John 15:11

New International Version 1984 (NIV1984)

 

 

¹¹ I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.



When things are going well, we feel elated. When hardships come, we sink into depression. But true joy transends the rolling waves of circumstance. Joy comes from a consistent relationship with Jesus Christ. When our lives are intertwined with His, He will help us walk through adversity without sinking into dehibilitating lows and manage prosperity without moving into deceptive highs. The joy of living with Jesus Christ daily will keep us level-headed, no matter how high or low our circumstances.


 
Joe

John 14:21

The Message (MSG)

 

 

²¹ “The person who knows my commandments and keeps them, that’s who loves me. And the person who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and make myself plain to him.”



Jesus said that His followers show their love for Him by obeying Him. Love is more than lovely words; it is commitment and conduct. If you love Christ, then prove it by obeying what He says in His Word.

Joe

John 14:9-10

The Message (MSG)

 

 

^9-10 “You’ve been with me all this time, Philip, and you still don’t understand? To see me is to see the Father. So how can you ask, ‘Where is the Father?’ Don’t you believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I speak to you aren’t mere words. I don’t just make them up on my own. The Father who resides in me crafts each word into a divine act.





Jesus is the visible, tangible image of the invisible God. He is the complete revelation of what God is like. Jesus explained to Philip, who wanted to see the Father, that to know Jesus is to know God. The search for God, ends in Christ.


Joe

John 14:6

New International Version 1984 (NIV1984)

 

 

⁶ Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.



Jesus says He is the only way to God the Father. Some people may argue that this way is way too narrow. In reality, it is wide enough for the whole world, if the world chooses to accept it. Instead of worrying about how limited it sounds to have only one way, we should be saying, "Thank you, God, for providing a sure way to get to you.



Joe

John 13:35

New Living Translation (NLT)
 

³⁵ Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.”


Love is more than simple warm feelings; it is an attitude that reveals itself in action. How can we love others as Jesus loves us? Helping when its not convenient, by giving when it hurts, by devoting energy to others' welfare rather than our own, by absorbibg hurts from others without complaining or fighting back. This kind of love is hard to do. That is why people notice when you do it and know you are empowered by a supernatural source. See 1 Corinthians 13 below for another beautiful description of love.

Joe

1 Corinthians 13

The Message (MSG)

The Way of Love

13 If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don’t love, I’m nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate.

² If I speak God’s Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, “Jump,” and it jumps, but I don’t love, I’m nothing.
^3-7 If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don’t love, I’ve gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I’m bankrupt without love.

Love never gives up.
Love cares more for others than for self.
Love doesn’t want what it doesn’t have.
Love doesn’t strut,
Doesn’t have a swelled head,
Doesn’t force itself on others,
Isn’t always “me first,”
Doesn’t fly off the handle,
Doesn’t keep score of the sins of others,
Doesn’t revel when others grovel,
Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth,
Puts up with anything,
Trusts God always,
Always looks for the best,
Never looks back,
But keeps going to the end.

^8-10 Love never dies. Inspired speech will be over some day; praying in tongues will end; understanding will reach its limit. We know only a portion of the truth, and what we say about God is always incomplete. But when the Complete arrives, our incompletes will be canceled.

¹¹ When I was an infant at my mother’s breast, I gurgled and cooed like any infant. When I grew up, I left those infant ways for good.
¹² We don’t yet see things clearly. We’re squinting in a fog, peering through a mist. But it won’t be long before the weather clears and the sun shines bright! We’ll see it all then, see it all as clearly as God sees us, knowing him directly just as he knows us!
¹³ But for right now, until that completeness, we have three things to do to lead us toward that consummation: Trust steadily in God, hope unswervingly, love extravagantly. And the best of the three is love.

John 13:6-7

New International Version 1984 (NIV1984)

 

⁶ He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?”
⁷ Jesus replied, “You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand.”

Imaging being Peter and watching Jesus wash the others' feet, all the while moving closer to you. Seeing his Master behave like a slave must have confused Peter. He still did not understand Jesus' teaching that to be a leader, a person must be a servant. This is not a comfortable passage for leaders who find it hard to serve those beneath them. How do you treat those who work under you?


Joe

John 12:45

The Message (MSG)

 

 

^44-46 Jesus summed it all up when he cried out, “Whoever believes in me, believes not just in me but in the One who sent me. Whoever looks at me is looking, in fact, at the One who sent me. I am Light that has come into the world so that all who believe in me won’t have to stay any longer in the dark.



We often wonder what God is like. How can we know the Creator when He doesn't make himself visible? Jesus said plainly that those who see Him see God, because He is God. If you want to know what God is like, study the person and words of Jesus Christ.




Joe