ヨハネの福音書 14:1-13 Jcb

For Reading and Meditation:     Acts 4:1-12

We looked yesterday at the statement to the effect that all religions are the same. We must watch out for such statements, for when they are repeated over and over again, and by seemingly sincere people, we can be brainwashed into accepting them. In 1966, when the first multi-faith service was held in an Anglican church in...

JESUS is presented before thee crowned with thorns, scourged, with His face so marred more than any man's. His blood is flowing, His heart is breaking, and He is a Man of sorrows. Behold Him, then, for in this man, under these circumstances, dwelt all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. In Him the love of God centered and shone forth. He is the only foundation of His church's hopes, the only source of eternal salvation. He is Jehovah's first born,...

JESUS does not approve of your being in an agitated, perplexed, uncomfortable state. He wishes to see you steady, holy, and happy. He forbids your fear; He commands your faith. As He is with you, as He is engaged for you, you should leave your concerns very much with Him. But how can we attend to this exhortation? Get the mind assured of a covenant interest in God, as your God. Live under the impression, God is with me; He minutely observes every thing that takes place within and around me;...

SEE, beloved, what Jesus is doing. He is engaged for us; He did all He could for us on earth, and then ascended to heaven to carry on His work. The place He prepares will be worthy of Himself; "His rest will be glorious." It will just suit us; there the wicked cease from troubling, sin shall no more annoy, troubles shall no more beset, but the weary shall be at rest. He is preparing us for it, as well as it for us; therefore we are so tried and afflicted. Our light afflictions which are but...

"And whatsoever ye shall ask in My Name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son." John 14:13

It is not every believer who has yet learned to pray in Christ's name. To ask not only for His sake, but in His name, as authorized by Him, is a high order of prayer. We would not dare to ask for some things in that blessed name, for it would be a wretched profanation of it; but when the petition is so clearly right...

God is faithful and true. He cannot lie or deceive. He cannot go back on His word. He is absolutely trustworthy. No promise of His can ever fail.

"God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?"(Numbers 23:19). "Know therefore that the Lord thy God, he is God, the faithful God" (

This promise is introduced by a declaration that there is nothing but the want of faith to hinder Christ's disciples from doing works as great as those that Christ himself performed when on the earth; greater works even.

" Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do. Ye shall do those works nominally, but I really. Understand that I do not deprive the earth of any of my power by my departure. I go to sit upon my Father's throne, that I may do greater works on earth than I have...

There is something exceedingly gracious and affecting about this declaration. It is the language of pure friendship and open-hearted confidence. " If things had been darker than they are, if your difficulties greater, if your future less glorious, be sure that I would have told you. Did I ever seek to disguise the difficulties that would throng your path, if you became my followers? Did I speak in a whisper of the cross that you would have to bear? Did I keep you ignorant of an opposing...

If these words were appropriate at the time when they were spoken, then can we hardly conceive of a situation in which the people of God may be placed, in which these words would be inappropriate. If at that time the disciples were not to be troubled, then tell me, pray, what is the hour, what the emergency, when it is fitting that their hearts should be troubled?

Says one, " My child is dead; my beloved one. For years my predominant solicitude had been to make all things work...

Lord, is this thy desire? Didst thou take such a desire as this to heaven with thee? When thou wert parted from thy disciples and a cloud was about to receive thee out of their sight, were these sweet and love-expressing words still hovering on thy lips? When thou didst ascend up far above all principality and power, and might and dominion, when the hosts of heaven clustered gladly and adoringly around thee, were thine eyes still fixed on us, and did the desire still predominate in thy...