Jesus Keeps His Word

On March 30, 1984, a police detective named Robert Cunningham walked into Sal’s Pizzeria in Yonkers, New York. He asked for his favorite waitress, Phyllis, and ordered his usual, linguine with clam sauce. At some point, detective Cunningham half-jokingly offered Phyllis a half-share in the lottery ticket he was about to buy. There were six numbers in all; he picked three, and she picked three, all winnings would be split 50/50. After his meal, Cunningham walked across the street and bought the ticket.

Phyllis laughed and promptly forgot all about it, until the next evening, when detective Cunningham walked back into Sal’s Pizzeria with a lottery ticket in his hand; a ticket now worth $6 million. The detective kept his word to the waitress, and they shared the prize. Because Robert Cunningham kept his word, Phyllis the waitress received a pretty nice tip, which amounted to about $143,000 a year for twenty years.

When people keep their word, powerful things happen. When husbands and wives keep their word to each other, living out their marriage vows each day, powerful things happen. This weekend we remember those members of our nation’s armed forces who kept their word to God and country. When people keep their word, great things happen. That’s what we celebrate on Pentecost Sunday. We celebrate the fact that Jesus kept his word.

In the Gospel of John, Jesus made a promise. He told His disciples that he was going to go away soon, but this going had a purpose. He had to go so He could send his disciples a Helper. That Helper would be the Holy Spirit. In John 6: 13, Jesus calls the Holy Spirit the “Spirit of truth.” The Spirit of truth will tell the truth about Jesus and will inspire Jesus’ followers to do the same. Jesus made the promise to send the Helping Spirit of truth well in advance of his death and resurrection. And on Pentecost Sunday, we celebrate the fact that Jesus kept his word.

Our second reading today from Acts 2 tells us exactly how Jesus kept his promise. Jesus sends the Spirit of truth to his followers, who were waiting in Jerusalem like Jesus had told them to, a congregation of 120 people or so, and that Spirit gets the followers of Jesus up and out and communicating. The Spirit of truth enabled these normal, regular people to tell the truth about Jesus in languages they had never learned before. As a result, 3,000 people repented, were baptized, and came to saving faith in Jesus Christ. When these 3,000 people went back home to wherever they were from, you have the list there in verses 9,10, and 11, everywhere from Rome to Egypt to Asia and Arabia, when those folks headed home they took their newfound faith with them. This was the first expansion of the Christian faith into the wider world—the first mission wave to roll across the land with the greatest announcement of all time! All because Jesus kept his promise; all because Jesus keeps his word.

Fast forward to the year 2012. You and I are here today. Why? Because Jesus keeps His word. You and I are here because Jesus has never stopped sending the Spirit of truth. The Spirit of truth tells the truth about Jesus to our hearts and minds. It was the Spirit of truth that gave you the ability to put all your trust in Jesus. It was the Spirit of truth that created that connecting cord between you and Christ Jesus when you were baptized. It is the Spirit of truth that tells the truth about our real condition inside. The Spirit brings all that out into the open, brings it up to the surface, all the times we have failed to keep our word, gone back on our promises, said one thing and done another. The truth that Spirit brings is that I have failed, miserably. The truth that the Spirit brings is that in Christ, because of Jesus, I am forgiven, completely. Just like in the first reading today, the Spirit of truth takes things that were dead and makes them alive again. Things like my heart, my mind, my will. And you know how the Spirit does that? By focusing our attention on Jesus; enabling us to accept the forgiveness of Jesus; by making us want to be more like Jesus; creating in us this understanding: that more Jesus and less “me” is always a good thing. You and I are here today, enjoying the gift of faith, because Jesus keeps his word.

Jesus keeps his word. Think of everything that means. Jesus said: “Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” Jesus said: “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you.” Jesus said: “Whoever comes to me, I will never drive away.” Jesus said, “The water I give will become in you a spring welling up to eternal life.” Jesus said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me…and I am with you always.” How does it feel to know that Jesus keeps his word?

Life in the Son

“He who has the Son has life; He who does not have the Son of God does not have life.” 1 John 5: 12

It all comes down to this. This is the line in the sand that God’s truth draws. What do you think about the Son of God? Do you have Jesus?

To the faithful, these words of John the Apostle make perfect sense. To have the Son is to have life to the full. And the opposite is also true: those who do not have the Son do not have life. Oh, they may be alive. But they do not possess the kind of life that John is talking about. They may be breathing, walking, talking, sleeping, and so on, but that’s not the kind of life John is talking about. John is talking about life that springs from a connection with Jesus; a life of service that is deeply meaningful; a life that unafraid of death. Life joined to Jesus, the Son. He who does not have the Son doesn’t have any of these.

It all comes down to this: “He Who Has the Son Has Life; He who does not have the Son does not have life.” This is Christian truth at its most straightforward, and it either makes a person rejoice or curse. Take for instance, one of our culture’s preeminent daytime talk show hostesses. Thanks to YouTube, you can watch a portion of an episode in which she used her microphone to declare, with utter conviction, that Jesus cannot be the only way to God. When a Christian woman in the audience refers to Jesus as the way, the truth, and the life, she vehemently disagrees and ultimately shuts the dialogue down. “He who has the Son has life; He who does not have the Son of God does not have life” was not allowed on that program. If the apostle John were her guest, he would have a battle on his hands. Something tells me the footage wouldn’t even air.

The media’s influence is deep and wide; but one wonders if it is setting the tone or is merely running with the current. Certainly, it speaks for many who will not hear of Jesus being the only way to heaven. It gives voice to the dark and self-centered hope that it really doesn’t matter what you believe.

We are under pressure to conform to a “choose-your-own-truth” spirituality. We don’t want to be perceived as unloving or judgmental, but when we speak the “foolish” message of the cross, we will be. So we have choices to make. We can simply not say anything, never bringing our private faith to light, and therefore never offend anyone. We can say that we’ll speak of Jesus when “the time is right,” banking on the fact that it never will be. We can be seduced by the opinions of those who seem so reasonable, so thoughtful, so successful, that they must be on to something. The sin that lurks within us is more than willing to listen to the question, “Did God really say...?” In a sense, isn’t that the oldest sin on record…to doubt that what God says is true?

Well, it all comes down to this. This is the line in the sand that God’s truth draws. The uniform, consistent message of God’s truth is: “He Who Has the Son Has Life; He who does not have the Son does not have life.” And here’s what it means to “have the Son.” It means that you have been drawn to Him. It means that you have heard Him say, “Repent and believe the good news.” It means that you have been challenged to repent, to admit your sinful actions and sinful nature, to come before the Lord with empty hands, empty pockets, just plain empty. It means to agree that God’s judgments are just and right—that we do deserve punishment and banishment because of our sin. To have the Son means that He sees you and He knows your condition and still offers you forgiveness that He earned. Your sins have sickened you, and He has the antidote. To have the Son means that He has given Himself to you; tying himself to you in Holy Baptism; covering you with His cloak of righteousness. To have the Son means you share in His resurrection and that all the questions that matter about “life after death” are answered in Him. To have the Son means to turn away from sin and to go in God’s direction, believing that you are claimed and forgiven by Jesus’ incarnation, suffering, death, and resurrection. Or one could say that to have the Son is to believe that the Son has you. You are His by his gracious, merciful, loving choice.

Do you see that it is not unloving to preach this message? Do you see that it is not hateful to believe it? Having the Son is the only lifesaving remedy there is! How could we think that withholding it from someone is at all helpful to them?

Here’s a part of my biography that you probably didn’t know. I was a jaundiced baby. Jaundice is a liver disorder that can cause skin and the whites of your eyes to turn yellow. The doctor probably told my parents that this is a potentially devastating disease but it’s easily treated. All they had to do was put me under a special light for a while and this would stimulate my liver properly and I’d be all right. Now, my parents could have said, “That sounds too easy. How about instead if we scrubbed him with soap and dipped him in bleach? If we worked hard enough, I’m sure we could get his normal coloring back.”
But the doctor would have said, “No, there’s only one way to handle this.”They could have replied, “Well, how about if we just sort of ignore this and pretend everything’s OK? You know — the jaundice is your truth, Doc, not our truth. And if we sincerely believe that, things will work out for the best.”
The doctor would have said, “You’d jeopardize your baby if you did that. Look, there’s only one way to cure him. You’re hesitant because it sounds too easy, but look at the credentials hanging on my wall. I’ve studied at medical school and I’ve used what I’ve learned to cure countless babies like yours. Trust me!”
Would anybody accuse my parents of being narrow-minded for trusting the doctor and pursuing the only course of treatment that was going to cure their son?

To have the Son is to be healed of the terminal illness of sin. To have the Son is to live each day with a clear conscience as we repent and return to Jesus, drawing on our baptismal connection with Him. To have the Son is to have confidence in the face of death, when all other supports are washed away, because we stand on the Rock of Christ, who rose and who lives. He has opened the gate of everlasting life to you. If you have the Son, you have this life. He has given all to have you.

Friendship with Jesus

Mother’s Day is the perfect time to talk about family resemblances. And when you talk about family resemblances, of course, you’re talking about physical appearances, but you’re also talking about mannerisms and things that you say just like mom did. What’s really interesting is when people pick up mannerisms and language from someone you’re not related to, like a close friend. It’s not unusual to identify with a friend so strongly that you unconsciously sort of imitate each other.

 Jesus and his disciple John had that kind of friendship. That is reflected in John calling himself “the disciple whom Jesus loved.” It is reflected in John taking Jesus’ mother Mary into his home at the time of Jesus’ crucifixion. And it is really reflected in the writings that John left to the Church. The close relationship between John and Jesus is evident in the way John says things. You can hear Jesus all through it. When you compare the epistle lesson with the gospel lesson for today, it’s as if the same person is talking. It sounds like John has absorbed Jesus’ teachings to the point that he speaks with his Master’s mannerisms. So it should not shock us too much to learn that what John says is challenging, uncompromising, and truthful, just like Jesus. The resemblance is striking.

Just like Jesus, John links love for God with obedience to his commandments. That sounds simple, but if you take it seriously, that’s pretty provocative. John says, “If you really love God, you’ll obey him.” And he goes onto say that “his commandments are not burdensome.” You might be thinking to yourself, “Oh really? Not burdensome? God’s command to always love and forgive—not burdensome? God’s command to love others as we do ourselves—not burdensome? Does John know what he’s talking about?

Well, yes he does—don’t forget, he was perhaps Jesus’ closest friend. And therein lies the key to understanding the link between love and obedience. Like the apostle John, you and I are invited into friendship with Almighty God. Jesus calls us his friends. His friends! If we think of obeying God’s commands in some kind of impersonal way, then we will always be hit with the Law. That is to say: commands are rules, and by nature, we break rules. By nature, we resent anyone who tells us what to do. We will, however, on occasion, listen to a trusted friend. We will listen to the perspective of someone whom we know really cares. This is what Jesus is saying to you through the words of John 15.

He says, “I consider you my friend. I’m not some faceless deity in the sky ordering you around, trying to make your life miserable. I am your friend who loves you. Jesus defines for us the greatest test of friendship: “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.” Think of some of your best friends—the people you love spending time with—the people you have shared so much with—the people you can be yourself around. Now ask yourself—would you die for them? Sometimes there are heroic people who do just that.

 Consider the life and death of Marine Corporal Jason Dunham. In April 2004, while leading a patrol of his Marines in an Iraqi town near the Syrian border, a nearby Marine convoy was ambushed. Corporal Dunham led his squad to the site of the attack, where he and his men stopped a convoy of cars that were trying to make an escape. As he moved to search one of the vehicles, an insurgent jumped out and grabbed the Corporal by the throat. The Corporal engaged the enemy in hand-to-hand combat. At one point he shouted to his fellow Marines, "No, no, no, watch his hand." Moments later, a grenade rolled out. Corporal Dunham did not hesitate; he jumped on the grenade to protect his fellow Marines, using his helmet and his body to absorb the blast.

A friend who was there that day put it this way: "Corporal Dunham had a gift from God. Everyone who came in contact with him wanted to be like him. He was the toughest Marine, but the nicest guy. He would do anything for you. Corporal Dunham was the kind of person everybody wants as their best friend." Despite surviving the initial blast and being given the best of medical care, Corporal Dunham ultimately succumbed to his wounds. And by giving his own life, Corporal Dunham saved the lives of two of his men.

Jesus would call that the ultimate expression of friendship. You may see where I’m going with this. Jesus can call you his friend because he laid down his life for you. He’s proven his friendship to you in the most extreme way possible. Because of our inability to love and obey, we deserve to be blasted with punishment. That’s not going to happen now, thanks to a Friend who loves so fully that he would voluntarily take the impact of your sin and guilt upon himself. He laid down on the cross beam for you. That is friendship. That is love. He did it to claim you as his friend forever. I’ve had great friends throughout my life, and they’ve been very good to me, but they’ve never done that. They didn’t suffer what I should have suffered. They didn’t die what should have been my death. Only Jesus did that. Only Jesus could. What a friend we have in Him!

Since He has done this for us; since it is His desire to call us His friends, that changes the whole way we look at the idea of obedience.

Think again, if you will, of someone you consider a close friend, if not your best friend. If they ask you to do something, how will you generally respond? Most of the time, you will do whatever you can to help out a friend. Even if it means shuffling your schedule and sacrificing valuable personal time, you’ll do it precisely because that person is your friend. You do it, not out of fear or obligation, but because of a bond of love and friendship. You might recall the image of one small boy carrying another on his back, with the caption, “He ain’t heavy Mister; he’s my brother.” That became the motto of what is now Girls and Boys Town, founded by the real-life Father Flanagan. And that captures how we feel and what we would do for a friend.

Since Jesus calls us His friends and demonstrated His friendship by laying down His very life for us, we, in turn, can call Him our Friend. More than that, the Holy Spirit enables us to treat Him as our Friend. That means we can come at the concept of obedience not in some detached way, but our response is wrapped up in a relationship of friendship with the One who paid for our sins with His death! In other words, because Jesus has extended to you his nail-scarred hand of friendship, you can live His way, with Him, not out of fear or obligation, but because of a bond of love—because He is Friend and Savior to us. He ain’t heavy; He’s our Brother.

 As John writes, “His commandments are not burdensome.” Now we can see why. Friendship with Jesus transforms “ought to” into “want to” and “got to” into “get to,” because we know how far He is willing to go to help us.

Chances are you’ve never heard of Mike Dunlap, assistant basketball coach at the University of Oregon. We don’t have time to re-cap his career, but there’s a comment about him that is worth mentioning, that applies to what we’re talking about. Dunlap’s former athletic director says this about him: “He’s very demanding of his players, but he would run through a wall for them and they know that. So they run through walls for him.”

 
            Jesus ran through the wall of death for us, and came out the other side alive. Let’s run through walls for our greatest friend, and let our resemblance to Him shine through.

Vine and Branches

Have you ever watched a child go outside and play? Even the smallest child quickly discovers the laws of cause and effect. I’m thinking of kids who go outside, very small children who just sit on the lawn, reach down in the grass and start pulling it up out of the ground, their little fists full of green grass. As you get older, kids try things like breaking branches off trees, which to a child seems harmless, but at some point it dawns on you that you may have damaged something. I mean, at first, everything looks fine, let’s say I broke a branch off of an apple tree, and there’s still a couple apples hanging off of it. Right then and there it looks OK. It looks like any of the branches still on the tree. But if I set that branch on the ground and come back in a couple days, what am I going to find? Well, you know what I’m going to find—a branch that is starting to dry out, leaves that are beginning to wither, and fruit that is starting to rot.

            This is exactly the visual picture that Jesus paints in order to talk about our relationship to Him. In John’s Gospel He says, “I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me, you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned.”

            Jesus is the vine; you and I are the branches. Jesus is the source of real life. He is the vine, the root, the trunk. The person who is a sincere follower of Jesus is connected to Him. The Christian person is hooked into that life source. When you live in that connection, when you’re intentional about maintaining that connection, what’s the result? You bear fruit, which is a poetic way of saying that the life force of Jesus inside of you causes you to do things Jesus would do. On the other hand, if you neglect your connection to Jesus, if you’re not intentional about maintaining that connection, if other things take precedent, what’s the result then? Faith withers and dies. You’re like a branch that’s gone rotten from the inside out. Jesus says that person becomes like a stick that you gather in order to burn on the trash pile. Do you hear what he’s saying? Jesus’ own object lesson gets right to the point. Remain in me, abide in me, and you’ll really be alive, and will do a lot of good with your life. Live without paying careful attention to me, and your connection to me, Jesus says, and you’ll die from the inside out.

            Today, six of our young people are going to make their confirmation. It’s a milestone day. It’s a rite of passage, if you will. But let’s be very clear about what’s going on here. This is not graduation from church. It’s just the opposite. I want you to look in the bulletin, and look at what these seventh graders are saying. Please, really look at what they are saying. They are confirming that the faith that was passed to them when they were baptized is their own. They’re saying that they believe that the Bible tells the truth. They’re saying, “I believe Jesus is my Savior from sin, death, and hell.” And—make sure you don’t miss this—they’re saying, I would rather die than fall away from Jesus. Nothing is more important to me than Him. Did you realize that’s what they’re saying? Could you say the same?

            Today, these six students are going to stand before God and his Church and say, “I want to abide in the vine. I want to remain in Jesus. I’m going to live my life in connection to Him.” That’s a wonderful confession of faith and confirmation of God’s working in their lives. But it’s only going to mean something if you know how to maintain that connection and why to maintain that connection.

            First of all: the how. How do you remain in Jesus? How do you abide in Jesus? You stay plugged in. Here’s a little story about a man who had made a bit of a mess in the living room, and went and got the vacuum to clean things up. Well, he flipped the switch and nothing happened. He flipped the vacuum over and fiddled with some of the belts. He checked some of the inner connections. He flipped the switch again; nothing. Finally he called out to his wife, “Honey, is there something wrong with the vacuum? It’s not working!” His wife replied, “Did you plug it in?” Turns out he had forgotten that step.

            How do you abide in Jesus? You stay plugged in to Him. It’s so simple, and yet so hard for us to master. Sometimes when I talk to people, and they tell me that they feel so far away from God, and when you listen to their story, it becomes clear that the reason they feel that way is they stopped plugging in to Jesus long ago. So again, how do you do that?

            You remain in Jesus by plugging into His Word, the Bible. There’s no substitute for this. God’s Word is the outlet that you must attach to, and you can attach to it here in church, in Sunday School, in youth group, in Adult Bible Study, at home, in your room, in your iPod, wherever. God’s Word reminds you again and again that God loves you so much that it killed Him, and that He rose to new life to be with you always. When you make the time to plug into the Bible, the energy and power of God will flow through you. If you don’t, it won’t. You remain in Jesus by going to the Lord’s Supper; by eating and drinking the heavenly food that Jesus gives you there. Again, there’s no substitute for this. By Jesus’ own promise, He gives himself to you here in bread and wine. When you eat and drink Jesus, the forgiveness and love of God flow through you. If you don’t, it won’t.

            How do you abide in Jesus? By remembering your baptism, for it was baptism that created a connection between you and the Son of God. You abide in Jesus by talking to God regularly in prayer, by letting Him in to your everyday life. If you’re trying to be a Christian, but you stay away from these things, you’re trying to run a vacuum that’s not plugged in. You’re a branch that’s torn itself from the tree. It doesn’t work. Don’t try it.

            Secondly: the why. Why should I remain in Jesus? Why maintain my connection with Him? Of course it benefits you to remain in Jesus—it benefits you eternally, but that’s not where Jesus goes here. Instead He says, “[The person who] abides in me bears much fruit.” Jesus wants us to live fruitful lives. Do you understand that? An apple tree that produces apples is doing what it’s supposed to do. A Christian who lives in connection to Jesus produces fruit as well, in the form of loving actions done for others. We were made for this. If you abide in Jesus, you will find yourself doing good things for people, and you will be happy doing them, it will be deeply satisfying, even if there’s a sacrifice involved; even if it’s inconvenient. When you abide in Jesus, the desire and willingness and the availability to do this will just start to grow, because that’s what Jesus is like. He’s pushing that love through the vine into your branch. He’s touching the world through your branch.

            That’s the how and the why of abiding in Jesus. He is the vine, you are the branches. Stay plugged into your Lord and Savior, so that He can touch the world through you.

The Purpose of the Bible

Back in my undergraduate days, we were taught that when you write a paper, you ought to have something called a thesis statement. That thesis statement was supposed to capture, in one sentence, the point you were trying to make. Having a thesis statement was supposed to help give your paper focus and a clear direction. One of my seminary professors taught us that sermons should also include a thesis statement that serves the same purpose. You will have to be the judge of whether or not this message has focus and clear direction. All I can say is, I try!
The idea of having a thesis or purpose or mission statement has been embraced by the business world and has filtered back into the church. Even though Jesus gave his church a mission statement when he said, “Go and make disciples of all nations…” congregations have found it useful to write their own, and our congregation is no different. Do you know our mission statement? It’s begun to work its way into all our printed materials, and into some hearts around here too: ‘We are saved by Christ to serve His creation.”

At the very end of today’s Gospel Lesson, we are presented with what I believe to be a purpose statement. I see it as the mission statement of John’s Gospel and indeed all of the Bible. John writes: Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. The purpose of the Bible is to create faith in Jesus; faith that gives godly life. Now maybe that’s stating the obvious, but these days the obvious needs to be stated.

A recent Trinity College survey ruffled a few feathers within the church. This survey found that an increasing amount of Americans are willing to say, “I don’t believe in any god.” We seem to have a growing number of “confessing atheists” among us.

I know the findings of this poll deeply troubled some people, and if this poll is an accurate reading of America’s pulse, it is not good news. But at the same time, does it really surprise Bible-believing Christians that there are faithless people out there? Doesn’t the Bible tell us that by nature we are turned away from God? The story of Noah records this stunning commentary: “The LORD saw that the people on earth were very wicked and in their hearts were always thinking only evil” (Genesis 6:5). Doesn’t the apostle Paul use terms like “slaves to sin” and “dead in trespasses and sins” to describe the spiritual condition of mankind? These kind of opinion polls merely confirm that God’s Word gets it right. I don’t think there is an epidemic of atheism sweeping our country. We’re all atheists to begin with—until the Lord God reclaims us through His Word and baptismal water. More people today are candid about their lack of faith, and on one hand that ought to bother us. But keep in mind that an atheist is giving expression to our human default setting. We are by nature sinful and unclean. We cannot by our own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ or come to Him. We were born into disbelief and doubt.

Maybe that’s what makes today’s Gospel reading so powerful. It deals realistically with doubt and disbelief, within the circle of Jesus’ own disciples. Not only does it point out the problem—it offers the solution.

Today we are re-introduced to Jesus’ disciple Thomas. Yes, good old doubting Thomas. It sure would be easy to throw good old doubting Thomas under the proverbial bus; to say: “Boy, what an idiot! How could he doubt the Lord’s resurrection?” It might feel good to know we’re superior to one of Jesus’ own students. But can we really claim that?

Can we claim to have never doubted God’s reality? Can we really claim to have never wondered if Jesus actually cares about us? Can we honestly claim to have never lashed out at God—to have never shaken our fist at Him or threatened to pull away from Him when He doesn’t do things our way? Our maybe your doubt and disbelief is a little more boring than all that. Maybe Jesus doesn’t really cross your mind during the course of a normal day. Maybe your brief morning prayer eventually becomes no prayer at all. Maybe you would never dream of abandoning the Christian label—even though you’ve quietly slipped into a life of practical atheism, where God is not the enemy, just irrelevant. We have no right to criticize Thomas for demanding proof when we do it all the time.

Along with Thomas, we deserve to be rejected by our Master for our faithlessness. But is it God’s mission to reject his children? No. These are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. Jesus has not come to reject you but to give you life—life that really counts. When He appeared to Thomas, it was not to kick him out of the fellowship but to speak peace to him and to forgive him. Thomas was given the privilege of seeing His resurrected teacher—but this story is just as much about what didn’t happen. Thomas was not told to get out. He was allowed to remain with Jesus and see the visible signs of his forgiving love—the visible scars in his glorified body. That, John writes, is how Thomas’ faith was restored.

And then, it’s like John turns directly to you and looks you right in the eye and says: These are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. The Word of God exists to give you faith. These stories about Jesus, reported by eyewitnesses, have been handed down through time so that you would become convinced that Jesus is the Savior God promised. These events of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection are relayed to you so that you will put your trust in him for forgiveness and eternal life. The Holy Spirit accompanies every word of Holy Scripture, actively working to create and restore faith in Jesus. And where there is faith in Jesus, there is life. Not just “life” meaning something that is alive, but “life” meaning existence with purpose and confidence and enjoyment of God’s gifts and love that never ends. All of that comes from exposure to and belief in the Word of God.

It is therefore of utmost importance that we put ourselves in the position to let God’s Word speak to us. Being a Christian means believing in the God who defines Himself in Holy Scripture—not the God of our imagination or our own preferences. We need a constant stream of God’s Word to keep that picture of Jesus sharp. Otherwise we start to sink back into old doubts and fears.

I can recall so many times when I have had some stress cloud my vision, going through the day tired and distracted, or saddened by some bad news. And then, in some way, God’s Word breaks through the fog, whether in a devotion, or hearing someone speak it, or reading it somewhere. God’s strong Word shatters the bad mood and sets things right. Jesus speaks His peace to my heart. I am brought face to face with his wounds and his risen life. I am reminded that Jesus’ story is also my story and my faith centers on Him. That is what the Word does for me and I know it can do the same for you. How do I know that? Because that’s why it’s there: that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. Get His words into your life and let them do what they’re meant to do.