John 14:6 “I AM THE WAY AND THE TRUTH AND THE LIFE. NO ONE COMES TO THE FATHER EXCEPT THROUGH ME.”
Today we wrap up our focus and memorization of John 14:6. My post over the weekend failed to post, and I think it was God’s will for me to take more time in my own reflection and especially the last sentence from Jesus in this verse – “NO ONE COMES TO THE FATHER EXCEPT THROUGH ME.”
If you haven’t figured it out yet, there are a lot of people searching for God, and there are a lot of religions in the world who claim they are the true faith and true belief in a god or gods. Walk through Barnes & Noble and you will find an exhaustive section of New Age/New Spirituality books. Believe me, Barnes & Noble wouldn’t carry all those books unless people were not buying them. There are also those who propose we should just ‘coexist’ as all religions ultimately lead us to God. That is simply not the case. As I have said before, I sure haven’t figured it all out by any means, but here are my thoughts on John 14:6:
Jesus says the only way to the Father, the only way for us to know God and the essence of His love for us is through Him. It is NOT a sign that Christianity is an “exclusive” religion. This is a gross misinterpretation. To the contrary, Jesus is showing the path for those who are seeking to connect with God. Through Christ, we see the essence of God and His love, something our human mind simply cannot comprehend. Through Christ, we are given the path to reconciliation with God and the path to a relationship with the Father.
This is again fundamental to our Christian walk. The great commission resonates in these words. Christianity is NOT an exclusive club. It is incumbent upon us who know the truth to share it with the lost. We just need to understand that ‘the lost’ are not simply people caught up in sin and addictions. The lost includes a lot of people searching for God, they are just misplaced in their search. Many Hollywood celebrities have and are ‘promoting’ their new found spirituality through books, talk shows, and reality TV. This new found spirituality takes many forms; Tom Cruise’s faith is attached to a book written by a man in the 1950’s, the musician Sting chronicles an “out-of-body” experience he and his wife had while drinking a concoction during a tribal spiritual service in Brazil, Oprah has apparently become a devotee of Depak Chopra and his reconstituted spirituality of combining Eastern religions with New Age, “it’s all about me” thinking. They are lost and tragically they are leading many people they influence down a lost road as well.
You are going to be challenged over the next few years about your Christian faith and why you believe it is the truth. We are going to explore this together in our Bible Verse Study. You have been blessed to have the Christian foundation you have been given thus far. Don’t be lead astray. Don’t let the media, celebrities or others influence you away from your faith as I was over 30 years ago. Instead, I encourage you to be the influence to bring them lovingly to the truth of Jesus Christ and the redemption of the Cross.
Happy Monday! Jim
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