Bible Reading (John 14:8-21)
Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.”
Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the works themselves. Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.
“If you love me, keep my commands. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever - the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them.”
Thought
One of the many things that I have enjoyed over the past year is learning to cook and bake different things. I am loving baking bread; the rye and raisin loaf that I baked last week has been one of my favourite so far. Soups have been another delight, although it must be said that some have been more delightful than others. Recently my mum asked me if I would make some orange marmalade for her. It seems that this is the time of year for making marmalade as Seville oranges are only in the shops for a short time.
I have never made marmalade before so the first thing I needed was a recipe. As I didn’t have one in any of my recipe books I turned to the internet for help. I have a few ‘go to’ sites for recipes that I trust, but couldn’t find exactly what I was looking for. I wanted a traditional recipe with nothing fancy added. Then I noticed that there was a traditional recipe by Delia Smith. Now I felt very happy that here was a recipe that I could trust and so I opened the page and read through the instructions to see what was required. It all seemed fairly straightforward but some of it left me feeling a little unsure of exactly what I needed to do. Further down the page I saw that there was a video, a demonstration, of how the marmalade was made, so I watched it. Now I felt I knew exactly what I needed to do as I had seen Delia, the author of the recipe, make the marmalade herself. She explained carefully what I needed to do and her example was easy to follow.
In John 14 we read how Phillip asked if he could see the Father. He would have heard about God the Father, read about him in the scriptures but he wanted to see him. He knew that he could trust the scriptures but he wanted something more. He wanted a demonstration of who God the Father was. What he did not realise was that he had already met him, he already had the best demonstration of who God was with him in the person of Jesus.
As Christians we are called to be like Christ. We have our trusted source of information, the word of God given to us in the bible for guidance, but we also have the Holy Spirit with us. When Jesus left heaven and came to earth he gave the greatest demonstration of God’s love that we could ever ask for. His life was an example for us all to follow and he left us the Holy Spirit to be with us always.
Prayer
Father God, we thank you that you did not leave us to struggle on our own, but sent your son Jesus Christ in to our world, and then you left your Holy Spirit to be with us. Help us as we strive to live better lives and to grow more like you.
Amen
Song:
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