What is My Password?!

How many passwords do you think you have?

How many times have you had to change a password because you forgot your existing password?

According to one NordPass study, the average person has 100 passwords. There are now computer programs to help you manage and remember your many passwords and codes.

I know when I log into my email, if I am off by one digit, one numeral, one symbol, I cannot gain access to my mail. If I don’t capitalize that one letter, I am not getting in. If I use a # instead of the @ I am no better off than if the account belonged to someone else.

You must be very precise with your information to access your online accounts or alarm systems and yet I have heard well-meaning, seemingly educated adults tell me there are many ways to gain access to eternity.

I’m sorry friend, but that simply is not true. If the Bible is your guide, and what other guide would you use, it is clear, Jesus is not just “the way”; He is the only way.

John 14: 6 “Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”

Jesus is speaking directly to Thomas. All His disciples are there.

Jesus knows His time has come to leave this earth and return to Heaven and to His Father. Supper had ended and John 13:4-5 says Jesus “rose from supper and laid aside His garments, took a towel and girded Himself. After that, He poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet, and to wipe them with the towel with which He was girded.” NKJV

Jesus, the Son of God, the Creator of our world, is about to be tortured and killed to become our Savior to wash away our sins, and He kneels and washes dirty feet first! Such a loving Friend! Such an example to the way we should treat each other.

Conversations continue and we come to chapter 14. Here Jesus reveals much about Himself and His Father, and He ends with talking about The Gift of His Peace. I want to leave you with that today.

“Don’t let this rattle you. You trust God, don’t you? Trust me. There is plenty of room for you in my Father’s home. If that weren’t so, would I have told you that I’m on my way to get a room ready for you? And if I’m on my way to get your room ready, I’ll come back and get you so you can live where I live. And you already know the road I’m taking.”

Thomas said, “Master, we have no idea where you’re going. How do you expect us to know the road?”

Jesus said, “I am the Road, also the Truth, also the Life. No one gets to the Father apart from me. If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him. You’ve even seen him!”

Philip said, “Master, show us the Father; then we’ll be content.”

“You’ve been with me all this time, Philip, and you still don’t understand? To see me is to see the Father. So how can you ask, ‘Where is the Father?’ Don’t you believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I speak to you aren’t mere words. I don’t just make them up on my own. The Father who resides in me crafts each word into a divine act.

“Believe me: I am in my Father and my Father is in me. If you can’t believe that, believe what you see—these works. The person who trusts me will not only do what I’m doing but even greater things, because I, on my way to the Father, am giving you the same work to do that I’ve been doing. You can count on it. From now on, whatever you request along the lines of who I am and what I am doing, I’ll do it. That’s how the Father will be seen for who he is in the Son. I mean it. Whatever you request in this way, I’ll do.

“If you love me, show it by doing what I’ve told you. I will talk to the Father, and he’ll provide you another Friend so that you will always have someone with you. This Friend is the Spirit of Truth. The godless world can’t take him in because it doesn’t have eyes to see him, doesn’t know what to look for. But you know him already because he has been staying with you, and will even be in you!

“I will not leave you orphaned. I’m coming back. In just a little while the world will no longer see me, but you’re going to see me because I am alive and you’re about to come alive. At that moment you will know absolutely that I’m in my Father, and you’re in me, and I’m in you.

“The person who knows my commandments and keeps them, that’s who loves me. And the person who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and make myself plain to him.”

Judas (not Iscariot) said, “Master, why is it that you are about to make yourself plain to us but not to the world?”

“Because a loveless world,” said Jesus, “is a sightless world. If anyone loves me, he will carefully keep my word and my Father will love him—we’ll move right into the neighborhood! Not loving me means not keeping my words. The message you are hearing isn’t mine. It’s the message of the Father who sent me.

“I’m telling you these things while I’m still living with you. The Friend, the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send at my request, will make everything plain to you. He will remind you of all the things I have told you. I’m leaving you well and whole. That’s my parting gift to you. Peace. I don’t leave you the way you’re used to being left—feeling abandoned, bereft. So don’t be upset. Don’t be distraught.

“You’ve heard me tell you, ‘I’m going away, and I’m coming back.’ If you loved me, you would be glad that I’m on my way to the Father because the Father is the goal and purpose of my life.

“I’ve told you this ahead of time, before it happens, so that when it does happen, the confirmation will deepen your belief in me. I’ll not be talking with you much more like this because the chief of this godless world is about to attack. But don’t worry—he has nothing on me, no claim on me. But so the world might know how thoroughly I love the Father, I am carrying out my Father’s instructions right down to the last detail…” The Message Version

We celebrate the birth of Jesus this month. Let’s not forget, He is coming back to get us someday. Hang onto the hope. Jesus loves you!

by Jeanette Stark – Thursday, December 8, 2022