Day 40: John 13-15

"In my Father's house are many dwelling places; if not, I would have told you. I am going away to prepare a place for you. If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and receive you to Myself, so that where I am you may be also"
John 14:2-3

I see some striking parallels here with the account of creation that we find in Genesis. God created the heavens and the earth and then prepared them for man. He created light to illuminate our paths and mark our days. He created dry land for us to walk upon and dwell upon. He created all of the creatures of the earth to fill it with the evidence of His greatness and for man to have dominion over. He created earth and prepared if for us so that we could thrive. The earth is clearly designed to support life and is set apart from all other stellar bodies. Once God created Adam, God placed him in a perfectly prepared Garden for him to dwell in.

God created this vast and complex universe in a mere week. I believe in a 6 literal days creation because I believe Bible is His Word and that is what His Word says. And I believe my God is big enough to do such a things. His Word also says that Christ has gone away to prepare a place for the disciples; for us; for me! It's not like a preparing for a banquet with a 'X' number of guests. He is preparing a specific place for me and for you individually. Can you imagine what kind of place God could prepare if given close to 2000 years to prepare it? Look what He did in 6 days. I can't either, but I'm anxious to find out.

Day 36: John 5-6

As we continue reading through John (my favorite gospel!) I want to take a moment and discuss the identity of the Savior.

I still remember back in college when I began to truly read the Bible for the first time and I came face to face with the reality that Jesus is God in the flesh. Even though I grew up in church, somehow that just never clicked for me before. But there I found it, seemingly on every page of the New Testament!

I have a Muslim friend who told me Jesus never claimed to be God, but that His followers ascribed that to Him at a later date. It's true that we don't have stories of Jesus walking around shouting, "I'm God! Fall at my feet!" However, I think we see part of the reason for that in John 5:31 when Jesus said, "If I testify about myself, my testimony is not valid." He did not come to glorify Himself, but to do the Father's will. To constantly declare His deity was not part of the agenda.

This is well demonstrated in Philippians 2:5-11 where we see that although Christ was God, He laid aside His glory to come to the earth and die for our sins. What a mighty God we serve!

For the people of His day, Jesus' claims were clear. Here in John 5:17-18 we see that they understood exactly what He was saying: He was equal with the Father. In just a few chapters we'll read one of His most profound claims of deity in John 8:58 when Jesus applies the very "I AM" of God to Himself. Again, the implications are clear, as they wanted to stone Him for blasphemy.

Of course, John made it plain who Jesus was in his opening chapter: "the Word was God ... [and] became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory!"

The implications of this truth are almost overwhelming. Jesus is not just another great prophet or teacher or man of God. He wasn't just a revolutionary or influential figure in history. He is not on equal footing with Muhammad or Buddha or Lucifer or an angel.

He is the Lord of Glory! The Alpha and the Omega! The Creator and Sustainer of all things! I hope you've come to the place where you see Him as He truly is: indescribable, incomparable, and unlike anyone else. I pray you've come to the place that Peter did when he said, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life."

And above all, I hope you've put your trust in His work on the cross for your sins and that you find Him to be the One true thing you can build your life upon!