Words of Comfort

John 14:1-4

"Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, trust also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going."

This passage is appropriately titled "Jesus Comforts His Disciples." Jesus is speaking to the disciples on the night he is going to be arrested and taken from them. He then speaks words of comfort to the disciples. He opens by telling them to not let their hearts be troubled. No by his leaving or what else is to come. In the same way let us not let our hearts be troubled by this world or what plagues us. We have been freed from our sins by His sacrifice. So let us do what He says and trust in Him and the Father. Because it is by His choice that we are saved or not. Can God choose to not forgive us for our sins and cast us out? Yes He most certainly can. And that is why we fear Him. But we do not have to worry about that because He has shown us all throughout the Bible that He is a Loving and Compassionate God. So He asks us to trust in Him and the Father who sent Him. Because He has saved us from our sins. And now He is preparing a place for us in His Father's house. If He were not, He already would have told us so. But He did not say that. Instead, Jesus told us that He was preparing a place for us so that He could come back for us and save us. He is going to come and take each of us at one point or another from this world and bring us with Him to Heaven. So we have no reason to doubt. I have struggled with my doubts many times before as a follower. At one point I almost left Christianity to join myself with the world on the basis that God just could not forgive me. But He told me, and now continues to tell me, that no matter what I've done to hurt Him and what sins I have committed, He already died on the cross and forgave me for it all. So now I can take comfort in His words in this passage and many others throughout the Bible that I am free. And with this freedom and can worship Him freely. Not to pay Him back for what He has done for me, that is impossible. But just to live for Him out of gratitude and thanks for what He has done for me, and so that the world may know what He has done for me.

Jesus ends by saying, "You know the way to the place where I am going." ... "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now on, you do know Him and have seen Him." To know a part of God, is to know all of God. To know God is to be with Him forever. Such encouragement is more precious than anything this world has to offer. My doubts still show and try to tell me otherwise, but such things are eclipsed by God glory when I read such passages as this. What are your doubts? Do you have Scripture like this that comforts and encourages you in your hard times of doubt? I challenge you to go find one and start memorizing it. Because when we are out in the world we are most vulnerable to doubts and we do not always have a Bible with us. Having the Words or God with us in our hearts is the greatest cure for our doubts. Let us stay in Him and continue living this life encouraged by Him until He comes to take us with Him to the place He has prepared for us.

Thank You For Reading
Long Live Jesus Christ
Amen

Wings

The pain that's so strong

Of sin and all that's wrong

Brings us to cry

"I want to fly!

To grow my own wings

And flee from what stings!"

We make our own wings

of feather and glue

As we fly we discover

These wings aren't true.

We fly up high

And the light of the sun

Melts our wings

And our fun is done

We fall down

The earth calls us back

Our sin has

Ripped the wings off our backs

Living in a prison

Of thick liquid crimson

With broken wings, fallen

On earth we are calling

To the One who has wings

To the King of all kings

Who's wings can carry

The burden so heavy

These sinful things

We thought were wings

Now we fly high

And the Light of the Son

Brings us Life

Because our old one is done

We fell down

The Lord called us back

He took our sin

Upon His own back

We wait now

For Him to come back

To take us up

With the wings on His back

-God the Father through the hands of JoshJJ