I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on John 14-16

John records here a promise which Jesus made that has given those who read it difficulty throughout history.  John writes that Jesus said that we can ask anything in His name and He will do it.  That is a very powerful promise. We can ask anything in His name and He will do it.  However, it doesn’t always seem to work that way.  There are two reasons why and those reasons are related to each other.  First, throughout the Gospels Jesus repeatedly tells us that if we have sufficient faith, we will be able to accomplish great things.  Now, He also tells us that sufficient faith is not very much; all we need is as much faith as a mustard seed.  The second reason is one we find in the context here.  Jesus made that promise to a very specific group of people: those who believe in Him and obey His commandments.  So, in order to take advantage of Jesus’ promise you must have sufficient faith, although that is not very much, and that faith must be in Him.

That brings us to an understanding about why we fail to see this promise fulfilled.  Despite the fact that it takes very little faith, it does take faith.  But more importantly, as James says in verse 4:3 of his letter, many of those who seek to take advantage of this promise seek to do so with the wrong motives.  So, asking God to have our preferred candidate win the election is unlikely to be answered, but asking God to transform people so that they serve Him, that will be answered.  In the recent election, I believe that the selfish interests of most of the people would have been served by one candidate winning the election, but the real question is, victory for which candidate will turn more people’s hearts to God?  Let us pray for that candidate to win, even if it means suffering for ourselves.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on John 12-13

For the last several days I have been really struck by how the passages I am reading are applicable to what is going on around us.  Today’s passage is no different.  Jesus tells us that those who love their life will lose it, only those who care nothing for their life will gain eternal life.  Just before saying that He says that a kernel of wheat must be planted in the soil and die in order to be productive.  Then after saying it, He tells us that if we wish to serve Him we must follow Him.  He talks about being troubled by the suffering He sees in His near future, but He accepts that coming suffering as necessary to make the world a better place.

So, we come to what to make of Jesus’ comment in this context.  If we fail to stand up for Christ in order to avoid suffering, we will suffer anyway, but without the joy of knowing that we have done our best to make the world a better place.  On the other hand, if we embrace the suffering which may come from doing God’s will, we will see the world become a better place and even that suffering will bring joy.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on John 10-11

There are two things which Jesus said as He spoke about being the Good Shepherd which I want to write about today.  He speaks about how He has sheep in another sheepfold that would also know His voice, follow Him, and become one flock with those to whom He had already called.  I believe that Jesus was referring to Gentiles when He referred to another sheepfold. Jesus’ teaching here, and what He spoke about in yesterday’s passage when He talked about truth and those who are truly the heirs of Abraham, form the basis for what Paul wrote in Galatians 3:28-29. Those who follow Jesus’ voice are no longer divided into tribes. We are no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, black or white. We are one in Jesus.  Those who strive to divide us into separate tribes are those whom Jesus refers to as the thieves who desire to steal and kill and destroy.  As we look around us today, we can see who those people are.  Do not listen to their voices.

Jesus goes on to tell us that those who listen to His voice were given to Him by the Father.  And once again, what Jesus says here is the basis for what Paul wrote in Romans 8:38-39.  Nothing can ever separate us from God’s love, nothing and no one can snatch us away from Jesus.  God is more powerful than anyone else, and  than anything.  As bad as things may seem when we look at the world around us, let us remember that God holds us in His hands and nothing can pry us out of them.  And this connects with what Jesus said to Martha shortly before He raised Lazarus from the dead.  Not even death can separate us from Jesus.  Those who put their faith in Jesus and listen to His voice will never truly die.  You have heard the saying, “Only two things in life are sure, death and taxes.”  But, the fact of the matter is that there is one thing even more sure than either of those.  That thing is God’s love for us.  No power can separate us from God, not death, and not the government.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on John 8-9

Jesus says, “you will know the truth and the truth will set you free.”  He continues by saying that those who sin are slaves to sin, but that the Son can set them free.  All too often, we lie to ourselves about our sin, just as Jesus’ listeners were lying to themselves about their sin.  They refused to acknowledge that they were enslaved by their sins and, as a result, were unable to accept being freed from those sins.  The devil and those who serve him hate the truth because it reveals their sins.  Indirectly then, lies are the root of all sin.  All of this fits in with what Jesus said earlier in today’s passage when He said that He was the light of the world.  Light and truth both reveal what was hidden by darkness and lies.  Those who wish to be freed from slavery to sin will seek both light and truth so that their sins may be revealed.  Those who wish to continue in their sins avoid light and truth so as to avoid acknowledging the hurt and suffering which their sin creates, both in themselves and others.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on John 6-7

When John wrote that Jesus said “I am the bread of life,” he was returning to the theme he touched upon when Jesus told His disciples that He had food which they did not know about after talking to the Samaritan woman at the well.  Jesus taught, and John sought to emphasize, that focusing on doing God’s will should come before focusing on our material desires.  We need to consume Jesus’ body and blood the way in which He consumed doing the Father’s work.  In a way, John is foreshadowing the saying, “You are what you eat.”  We need to make Jesus’ teachings and actions our sustenance as if we were consuming His body and blood.  We need to allow His Spirit to transform us into Him.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on John 4-5

As I read this I was struck by Jesus statement that the time has arrived for true worshipers to worship God in spirit and in truth.  The context in which He made this statement was in response to a question about worshiping God on Mt Gerizim or in Jerusalem.  The time has come when we must truthfully worship God.  If we worship God in spirit and in truth He will send us to harvest those He is bringing to eternal life.  If we worship in spirit and in truth, we will follow Jesus’ example as shown later in today’s passage.  When the Jewish leaders harassed Jesus for breaking their Sabbath rules He told them that His Father was always working, so He was as well.  We need to always be working to bring blessings to those around us, to show them how to worship in spirit and in truth.  If we listen to Jesus’ message and act according to His instructions we will receive eternal life and, more importantly, we will show others how they too can receive that eternal life.  I wanted to end there, but I need to write one more thing from this passage.  We can do nothing by ourselves, just as Jesus said that He could do nothing by Himself.  Jesus did only what He saw the Father doing.  We should do only that which we see Jesus doing.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on John 1-3

I love the way the beginning of the Gospel of John contrasts with the three preceding Gospels: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”  In his introduction to Jesus’ teachings John spends a lot of time referencing how we need to be born again and born of the Spirit.  He then revisits that in his account of Jesus’ meeting with Nicodemus.  One part of what John tells us hear is easy to miss because we tend to not associate water baptism with washing.  John links baptism with the Holy Spirit with water baptism in order to convey an idea which the other Gospels touch on when Jesus speaks about ritual hand-washing.  We need internal cleansing of our spirits more than we need external cleansing of our bodies.  Even John’s account about Jesus’ clearing the merchant’s out of the Temple relates to John’s theme about spiritual cleansing.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on John 19-21

When the leading priests declared that they have no king but Caesar they were making a blasphemous statement.  They intended it as a political statement to force Pilate’s hand, but it was also a repudiation of God.  By making this statement, they were declaring that their highest allegiance was to Caesar when it should have been to God.  This should be a warning to us.  We can get so caught up in promoting our political ideas that we place government above God.

I love thinking about what was happening when Peter went fishing again after Jesus’ resurrection.  Peter did not know what else to do, so he went fishing.  The other Apostles joined him because they did not know what else to do either.  All of them had been spending all of their time for the last three years following Jesus around.  Now He had died and while He had risen from the dead and appeared to them, He wasn’t around all of the time.  So, Peter went back to what he knew, fishing.  I was going to focus on the fact that Jesus got Peter to declare that he loved Him once for each of the times Peter had denied Him, but I realized there is another point to this story.

Peter went back to fishing because, now that his days of being a disciple of a famous rabbi were over, he needed to support himself.  However, he spent all night fishing and caught nothing.  Jesus showed up as he was giving up and told him to throw the nets back into the water.  They did as He said, even though they were too close to shore to reasonably expect to catch anything and as a result they caught an extraordinarily large haul.  Then Jesus tells Peter that he needs to focus on building up those who chose to follow Jesus going forward.  God would take care of his needs.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on John 17-18

In His prayer at the end of the Last Supper, Jesus makes a point which applies the promises and instructions which Jesus gave to His disciples to us today who believe in Him because of their message.  I fully believe that John intended for us to read it that way.  In addition to what He prayed for and taught His disciples, Jesus prayed for something specifically for those of us who came to Him through their message.  He prayed that we would have unity with each other and with Him and the Father.  The unity which Jesus prays for His followers only happens if those followers are in God and have God in them.  He does not pray for unity for unity’s sake.  Rather He prays for us to be united in Him, as He is united with the Father.

The world will hate us, just as it hated Jesus.  Nevertheless, Jesus sends us out into the world, just as the Father sent Him into the world.  Jesus gave Himself as a sacrifice so that we might be made holy by God’s truth.  Therefore, we should give ourselves as a sacrifice to bring glory to God’s name and so that others might be made holy by God’s truth.  Jesus teaches us that there is objective truth and that we can know that truth.  However, we must continually listen to the Holy Spirit as it reveals that truth to us.  Just because there is objective truth and we can know that truth does not mean that we do know that truth.  Or, to put it more exactly, just because we know some of the truth does not mean that everything we know is the truth.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on John 14-16

In my opinion, everything in today’s passage, and for that matter most of the Gospel of John, revolves around Jesus’ statement that He is the way, the truth, and the life, followed by Him saying that no one can come to the Father but through Him.  Every time I read this I think about those who argue that there are many ways to God.  They are correct, but all of those ways lead to Jesus.  Some argue that God will not deny those who have been so hurt by people claiming to speak on behalf of Jesus that they cannot approach Jesus.  There is some truth to that as well.  However, what that argument fails to recognize is that what God offers people is healing.  Part of that healing is to once more be able to approach Jesus.  God accepts and loves us as we are, but we must allow Him to transform us from what we were when we came to Him into what He intends for us to be.

Which brings me to Jesus’ promise that He will do anything we ask in His name.  This promise applies to those who believe in Him and have become His disciples.  This promise applies to us if we love Jesus.  Those who love Him will do as He says and will strive to avoid being the cause for others are unwilling to approach Jesus.  When we become one of those to whom Jesus’ promise applies, the world will hate us.   Those to whom this promise applies will wish to use it for those things which Jesus desires, not those things which the world desires.  Which brings us to Jesus’ description of Himself as a grape vine.  We are branches on that grape vine, if we do not bear fruit appropriate to the Vine we will be cut off.  Even if we bear fruit we can expect God to prune us so that we produce more, and better, fruit.  Jesus’ promise to do anything we ask in His name is conditioned on us being connected to Him.