Tag: Gospel of John

November 29 – Hungry? Thirsty? Needs Met

“Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me will not hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst.”  John 6:35 (NASB)

It was a practice of Jesus when He was on earth teaching the people about Himself to use common everyday experiences and ideas to underscore who He truly was.  Hunger and thirst are familiar to every person and who does not wish to never be hunger or thirsty again?  In these words, Jesus is not speaking about our physical hunger and thirst.  He is speaking about how He satisfies our spiritual needs.  He was answering people who had been so  impressed at the way He had fed thousands of people the day before.  Like them, He wants them to recognize that we have spiritual needs and that He is able to meet such needs for us.  This is our promise.  We need to constantly turn to our Lord Jesus for the needs of our hearts and souls.  It is not enough just to believe in Jesus as our Savior.  We need to always be looking to Him to satisfy our spiritual longings.  Jesus says if we constantly trust Him we will never be unsatisfied.

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November 21 – Abiding Love

“We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.” 1 John 4:16 (NASB)

‘Abide’ is an interesting word in our verse today. It can be translated as ‘remain, wait, or continue.’ One of the many great truths revealed to us in the Bible is God’s love for us who abide. These words in our verse today are John the Apostle’s. John knew God’s love and he had experienced it intimately as he walked and talked with Jesus. He had seen Jesus heal sick, raise the dead and he had seen Jesus weep. He also watched Jesus die as he was nailed to the executioners cross. He saw the resurrected Jesus and he saw Jesus rise up into heaven. John knew God’s love and he relied on it. We today also know God’s love because we have believed that Jesus died for us, rose again to new life and accepted him as our Savior and Lord. We experience His love in our lives and we depend on Him each day because we know how He loves us with a perfect love. We live in the love of God and God lives in us. A wonderful and encouraging promise we can depend upon to be true. As we ABIDE let’s be thankful and rejoice!

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October 16 – Forewarned To Be Prepared

“Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also. But all these things will they do unto you for my name’s sake, because they know not him that sent me.” – John 15:20-21 (ESV)

Yesterday, we read how Peter urged faith believers to anticipate suffering. It wasn’t for acting wrongly with justice being a rightful consequence. No, it was suffering that would come simply because of their commitment to Jesus Christ.. In our passage today Jesus explains why His followers should expect the same kind of treatment from the world that the world gives to Him. The fact that Jesus was persecuted to the point of death for rightly claiming to be one with God is the reason we should not be alarmed when the world attacks our proclamation that Jesus is the Son of God. Many, in what we still identify as “evangelical” institutions and denominations have in their leadership those that deny the deity of Jesus Christ as well as his virgin birth and resurrection. Now those who continue to believe in the Christ are finding opposition to their faith. Jesus said it would happen; it’s coming from those that “know not who sent Jesus.” We should expect to be treated like He was treated because those who deny who His is don’t know God; conversely those who listen with faith to Him, hear Him and know He is God.

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October 14 – Gone For Our Advantage

“But I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you.” – John 16:7  (NASB)

The disciples of Jesus are with him in a second-floor room observing the Passover. Jesus is just a few hours away from the time he will be taken by the Jewish leaders and put on trial. It will be an illegal trial but the Jews must keep it quiet for a bit longer. Jesus is telling these followers and close friends that soon He will go away. They do not yet understand His purpose although He has been telling them he is approaching the moment for which he has come. He promises them and so He promised us that going away was necessary but they were not to be left alone. He also tells them that soon, just a little while they would see Him no longer – this is His accession to heaven that they will witness. But they will soon after see Him – when the Holy Spirit, the promised Helper is sent to abide in them. Now we who believe have Him abiding in us and us in Him. Jesus was emphatically claiming that the Spirit and He are one. Christ dwells in all faith believers through the Holy Spirit—in that sense we see Him.

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September 19 – Love = Obey

“Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it. If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.” – John 14:13-15 (NASB)

It was a most solemn meal that Jesus had with His disciples on Thursday night before His death the next day. None of the disciples yet understood they were celebrating the last Passover meal Jesus would ever observe under the Law of Moses. In their pending hour of the departure of Jesus, He comforts them and promises the means that would provide them with the necessary resources to accomplish their task. They had come to depend upon Jesus’ immediate presence which would not be there in the same way. To ask in Jesus’ “name” does not mean to tack such an expression on the end of a prayer as a mere formula. It means our prayers as believers should be for His kingdom purposes and not selfish reasons. None of our merit qualifies our prayers in this promise but only the merits of the work of Jesus. In short, our prayers should be in pursuit of His glory alone. Of supreme importance is our obedience to His commandments. Love for Christ is inseparable from obedience. “My commandments” include the entire revelation from the Father. We obey because we love which is enabled by His work of grace in our lives.

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September 9 – Avoiding Spiritual Hunger

Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me will not hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst. John 6:35  (NASB)

When we are hungry, are we really?. The physical hunger we feel is often only the expectation of doing something we do by habit at certain times.  True physical hunger is when our bodies lack what they need to live. So it is with real spiritual hunger. As humans we naturally have spiritual cravings and desire spiritual truth and these needs can only be filled and satisfied by our Creator. The yearning for spiritual truth and for eternal life is the hunger Jesus promises to fill. Our Bible verse today may be a familiar one but it may also be new to some of you. It includes a very wonderful promise and like all of God’s promises, we can depend on it. Jesus is speaking about spiritual hunger and spiritual thirst. We’ve shared this promise for you today because we believe that many who read this daily blog have these spiritual needs and are trusting the Lord each day to meet these needs. You are eating of the bread of life and drinking of the water of life and are finding the satisfaction that Jesus promised. Let’s be thankful that God feeds us with Himself through His Word.

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July 5 –Joy, Cheer, Courage, and Peace

“Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful.” – John 14:27 (NASB)
“These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.” John 16:33 (NASB)

Joy, Cheer, and Courage have their origin in one ultimate victory and that is Christ’s victory over hell and the grave. Old Testament saints looked forward to this promise being fulfilled and the New Testament church (post Christ’s crucifixion, burial and resurrection) looks back on the beginning of the fulfillment. The essential ground for endurance in trials and persecution is the Jesus’ victory over the world system and its prince of darkness. Through Christ’s impending death, and he is looking for it to happen momentarily, in just a few hours. He rendered the world’s opposition null and void. While the world continues to attack His people, such attacks fall harmlessly, for Christ’s victory has already accomplished a smashing defeat of the whole evil rebellious system. This means that all the promises of God, all the promises Jesus gave to us through His disciples are imminently pending and are guaranteed by His Word. In the middle of our topsy-turvy world where all that was stable is being uprooted and discarded, we have the assurance that the peace Christ gave to us is the real thing. Let’s trust the peace.

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June 3 –– Keeping Us From Evil


“I do not ask You to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one.” John 17:15 (NASB)


The Bible tells us that Jesus, the Son of God is praying for us in heaven. We might wonder what He is asking God do to for us and we might find some answers to that question in the last prayers which Jesus prayed before he was arrested and crucified. Recorded by John in chapter 17 of his gospel account. Jesus prayed for His disciples as He was soon to leave them. He knew what they would face here in this world. He knows what you and I face and he knows the increasing antagonism that Christians are facing these days. The evil one is active and we do need God’s help to overcome the influences just as the disciples did. We believe that this is in part what Jesus is praying for us today. As long as we live here on earth we need God’s help and God the Father does help us and answers the prayers of His Son Jesus. This is a promise that God will keep us from the evil one. God’s way of keeping us is to preserve our souls even as we face difficulty in this world. Trust Him today!

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May 26 –Hears, Knows, Follows


“My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me;” John 10:27 (NASB)


One of the many things Jesus spoke of Himself to help people understand His mission was that He was the Good Shepherd. It was very common in that day and people knew how important a shepherd’s job was. Today’s verse are words spoken by Jesus and recorded in the Gospel of John. We believe that everyone who believes in Jesus as Savior enters into the relationship pictured in this verse. What we mean is that by believing in Jesus we become one of his flocks and we can think of Him as our shepherd. Jesus said in our verse that His sheep listen to His voice. This means that He is speaking to us. He is not just up in heaven and far away. He knows us and is talking to us right now. It also reminds us that we should be listening to hear our Lord speaking to us and following what He is telling us. This is a wonderful provision. Jesus has thoughts to share with us. We don’t have to go through a day without hearing His voice in our spirit. Let’s be sure we’re within hearing range so that we can hear Him today.

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May 23 – Peace to Overcome


“These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.” John 16:33 (NASB)

Yesterday’s promise included the appropriation of the Gospel of Peace in order to stand firm against the ruler of this world system set on our failure as Christians. The attack is on all around us. Christian and Christianity is a target and quickly criticized by ungodly forces. Today’s verse gives us the promise of peace. Jesus, as he spoke to His disciples that last night at Passover Supper did so in order that they would have peace. He knew what was ahead was going to be very difficult and include tribulations and persecutions. But, as Jesus said, with His peace we can overcome whatever the world dishes out to us. Why can we trust this promise? How do we take on the courage we need and know it will be there for us? Because, Jesus declared the He had already overcome the world. As difficult as it was going to be, Jesus promised that what He had done for them and for us was to give us what we need to overcome the world – and that included His peace. Not a worldly idea of peace but a Godly kind of peace that lasts forever.

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