God Speaking

“But these are written down that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name”

(John 20: 31)

We are studying the gospel of John in our Women’s Bible study at our church and using an in-depth study guide to really absorb the wonderful truths found there. For our first study we were asked to learn the verse in Chapter 20 where John explicitly tells his readers and of course us, the whole purpose he had in writing down these words.  John 20: 31 tells us that life in Jesus’ name is what he wants us all to totally take to heart.

I was looking up a concordance for verses containing the word life and at first, I was amazed at the number of verses about life and then I went to the book of John to find there were over 30 verses! We obviously need to take note of that word in Scripture.

When God first chooses the children of Israel to be his chosen vessel to reveal to the rest of the world who he is, Moses, delivers a powerful speech to really emphasise the fact that they do have a choice to follow the Lord’s commandments or to basically choose not to, and face death,

“This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before your life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the Lord your God listen to his voice and hold fast to him. For the Lord is your Life…” (Deuteronomy 30: 19 – 20) 

I read a quote some time ago about life which I thought came from Henry Thoreau, but I couldn’t trace it.  Here is the quote that I feel is very telling about our present generation

Most people are living quiet lives of desperation 

What a sad reflection in contrast to what our Saviour promises for those who would follow him; 

“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” (John 10: 10)

Today’s world would try to undermine the truth of that verse by selling the idea that life is in the individual’s hands and it is up to the effort one applies to living to how successful one is, implying that we are capable of creating our selves. We are offered various ways of doing this from exercise, meditation, mind games of all sorts with the over riding thought; You can make it! 

The gospel of John suggests the exact opposite! We are encouraged to believe in the beautiful promises of our Saviour, Jesus Christ, hand over ourselves to Him, give our worries and our burdens to him, allow Him to lead us, don’t struggle with life, allow Him to be our guide and then we will be able to have life in His name and have it to the full.