Category: Weekly Word of Encouragement

“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit.” John 15:5 (NIV) Humans don’t do well if they think their life is pointless. We don’t do well if we can’t be productive. We want something good to come from our lives. This is how God made us. When he put Adam and Eve in the Garden he told them to “be fruitful” (Gen. 1:28). We were made to produce good things and our soul will feel empty if we can’t do so. Moreover, we have a desire for deep fruitfulness. We don’t just want to build buildings, farm for food, or invent new medicines, although these are all good pursuits for fruitfulness. We also want to be fruitful in the hearts of others. We want to help satisfy the deeper desires for joy and peace in human Continue Reading →

“The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them” John 14:21 (NIV). It is interesting how much humans can endure when they know they are loved. When a lover knows they are loved in return, will they not voluntarily submit themself to all kinds of hardships for the sake of the one they love? The inner experience of love outweighs the value of external circumstances. Likewise, God’s love attracts us to him and if we love him in return; then God’s love for us can bloom. Even more, Jesus, our divine-human-king loves us and reveals himself to us. We can see him with the eyes of our heart now and in the next age we will see him with physical eyes. This verse encourages us to remember that God does love us and because of that we Continue Reading →

“I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. I am the good shepherd. ” John 10:10-11 (NIV). In this passage Jesus is explaining who he is to the Pharisees. Obviously, they had a life so they might have wondered why Jesus said that he came so his sheep could have life. Therefore, we understand that the life he gives us, his sheep, is not the same life that the rest of the world has. It is a different life. It is a life with fullness, with depth, with meaning, with fulfillment. Then Jesus says he is the good shepherd and in John 10 he has been explaining how he is a shepherd. I have to think that this made everyone there think about Psalm 23, which starts out ” The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing. He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside Continue Reading →

“You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” John 8:32 (ESV). Jesus also said that he was the “truth” (John 14:6) and that “if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed” (John 8:36, ESV). Knowing Jesus means that we know the truth, that he is from the Father and he is the Savior. We find truth in Jesus’ teachings for he said: “The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life” (John 6:63, ESV). Believing his words allows us to experience true life which sets us free from sinfulness which is the power that enslaves us. “Everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin” (John 8:34, ESV). As we walk by his Spirit we walk in growing freedom from sinfulness and freedom for goodness. We are also free from the influence of this world that tries to live without Continue Reading →

“Whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” (John 4:14, ESV) Jesus promises that he will give water that produces never-ending life to those who believe in him A few sentences earlier Jesus referred to his water as “living water” (John 4:10). When we drink his water we will never thirst to find God again because we have found him. This water is like a spring flowing up out of the ground that just keeps flowing, and for us it is a flow of the true life God originally intended for us. Sometimes we can’t feel it but it is the place deep inside where we desire God. This is where his Spirit dwells and where we have a new self, made in Continue Reading →