Jesus' Testimony

"If I testify about myself, my testimony is not valid." John 5:31

By reading this verse, I realized that Jesus knew how people would react to his actions, his preaching, and more. Right from the beginning, he understood that by claiming he was the son of man, would not get anyone to follow him. He had to rely on another, John, to testify for him in order to get people to believe and fully understand that he was the Christ. 

Even during his execution, he was unwilling to claim he was the son of man because he knew people would still not believe. He understood how to gather favour in other people's eyes and continued this throughout his life straight to his death. 

Following God's plan, Jesus never faltered and never testified for God's plan.

Darkness Spreads

"See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you." John 5:14

After playing volleyball today, I realized I sinned by lying that I didn't touch the ball when I went for a block. Instantly I felt guilty and upset at myself because I sinned at my church and not lying was something I was proud of myself about. 

As I reflected upon why I did it, I could not find a valid reason. Therefore, I realized that God is telling me to be careful. That I need to continually repent on my sins, watch and understand when I sin. To pray once I sin and ask for forgiveness because if not done, many more things can happen to me that would not be good for me. 

I pray that I'd remember this for a long time and to help me stop doing the simpler sins such as swearing and lying. 

Living Water

"Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water i give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a a spring of water welling up to eternal life." John 5:13-14

As I continue to read through John, I read through this verse where Jesus is talking to a Samaritan woman. He explains to her that water in the well can only quench your thirst momentarily while his water will last an eternity. In another sense, I began to realize that this can also be related to earthly and heavenly possessions. 

On earth, everything is given to us through God and these possessions can only satisfy us for so long until we get bored of it and want something else. We as christians need to continue to remember that God can satisfy us in any way. God has everything we need and these earthly possessions are useless because how many of these things can we bring with us to heaven after our death? 

Secondly, if all these things are given to us by God, is it not morally right for us to use these things that he gives us to give back/praise him? We need to continue to use everything we have to glorify God and to remember to centre our lives and put him as our core. 

Gift Giving

"A man can receive only what is given him from heaven." John 3:27

As I was reading John chapter 3, this quote stuck out to me. As I reflect upon this verse, I realize that everything I have, everything I own, my thoughts, my body, my clothes, my money, my food, etc. Everything that I own was given to me because God has blessed me and gave me these things.

I'm known in my school for knowledge and the capability to teach and help others with their course and the material being taught by the teachers. I need to remember that every time I teach, I need to remember that this was all given to me. That nothing I do is mine but should be done to praise God. Recently, I've forgotten about that. I've forgotten that my marks and knowledge is used for God and not for my own pleasure of being able to explain, sound smart, and understand everything in front of people. 

I need to be able to maintain my humility while teaching, and learning to the best of my abilities. I need to stop judging, and still help people no matter the circumstances. God has blessed me with many talents and abilities. Now I need to give it back to him in every way possible. To praise him with everything he's given me because that's the least I can do when it comes to his everlasting love.

Believing what's not there

"I tell you the truth, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but still you people do not accept our testimony. I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things?" John 3:11-12

This verse really reminds me of us humans and how we continually grow up, we continually need proof to believe even though God continues to say our faith should be child like. As a child, they instantly believe whatever they're told. This ability of theirs to solely live their life based on statements should be what we humans should strive for when it comes to God. Jesus did many miracles but did not want to be known for the miracles because believing through your eyes is not truly believing. By truly believing, you need to be able to believe in something you can not see. Hence the term faith. God sent Jesus in an attempt to reconnect with us, to save us, and to help us remember of the amazing power and what he's done for us ever since the beginning. 

As Christians, we need to continue to build this faith, without the need of proof. God works in miraculous ways and its only through faith that we are able to see these amazing things that he does for us. By believing, we can only get the most out of what God wants from us. 

40 DAYS: Day 28

James 5:19-20

If your friend has begun to wander off away from God, the person who brings him back will cover many sins. 

This verse really speaks to me to be more open and to be more out going to people. I have a tendency to think of thoughts but never able to actually act upon them. Therefore, I want to be able to actually act and show God's love through my actions. This hopefully, can also bring back people that have wandered away from God. Which relates back to the verse. 

40 DAYS: Day 24

James 1:22-25

Paraphrase: 

Don't just ignore what the bible says. Do what it says because God has promised to bless you when you do.

 This was a great reminder of the whole purpose of this 40 DAYS in the word. The sole purpose of this campaign is to allow us to get into the habit of daily devotions and to clearly understand his word better. However, you are only deceiving yourself if you don't do what you learn. Even in school, you need to be able to have some application of your learning into your daily life or into a situation. 

Through this, through our love for God, we should want to continually spread his word. This is only accomplished if we clearly understand and do his word first before we get others to do it to set an example for them.