John 14:1-3

O taste and see.

Psalms 34:8

It was Canon Holmes, of India, who more than twenty-five years ago called attention to the inferential character of the average man's faith in God. To most people God is an inference, not a reality. He is a deduction from evidence which they consider adequate; but He remains personally unknown to the individual. `He must be,' they say, `therefore we believe He is.' Others do not go even so far as this;...

The last cause I shall name is nonobedience. Truth is given to be believed and obeyed. Certain truths can only be believed, the reason being that they are revelations of fact and contain no command or instruction to be carried out. Other truths must be obeyed or for the hearer they have no meaning.

"I will come back" (John 14:3) is a statement of fact which cannot in the nature of it be obeyed; there is nothing in it to obey; it can only...

For Reading and Meditation:     John 14:1-14

We make the claim once again - Christianity is unique. It is unique in the sense that it is the divinely appointed way to enter into a relationship with the one true and living God. There is only one way, only one Name, only one God, only one Lord, only one Mediator. Our claim that Christianity is unique comes not from...

For Reading and Meditation:     John 20:10-18

Some non-Christian religions claim that God is the Author of their sacred writings as well as of the Bible, but the god they talk about is not the God who has revealed Himself in the Person of His Son. The true God is a Father - the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Mohammed wrote in the Qur'an (as we saw): "Allah...

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...

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...

John 14:1-2

The words of the fourteenth chapter of John were spoken by the Master to His friends in a time of deep grief which seemed inconsolable. Yet He said, "Let not your heart be troubled." This seemed a strange thing to say to those men that night. How could they keep their hearts from being troubled in such circumstances? To think of all that Jesus had grown to be to them! For three years they had been members of His personal...