Be Encouraged

“Then He said to Thomas, “Reach here with your finger, and see My hands; and reach here your hand and put it into My side; and do not be unbelieving, but believing.” (John 20:27) Dig, poke, and prod for the truth, you doubters. In the end, you must doubt yourself. Then, you can reach out and touch the unseen and be touched by the Real. Transform to a truster. Move into trust and remain. It is your...

“So the other disciples were saying to him, ‘We have seen the Lord!’ But he said to them, ‘Unless I see in His hands the imprint of the nails, and put my finger into the place of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe.’” (John 20:25) You have to love Thomas. Without his stubborn doubt, we would not have an eye witness to the wounds still visible in Jesus’s body. This was the...

“So the other disciple who had first come to the tomb then also entered, and he saw and believed.” (John 20:8) This was the defining moment for the Apostle John. John chose to trust Jesus had risen from the dead. Another report says that Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to look at the grave after the Sabbath. Right then, an earthquake occurred because an angel of the Lord descended from heav...

“that they may all be one; even 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 sent Me.” (John 17:21) How can the average person trust an unseen person? Well, it is easy. It is like sitting in a chair. Sit! It is not worth your trust if it does not support you. I once sat in what looked like a perfect chair. It lied. Ouch! But I would no...

“I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word;” (John 17:20) Jesus as good as said, “He who trusts in Me trusts in the One who sent Me. I have come into the world so that everyone who trusts Me will escape the darkness of hate. If anyone hears My saying, ‘I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world.’ He is the one who accepts me.” He w...

“for the words which You gave Me I have given to them, and they received them and truly understood that I came forth from You, and they believed that You sent Me.” (John 17:8) No one has to be a Christian any more than a door has to be opened. But if you choose to open the door to God, the door to open is Jesus Christ. No one has to trust Him. But if you do, you will find life better for it. You m...

“Jesus answered them, ‘Do you now believe?’” (John 16:31) Only you can answer this question. Do you trust Jesus to live His life through you? Either you remain a self, trying to be a better self, or one with His Self trusting the Father. In every moment, our flesh loves to bait us into trying to be like God. It sees needs but grumbles for not seeing the supply. We who trust see the supply. It has...

“Now we know that You know all things, and have no need for anyone to question You; by this we believe that You came from God.” (John 16:30) Life boils down to a leap of faith . Either we trust Christ or don’t. Not trusting Christ is natural. Trusting Him is supernatural. It takes Christ’s trusting Father living in you to express that trust. The very faculty of trust is so free it feels innate. Si...

“for the Father Himself loves you, because you have loved Me and have believed that I came forth from the Father.” (John 16:27) Jesus is saying that the Father desires to be your friend because you have befriended Jesus and trusted The Father sent him. Much of Jesus’s teaching was around equating one thing to another. We see this in His renaming people to their tasks or positions. So, it is the Fa...

“concerning sin, because they do not believe in Me;” (John 16:9) Jesus redefined sin. It had been breaking the Law of Mosses. Now, it was simply not trusting Jesus. Every time a person looks to flesh or its mechanisms to complete them, it is the sin of idolatry. Only Christ is the redeemer of each event we encounter. It is not I with a little help from Jesus, nor a whole lot of Jesus with a bit of...

“Now I have told you before it happens, so that when it happens, you may believe.” (John 14:29) Believe what? Believe that Christ had to suffer and die. This was the plan. With His blood, He could carry Sin to its new home, leave it there, and pick up the souls that had been slaves to Sin. Every soul ever conceived had been, through genetics, attached to Sin (trusting self over God). Now, every so...

“Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater works than these he will do; because I go to the Father.” (John 14:12) Don’t get confused. Jesus just said He would work through you the works that you think you do. You will do the very works He is doing as you trust this is true. Jesus went to the Father and can now, through you, do greater work...

“Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me; otherwise believe because of the works themselves.” (John 14:11) The very heart of Christ and how he worked the works of God is revealed in this verse. The one little word ‘ in ’ says it all. A fish in the sea can live in the sea—a fish out of the sea stinks. When we trust we are in Christ, who is in Father God, we have fulfilled the wil...

“Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on My own initiative, but the Father abiding in Me does His works.” (John 14:10) Above, Jesus made a shocking statement. If this message is true, it is profound and a deal breaker. Let me explain. Jesus, the perfect one and only Son of God, could NOT initiate anything. His words and wor...

“Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me.” (John 14:1) You don’t have to tolerate a troubled heart. I had a friend whose testimony included a fellow inmate in a Federal Prison handing him a tiny Bible. He said, “You can live here in fear, bondage, and misery or have peace.” My friend read the Bible and found peace. He even began praying for the judge who had sentenced...

“From now on I am telling you before it comes to pass, so that when it does occur, you may believe that I am He. ” (John 13:19) Who is this He in whom you may trust? Let’s get His exact address. Jesus the Christ, the Son of God of 2000 years ago, existed, died, rose, ascended, and returned His Holy Spirit to reside in and live through those who trust Jesus as the Christ. He will return with every...

“I have come as Light into the world so that everyone who believes in Me will not remain in darkness.” (John 12:46) In 1 John, the Holy Spirit defines darkness as hate. Hate, defined by Jesus, was as simple as pushing someone away. In contrast, light is equated with love. Light is seen as God and experienced as His loving us. Darkness is seen as killing. Make no mistake. The one with the smoking g...

“And Jesus cried out and said, ‘He who believes in Me, does not believe in Me but in Him who sent Me.’” (John 12:44) Jesus declares He is but an agent authorized to pass on headquarters’ promises. Or, like an Ambassador, what they say is what the Government they represent is saying. The same is valid for declaring God’s love for every soul conceived. We are God’s Ambassadors. When you are accepted...

“Nevertheless many even of the rulers believed in Him, but because of the Pharisees they were not confessing Him, for fear that they would be put out of the synagogue;” (John 12:42) Letting public opinion sway our decision to receive the trust found in Christ will always nullify the benefits of that trust. I remember a Muslim youth who stayed with us one Christmas and had become very interested in...

“ This was to fulfill the word of Isaiah the prophet which he spoke: Lord, who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?” (John 12:38) When we see Jesus’ arms stretched out, His rod and scepter become the spikes holding Him on the cross. Without them, He would be free to do His will. With them, He was stuck to Father’s will. We are told to take up our cross every...

“But though He had performed so many signs before them, yet they were not believing in Him.” (John 12:37) What does it take for you to trust? Nothing. If someone found you today and declared they were returning next Tuesday with a new car for you, with taxes paid, licensed, insured, maintenance, and gas for ten years, then turned and walked away, what would your response be? How about saying, “See...

“‘While you have the Light, believe in the Light, so that you may become sons of Light.’ These things Jesus spoke, and He went away and hid Himself from them.” (John 12:36) We all trust earthly light. In the instant the light goes on, we relate to things differently. So it is with people who turn to Christ Jesus and trust Him. Trust the Light. Go to the Light! The light of the Father shines throug...

“If we let Him go on like this, all men will believe in Him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.” (John 11:48) Right after Jesus had called Lazarus from his grave, the Pharisees decided both had to die. Why? Because, without hindering Jesus’s living, He would, in time, gain the trust of everyone. The Jewish world would have come to their Messiah and followed their...

“Therefore many of the Jews who came to Mary, and saw what He had done, believed in Him.” (John 11:45) Years ago, I witnessed a resurrection of sorts. I shared it with a friend. He denied what I had seen. He, as good as, called me a liar. He exhibited anger over my insisting on what I had seen. He had been born in the Middle East. I thought his trust in me as a friend would have been sufficient to...

“I knew that You always hear Me; but because of the people standing around I said it, so that they may believe that You sent Me.” (John 11:42) Jesus did not say to His Father, “I know You always hear me,” but “I knew …”. This difference can make us think He had already been chatting with Father quietly and was concerned with having to request out loud what Father had already promised. Jesus wanted...