now you are going home to the Father.  That is the truth!  So why are you worried about this and that?  What lie has infiltrated your truth? 

It's not a formula or an appearance that you need to follow, it's a relationship with the Father, through Jesus, by the Holy Spirit. 

"When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come." -John 16:13

Isaiah 30:21

"And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “This is the way, walk in it,” when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left."

Each moment He is with us.  Open your heart to live with God by your side everyday.  Don't do today on your own.  

Jmegrey 

Completing our Joy: Ask

Robbed of joy? Or joy being made complete? 

Anytime God writes that He will do something or that something will happen, you can be sure that nothing can stop that from happening if God had said it will happen.  I meditate on all the "will" happenings to be God's promises that are certain and immovable since they are in the future tense.  They mean that although they are not happening now, they will happen inevitably, which is as good as saying that they are happening.  For example, although I am 28 years old now, I will be 29 years old soon enough, without a doubt, and therefore it would be safe to say that my being 29 is happening.  

(Jesus confirms):

"So you also have sorrow now. 

(No one needs sorrow to be felt or understood because it is here and we all have it.)

(Jesus promises):

But I will see you again. 

(Our futures hold this in store for us.  This is certain.) 

(Jesus promises):

Your hearts will rejoice, 

and no one will rob you of your joy. 

(This is certain and happening despite what we see and feel right now.)

(Jesus promises):

In that day you will not ask Me anything. 

(We will ask the Father directly!) 

(Jesus promises):

“I assure you: Anything you ask the Father in My name, He will give you. 

(So what does it mean to ask the Father something in the name of Jesus?  It must mean that somehow we have the identity of being in Christ in order to ask the Father something directly instead of asking Jesus to ask for us!  Somehow we are given whatever rights Jesus has in relation to the Father so that when we ask the Father it is as secure as when Jesus asks the Father, but it will be us asking and not Jesus.  Jesus makes it clear that we will be asking the Father and that we will not need Jesus to ask for us, because after Christ took all our sins He gave us His righteousness.  So that we have what Jesus has, which is relation to the Father, and if the Father loves His Son, then the Father loves us who have what the Son has.  We have been given the relationship to the Father that Jesus has with the Father!  When we ask the Father for anything in the name of Jesus, it is asking the Father with all the same relational connections that Jesus had with the Father but that we now have in our possession.  We were given the name of Jesus, which is more than just a name, but the name is the relationship.  Jesus is not just a name, but He is the son of God!  If that is what His name means then that is what we have been given.  I am given the name of Jesus which is to be given the relationship of God as my Father, so that now when I ask God for something, I am asking as a child and not as a person.  Although I am still a person which means I was made by God in this way, I am a child in relationship to God.  Just like an exclamation point is symbol in grammar it means to be excited or heightened when used in a sentence.   We are persons in the world, but now our existence means we are loved by the Father.  This is so strange and glorious.  If we are loved by the Father then our Father is good because love is the best and highest valued relational connection any two persons can have!  And if our Father is so good as to love us then He is worthy of all our praise and love in return!  As John Piper has said, "God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him.") 

"Until now 

you have asked for nothing in My name. 

Ask and you will receive, 

so that your joy may be complete.”

John 16:22-24

It says "until now" meaning before Christ we did not ask in His name because we did not have that direct relationship with God given to us.  We could not be God's children because we were sinners.  God and sin cannot be together.  Relationally we were separated from God.  Although God is omnipresent, meaning He exists everywhere, the separation we had with Him was relational...not physical.  We were strangers from God...enemies with Him because we carried the sin of humans in our core.  We despised God because of who we were in relation to Him.  When I go under water as just myself without an oxygen tank, eventually I will want out because I cannot breathe. I cannot exist underwater because I am not capable of remaining there without eventually dying.  In the same way, we despised God before Christ took away our sins because we could not remain with God because of sin.  Our sin made us hate God because it made us unable to live.  We hated and we despised God because we could not stay alive in relation to Him because He is incompatible with sin.  So we had only to live in the world, but because nothing exists outside of God...we had no other option but to die.  It was only a matter of time.  Even now we see that death in our physical bodies will happen in a matter of time regardless of one's will.  

Until now, or before Christ, the world and all of humanity was in this place of God's mercy as God sent prophets and priests to speak to us and lead us toward repentance and life.  But that was always only meant to be a temporary preparation for the grand rescue and cure for our sinful states!  The whole book of Leviticus and Deuteronomy are extensive to show the requirements that were necessary to be helped, but even all those sacrifices were not adequate to remove one's sins completely because we would sin again everyday!  Those were just to show us our true condition.  Our relationship with God, before Christ, was severed by us having sin in us.  God in His great mysterious mercy and grace had bypassed some of that only because He had planned to send His Son to complete our salvation.  Jesus became a human but He also became our sacrificial lamb offered for our sins, just like the sacrifices offered in the Old Testament, but God's Son had blood that was incomparably stronger than the blood of animals.  His blood covered all of our sins.  

So that His death meant our cure and our life.  We could now exist with God relationally as children without sin.  

"Ask and you will receive, 

so that your joy may be complete.”

This last passage is sort of befuddling.  Jesus says to now ask and I will receive, which I understand since I am now asking as a child of God who relates with God in the same way that Jesus does.  And if there is no sin in that relationship then nothing I ask for will be asked in or with sin, but everything I ask for will be good for me.  However, I still ask for things I have not received at the time I wanted them.  But God does not say here that we will know the time we will be given these requests.  He simply says that we are to ask and that we will receive.  No mention of time is given, only that it is certain we will have all that we ask the Father in the name of Jesus given to us by His blood.  So I see that most of my complaining or discontent has much to do with God's timing.  Yet I know not what will happen to me 3 minutes, let alone 3 years, from now...but God does.  If God sees all of my years and all of my days then He must be good to see to it that all my requests arrive in a manner most timely for my good. 

 

"So that your joy may be complete."

Ask God because it is in asking our Father that we begin to be reminded that He is in truth our Father now.  It is in truth that we have been given life eternal with our Father who is God whereas before we were only waiting to die.  Ask God for anything because He is your Father, and begin to gain the joy of having come from sin and death into a new trajectory of going to live eternally as a beloved child of God!  

I can ask because He will. 

Don't be afraid to ask nor disappointed when it does not come at the time you expected, because God cannot lie nor can He be cruel to those that He loves.  He will do what He has promised to do, because He cannot lie, and He will give us what we ask in His time because our complete joy is His aim.  God never misses the target...He controls the wind and the objects and everything we see as out of our control.  

But we are to ask. 

We are to ask God directly in Jesus's name. 

You and I can now talk to God as our good, good Father.  

I will talk to Him now!  

Because I can now, thanks to Jesus who made the way for me. 

 

Jmegrey 

2016 Identity in Christ (stepping in)

A year to renew my mind and learn to remain in the vine that is Jesus.

I've had 28 years of discovering who I am in the context of my identity with God and it has been tumultuous, to say the least.  Seeing my knowledge paired with my actions was hopelessly disappointing, but through that I have learned the beauty and saving life of grace.  I have struggled to understand myself, my reasons, motivations, and desires mixed in with guilt and shame from how each discovery was tainted by my own corruption of holiness, but again it was grace that gave me the ability to continue moving when I felt as if death was more suiting to my disposition.  

It's a new year, and like most folks I feel like it's something like a new start for something better.  Starting back at the beginning, but not really from the very beginning, but still a beginning in the sense that one cycle (year) has completed and a new one is about to start.  Life seems to happen in these cycles since we celebrate birthdays by each year, and since we know how to calculate time and death by the passing years as well.  Years passed are an indication that we are growing up toward maturity and growing old toward eternity.  

It is in the days that I have found to hold the most difficulty.  Someone once said, "the days are long, but the years are short."  It is the day of every day that we have to make those minute decisions of where to go, what to do, what to eat, and what to see or speak.  These seemingly small choices are actually what make us who we are, they give us our identity, and that, to me, is a bit disheartening and frightening because most of my small decisions are made by my feeling or steered by and towards my physical and mental comfort.  I decide by striving for peace, happiness, and safety.  

I want good things, but sometimes being comfortable or feeling "safe" is not actually what's giving me a life-giving identity, meaning a mature identity prepared for eternity.  Sometimes I want to feel safe or comfortable because I'm scared for this life alone and it has little to do with maturing or eternity.  But other times, I want to feel safe or comfortable because I am clueless as to what might be better in this life or in eternity.  And still, other times I want to feel safe or comfortable because I'm feeling so unsafe or so uncomfortable in this life and about eternity.  Perhaps it is a mixture of all three as well.

I need guidance, real counsel and convictional help from someone who knows me and can speak to me with the kind of words that have the ability to convince me and move past my barriers of defense.  I need a lover whom I can trust to have my best in mind and who will forgive me when I start to get fearful and run away.  I need someone who is strong enough to stay with me, wise enough to persuade me, gentle enough to wait for me, and God-enough to save me.  No human person could do for me what I need most, to create in me a new heart and offer me eternal life to go with that new heart.  

This past year, and especially the recent past months, I have been struck down but not destroyed.  I made it out of 2015 alive...and for that I have a reason to sing.  I should have been dead many times, but God saved me, protected me, nourished me back to health, and has brought me into 2016 with the promises He kept all throughout 2015.  

Now, I have a moment to reflect back on what God has done for me as well as look at what God will continue to do for me this year.  

  

First of all, God has been giving me an identity in His Son.  I have been learning the clarity of being "in Christ" and "remaining."  Before any steps of action and before being able to actually feel confident that I could do what I knew I was called to, God began laying down the specifics of what it was I was about to do.  However, more than showing me the blueprint or the plan for how to do it He showed me why I would want to do it.  He convinced me, not coerced me, into following His will.  I had my will and He had His, and instead of obliterating my will He befriended it and made me freely willing to submit to His will.  Despite many misunderstandings on my part God was patient with me to understand His words and to soften my heart to His voice and leading.  The more clear His voice became the more I began to find an identity unlike the ones I thought I had before, an identity much stronger and much more alive than who I was slowly shedding from my mind.  

“Jesus knew that the Father had given everything into His hands, that He had come from God, and that He was going back to God.”

John 13:3

My identity of being a child of God is still a work in progress.  But I know this much, that once the truth of being a child really hits you then you become more and more sure of where you are going in this life.  The reason I feel confident about working at my dad's church or free about buying stuff at Costco with my mom's credit card is because I'm their child.  Not that I don't fear messing up, but it's that I feel sure and assured that I can mess up with less punishment because I know that at the end of the day they will most likely forgive me and love me.  If my parents, who are human and very much sinners just like myself, can love me like that then how much more safe and secure should I feel knowing that God is my true Father!  My true Maker and parent.  So having my identity be a child of God has made me more and more sure that I am free to mess up yet in that freedom I have felt more and more safe and secure which has made me less anxious and insecure to be messing up in the first place!  

“So He got up from supper, laid aside His robe, took a towel, and tied it around Himself.”

John 13:4

The more I began understanding my identity as a child of God the more I realized I had it in me to think about and serve others.  Having myself become aware that I am fully cared for more and more by my heavenly, all-powerful Father made me free to let go of trying to defend myself in many situations and to find it a joy to do something out of love rather than fear.  When we do things out of fear, things like trying to secure our futures out of fear of missing or losing out or trying to protect ourselves from harm, it's ....not living, it's slowly dying.  Because when we live in fear we have Death nearby to make sure that everything is threatened to be gone one day.  Opportunities, blessings, relationships, beauty, money, reputation, all of that is tainted by death when we strive for those things with fear in our hearts.  However, when those things become free from fear because we know that God is our Father and we are His beloved children whom He cares for, then those things turn into life rather than commodities or something on our checklist.  We actually live in opportunities, live in blessings, live in relationships, live in beauty, live in money, live in reputation and every good thing becomes what they were always meant to be: good things.  Instead of making them things that bring us envy, guilt, or anger, they bring us joy, peace, and all the fruits of the spirit.  It looks like a subtle difference, but in actuality, it's completely different when you have those things with an identity in Christ, being God's child, than when you consider having or actually have those things from an identity that fears losing or never having those things.  When Christ pinpointed that He knew where He came from and where He was going, and this for certain, His identity as God's son is what made His next action all the more fitting.  He had no need for anything, no fear of death, and no threat of losing His identity since it came from God, and therefore He could overflow a generosity of Himself to His disciples.  He let go of the world's ideas of what it meant to be someone, whether a master or teacher, and showed us what it meant to be a Son or child of God.  Being a child of God was a greater and more supreme identity than being a master or teacher.  All the other identities were under the highest identity of belonging to the Father.  Jesus proved this by breaking every concept of the world's perceived high ranking identities such as "master" or "teacher" or even "lord."  He got down on his hands and feet and washed their feet to show that it was not about the action but about the conviction, the inward knowledge of knowing who you are and where you are going with so much certainty that you do what looks threatening to all other identities.  

“I give you a new command: Love one another. Just as I have loved you, you must also love one another. By this all people will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”

John 13:34-35

Just in case we likely find ourselves washing a bunch of feet (serving) from an identity tainted by fear (having a checklist for fear of missing the mark as a complete spiritual or "holy" person) Jesus poignantly brings the point home by saying that He commands us to do the one thing we cannot do without Him and without an identity as a child of God: to love.  Anyone can wash someone's feet with all the right external motions, but only a person who knows how much Jesus and their Heavenly Father loves them can do so with the inward affection of love toward the person whose feet they are touching.  Two people can be washing the feet of others, and only God--who searches our hearts-- will be able to tell which is doing so from their identity as a child of His and which is doing it from an identity of trying to look like a child of His.  The former has a freedom to love while the latter is concerned with a fear of who they might be if they don't do go through the motions.  I try and repent of not loving others more and more, because I then catch more grace in each of my actions as having been God's actions through my unloving body...filling me with love after the action has been completed.  

“Your heart must not be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if not, I would have told you. I am going away to prepare a place for you. If I go away and prepare a place for you, I will come back and receive you to Myself, so that where I am you may be also. You know the way to where I am going.”

John 14:1-4

““Lord,” Thomas said, “we don’t know where You’re going. How can we know the way? ” Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”

John 14:5-6

I've lost my way in life many days, many years, and with much fear.  Making decisions from insecurity rather than from my true identity.  But each time I had but one thing to return to and that was Jesus.  When I was stuck in between a rocky place or an abandoned area, Jesus lead me in the right way from there.  When I was confused and could not discern between what was right and what was wrong, Jesus was the truth.  When my life hit moments of the stench of death Jesus was the aroma and substance of life.  He is the way, the truth and the life when I get lost, confused, and afraid. 

“He is the Spirit of truth. The world is unable to receive Him because it doesn’t see Him or know Him. But you do know Him, because He remains with you and will be in you.”

John 14:17

Truth is one of those things you can't see like love or anger.  You might see manifestations of it in a couple kissing (love) or someone flipping the bird to you on the freeway (anger), but those actions could also be done without either love or anger.  Truth is also something that is invisible.  It may appear to be manifesting in someone's confession or on a scantron test, but if we are talking about the kind of truth that reflects an honest person, a transparent person, then that is something no one can see with their physical eyes.  Therefore the Spirit being a spirit of truth is not visible but inward.  When we pray and ask God to speak it is listening to the inner voice of truth which we must feel okay surrendering our hearts to.  The inner voice of truth, or the Spirit of God who searches our hearts (Psalm 139), already knows every single dirty black thought all the way down to the core of our being from birth to now.  That's both cringe-worthy and loving at the same time.  That God, who knows us through and through, desires to walk with us into our darkest moments and heal them with the light of His saving grace and truth.  As we open our minds and hearts to the inner voice of truth, exploring the darkness with the light, God proves His Word to be true: that He did send His Son to die for our sins, and this He proves by revealing their powerlessness to us in the openness of our hearts to Him.  I've yet to encounter a sin that was too "bad" to be done away with by the power of Christ's blood.  

“In that day you will know that I am in My Father, you are in Me, and I am in you.”

John 14:20

This is like double inception.  Jesus is in the Father, and we are in Jesus, and Jesus is also in us even though we are in Him.  Haha.  Basically, we are all so intimately connected to one another by His Spirit in us that it is both right to say that we are in Christ (protected and kept) as well as Christ in us (being guided and taught).  The Spirit proceeds from the Son and speaks not on His own but what He hears.  Therefore we are both in Christ because we have His way and truth and life in us by the Spirit given to us and Christ is in us by His indwelling Spirit given to dwell in our hearts.  

Christ is all around us, in us, and as such we are also near to our Father.  When we see, hear, and believe Jesus we are closer and closer to the Father whom we derive our identities from.  When our identity is in that place of drawing nearer and nearer to God we are maturing into eternity.  In other words, the kingdom of God, which is eternal, comes to life in us even as we are still on the earth as temporary physical beings.  We carry treasures of eternal value in jars of clay, and one day when Jesus returns to gather all of us to Himself we will shed our clay molds and reveal the eternal treasures within.  But until then we have the Spirit of truth to remind us and reveal to us our identity in clearer and clearer ways, whether by giving us feelings of peace or by proving our feelings of fear wrong through endurance and hardship.  According to James the latter instance is effective for bringing about the most certainly and clarity, and it makes sense that it would.  It's hard though.  But I suppose I will never know why some choose Jesus and some do not.  I choose to believe in Jesus even though it's hard because it's also really good after all the suffering takes place.  In fact, it's good because the suffering takes place, and without suffering I would not fully appreciate and cherish the good that comes from it.  To know the value of something is in large part to know the payment made, and when I choose to believe in Jesus I choose the highest life at the highest cost, which was His life given up on the cross.  The moments I find this choice to be hard is only bits and pieces compared to what Jesus did for me.  

“Every branch in Me that does not produce fruit He removes, and He prunes every branch that produces fruit so that it will produce more fruit.”

John 15:2

For rational reasons it helps to be reminded that we are going to get cut in life either way.  Either we will be cut off from the Vine (which is our identity being attached and remaining in Christ) or we will be cut on by the pruning shears of God.  But either way we get cut.  Haha.  So there's painful cuts with or without God, and if that's the case it only makes it that much more apparent that to be cut while remaining on the vine is much better than to be cut off the Vine and left alone. 

“Remain in Me, and I in you. Just as a branch is unable to produce fruit by itself unless it remains on the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in Me. “I am the vine; you are the branches. The one who remains in Me and I in him produces much fruit, because you can do nothing without Me.

If you remain in Me and My words remain in you, ask whatever you want and it will be done for you. My Father is glorified by this: that you produce much fruit and prove to be My disciples.”

John 15:4-5, 7-8

I love how Jesus explains the whole idea of remaining in Him more clearly in the second part of the passage when He repeats that we are to remain in Him.  He says "and My words remain in you."  So a part of what it means for Christ to remain in us and we in Him is to know His Words.  It makes reading the bible less about checking off our list of holy things to do into something we read for survival and remaining in Him.  When we think about what it looks like today to remain in Him, it would be something along the lines of reading our bible and soaking in His words until they are like seeds embedded in our hearts and growing larger by the moment.  Some days I read His words and they just bounce right off of my ears and onto the floor into a seemingly useless pile, but other days they really stick and grow into new courageously driven fruits that encourage my feeble heart to consistently keep going and not lose hope.  Even though the times where a his Words fall limp in my mind are very discouraging, God uses those moments to bring me deeper faith by seeking Him even more through the dryness.  Those moments are a time of pruning, and I watch as God is cutting something off of me before I can begin to bear fruit again.  

“As the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you. Remain in My love. If you keep My commands you will remain in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commands and remain in His love.”

John 15:9-10

This is the sweet but difficult part of His words.  Not only is reading His words (the Bible) a way to remain in Him and He in us, but it also means we are remaining in Him when we remain fully convinced that He loves us.  This is crucial because most of us might think we believe that God loves us while still having fear in our hearts that He might not because of something we've done or didn't do.  To remain in His love is to feel safe and secure despite the presence of painful circumstances.  It does not mean that we feel no pain or no hardships, but when we remain in His love we entrust that even through this awful moment God is making a way for us to end up happy and all good.  By remaining in His love we are remaining fully loved, and when we are loved by God we have everything we need both now and in the future.

“You did not choose Me, but I chose you. I appointed you that you should go out and produce fruit and that your fruit should remain, so that whatever you ask the Father in My name, He will give you. This is what I command you: Love one another.”

John 15:16-17

Again there's the reminder that we can check out hearts by the amount of love we have for one another.  That is how we best know we are fully loved by God, in seeing and being aware of how much we are able to love the persons set before us in a day. 

“Remember the word I spoke to you: ‘A slave is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. If they kept My word, they will also keep yours.

“When the Counselor comes, the One I will send to you from the Father — the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father — He will testify about Me.”

John 15:20, 26

This is the truth that Jesus was sent to give us.  If what the Word says makes sense it is because the spirit of truth is in you testifying about Jesus to you.  It means your identity is in Christ and you belong to God as His child. 

“They will do these things because they haven’t known the Father or Me. But I have told you these things so that when their time comes you may remember I told them to you. I didn’t tell you these things from the beginning, because I was with you.”

John 16:3-4

There will come many a times where we will need God's Spirit to remind us of the truth we have received because we will most need to be reminded in the face of visible bad circumstances.  When the restlessness, anxiety and fear take place they are indications for us that we are in need of being reminded by the Spirit of who we are.  Those are the moments we are called to deeply seek the counsel of the Spirit.

“When the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all the truth. For He will not speak on His own, but He will speak whatever He hears. He will also declare to you what is to come. He will glorify Me, because He will take from what is Mine and declare it to you.”

John 16:13-14

Being guided is to be quiet and follow.  When the Spirit guides us it is often that we are called to quietly remain followers of His voice rather than of feelings unless the Spirit is using our feelings to guide us, but we will know when it is the voice of our Shepherd or the voice of a stranger.  This is best revealed by the other two criteria that Jesus gave, being His word and His love.  When both of those are still in place then being guided by the Spirit with or without feelings will also be made known.  When neither are present then it would be wise to wait. 

“I assure you: You will weep and wail, but the world will rejoice. You will become sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn to joy.

So you also have sorrow now. But I will see you again. Your hearts will rejoice, and no one will rob you of your joy.”

John 16:20, 22

Joy awaits us as we journey through each season of bearing fruit or of waiting for the Spirit's leading.  

“In that day you will ask in My name. I am not telling you that I will make requests to the Father on your behalf. For the Father Himself loves you, because you have loved Me and have believed that I came from God.”

John 16:26-27

The Father loves us. Jesus is not saying that He will intercede on our behalf to the Father for our assurance as if the Father hated us but only loves us because His Son sort of camouflages us.  Jesus shows us that it was the Father's love that was what placed us in Christ from before we were even in Him!  Meaning the Father loves us in His own way that does not depend on Christ covering us in His blood and sacrifice.  I mean, that brings a whole new meaning to His love of you really take the time to think about that.  

“I have told you these things so that in Me you may have peace. You will have suffering in this world. Be courageous! I have conquered the world.”

John 16:33

And finally, here are the words spoken and written in our books before us so that when our peace is frail or absent we might draw upon the source of peace anew.  We are going to suffer, but we have been given the end result of our suffering which is our place by the Father's side.  This truth of our victory and our end in life must be fired up in our hearts if we are to remain courageous through the suffering in life.  It has to be worth it to endure otherwise we won't last very long.  I pray each day for God to become bigger and stronger and more beautiful to me everyday so that when the suffering circumstances surround me I can rely on my view of Christ to sustain me to the end.  Without a proper view of Christ we will not have adequate means of surviving the times we suffer in the flesh.  

May Christ be revealed to you today in a way that captivates you, and if that is your prayer I hope you will be that revelation of Christ to someone else so that in faith the same will be done for you.  

We serve one another because the Master dwells in our hearts. 

Jmegrey