John 11:25-26

Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?”

Encouraging Words

Throughout the history of humankind, we have been searching for the fountain of youth. Humankind is continually fleeing from the prospect of aging and then ultimately dying. Jesus, in this passage, has made it clear that there is only one fountain of youth. It is Him! His promise of eternal life is not in this earthly, limited body, but in our resurrected body that we will receive in His Kingdom. Our fear of death is the reason we sin. We sin because we desire to beat the hold that death has on us or at least get the most out of our earthly life before we die. Jesus also is the answer to this problem. He destroyed the gates of hell and put to death death as we proclaim in our Orthodox Paschal hymn, “Christ has risen from the dead, trampling death by death, and upon those in the tombs, bestowing life!” If we walk with Jesus, believing in Him, then we will never die, Glory be to God!

John 8:31-32

Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”

Encouraging Words

What is truth? This is a question that has been asked since the beginning of time. It has become so evident in our modern times the question still stands because we have become a society that is divided over truths and falsehoods parading as truths. True truth only comes from our Lord Jesus Christ. That is all that matters. If we choose to put the proclamations of truth by our fellow human beings over His proclamations of truth then we are denying Him. It is His truth that will make us free. It is by abiding in Him and living by His commandments that we will find that truth. Those commandments are to love God and to love our neighbor. Do we truly desire truth or do we prefer to stay slaves to doing our own thing? Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy!

John 8:12

Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, “I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.”

Encouraging Words

We hear a lot nowadays about exercising our personal rights and freedoms. Do we really know what it means to be free? Is it really just about personal rights? What if exercising those personal rights causes injury to another person? The expectation of our Lord is that we give up our personal rights and submit to Him. This is not an optional thing if we want to be bathed in His light of life. Following Jesus is not having Him do what we want to do. It is letting go of everything in our lives, including our personal rights and freedoms and letting Him take over full control of us. Can we as modern, American Christians actually do this? Can we choose to love God with all of our mind, heart, soul, and body? Can we choose to love our neighbor more than ourselves and put them before us? I know that I cannot do this without God’s help. Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, the sinner!

John 8:7-9

So when they continued asking Him, He raised Himself up and said to them, “He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first.” And again He stooped down and wrote on the ground. Then those who heard it, being convicted by their conscience, went out one by one, beginning with the oldest even to the last. And Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst.

Personal challenge

Jesus had such a way of making people look into their own hearts and determine their shortcomings without being in their face about it. He still has that capability, if we let Him live in our hearts. If we do not have this soul searching going on, and are continually casting stones, then we should be asking ourselves if He dwells within us. This is hard. This is painful. But He does ask us to drop the stones and to show love to our neighbor. Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy!

John 7:37-38

On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.”

Personal Challenge

What does it mean to have rivers of living water flowing out of our hearts? Does this mean that we can continue to gossip about our neighbor? How about be mean to them or talk bad about them? Can we continue to be prejudiced, racist, sexist, derisive, or in any other way derogatory to our neighbor? Absolutely not! If we truly belong to Jesus and He has taken over our lives, then our hearts will only be able to pour out love for Him and our neighbor. It is time that we all take stock of our relationship with Him and abandon the things of this world-for the things of His world. We are no longer citizens in this world if we have come to Him and drunk from His well of life. Lord Jesus Christ, son of God, have mercy on me, the sinner!

John 6:68-69

But Simon Peter answered Him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. Also we have come to believe and know that You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

Personal Challenge

Sometimes we need to evaluate our lives and determine what is driving us day by day. What is behind our decisions? What is behind our desires? When confronted with the opportunity to leave Jesus as others had begun to, Peter responded that there is nowhere else to go and no one else to follow but Jesus. This is the question that we must answer. Is Jesus so important to us, so much the center of our lives, that we have no where else to go? If not, then it is time to rework our priorities. Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, the sinner!

John 6:35

And Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst.”

Encouraging Words

Our every need in life can be met by our Lord. He is able to provide for those needs exactly in the way that will best take care of us. When we focus on our “wants”, our desires, then we lose our satisfaction with the things that He gives us to meet our needs. This goes down to the very bread and water that He gives us to sustain physical life as well as eternal life. Glory be to God!