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John 15:12-14

This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends. You are My friends if you do whatever I command you.

Personal Challenge

Immediately following Jesus’ explanation about how our lives can be full of joy, He gives us the command to love one another. This is a very important part of being a true follower of Him. Today we have the opportunity to both see and participate in the practical application of laying down our life for one another. Our world is being ravaged by a pandemic. Whether people believe it is real or not, thousands of people are dying because of it. We all have the opportunity to be vaccinated against it and be inconvenienced by wearing masks so that we can prevent its spread. Do we make the choice to follow these practical and readily available options out of our love for one another or stomp our feet in defiance and refuse on the grounds that our personal freedom is being infringed upon? At what point does our worship of our personal freedom betray our love for Jesus Christ? Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy!

John 15:9-11

“As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love. If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love.

These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full.”

Encouraging Words

Jesus loves us. The Father loves us. These are undeniable truths. If we abide, or live, in the midst of this love, believing it, cherishing it, and sharing it, then we will have the joy of Jesus within us. This is a promise from our Lord. If we do not see this fullness of joy in our lives then it is time to see where we are in our relationship with Jesus. His truth is absolute truth and He will fill us with His absolute joy. Glory be to God!

John 15:5

“I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.”

Encouraging Words

I am so thankful that I grew up in an agricultural environment. There is so much in the scriptures that uses agricultural pictures to explain our relationship with God through Jesus. When we become followers of Christ we are grafted into His vine. This vine supplies all of the life blood and nutrients that we need to survive. Without the vine as our connection to God we will wither and die. As we stay connected to the vine we will begin to produce fruit. If we are not seeing this fruit in our lives then we should be running to Jesus to see what is restricting His life in us. Glory be to God!

John 14:27

Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.

Encouraging Words

One thing that is common among all people is the desire for inner peace So many people that I have talked to, many of which who proclaim to be Christians, share that they do not have joy or peace in their lives. This is very sad. Jesus promised us that He gives us peace. What are people doing in their lives to prevent that peace from being manifested? His peace starts in our hearts. If our hearts are filled with malice, hatred, anger, or contempt, then we are not walking with Him and His peace will not be found. If we are pursuing the things of this earth and not the things of heaven, then His peace will not have room in our lives. If we are always jockeying for position and stepping on others to get there, we will not see peace. Jesus gives us His peace, which passes all understanding. What are we doing with our lives, our hearts, to receive. and cherish that peace? Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy!

John 14:23-24

Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him. He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine but the Father’s who sent Me.”

Personal Challenge

In Thailand, everyone proclaims themselves to be Buddhist strictly by the fact that they were born Thai. The country has been Buddhist for so long that being Thai and Buddhist are synonymous. We are quickly becoming the same way here in America. I am an American, so I am Christian because all true Americans are Christians. It doesn’t work that way in Gods’ eyes. A Christian loves Jesus and keeps His word, and lives by that word. We are not Christians by birth or proclamation, but by being changed by Jesus and living lives that glorify Him. Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on us!

John 14:15-17

“If you love Me, keep My commandments. And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever— the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you.”

John 14:12

“Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father.”

Personal Challenge

For those of us who believe Jesus is truly the son of God and that He performed awesome miracles while in the flesh, this verse is a promise. He tells us that if we believe in Him that we will be able to do the works that He did and even greater ones. If this is true, then what has happened? We have let the mindset of the world infiltrate our belief and cause us to doubt. Reading further into the scriptures we see the apostles doing the same miracles that Jesus did. Why? Because of their belief. We can do the same. Maybe it is time to reclaim our rightful and annotated abilities from this physical and doubting world and let God do His works through us. Glory be to God!

John 14:6

Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”

Personal challenge

Jesus has made it very clear that there is only one way to come to the Father. We must go through Jesus. Having life, eternal life, can only be achieved through the work of Christ. He is the only door into heaven. I cannot achieve this by my attendance at church events. or the number of times that I go to the monastery or on a retreat, or how well I keep the fast, or anything else that I do. I need Jesus! He is my way. He is my truth. He is my life. Glory be to God!

John 13:34-35

A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”

Personal Challenge

The entire life of a Christian should be able to be boiled down to two things, evident love for God and active and observable love for one another. It does not matter how many services I go to or how many prostrations I make or how well I keep the fast or how often I visit the monastery or any other pious activities that I do. If I am not loving God and my neighbor, then as Paul proclaims, I am nothing but a noisy clanging cymbal. Lord Jesus Christ, son of God, have mercy on me the sinner, and forgive me for not loving my neighbor.