Category: John
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The sword that divides
John 17:17 “Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.” Psalm 119:104 “Through your precepts I get understanding; therefore I hate every false way.” In John 17 Jesus prays that His followers would be sanctified, i.e., set apart to God and separated from the world and all the sin that so characterizes it. This is the concept…
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Hope for the sick
John 19:1-3 “Then Pilate took Jesus and flogged him. And the soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head and arrayed him in a purple robe. They came up to him, saying, ‘Hail, King of the Jews!’ and struck him with their hands.” Do you believe what the Bible says about man…
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Defining Christian unity
John 17:11 “And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one.” When you look at the church today, do you see unity or division? At first glance the word…
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Of another world
John 17:11 “Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one.” John 17:14 “they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.” If someone were asked to categorize you, would they say that you are “one with the world” or “one with…
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Christians: Are there more than one kind?
John 17:9-10 “I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours. All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them.” I read a commentary in the newspaper last Saturday. It was written by a self-described “Christian” but it was about…
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What does it mean to “receive” God’s Word?
John 17:8 “For I have given them the words that you gave me, and they have received them. . .” Mark 4:16-17 “And these are the ones sown on rocky ground: the ones who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with joy. And they have no root in themselves, but endure for a while; then, when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately they fall away.” What…
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Manifestations of God
John 17:6, 18 “I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. . . As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world.” God is invisible . . .…
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Will it be worth it all, in the end?
John 17:5 “And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.” In the end, will it have been worth it all to have followed Jesus? Like Moses, who chose “rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin”…
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What is life’s purpose?
John 17:4 “I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do.” Do you have a purpose in life? Do you realize why you were given life? Do you ever think about this? When this life is over, will you have fulfilled the purpose for which you were given it? These are…
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Are you a spiritual person?
John 17:3 “And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.” Are you a spiritual person? Are you interested in spiritual things? Do you work on cultivating yourself spiritually, be it by reading, meditation, yoga, or other practices and pursuits? Perhaps you call yourself a Christian, or maybe…