Let not YOUR heart be troubled; Let not MY heart be troubled; Let not OUR hearts be troubled. These words from Scripture have comforted multitudes of God's children down through the corridors of time. Neither the things of the world that blacken our life nor the imaginations of the heart that cloud our mind, must shift our trust in this Word of comfort that comes directly from God, the Father of all comforts.
These words were read more...
Jesus came to heal the broken-hearted, to set the captives free, to cause the lame to walk again, and to make the blind to see. He also came to comfort the sorrowing heart and to calm the grieving, confused soul. And what reassurance must have been shed abroad in the hearts of His disciples when they heard these time-shattering words for the first time: "There are many rooms in my Father's house." - If there weren't, I wouldn't have told you read more...
Jesus had just told His disciples that He was going away – but that He was going to prepare a special place for them in His Father's house. This was very disturbing for the little group of men who had given up everything to follow the Lord Jesus, and separation from Him was quite shocking.
They realised that He was the Messiah of Israel, and their expectation was that Jesus would shortly set up the long-awaited kingdom of God. read more...
"Jesus said to him, 'I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.'" WOW! What a statement! However, there is more truth packed into these few short words than is found in the combined libraries of humanity - and that is no emotional fantasy but a stark statement of factual reality. If, in love, we could but grasp, believe, and act on the deep significance of Christ's simple, yet profound statement, our troubled read more...
Like all His band of twelve disciples, Philip was a follower of Christ who had walked and talked with the Creator of the universe for three years. He had witnessed His perfect character, listened to His words of wisdom, seen many proofs of His divine person, and along with Christ's other disciples, Philip had been taught about Christ's holy, heavenly mission. However, the truth that the Lord Jesus was God incarnate, had yet to penetrate the heart of Philip read more...
To fulfil prophecy, Jesus came to redeem His people, Israel, preaching repentance of sin and the gospel of the Kingdom. He was sent ONLY to the lost sheep of the house of Israel and performed many signs to authenticate His Messianic claims. According to Scripture, Jesus had to offer salvation to His own people first, before He could shepherd the Gentiles into His heavenly sheepfold, and most of His earthly ministry and Messianic claims were directed towards read more...
The miracles of Christ were supernatural signs to authenticate His claims to be the Messiah of Israel as outlined in Scripture, but the WORK that Christ referred to was very different from walking on water, feeding 5000 men with bread and fish, raising people from the dead, or casting out demons. The work to which Christ was referring was feeding the soul with every word that proceeds from the mouth of God and helping to raise spiritually dead souls into newness of read more...
The Lord Jesus fulfilled the Mosaic Law on behalf of all who would trust in His name as Saviour, so there is now no condemnation for those that are in Christ Jesus. The law of the Spirit of life has set us free, in Him, from the law of sin and death. And yet, Jesus called us to keep His commandments, why would this be?
We may no longer be under the curse of the Law but this does not exclude us from living godly in Christ Jesus. We read more...
For well over three years, the Lord Jesus had moved in and out among His disciples, living alongside His little band of followers every moment of the day and throughout the darkness of each long night.
The first thing mentioned in this important chapter is the simple fact that the worlds came into being through the Word of God and that everything created, both visible and invisible, was made by His mighty power.
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Isaiah prophesied of the day when the virgin would conceive and give birth to Immanuel, God with us, and this joyful news was told to Joseph when an angel of the Lord appeared to him. For thirty-three amazing years, God dwelt among His own people, for the Word became flesh and tabernacled among us, full of grace and truth.
Jesus was indeed God WITH us, but He told His disciples of an even read more...
The sudden shock of hearing that Jesus was leaving to go back to the Father, must have been desperately disturbing for the disciples, but Jesus quickly started to explain that although they could not go with Him at that time, their physical separation from Him would only be temporary. Jesus was going to prepare a heavenly abode for each one of them, and unless He went away, the many benefits that were planned for believers and the glorious mysteries surrounding read more...
Jesus had just finished telling His confused disciples that He was going away to prepare a place for them in His Father's house, but that He would not leave them comfortless but send the Holy Spirit to be with them and to live inside them. Their bodies were to become God's holy temple, His permanent residence, and although they did not know it, Pentecost was on the near horizon.
The disciples must have been overwhelmed with the read more...
It was decided in God's eternal council chambers, that the Son of God would come to earth and be born into the human race as God incarnate, and live the perfect life that God desires from all of us; a life that was empowered by the Holy Spirit, a life that was submitted to the will of the Father and not his own human will.
And so, the words that the Lord Jesus read more...
The time for Christ's exodus from this world was fast approaching. Jesus had already told His disciples that He was going to ask the Father to send them another Counsellor, a Helper just like Himself – the Spirit of truth Who would act as their Advocate and plead their case to the Father. He explained that the unsaved would not be able to receive Him, because they know nothing of Him, but that the Spirit of Whom He spoke would stay with them forever, and that in read more...
We have peace, peace - wonderful peace with God, because we are saved. Through believing on Christ's finished work of redemption, we have peace with God, for Christ is the propitiation for our sins Who made peace with God on our behalf.
We have peace, peace - the wonderful peace of God that passes understanding, even through days of deep distress and troublous times, when we submit to His leading and follow His example, by saying: read more...
As the Cross drew ever closer, the solemnity of Christ's approaching passion blanketed the hearts of the confused disciples, whose earlier anticipation of the heavenly kingdom and their individual positions in it were quickly crumbling.
Understanding the perplexity in their hearts, the gracious Saviour offered words of compassion and comfort as He compressed His eternal love for them into a brief season, starting with these dear read more...
Some of the last words of help, encouragement, advice, and guidance that Christ gave His eleven disciples, shortly before He became the sin sacrifice for humanity, were that He did exactly as the Father commanded Him so that the world would know that He loved the Father.
Throughout His life, the Lord Jesus had demonstrated the very life that God created man to live; a life of utter dependence upon God, totally submitted to carry read more...