Jesus Christ, the Truth!

“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. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.” (John 3:16-21)

When we get stressed out from something or find things not working out right, we often like to reveal everything to someone, to reduce the level of stress. There is a saying like ‘When you keep stressful things to yourself, your head is going to explode.’ Hence, I could tell everything to my mentor. Although it may be necessary to discuss issues with family first, I believe talking to a mentor or a close friend is okay too as long as they keep everything confidential if it is necessary. They are there to listen to us and for us to discuss things with them. I strongly think this is part of God’s creation (1 Corinthians 12).

Nevertheless, there is a better friend, a better mentor, and a better counsellor. His name is Jesus Christ (John 15:13-16; John 14:15-27; John 16:7-15).  Not only did He saved us from our sins by crucifying Himself on the cross, He is now interceding for us through the Spirit of God (Romans 8:31-34). Paul states, “… the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.” (Romans 8:26-27) Also, God already knows what we are going to say (Matthew 6:5-8).

Although God could use people to guide who needs godly advices (Proverbs 27:9), let’s be vulnerable to Him through faith in Jesus like a little child as Jesus has stated, “God blesses those who are poor and realize their need for him, for the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs.” (Matthew 5:3). However, at the same time, let’s be really confident in living our our Christian lives, so others could see what we are doing through faith in Jesus Christ (Matthew 5:13-16), but more towards God. This is like human relationships. If we are keep running away from family members, we can’t foster our relationship with them. In fact, God is our heavenly Father. Hence, He longs us to be in relationship with Him through faith in Jesus (1 Corinthians 8:6).

Meditate on Ephesians 1:3-14 and consider about surrendering your life to God through faith in Jesus (Galatians 2:20-21). If we surrender to Him, who never leaves nor forsakes us (Deuteronomy 31:8), we have got nothing to lose (Romans 8:31-39).

Jesus Christ, the Seeker!

“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. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.” (John 3:16-21)

Don’t we love to play hide and seek? One person is a seeker and other people are trying to hide anywhere they can from that seeker. I think I used to play it when I was a child and teenager as I loved that game. My family have used to play it with Kong, our dog, by throwing one of her dolls and quickly trying to hide from her. I loved seeing her always coming into my room and trying to find one of my family members, even if they weren’t in the room.

Although hiding can be fun if we play hide and seek or something like that, hiding could be bad if we are trying to cover our inappropriate deeds up. I played StarCraft, the Korean famous war game, even if I was not allowed to, when I was a teenager. However, there were two things I really ashamed of. Not only did I watch inappropriate things before I became a Christian, but I continued to do the same thing, even though I was Christian and knew I was a child of God, for a while. This evil deed of mine ashamed me because every Christian friend of mine believes I was inspiration to others but I was not being a true child of God, so I basically kept only my outside clean by volunteering and helping out others. To put this simply, I had an unwilling heart to expose my dark side to them.  Another thing was that I pretended to be a follower of Jesus before I became a true one. I only did this as I wanted to hang out with my friends.

Meditate on Hebrews 4:13 and 1 Corinthians 12:12-31. Ask yourself this question today: ‘What am I hiding from Jesus Christ and others?’

Jesus Christ, the True Light of the World!

“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. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.” (John 3:16-21)

On my last devotional, I have mentioned that we cannot go to the kingdom of heaven if going to the heaven is our priority. Our priority should be Jesus Christ, and then kingdom of heaven should be the second matter (John 3:16-18). Yes, I understand this but what about non-believers? Could they go kingdom of heaven, also, since God is the perfect illustration of love and wants to bring everyone into His Kingdom? No and Yes. It is true that God wants everyone to have eternal life, but if He is the Ultimate Creator (Genesis 1-2), He has to be the Ultimate Judge as well. Imagine if God brings everyone into His kingdom, including evildoers, but they may destroy what He has intended it to be. If this happens, it loses His reputation, and this adds no meaning to our earthly Christian lives.

According to the commentary on the book of John, John 3:19 connect to John 3:18 as the verse 19 explains the reason of the condemnation. God demolished ‘the darkness of ignorance’ by sending His beloved Son, Jesus Christ, as the light of the world (John 8:12), so people may know the truth. This is like a relationship of teacher and student. I have been taught of managing my time rightly as I always have been sleeping past midnight. However, I guess I did not listen to my teacher and continue to sleep late as I got used to live according how I want to live, like finishing everything what I need to do regardless of time. Although my desire has been to fix my routine in sleeping early, I did not discipline myself in putting actions to them, even though fixing my routine may take a while. Therefore, my heart has been deeply rooted in darkness of ignorance. Now, I realised that doing everything I want to do within a day is impossible for me, so I have to put specific hours in my routine, such as eating dinner earlier than 8:00-9:00pm and reducing my computer time after dark. I think fixing my routine will be a lot harder while I am studying, so I think it is good to practice in managing my time during holidays.

Meditate on John 8:12 and ask yourself this question: ‘Do I have any determination to follow Jesus Christ, the true light of the world?’