I write this on Thanksgiving weekend, with much gratefulness in my heart. My daughter Lisa entered a rock slide on a British Columbia mountain highway when rock, larger than a football went through her window. It grazed her head and ear. Her friend was able to take over the car to bring it to a safe stop. I have shared a couple of photos from her Facebook to give you a perspective of my thankfulness.

The rock cut her ear horizontally as it entered the cab, stunning her to the degree that she could not drive.

I praised God greatly this weekend, knowing she was aware without any deficits excepting the need for a plastic surgeon to repair her cut ear. This all happened Friday evening and she returned home Saturday with her attentive friends and family supporting her all the way. I am so grateful for her life being saved by our Sovereign Lord and His angels.

As I praise God for her life, I will point out sixteen major clusters of references to “life” in John’s gospel, spanning from the introduction (John 1:4) to the predominant statement of purpose (20:31).

“Eternal life” is the subject of conversation in Jesus’ interchange with Nicodemus in John 3 and with the Samaritan woman in chapter 3 of the same Gospel. All told, “life” is the subject in virtually every chapter in the first half of John’s gospel. Also “life” features significantly in Jesus’ pronouncements in 14:6 and 17:2–3.

Here is a  list of major references to “life” in John’s gospel and letters presents as follows.

John’s Gospel references:

1. John 1:4: “In him was life, and that life was the light of all people.”
2. John 3:15–16, 36: “’Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.’ For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.… Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on them.”
3. John 4:10, 14: “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water … the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
4. John 4:36: “Even now those who reap draw their wages, even now they harvest the crop for eternal life.”
5. John 5:21, 24–26, 28–29: “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.… 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. 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. For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself … a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice and come out—those who have done what is good will rise to live.”
6. John 6:27, 33, 35, 40, 47, 48, 51, 53, 54, 57–58: “Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you.… For the bread of God is the bread that comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.… I am the bread of life.… For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day.… Very truly I tell you, whoever believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life.… This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.… Very truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day.… Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me.… Your ancestors ate manna and died, but whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.”
7. John 6:63, 68: “ ‘The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you—they are full of the Spirit and life.’ … ‘Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.’ ”
8. John 7:38: “Whoever believes in me.… rivers of living water will flow from within them.”
9. John 8:12: “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”
10. John 10:10, 28: “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.… I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish.”
11. John 11:25–26: “I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die.”
12. John 12:25: “Those who love their life will lose it, while those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life.”
13. John 12:50: “I know that his command leads to eternal life.”
14. John 14:6, 19: “I am the way and the truth and the life.… Because I live, you also will live.”
15. John 17:2–3: “For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him. Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.”
16. John 20:31: “But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.”

“Life” is also a major theme in John’s first letter. It opens with a reference to the apostolic message regarding the “Word of life” and its incarnation (1 John 1:1–2). The letter also speaks of passing from death to life similar to the gospel (3:14; cf. John 5:24) and connects the possession of life to love (1 John 3:14–15). The purpose statement at the end of 1 John mentions “life” five times in the short span of three verses, striking a note of reassurance. All in all, this letter features thirteen instances of “life” (zōē) and one occurrence of the verb “to live” (zaō; 4:9). There are also six such clusters referring to “life “in 1 John.

John’s Letter References:

1. 1 John 1:1–2: “… this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life.”
2. 1 John 2:25: “And this is what he promised us—eternal life.”
3. 1 John 3:14–15: “We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love each other.… Anyone who hates a fellow believer is a murderer, and you know that no murderers have eternal life in them.”
4. 1 John 5:11–13: “And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life. I have written these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.”
5. 1 John 5:16: “If you see any brother or sister commit a sin that does not lead to death, you should pray and God will give them life.”
6. 1 John 5:20: “And we are in him who is true by being in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.”

I am thankful that Lisa prays with her father frequently for protection. I give all the Glory to the Lord for her safety and her life through this harrowing experience.

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

I have decided to take a few weeks off writing, beginning now, to regroup, rest and enjoy spending time with family.

I think about our Lord’s directive to His disciples: “Come aside and rest awhile”, Jesus

See you in September: Enjoy your summer!

Glen Jackman

“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.” (John 14: 12-14)

The first great need of any man who has a troubled heart or his Christian life isn’t lived to its full potential is to believe, to get back to the place of believing. This sounds too simple. Yet it is what Christ told His disciples before His death, resurrection and ascension. If you believe in Me, essentially He told them “you will do the works I have been doing.” Belief also opens up the door to faith and the effects of faith in our life.

The disciples who walked with Jesus witnessed that He had rebuked a demon which had caused a sickness in a boy who was then healed instantly. Conversely, having trouble achieving similar results in their ministry, they asked Him: “Why could we not cast it out?” to which He responded, “Because of your little faith” (Matthew 17: 18-20 ESV)

After His resurrection, our focal scripture indicated that Jesus promised His disciples that they would be able to do what they cannot do now, and what He used to do for them. By His resurrection and ascension, He works in them by the power of the Spirit – to effectively bring the power of the Spirit into their action, after He has departed.

Our Lord’s departure from the world is not the conclusion of His activity in the world amidst personal, political and ideological problems that humanity faces today. He is present in our ministries to our beloved Christian friends, and to those who likewise believe and those faltering in their belief. He is continuing together with us in His redemptive work to reach out to find those struggling with a profound understanding and a lack of objective effectiveness in their particular mode of faith – whatever the culture.

He is not absent in our lives individually nor from the ministration of common grace to the countless millions of men and women worldwide who have, who will and yes to those who may come to believe on His name for salvation.

He still is an ever-present power, and though He has passed through death on our behalf, and been removed from our physical sense perception, He still operates upon the things around us and moves events to coincide with His providences according to His will in our lives. Christ is all-powerful and ever-presently working in our lives! The continuous influence of His life continues. It is a present power in all ages.

Belief in Christ as our Redeemer and faith in His active life in us via His Spirit is necessary for a vibrant and joyous Christian experience. If you are lonely, He brings companionship to the solitary. He offers calmness in calamity, gives peace while weighing the complications of our faith and our weaknesses. We must grasp that the living Christ is working in us for His Father’s glory and outreaching to each of us, forth-putting His powers of influence and ministerial energy in His church today.

Before His ascension Jesus said: “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation” (Mark 16:15 NIV) In Mark’s narrative, we read that “After the Lord Jesus had spoken to them, he was taken up into heaven and he sat at the right hand of God” (vs. 19) As He worked with the disciples, He will work with us as we minister His word to others sharing the Gospel. “Then the disciples went out and preached everywhere, and the Lord worked with them and confirmed his word by the signs that accompanied it” (vs. 20) At the end of our Lord’s life on earth, there were one hundred and twenty disciples in Jerusalem and five hundred in Galilee. He told the disciples greater things you will do – the greater meaning the expansion of His kingdom on earth through the promulgation of the Gospel.

Now that we understand the need for believing on His name, and on having faith to do His works of expanding His kingdom, we need also a life of prayer which confess our complete dependence on Him. I go back to our main verse: “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.”

In my name, means, not a rote prayer as we often may do, finalizing it with repeated words ‘in Jesus name, Amen.’ Rather it means in His character, in His same faith in His Father and our total dependent connection to Him. This unity with our Lord is exactly what we need to sense His power working in our lives with all whom we connect. Jesus prayed for His disciples and you and I, “that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me” (John 17:21 ESV) This is the secret to the continuum of believing in His work on earth — to be One with Jesus Christ via His indwelling Spirit. The parable of abiding in the vine teaches this truth: “Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:15 ESV)

Believe in His operative work in you by faith; connect to the living Christ just as He depended on His Father for guidance and success in His walk on earth and for our eternal future in His redemptive work of salvation.

“The Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Look, a man who is a glutton and a [heavy] wine-drinker, a friend of tax collectors and sinners [including non-observant Jews]” (Luke 7:34 AMP)

In the world but not of it. Being sociable does not necessarily equate to being a friend whom you relate to as a brother or sister in Christ. We must be kind, and a friend — friendly to those we associate with — in extended family circles, in business, and in civil life in general — a sign of possessing influential character.

Jesus befriended Mathew, an infamous tax collector; immoral women, even one caught in adultery about to be stoned to death by the “religious” mob. He also was open to hearing a Roman centurion’s request to heal his servant (see Luke 7:34-50). All of these “sinners” religiously condemned by the Pharisees, and teachers of the law in Israel (the leadership) were not influenced to love God.

Nevertheless, they were moved by the non-partisan love of Jesus, who perceived their potential faith in Him and forgave their sin. Jesus noted that his disciples had a mission that must be carried out in a sinful world.

“They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. For them, I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified”. (John 17:16-19 NIV)

Association in ministry differs from collaborating with unbelievers as intimate friends, or marrying another with whom you would have children. The Apostle Paul was always sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ to others. Many became Christian brothers and sisters in Christ through his efforts. God’s purpose is that the Gospel must intergenerationally influence family members from the parents and grandparents, and fellowship amongst true believers for a continuance of His kingdom on earth.

Others like Paul and Christ’s disciples were called to separate themselves unto the calling to go out into the whole world — yes, among blatant sinners — and preach that they too have hope if they place their faith in Jesus — the hope of eternal life in Christ. Read the conversation that Jesus had with the Samaritan woman at the well. He knew she was living in sin, yet he activated her faith with discretion and kindness. He perceived her as a child of God in the making. She perceived Him as a prophet in her awakening. The gentle patience of Christ opened her mind to hear Him tell her that He was the Messiah whom she awaited! She proclaimed Him to others in her town who all rushed out to see the Lord (see John chapter 4).

Paul spent time ministering to people in prison and to Greeks in Athens who had many false ideas about God. The encouragement and power of the indwelling Spirit must accommodate sharing the Word of God, as Satan will try to twist its meaning:

“After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. The tempter came to him and said, ‘If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.’ Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” (Mathew 4:2-4 NIV)

Be friendly in the context of sharing the Good News Convincing someone else that your godly ideas are good comes from association and discussion in the context of witnessing for Jesus while trusting the Holy Spirit to open the heart to God’s influence.

Christians meet at the Cross Guard against the mob mentality that “only my church owns the right doctrine”. Basing your viewpoints on the Word of God, use the logical mind, not the emotional mind to weigh the motives of men or women you would befriend. The war between the British Protestants and Catholic Irish in Northern Ireland would never have subsided without association and negotiation. When we truly meet Jesus, in our heart, in our mind’s eye, all unreasonable prejudice is removed. Together we all realize that He came to redeem all men who would see the grace offered at the foot of the Cross.

“Pray that the Lord your God will tell us where we should go and what we should do.” (Jeremiah 42:3 ESV)

The people of Judah came to the prophet Jeremiah asking for his prophetic guidance to know if they should go down to Egypt to avoid King Nebucannezar of Babylon and his armies.

“I have heard you,” replied Jeremiah the prophet. “I will certainly pray to the Lord your God as you have requested; I will tell you everything the Lord says and will keep nothing back from you.” Ten days later Jeremiah gets the answer from the Lord:

“…hear the word of the Lord, you remnant of Judah. This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: ‘If you are determined to go to Egypt and you do go to settle there, then the sword you fear will overtake you there, and the famine you dread will follow you into Egypt, and there you will die. Indeed, all who are determined to go to Egypt to settle there will die..not one of them will survive” (Vss 16-17)

Often we feel that we have the right intention to do a certain thing, go somewhere, advise someone, begin a new job, leave a spouse, and some go as far as to seek the Lord’s will as the people of Judah did. Notice that Jeremiah, speaking God’s word said “‘If you are determined to go to”, and they were determined to go, and to disobey.

The people had even said: “May the Lord be a true and faithful witness against us if we do not act in accordance with everything the Lord your God sends you to tell us. Whether it is favorable or unfavorable, we will obey the Lord our God, to whom we are sending you, so that it will go well with us, for we will obey the Lord our God.” (Vss 5-6)

They quickly asserted their own determination, contrary to the Lord’s revealed will — and clearly though it was unfavourable to follow the Lord’s will: “all the arrogant men said to Jeremiah, “You are lying! The Lord our God has not sent you to say, ‘You must not go to Egypt to settle there’.” (Jeremiah 43:2)

Consider your own actions, prayers, and self-determined will. How do you behave when the revealed will of God is clear in His Word — do your own plans ever get altered or reconfigured to line up with the Word of God? The danger is this: Self-will can avoid acting on the revealed will of God.

“And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold.”  (Matthew 24:12 ESV)

Jesus taught that just prior to His return as judge over mankind in power and great glory with all His angels, that every form of law based on the Word of God would be abandoned. (see Matthew ch. 24)

This would result in a breakdown of love in the framework of relationships, the most important being marriage, within the family. This shift in viewpoint in law has to do with the shift in Biblical values occurring in the world. Erich Fromm explains in the Art of Loving that our viewpoint of loving others is directly related to our view of Loving God:

“the disintegration of the love of God has reached the same proportions as the disintegration of the love of man.” ¹

Family is the one place where we can learn to love and grow, according to the principles of faith.

Fromm further points out that there “is a regression to an idolatrous concept of God, and a transformation of the love of God into a relationship fitting an alienated character structure.” An an idolatrous concept of God is easy to see in the world we live in. Witness the movies centering on hero worship and those based on Mythology such as Thor. Disney has made the myth its primary income model. They have purchased Marvel and Star Wars – the last movie The Force Awakens has earned well over 1 billion dollars in the first week, setting a record at the box office.

As people do not understand nor have Biblical principles or faith, they become anxious, finding themselves without an aim except the one to move ahead without principles or filters as to what they hold as life-shaping values and purpose. Fromm, one of the world’s renowned psychologists indicates a problem with personal growth without faith in God.

“they continue to remain children, to hope for father or mother to come to their help when help is needed.” ¹

It is very important that husband and wife work together to raise the consciousness of the need to follow the Lord, and the need to refer to His Bible daily to be led by the insight and power of the Holy Spirit. Joshua made it clear that a choice must be made at all costs if he was to lead the families of Israel into the promised land:

“if it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve…as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” (Joshua 15:15 ESV)

¹ Fromm, Erich (The Art of Loving) Open Road Media.

See The importance of who we marry