2020 for JESUS - Day 85: JESUS is TRUTH... LIGHT... SENT BY THE FATHER... HIS WORD... THE ONE... ETERNAL LIFE... GLORY... LOVE OF GOD... THE ONLY GOD...

Have you ever struggled with others believing you?  
Misinterpreting you?  
Believing your intentions? 

This was and is ongoing for JESUS!

John 5:31-47

31 “If I testify about MYSELF, MY testimony is not true. 

32 There is another who testifies in MY favor, and I know that his testimony about ME is true.

33 “You have sent to John and he has testified to THE TRUTH. 

34 Not that I accept human testimony; but I mention it that you may be saved. 

35 John was a lamp that burned and gave LIGHT, and you chose for a time to enjoy his light.

36 “I have testimony weightier than that of John. For the works that THE FATHER has given ME to finish—the very works that I am doing—testify that THE FATHER has sent ME. 

37 And THE FATHER WHO SENT ME has HIMSELF testified concerning ME. You have never heard HIS voice nor seen HIS form, 

38 nor does HIS WORD dwell in you, for you do not believe THE ONE HE sent. 

39 You study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have ETERNAL LIFE. These are the very Scriptures that testify about ME, 

40 yet you refuse to come to ME to have LIFE.

41 “I do not accept GLORY from human beings, 

42 but I know you. I know that you do not have the LOVE OF GOD in your hearts. 

43 I have COME IN MY FATHER'S NAME, and you do not accept ME; but if someone else comes in his own name, you will accept him. 

44 How can you believe since you accept glory from one another but do not seek THE GLORY that comes from THE ONLY GOD?

45 “But do not think I will accuse you before the FATHER. Your accuser is Moses, on whom your hopes are set. 

46 If you believed Moses, you would believe ME, for he wrote about ME. 

47 But since you do not believe what he wrote, how are you going to believe what I say?”

2020 for JESUS - Day 84: JESUS is EQUAL WITH GOD... THE SON... ETERNAL LIFE... JUST JUDGE...

John 5:16-30

16 So, because JESUS was doing these things on the Sabbath, the Jewish leaders began to persecute HIM. 

17 In HIS defense JESUS said to them, “MY FATHER is always at HIS work to this very day, and I too am working.” 

18 For this reason they tried all the more to kill HIM; not only was HE breaking the Sabbath, but HE was even calling GOD HIS OWN FATHER, making HIMSELF EQUAL WITH GOD.

19 JESUS gave them this answer: “Very truly I tell you, THE SON can do nothing by HIMSELF; HE can do only what HE sees HIS FATHER doing, because whatever the FATHER does THE SON also does. 

20 For THE FATHER loves THE SON and shows HIM all HE does. Yes, and HE will show HIM even greater works than these, so that you will be amazed. 

21 For just as THE FATHER raises the dead and gives them life, even so THE SON GIVES LIFE to whom HE is pleased to give it. 

22 Moreover, THE FATHER judges no one, but has entrusted ALL JUDGMENT TO THE SON, 

23 that all may honor THE SON just as they honor THE FATHER. Whoever does not honor THE SON does not honor THE FATHER, WHO sent HIM.

24 “Very truly I tell you, whoever hears MY word and believes HIM who sent me has ETERNAL LIFE and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to LIFE. 

25 Very truly I tell you, a time is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of THE SON OF GOD and those who hear will live. 

26 For as THE FATHER has LIFE IN HIMSELF, so HE has granted THE SON also to have LIFE IN HIMSELF. 

27 And HE has given HIM AUTHORITY TO JUDGE because HE is THE SON OF MAN.

28 “Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear HIS voice 

29 and come out—those who have done what is good will rise to live, and those who have done what is evil will rise to be condemned. 

30 BY MYSELF I CAN DO NOTHING; I JUDGE only as I hear, and MY JUDGMENT IS JUST, for I seek not to please MYSELF but HIM who sent ME."

2020 for JESUS - Day 83: JESUS is THE MAN... loving GOD... loving others...

Yesterday, as most church groups met together online instead of at "church buildings",  I thought a lot about being

•  "rules driven" versus "relationship driven" 
• "law driven" versus "love driven".

 How beautiful it was to have JESUS followers meet online, around the globe, because 

• we did not want to forsake meeting together
• we did not want to risk spreading this deadly disease further

Bottom line for JESUS was loving GOD, loving others, and making sure we don't sin, since sin separates us from GOD.  That's why JESUS led a sin free life!

In life we encounter people driven by different goals.  We see it here in John 5:

John 5:1-15

1-  Some time later, JESUS went up to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish festivals. 

2- Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. 

3- Here a great number of disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed-and they waited for the moving of the waters.  

4- From time to time an angel of the LORD would come down and stir the waters.  The first one into the pool after each such disturbance would be cured of whatever disease they had.     

5- One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. 

6- When JESUS saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, HE asked him, “Do you want to get well?”

7- “SIR,” the invalid replied, “I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.”

8- Then JESUS said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” 

9- At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked.

The day on which this took place was a Sabbath, 

10- and so the Jewish leaders said to the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath; the law forbids you to carry your mat.”

11- But he replied, “THE MAN who made me well said to me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’ ”

12- So they asked him, “Who is this FELLOW who told you to pick it up and walk?”

13- The man who was healed had no idea WHO it was, for JESUS had slipped away into the crowd that was there.

14- Later JESUS found him at the temple and said to him, “See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.” 

15-The man went away and told the Jewish leaders that it was JESUS who had made him well.

2020 for JESUS - Day 82: JESUS is LOVING HEALER, even at a distance...

In John 4, we've read about JESUS passing through Samaria, on HIS way north to Galilee from Judea.  Although the people of the north and south countries snubbed Samaritans (in many ways), JESUS modeled what "loving others" looks like. The news about JESUS was spreading, in his home country.  Here's what happened when HE arrived in Galilee...

John 4:43-54 

43- "After the two days HE left for Galilee. 

44 (Now JESUS HIMSELF had pointed out that a PROPHET has no honor in HIS own country.) 

45 When HE arrived in Galilee, the Galileans welcomed HIM. They had seen all that HE had done in Jerusalem at the Passover Festival, for they also had been there.

46 Once more HE visited Cana in Galilee, where HE had turned the water into wine. And there was a certain royal official whose son lay sick at Capernaum. 

47 When this man heard that JESUS had arrived in Galilee from Judea, he went to HIM and begged HIM to come and heal his son, who was close to death.

48 “Unless you people see signs and wonders,” JESUS told him, “you will never believe.”

49 The royal official said, “SIR, come down before my child dies.”

50 “Go,” JESUS replied, “your son will live.”  The man took JESUS at HIS word and departed. 

51 While he was still on the way, his servants met him with the news that his boy was living. 

52 When he inquired as to the time when his son got better, they said to him, “Yesterday, at one in the afternoon, the fever left him.”

53 Then the father realized that this was the exact time at which JESUS had said to him, “Your son will live.” So he and his whole household believed.  

54 This was the second sign JESUS performed after coming from Judea to Galilee."


Today, how are you loving GOD and loving others??!!??!?!?!?!?

2020 for JESUS - Day 81: JESUS is THIS MAN... SAVIOR OF THE WORLD...

John 4:39-42

39- "Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in HIM because of the woman’s testimony, “HE told me everything I ever did.” 

40- So when the Samaritans came to HIM, they urged HIM to stay with them, and HE stayed two days. 

41- And because of HIS words many more became believers.

42 They said to the woman, “We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that THIS MAN really is the SAVIOR OF THE WORLD.”

2020 for JESUS - Day 80: JESUS is MESSIAH... RABBI... ETERNAL LIFE...

I love that the Samaritan woman was aware that there was something really amazing about JESUS!  Yet, more so, during this "pandemic crisis" I am so encouraged to keep my eyes on JESUS and really internalize HIS words in 
John 4:34...  

What is the will and the work of the FATHER for us to accomplish during this time of quarantining and crisis?





John 4:27-38

27- "Just then HIS disciples returned and were surprised to find HIM talking with a woman. But no one asked, “What do YOU want?” or “Why are YOU talking with her?”

28- Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, 

29- “Come, see A MAN WHO told me everything I ever did. Could this be the MESSIAH?” 

30- They came out of the town and made their way toward HIM.

31- Meanwhile HIS disciples urged HIM, “RABBI, eat something.”

32- But HE said to them, “I have food to eat that you know nothing about.”

33- Then HIS disciples said to each other, “Could someone have brought HIM food?”

34- “My food,” said JESUS, “is to do the will of HIM WHO sent ME and to finish HIS work. 

35- Don’t you have a saying, ‘It’s still four months until harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest. 

36- Even now the one who reaps draws a wage and harvests a crop for ETERNAL LIFE, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together. 

37- Thus the saying ‘One sows and another reaps’ is true. 

38- I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labor.”-