Interesting Connection - John 4 and John 14

I was looking up verses about the function of the Holy Spirit for someone -

All this I have spoken while still with you. But the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. (John 14:25-26)

Then flipping back to John 4 I came across the words of Christ when He was speaking to the Samaritan woman at the well.....she says, I think with firm conviction, I know that Messiah (called Christ) is coming. When He comes, He will explain everything to us....(John 4:25).

I hadn't ever considered these verses together before: When Christ comes, He will explain everything, she says.  Christ says, After I leave, the Holy Spirit will teach you all things and remind you of everything I have said to you.

I notice two things: (1) the words -- everything...all things...everything... and (2) How the Holy Spirit was to take Christ's place....to slip in the vacancy and fill it with His presence, specifically as our teacher, to explain everything,  to teach all things, and to remind us of everything Christ said......to do just what Christ did while on earth....

We could actually take her words and re-create them to say....I know that the Holy Spirit is coming. When He comes, He will explain everything to us....because the words are interchangeable, as the work of both the Son and the Holy Spirit are interchangeable?

Thank you, O my Father

For giving us Your Son

And leaving Your Spirit til

Your work on earth is done

What a great God! What a great Christ! What a great Holy Spirit! What a great Book!

Prayer for Lord's Supper

Lord's Supper will be this Sunday. This Puritan prayer in preparation for the sacrament is from Valley of Vision.

GOD OF ALL GOOD
I bless thee for the means of grace;
teach me to see in them thy loving purposes
and the joy and strength of my soul.

Thou hast prepared for me a feast;
and though I am unworthy to sit down as guest,
I wholly rest on the merits of Jesus,
and hide myself beneath his righteousness;
When I hear his tender invitation
and see His wondrous grace,
I cannot hesitate, but must come to thee in love.

By thy Spirit enliven my faith rightly to discern
and spiritually to comprehend the Savior.
While I gaze upon the emblems of my Savior's death,
may I ponder why he died, and hear him say,
'I gave my life to purchase yours,
presented myself an offering to expiate your sin,
shed my blood to blot out your guilt,
opened my side to make you clean
endured your curses to set you free,
bore your condemnation to satisfy divine justice.'

O may I rightly grasp the breadth and length of this design,
draw near, obey, extend the hand, take the bread,
receive the cup, eat and drink,
testify before all men that I do for myself
gladly, in faith, reverence and love, receive my Lord,
to be my life, strength, nourishment, joy, delight.

In the Supper I remember his eternal love, boundless grace,
infinite compassion, agony, cross, redemption,
and receive assurance of pardon, adoption, life, glory.

As the outward elements nourish my body,
so may thy indwelling Spirit invigorate my soul
until that day when I hunger and thirst no more,
and sit with Jesus at his heavenly feast.

The Choice: Reincarnation or Grace?

And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with Him 

in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 

in order that in the coming ages He might show the incomparable riches of His grace, 

expressed in His kindness to us in Christ Jesus.

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith 

-- and that is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God -- 

not by works so that no one can boast.  

   Ephesians 2:6-9

Read this from  What Good is God? by Philip Yancey

It is quoted from a message he delivered in Mumbai (Bombay) India in November, 2008. 



     "The world operates by set rules. Politicians speak of      justice, of individual's rights and criminals getting what they deserve.

Banks operate that way: they will loan you money to buy a motorcycle or even a house, but if you fall behind in payments they will repossess it. 

Moreover, religions operate by similar rules. Need I point that out in a land that gave us the very term karma? Though it may take six of seven million incarnations, say the Hindu scholars, eventually every person on  earth will get exactly what he or she deserves.

Jesus spoke a radically different message. We get, not what we deserve, but the very opposite. We deserve punishment and get forgiveness; we deserve God's wrath and get God's love. 

In a world divided by race, culture, class, language and religion, Jesus set set loose the most powerful force in the universe, the force of grace.

That counter force brings a new message of hope to a world marked by violence and division......"


By grace through faith - all we know for certain in this violent and hardened world -- but it is all we need to know.....

       My choice - reincarnation and getting what I deserve? 
                               or Jesus and mercy?

Quoteworthy - For this I have Jesus!

Remember it -- For this I have Jesus!

Throughout the day - For this I have Jesus!




Win the lottery? For this I have Jesus!
Wayward children giving you trouble? For this I have Jesus!
Bad news from the doctor? For this I have Jesus!
Car totaled? For this I have Jesus!
Learned of large, unexpected  inheritance? For this I have Jesus!
Watching children playing in the garden? For this I have Jesus!
Birds singing in happy chorus? For this I have Jesus!
Lost your job? For this I have Jesus!

Every day - in every way - For this we have Jesus!

Appearances X 3 - Hebrews 9

     For Christ did not enter a man-made sanctuary that was only a
     copy of the true one;  he entered heaven itself, now to appear
     for us in God's presence. 

     Nor did he enter heaven to offer himself again and again, the
     way the high priests enters the Most Holy Place every year
     with blood that is not his own. 

     Then Christ would have to suffer many times since the
     creation of the world.

     But now he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages
     to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself.....Christ was
     sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people;

     and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring
     salvation to those who are waiting for him. 
                           -- Hebrews 9: 24-28

God's rescue mission (to bring us back from bondage
to sin and the Evil One) is all described here in this
passage.

God's mission is complete and permanent. Nothing can change what He has done! And there is nothing more to be done!

I notice the word "appear" occurs three times in the passage.

I once heard a Bible scholar respond to a student's
question: "Are you saved?"

The kind and patient teacher said, "What do you mean? Have I been saved? Am I being saved? Will I be saved? Which to you mean?"

The student didn't know how to respond.

The teacher went to explain that the fact of salvation involves three tenses -- past, present, and future.

We have been saved - past tense - from the guilt of sin. That is irrevocable and complete.

We are now being saved - present tense - from the power of sin by Christ's presence right now at His Father's throne, making intercession for us, praying for us and being our advocate.

We will be saved - future tense - from the very
presence of sin when He has taken us home to live with Him forever.

We see all three facts here in this passage, giving us the complete picture of what Christ has done, is doing, and will do for us.


(1) He entered heaven itself, now to appear for us,
      and to help us resist the power of sin (present).
(2) He already appeared to sacrifice Himself and take
      away our sin (past).    
(3) He will appear again, not as a suffering Savior,
     but as Conqueror and Victor, to take us to 
     heaven and save us from the very presence of sin
     (future).

We are saved - past, present and future.

His mission accomplished!