trying to find His way
“Whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing.” (John 14:12) Jesus came to bring humanity back into its loving relationship with God.This is the ‘where’ that Jesus is going, and ‘where’ He is leading us.God comes to us through Jesus, in order to bring us back to God.When we see Jesus in…
“My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you?” (John 14:2) The disciples know that trouble is brewing, and they are worried.They are in Jerusalem where the temple, the house of God, is.There are barriers to getting in…
“Will you really lay down your life for me?” (John 13:38) In the past I’ve sung the song ‘All to Jesus I surrender, I surrender all!’I also sang ‘Though none go with me, still I will follow!’Even then I could hear Jesus whispering in my heart: ‘Really???’I’ve come to see my own faith more realistically.Peter was…
“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.” (John 13:34) How is this a new command if the summary of the OT Law to love God and others?What makes this command new is in how we are to love: as Jesus has loved us.Jesus…
“As soon as Judas took the bread, Satan entered into him.” (John 13:27) The disciples did not know what Jesus was talking about, but Judas did.Judas had already gone to the religious leaders, and made the plan to betray Jesus.But perhaps his conscience was still holding back, and he was hesitant.Maybe Jesus would change, and become…
“Discipleship gets shrunk in our imaginations to information transfer. We picture a curriculum, a class, a few months of catechesis, and a certificate of completion. The New Testament envisions something far larger and far more dangerous: the actual reproduction of Christ’s life in ordinary human beings, scattered into every possible context, so that His redemptive…
“Whoever accepts anyone I send accepts me; and whoever accepts me accepts the one who sent me.” (John 13:20) God sends Jesus as a re-presentation of Who God is, what God is like.Those who respond positively to Jesus, are responding positively to God.This is because Jesus is like God, and God is like Jesus; to accept…
“For an evangelical, the spiritual path is an intellectual ascent toward certainty and right belief. Sadly, this is exactly what the ego craves. When spirituality is framed as an orthodox set of beliefs rather than an unorthodox way of being in the world, the ego goes into overdrive. Faith becomes a competition, not communion. Christianity…
“Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.” (John 13:17) In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says that God’s blessing rests on the ones on the bottom.The poor, the grieving, the meek, the merciful, the peacemakers, the persecuted, etc.All these have something in common: they are at the bottom…
“Unless I wash you, you have no part with me.” (John 13:8) Jesus came from God to restore God’s ‘very good’ creation kingdom.Peter was eager to receive his share (or part) of that kingdom (Matthew 19:27).What troubled Peter was how Jesus was behaving; like a slave, not a king.Peter did not understand that this was God’s way…