Live to Love Scripture Encouragement

John 7:13 Yet no one was speaking openly of Him for fear of the Jews. Apparently the Jews, the Jewish leaders, were a very intimidating group of men. So much so that no one openly talked about Jesus at the feast of Booths. Those who thought He was a good man (vs. 12) must have made sure they only gave their opinion to people with whom they felt safe. Have you ever been intimidated into silence? Have you experienced the fear that comes from censorship and rejection? There are going to be times in our lives when we know we have to speak the truth in love in an atmosphere that is hostile to Christ. Usually that hostility has grown there because of the intimidation of important people in that community or social circle. There are certain circles where spiritual discussions are frowned upon or forbidden. It takes a lot of courage and love to speak up about Jesus in those circles. We need the discernment and discretion of Jesus to know when to speak and when not to. Even Jesus hesitated to go too, because He knew they were hostile to Him and wanted to kill Him. But I think we can be sure that His reluctance wasn't fear-based. It had more to do with God's timing, because He did go later. When He went, we've learned that He didn't keep silent. He went to the temple and began teaching. As He taught, the responses were guarded to non-existent. I think we can assume that the way the Jewish leaders intimidated the crowd was by their asking where He got His ideas. Essentially, they were saying that Jesus wasn't teaching what the reputable rabbis were teaching. They asserted that He wasn't educated by anyone with any authority or notoriety, therefore should be rejected and censored. Fear was stifling the crowd from talking about Him or His teaching. As we go through our day, let's not let intimidation hinder our speaking about Jesus or loving people God puts in our paths. We can trust God to use every situation and encounter for His glory as we wait on the Holy Spirit for ways to love them. Father, help us overcome fear of rejection and censorship. Give us discernment and discretion, as well as love and courage to speak out regardless of the environment. Make us bright lights in the darkness. I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of "giving it forward," so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.

John 7:11-12 So the Jews were seeking Him at the feast and were saying, “Where is He?” There was much grumbling among the crowds concerning Him; some were saying, “He is a good man”; others were saying, “No, on the contrary, He leads the people astray.” We learn from these verses about the diverse opinions about Jesus and the settled hostility of some of the Jews, referring to the Jewish leaders who sought Him with malicious intent. His attendance was expected, so they were on the lookout. I would like to put these verses into our context to some degree. As we live to love with Jesus, we may expect the same range of opinions about us. There will be some who think we are good, and there will be others that think we are imposters, toxic, and should be cancelled. It's hard to imagine how someone who is God, who performed miracles of healing and deliverance, and who taught with such authority could be considered an enemy and a false prophet. But there is an explanation for it proposed by James, Jesus' brother, in his letter. James 3:14-16. But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your heart, do not be arrogant and so lie against the truth. This wisdom is not that which comes down from above, but is earthly, natural, demonic. For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every evil thing. The Jews' view of Jesus was not an unbiased appraisal. He was a threat to their ambitions. They were jealous of His humility, popularity, power, and ministry. We know that Jesus exposed that their deeds were evil (vs. 7). We should not be surprised if our good deeds, our acts of love, are misunderstood and mischaracterized by people who want people to think they are good, but are not. The encouragement I get from these verses in their context is that Jesus didn't let the opinions of the crowd sway Him one way or another. He sought only to do His Father's will for His glory. Jesus made it clear in chapter 5 that it's impossible to believe in Jesus as long as one seeks the glory of man, which is self-ambition. So let's take great care to put away our self-ambitions and, in humility, receive whatever God has for us, both good and bad. May we be faithful in doing good, abiding in Christ, and surrendered to His will and plan for our lives. I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of "giving it forward," so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.

John 7:8-10 Go up to the feast yourselves; I do not go up to this feast because My time has not yet fully come. Having said these things to them, He stayed in Galilee. But when His brothers had gone up to the feast, then He Himself also went up, not publicly, but as if, in secret.” Jesus encouraged His brothers to attend the Feast of Booths, but told them He wasn't going to the feast because His time wasn't completed. We recall from yesterday that Jesus' time that He referenced was His death. Jesus implied that He wasn't going to go up publicly as His brothers suggested in verse 4 because the Jews were planning to kill Him. However, after waiting for a while, perhaps a couple of days or so, Jesus did go, but secretly, which I assume means that He didn't travel with anyone. There's no mention of the disciples, so we may also conclude He likewise had encouraged them to attend the feast. When something is unclear, one of the basic rules of interpretation is to let Scripture interpret Scripture. In other words, we bring in information given in other passages that we know to be true to bring clarity. In this case, since we know Jesus never did anything on His own initiative, and always did the will of His Father, we know Jesus wasn't lying when He said He wasn't going up to the feast. He is in tune with the Father, and the Father wasn't going to the feast at the same time as His brothers. Jesus was living to love with His Father, so He constantly was abiding in the Father and trusting His will and timing in all things. It is also true that the Father abided in Jesus. Once the Son of God came into the world, Jesus' body became God's temple—the place where God dwelled and made His name known. He wasn't in the temple in Jerusalem. With Jesus' arrival, that temple and all of its ceremonies became obsolete and was about to disappear as it says in Hebrews 8:13, “When He said, ‘A new covenant,' He has made the first obsolete. But whatever is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to disappear.” The people went to the temple for the feasts, but now Jesus is the feast of Booths, the Passover, the priest, and the sacrifices and everything else about the temple. He could fully celebrate the Feast of Booths, and the celebration of God's deliverance, provision, and joy without going to Jerusalem. Think on that. Today, you are the temple of God. You have God dwelling in you if you believe in Jesus and have received His life. You don't have to go somewhere to worship Him or to celebrate His deliverance, provision, and joy. You carry the celebration everywhere you go, and can eat and drink, feast on Christ constantly. That's what living to love with Jesus is—it's living in the joy of His presence and manifesting it. May we be filled with understanding and realize the miracle of miracles—Christ in us, the fullness of God, the hope of glory. Let His love and joy flow like a river today as you fix your eyes on Jesus. I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of "giving it forward," so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.

John 7:6-7 So Jesus said to them (that is, His brothers who had encouraged Him to go to the feast in Jerusalem to make Himself known publicly), “My time is not yet here, but your time is always opportune. The world cannot hate you, but it hates Me because I testify of it, that its deeds are evil.” What did Jesus mean by “My time?” He meant the time of His death. I conclude that first because in verse 1 we learned that Jesus knew the Jews were planning to kill Him and therefore stayed in Galilee. Second, the Jews' hatred for Him was obviously on top of mind with Him. The Father was arranging the timing and circumstances in Jerusalem for Jesus to give His flesh to become the bread of life. As for His brothers' times of death, it could happen anytime. Their death wasn't contingent on being hated by the world, or anything, for that matter. They weren't intentionally, knowingly, making decisions leading to their deaths. God could use any opportune situation to end their lives. Not so with Jesus. For Jesus, His time was the Father's time. Everything in His life was determined by His Father. Later in John 8:28, Jesus explained His decision-making. “So Jesus said, “‘When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am He, and I do nothing on My own initiative.'” Jesus' time for everything in His life was determined by the Father, or by the Spirit of the Father, the Holy Spirit. They moved as one. Nothing has changed for Jesus as He lives in us. He moves as the Spirit moves. He lives to the the will of His Father. If our goal is to live to love with Jesus, we must abide in Him. That means our time for everything in life is also determined by God, the Father. He orchestrates circumstances, moves people, and us so that He can glorify His name through His Son in us. At the beginning of every day, if we intend to abide in Him, our “time,” not meaning the time of our death, but the timing of the events of our days, must be surrendered to Him. In another sense, we are intentionally, knowingly walking into our deaths. We died when Jesus died to our own agendas—our own lives in this world. When Jesus was raised from the dead, we were raised to walk or live our lives in Him, with Him—He abiding in us and we in Him. So today every situation or relationship is an opportunity for me to die to myself, die to my flesh attempts at living for God, and to abide in Christ and live to love with Him. In that sense, our time to die is opportune. The love of God flows out of Jesus' timely death, through my timely death, and out of His initiating love as we move together through the day. Our times are in His hands. That's why James wrote in 4:14-15. “Yet, you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. Instead, you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that.'” So the encouragement to live to love with Jesus today is to live with the same sense of dependency upon the Father as Jesus does. Trust His timing for everything in your life, as well as with the timing of your death. Live surrendered to the will of God, as Jesus lives surrendered to the Father. Then you will have confidence that God's will is being done on earth as it is in heaven in your life. Your life and death are in His hands. Out of that understanding and that kind of trust, the love of Christ will flow through your life. I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of "giving it forward," so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.

John 7:5 For not even His brothers were believing in Him. Jesus had four brothers and at least two sisters. In this verse, we learn that at the time of these events, none of the brothers believed that Jesus was the Son of God, the Messiah. In Luke 8:21, when Jesus was told that his mother and brothers had arrived, Jesus said, “My mother and My brothers are these who hear the word of God and do it.” They eventually became believers and doers of the word of God. Those special to Jesus are those who take God's word and apply it to their lives. Those who live to love with Jesus are His brothers and sisters. They are doing what Jesus commanded when He said, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another” (John 13:34). He later said in John 15:5 that this can only be done as we abide in Him. I want to encourage you today that Jesus considers you His brother or sister if you are living to love with Him. Unlike Jesus' brothers at the time, you are expressing faith as you love others with Him. Let us rejoice today in being members of Jesus' family, His brothers and sisters who trust Him and do the word of God. I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of "giving it forward," so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.

John 7:2-4 Now the feast of the Jews, the Feast of Booths, was near. Therefore, His brothers said to Him, “Leave here and go into Judea, so that Your disciples also may see Your works which You are doing. For no one does anything in secret when he himself seeks to be known publicly. If You do these things, show Yourself to the world.” As we consider these verses, I want to bring something Jesus said into view that shows an important, stark contrast between Jesus and most everyone else. John 5:30 “I can do nothing on My own initiative. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is just, because I do not seek My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.” John 5:41 “I do not receive glory from men; John 5:44 “How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another, and you do not seek the glory that is from the one and only God? Jesus wasn't seeking to be known publicly, but His brothers assumed that was Jesus' ambition. Jesus had one ambition: to reveal and glorify His Father by doing His will on a moment by moment basis. May I encourage you to have the same ambition as Jesus today? Our purpose is essentially the same as His: to glorify God by revealing that Jesus still lives to glorify His Father. We do this by loving with Him. We aren't trying to be good Christians so we will have a good reputation with the public. We're not trying to be publicly known. I was struck by a quote from Nikolai Ludwig von Zinzindorf in Living Life Backwards by David Gibson. “Preach the gospel. Die. Be forgotten.” There's no self-ambition or self-significance driving those words. May our ambition today be to glorify God, to live for His pleasure, by loving with Jesus, preaching the gospel in the power of the Holy Spirit. I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of "giving it forward," so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.

John 7:1 After these things, Jesus was walking in Galilee, for He was unwilling to walk in Judea because the Jews were seeking to kill Him. What an interesting way to describe what Jesus was doing. He was walking in Galilee and not Judea. He wasn't sitting or working in Galilee; He was walking. The idea was that Jesus conducted His daily affairs in Galilee. Galilee was His home region, so He continued His ministry there. We're told He did so because He was unwilling to go to Judea because He knew His life was in danger there. The Jews were out to get Him. This was a fairly normal and reasonable decision. Don't go where you're not wanted. We know later on that Jesus did go to Jerusalem to observe the feast in spite of the dangers. But today I want to encourage you to stay in the flow of where God is working. Jesus taught this to His disciples on the occasion of their being unwanted in a village. He told them “Any place that does not receive you or listen to you, as you go out from there, shake the dust off the soles of your feet for a testimony against them” (Mark 6:11). So as we are “walking” in this world wherever the Lord has us, let's be in tune with what God is doing and work with Him where there is receptivity. My guess is that most of us are not concerned about being killed by anyone that we may minister to. We are living for the glory of God, so we want to live and love where the Spirit guides us. We may trust that our Father will guide our steps and direct us to those He wants to love. I'm aware that every person who crosses my path is part of a divine plan. There are no random meetings. I've seen the Lord deeply touch people just by my telling them that our meeting isn't random. I'll share about praying for them that morning and then ask how I can specifically pray for them, and usually there's a reason for the encounter that makes it clear the Lord has put us together. May the Holy Spirit give us discernment and sensitivity to Him and to those around us today. I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of "giving it forward," so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.

John 6:70-71 Jesus answered them, “Did I Myself not choose you, the twelve, and yet one of you is a devil?” Now He meant Judas the son of Simon Iscariot, for he, one of the twelve, was going to betray Him. The encouragement we may draw from these verses is that our Father is always working for our good, and therefore we can entrust ourselves to Him. Can you see that in what Jesus said? Jesus' statement was made to fortify the statement made in verse 65, “No one can come to Me unless it has been granted him from the Father.” Even if the Son chooses someone, it doesn't mean the Father has chosen Him. Jesus chose Judas Iscariot knowing he was going to betray Him. He knew the Father was not teaching Him. He knew Judas was following Him for the wrong reasons, just like the crowd was. Eventually, Judas and the crowd would bring charges against Jesus with hostile intent. That's the idea in the root word for devil, diabolos. It means to accuse or slander falsely with malicious intent. The devil is the accuser of the brethren (Rev. 12:10). I'm encouraged by a couple of things about Jesus that help me understand the faith that is necessary if I'm to live to love with Him. He completely entrusted Himself to His Father. When He chose Judas to be one of the twelve, we know He did so at the Father's direction. He came to do the Father's will (John 6:38). We learn here that Jesus knew Judas would betray Him. That tells me that Jesus, even knowing that Judas would play an integral part in His death, still entrusted Himself to His Father. 1 Peter 2:23 testifies of Jesus' reliance on His Father. “And while being reviled, He did not revile in return; while suffering, He uttered no threats, but kept entrusting Himself to Him who judges righteously.” That kind of faith and trust lives in me and all those who live to love with Jesus. That encourages us to entrust ourselves completely to our Father and His will for us. Jesus' unwavering obedience to His Father also encourages me. He obeyed His Father in choosing Judas, knowing it was going to bring suffering. By the way, that was an act of love for His Father and for us. The Father commanded Him to lay down His life for us, and in choosing Judas, He began the process. As we live to love with Jesus, we have been commanded to love like Jesus loves, to love with Him. We are commanded to lay down our lives for the well-being of others. There will be times when we know that if we do something nice, loving, or kind to someone, they are going to be devilish. They are going to turn it around and twist it, falsely accuse us. Our loving them makes them feel guilty because they don't love us. There is hostility in their hearts toward us, and it makes them angry when we love them. So rather than receive the love, they sabotage our efforts to love them and accuse us of being proud or manipulative. I'm encouraged by Jesus' example of obedience to not refrain from loving those who are my enemies and entrust myself to God's care. We can trust God will work everything for good and for His glory, just as Jesus did. I hope you'll be encouraged also from these verses to entrust yourself to your heavenly Father and obey Him by loving others as Jesus loves. This is only possible in the power of the Holy Spirit. May we be filled with the spirit of Christ today as we walk in love with Him. I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of "giving it forward," so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.

John 6:66-69 As a result of this, many of His disciples withdrew and were not walking with Him anymore. So Jesus said to the twelve, “You do not want to go away also, do you?” Simon Peter answered Him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have words of eternal life. We have believed and have come to know that You are the Holy One of God.” Simon Peter spoke up for the twelve and expressed what all believe who have been born again by the Spirit. We believe Jesus has the words of eternal life. As Jesus said only a minute or two previously, “The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.” Those who are the true branches in the Vine abide in Him, and His words abide in them. In John 14:23 Jesus said, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him.” Believing Jesus has the words of eternal life, we keep them. No one else has the words of life. Simon Peter and the rest of the twelve, with the exception of Judas, knew from the words Jesus had spoken that He was the Holy One of God, the Messiah, the Christ. That was enough for them. When others were walking away, the twelve stayed with Jesus. Even though they probably didn't understand all that Jesus said, they heard enough to know that He was the One sent from God so they might have eternal life. Could you also make the same confession as Simon Peter? I hope so. Where else could we turn to find and experience the love of God through a person other than Jesus? They thought there were other teachers who were more understandable and who presented more palatable ideas than cannibalism. They decided it wasn't worth their time to hang out and listen until they understood what He meant. Who we listen to tells a lot about us. According to the apostle John in his first epistle, who we listen to reveals where we are from. 1 John 4:1. “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.” Then in verses 5-6, he made the connection between origin and who we listen to. “They are from the world; therefore they speak as from the world, and the world listens to them. We are from God; he who knows God listens to us; he who is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.” That's what Jesus basically said in this encounter in Capernaum's synagogue. He told them they were not from His Father, because if they were, they would listen to Him and believe. The fact that they didn't have ears to hear Him revealed that the Father had not brought them to Him. The encouragement we draw from these verses is that Jesus' disciples who live to love with Him are the antithesis of the so-called disciples who walked away. We are like Simon Peter. We stay with Jesus even when we are faced with difficult truth because we know He has the words of life. As we meet those God puts in our paths, we wait for the Holy Spirit to give us the words that will bring life to them. That's one of the many ways we love them. We trust in the power of God and the life-giving words of Christ. Maybe it's a great question to ask people as we share with them about Jesus. Do you know anyone else who has the words of eternal life? I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of "giving it forward," so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.

John 6:64-65, “But there are some of you who do not believe.” For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were who did not believe, and who it was that would betray Him. And He was saying, “For this reason I have said to you, that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted him from the Father.” This is the second time Jesus told the crowd that there were some who did not believe. In John 6:36 He said, “But I said to you that you have seen Me, and yet do not believe.” We learn in these verses that one of those Jesus knew didn't believe in Him was Judas Iscariot. We also discover a profound truth. The reason Judas didn't believe was because the Father hadn't granted it to him. This reminds me of something else Jesus said while explaining the parable of the soils, recorded in Mark 4:11-12. “And He was saying to them, ‘To you has been given the mystery of the kingdom of God, but those who are outside get everything in parables, so that while seeing, they may see and not perceive, and while hearing, they may hear and not understand, otherwise they might return and be forgiven.'” Jesus loved Judas, but the Father didn't grant that he would hear and believe. Earlier we read in John 6:44 “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him.” Jesus surrendered Himself to do the Father's will and to be satisfied with it. For us to live to love with Jesus, we must have the same attitude of trust. Maybe I should say it this way. If we believe in Jesus, then we do have the same attitude of trust dwelling in us because Jesus lives in us. We have His Spirit, and His Spirit is our life. Jesus was jealous for the Spirit to get the glory He deserves in doing the work that only He can do. He would not do what the Spirit was given to do. He only did what the Father gave Him to do. He received what the Father gave Him and was a faithful Son. That attitude of trust is foundational to loving with Jesus. As we love the people God puts in our paths each day, we do so trusting the Father to draw them to Jesus and trusting the Holy Spirit to give life. Remember, Jesus said in verse 63, “It is the Spirit who gives life.” Our responsibility is to love with Jesus, that is the fruit of the Vine in us, the branches. Our hope and prayer is that the will and work of God will be done in the hearts and lives of those who are His. There is freedom with this kind of faith. It frees us from discouragement, guilt, and feelings of inadequacy if we don't see results. We can leave the results to God, just as Jesus did. Also, let's draw encouragement from this wonderful truth. If we believe, it is because the Father has granted it. He created us for His Son and gave us to Him. Therefore, we come to Him, believe in Him, and receive life in Him. To God be the glory! Let us be filled with gratitude and joy for God's great wisdom and grace revealed to us in Christ. Thank you, Father, for giving us to Your Son, Jesus. We are forever blessed and grateful. I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of "giving it forward," so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.

John 6:61-63 But Jesus, conscious that His disciples grumbled at this, said to them, “Does this cause you to stumble? What then if you see the Son of Man ascending to where He was before? It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.” Somehow, Jesus knew His disciples were grumbling about His statement about eating His flesh and drinking His blood. At least, I think that is the troubling statement about which they were grumbling. He asked if it caused them to stumble or to be offended, or if they thought it was scandalous. That's the Greek word used here, from which we get the word scandalous—skandalizo. The second question follows logically. Let's remember they have just seen an impossible to forget miracle in the multiplication of fish and bread to feed over 15,000 people and have leftovers. Remember, He had told them quite specifically that He was from heaven. He asked them, if they were to see Him go back into heaven, would it be enough for them to believe and trust Him? By the way, some of them were going to see Him ascend to heaven. The question had a purpose and stressed the point He wanted to make. If they were trying to understand Jesus' words only from their fleshly perspective, even seeing Jesus ascend to heaven wouldn't be enough for them to believe and not grumble. The point: the flesh wants signs in the physical world before trusting. The problem with the flesh is that if one sign can talk them into trusting, a sign that causes them to stumble can talk them out of trusting. The truth that brings us encouragement is clearly stated in verse 63. Only the Holy Spirit can give life. If the Holy Spirit gives understanding and faith to trust in Jesus' words, then there's long-lasting benefit and fruit. Jesus words were spirit and life. I think He means that they are the signs from God, from heaven, that bring forth fruit in the spiritual realm. Flesh is bound to the physical realm, therefore the flesh profits nothing in the spiritual realm. Jesus' words don't come from this world, they come from heaven, and therefore are spirit and life. We may be encouraged that as we speak the words of Scripture to others, we are loving with Jesus. We are speaking words that are spirit and life. We can trust that the Holy Spirit will make the words come alive in the hearts of those who have been given by God to Christ. We'll know the ones given to Christ by their response to those life-giving words. The Spirit will overcome their fleshly limitations and give them faith to believe. He will open the ears of their hearts to hear and understand. Jesus would often say, “He who has ears to hear, let Him hear.” It was His way of calling forth the work of the Father and the Spirit. As we live to love with Jesus, we may expect the Father to draw, and the Holy Spirit to teach as we speak the words of Christ. Let's remember, always, that the flesh profits nothing—cannot bear fruit for God's glory. Only the Spirit of God can give life to the words we speak. I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of "giving it forward," so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.

John 6:59-60 These things He said in the synagogue as He taught in Capernaum. Therefore, many of His disciples, when they heard this, said, “This is a difficult statement; who can listen to it?” Today, we learn that the teaching about the bread of life took place in the synagogue of Capernaum. We also learn that it wasn't just the crowd that balked at His teaching. Many of His disciples had a hard time with the statement Jesus made. I think the difficult statement was in verse 56. “He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him.” Who can listen to it? Or we might say in the context of eating, “Who can stomach the idea of eating His flesh or drinking His blood?” Something to note about Jesus' love for God and for these people: He wanted His Father to get all the glory. He didn't try to be relevant or present His message in such a way that His listeners could understand what He said from a natural mindset. Rather, He spoke the truth of the gospel with 100% trust in the Holy Spirit to work in their hearts. I'm not suggesting that we shouldn't try to communicate God's word as clearly as we can, but ultimately, only the Holy Spirit can open the heart to understand and effectually believe. Like Jesus, we want to love them by speaking the truth as clearly as we can, but trusting God to do His work of drawing them to Jesus. There are many difficult or puzzling statements made by Jesus that are recorded in the gospels. If we focus on them, we may find ourselves plagued with many doubts. However, we aren't responsible to do something with what we don't understand. We are responsible to respond to what we do understand. Deuteronomy 29:29 attests to this fact. “The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our sons forever, that we may observe all the words of this law.” The context is different, but the truth is timeless. Let's not stumble or grumble about the things we don't understand or that are difficult statements. Instead, let's be amazed at the truth about Jesus that we do understand, apply it to our lives, and share it with others. The encouragement I draw from these verses is that in living to love with Jesus, there will be times I don't understand what's happening, but I can trust Him, nonetheless. In the following verses, we'll see that is the attitude of some of the disciples. Bottom line is this: Love flows out of trust. May we trust in Jesus no matter what happens in our lives. He is worthy of our trust and worthy of the glory it brings Him when we do so. I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of "giving it forward," so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.

John 6:57-58 As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats Me, he also will live because of Me. This is the bread which came down out of heaven; not as the fathers ate and died; he who eats this bread will live forever." It is obvious in Jesus' conversation with the crowd who sought Him because He had miraculously fed them that the message was that He was the true life-giving bread sent from God. In these verses, Jesus repeats the theme that began with the miracle. Jesus is the living bread sent from God. Notice Jesus emphasized the quality of life four times: the living Father, I live, the one who eats Me will live, and live forever. Would you celebrate life in Christ with me today? Look at what Jesus said. He lives because the Father lives, and the one who eats or abides in Jesus lives because He lives. Let's connect it and rejoice. We live because Jesus lives, and Jesus lives because the Father lives. Believing that Jesus was sent by the Father unites us with both the Father and the Son, which is the work of the Holy Spirit, who the Apostle Paul called, the Spirit of Life in Christ (Rom. 8:2). The Spirit of Life in Christ sets us free from the law of sin and of death. Listen to how Paul echoes Jesus' declaration that the one who eats His flesh has life forever. Romans 8:9-14. However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him. If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you. So then, brethren, we are under obligation, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh—for if you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. Let me state the highlights I want to spotlight. The spirit is alive. Give life to your mortal bodies. Not live according to the flesh. Putting to death the deeds of the fleshly body, you will live. These are the sons of God! Do you get it? The bread that the fathers ate and died was the bread of the flesh. It was earthly. Our flesh is sinful. His flesh was righteous. The bread that came down from heaven, Jesus Christ, is the bread of life, and those who eat of His flesh live forever. The sons and daughters of God live by the Spirit, out of the life of Jesus, whom God sent to not only die for us, but to live for us. To live to love with Jesus happens as we abide in Him, which is to eat of His flesh. That's living life to the fullest for the glory of God. I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of "giving it forward," so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.

John 6:56 He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him. Foundational to living to love with Jesus is abiding in Jesus. For God to receive glory from our lives, our love must flow from Jesus, the Vine. As branches, fruit-bearing occurs as we abide in the vine. In this verse, Jesus told the crowd how they may receive the bread of life, not die, and live forever. The one who eats His flesh and drinks His blood abides, which is a continual action, in Jesus and Jesus abides in him. The Father gave this bread of life for His glory. He gets all the praise and honor from our lives as we abide in Jesus, filling ourselves with the life of Christ. The love that flows from Jesus in us is the fruit that glorifies the Father. This gives us great encouragement to know that we are pleasing to the Father and fulfilling our purpose in Christ. What a great honor it is to be branches of the Vine, displaying the fruit that brings joy to both the Father and the Son, and also to us. This occurs as we continuously abide in Jesus and He in us, as we continuously eat of Him. May we be filled with the joy of the Lord as we live to love with Jesus today. I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of "giving it forward," so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.

John 6:54-55, He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For My flesh is true food, and My blood is true drink. Every day, we abide in Jesus so we can live with Him. The only way we can abide in Jesus is through His finished work on the cross, where He gave His flesh as a sacrifice for our sins. Without the shedding of blood, there's no forgiveness of sins (Heb. 9:22). Without forgiveness of sins, there's no way we can have access to God or have fellowship with Him. We can't be His fruit bearing disciples if we are not cleansed, washed by His blood. We have His life in us, and that is only possible if our sins have been removed, and we have been made holy, one with Him at the cross. The apostle Paul wrote in Titus 3:5, “He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit.” So, there's not a day that we don't eat His flesh and drink His blood. Living to love with Jesus each day is based on the diet of true food and drink revealed in the gospel. We eat His flesh and drink His blood because we have eternal life. We are encouraged by these two verses to eat and drink the true food and drink provided through His substitutionary death. He died for us so He might bring us to God, present us holy, blameless, and beyond reproach. Then the Father sends His Son from heaven to be the bread of life and our true drink. Out of the fellowship and union we have with Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit, we can rise to our calling to glorify God each day and on the last day. The way we glorify God is through Jesus Christ, as we abide in Him and He in us. Then the Vine can produce the fruit of faith and love in the branches. By this is the Father glorified as we bear or display much fruit. Every circumstance and relationship is God orchestrated so He might be glorified in us as we trust and love with Jesus. Out of Jesus' life abiding in us, we trust God and love others. The sustenance for that kind of living is the true food and drink, of which we continually partake every day until we die. Let's eat, drink, and be merry in Christ! I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of "giving it forward," so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.

John 6:52-53 Then the Jews began to argue with one another, saying, “How can this man give us His flesh to eat?” So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in yourselves.” I'm so glad we live on this side of the cross and the resurrection. The consternation of the crowd seems understandable to me, since they didn't know that He was going to give His body to be broken under the weight of the sins of the world. They didn't know that He would shed His lifeblood for purification of sins and to reconcile the world to God. The apostle Paul explained it this way in Colossians 1:19-20. “For it was the Father's good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross; through Him, I say, whether things on earth or things in heaven.” We live in the light of the cross and resurrection. We know what it means to eat His flesh and drink His blood. It is to abide in Christ! We know the great love God has revealed in Christ, so we aren't standing in the dark like the crowd who grumbled at Jesus words. We should be very encouraged by the reality we have experienced in Jesus. We have life in us because we have believed to the point of trusting Jesus with our lives. May I ask you personally if you have a deep desire to continuously abide in Jesus? Do you realize that apart from Him, you cannot bear fruit? Are you eating and drinking from the life of Jesus? I hope and pray that your answer is a resounding, “Yes.” Abiding in Christ is like having a power tool plugged into an outlet and the “on” button is engaged. You're ready to go into this day with a superpower pulsing in your soul. Every person whom the Lord places in your path will be blessed as you receive the life sap from the vine and then give to them what you receive. Enjoy your day with Jesus! I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of "giving it forward," so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.

John 6:48-51, I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread which comes down out of heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down out of heaven; if anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread also which I will give for the life of the world is My flesh. Let's be encouraged today by what Jesus says about Himself in these verses. First, He is the Bread of Life. Second, He came down so that the one who eats of Him will not die. Third, the one who eats of Jesus, the Living Bread, will live forever. The bread which Jesus gives is His flesh. How can we be encouraged to live to love with Jesus from these verses? Jesus is the life of the world, and the one who has Jesus has the life (1 John 5:12). To eat the bread of life, is to abide in Jesus. It is to receive who He is, embracing His purpose of glorifying God by loving with His Father, doing His will. As we abide in Jesus, He loves through us. We will be doing this forever! Just reading those words that the one who eats of the bread of life will “not die… He will live forever,” produces such hope, joy, and love for the Father, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. His love poured out in our hearts becomes the fountain from which all love flows. To use the metaphor used in these verses, it's like we are the baskets that have the extra bread to be shared with the world. Doesn't that encourage you to live for the purpose of sharing the bread of life with others? Doesn't His love move you to express His love to others? I hope so. Let's also notice the extent to which Jesus went in order to give us the bread of life. He gave His body to be broken so we might have eternal life. God's love is the sustained direction of the will toward the highest good of another, no matter what the cost, in the power of the Holy Spirit, for the glory of God. That's the kind of love and the extent to which we must also go to love in His name and to love with Him. We should not be surprised if He asks us to lay down our lives, expend all our energy, suffer great hardship, persecution, and rejection. That's how we will know to a greater depth the love of Jesus for us. We'll know first hand, to a small degree, what Jesus meant when He said the bread which He gives is His flesh. We may expect God to give us the grace we need to live to love with Jesus. I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of "giving it forward," so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.

John 6:46-47 Not that anyone has seen the Father, except the One who is from God; He has seen the Father. Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes has eternal life. Jesus had just told the crowd that all who are taught by the Father and learn from the Father come to Him. In these verses, He clarifies that the Father has only been seen by the Son, the One who is from God. The one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God already has eternal life. In other words, faith in Jesus is the witness of God that the Father has taught them, and they have learned from Him that Jesus is the One sent by the Father into this world to give life. Do you remember this question: Which comes first, the chicken or the hen? We are faced with a similar question with a similar answer: Which comes first, eternal life or faith? It depends on your perspective. In these verses, we would have to say that eternal life comes first. If we back up a few verses to verse 40, “For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day.” From this perspective, we would have to say, faith comes first. Okay, which is it? First, we know that Jesus can't be confused when He said both of these statements. They are both true. Although we may not be able to understand completely, we can conclude this. God gives a person eternal life. The evidence of that life is faith in Christ. Once one believes in Jesus as the Son of God, the giver of life, he will have eternal life in the future because the life He has received is eternal. If it could pass away, it wouldn't be eternal life. Does that make sense to you? I hope so. At the end of the day, God gets all the glory, so everything must originate with His will. We live to love with Jesus because we have eternal life and know He is working with the Father to do His will. It is a privilege to walk with Jesus in love. May we rejoice in God's great love toward us in that while we were still sinners, Jesus died for us, and the Father has testified that we are justified and loved by giving us faith in Christ. We will have eternal life in the future because we have it now! What good news we have to share with those God puts in our paths today. Eternal life begets eternal life. I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of "giving it forward," so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.

John 6:43-45, Jesus answered and said to them, “Do not grumble among yourselves. No one can come to Me, unless the Father, who sent Me, draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day. It is written in the prophets, ‘And they shall all be taught of God.' Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father, comes to Me.” Look at the trust and confidence the Son of God has in His Father. This is our Live to Love scripture encouragement today. We have the life of the Son in us, and therefore we have His trust and confidence in the Father as we abide in Him. Jesus wasn't striving to get this crowd to believe in Him. He was resting in His Father's work, the work of teaching His listeners about Him, and then drawing them to Him. We have that same confidence as we love people with Jesus. We don't need to feel pressure to get results or to get people to make a decision for Christ. That will rob them of their assurance. Their assurance comes from the experience of listening to and learning from the Father. The Father does His teaching and drawing ministry through His Word, the circumstances of life, and His providence as we love, share God's Word, and trust Him. Do you remember how the Father taught you and drew you to Christ? That's why you came to Jesus. We can depend on the power of God to draw people to Christ as we love with Him. This frees us from unbelief because we aren't looking at ourselves or the people we serve. We are focused on the power of God from the beginning of the encounters with people until the end. We are encouraged in these verses that if the Father teaches and draws them, then Jesus will raise them up on the final day. That's security, and therefore the source of our assurance and confidence. So today, let us love boldly and share with confidence in the power of God to accomplish His will for His glory. I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of "giving it forward," so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.

John 6:41-42 Therefore, the Jews were grumbling about Him, because He said, “I am the bread that came down out of heaven.” They were saying, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does He now say, ‘I have come down out of heaven'?” The Jews thought they knew Jesus' earthly father, so there was no way they could accept Jesus' confession that He was the bread that came down out of heaven. They questioned how He could say that. In their minds, they probably thought He was delusional, so they grumbled about Him. Such is the hardness of heart caused by unbelief. Unbelief fixes the mind on the circumstances on the earth, whereas faith fixes the mind on Jesus and the word of God. The spokesmen for the crowd couldn't hear Jesus' words because of unbelief. We abide in Jesus because we believe His Word, and He therefore is able to love through us. That's how faith works—through love. Jesus told His disciples in John 15:7-8, “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples.” As we abide in Him, we embrace Jesus' purpose, worldview, and mindset. We believe what He believes and says. Can you see that the Jews couldn't believe what Jesus said because they were focused on their own perception of circumstances as they were on the earth? We are encouraged by these verses not to let the circumstances distract us from who Jesus is (the Son of God), what Jesus is (our high priest), what He has done (made purification of sins), where Jesus is (sitting at the right hand of the Father), what Jesus is doing at the right hand (running all things and interceding for us), and what He has promised (to preserve us through all circumstances in life by His mercy and grace). As we draw near to Jesus at the throne of grace, we receive the grace we need to love whoever God puts in our paths. I encourage you today, therefore, to overcome unbelief by keeping your eyes fixed on Jesus and what He says. In these verses, He is our daily sustenance, our daily bread from heaven. Father, give us this day, our daily bread. I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of "giving it forward," so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.

John 6:40 “For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day.” We have another encouragement today about the Father's will, which is another way of saying what pleases the Father. The Father desires to have a people for Himself, raised up on the last day of the history of the world. He isn't raising every single person who has existed in history. There are two distinctive characteristics about them: When they gaze upon Jesus, they believe in Him. These and these alone will have eternal life. How do we gaze upon Jesus today? We behold the Son in the Scriptures. This is the aim in the Live to Love Scripture Encouragement podcasts. When we read God's Word, we look at Christ and meditate on His person, His union with the Father, His purpose in coming into the world, His character, and His ministry. Meditation upon what we read in the Scriptures is a means of more grace, giving deeper understanding of who Jesus is, what He is doing, and the glorious hope of His promises. We may ask the Holy Spirit to teach us and reveal Christ to us so that we may know Him more intimately. As we behold Jesus in the Scriptures, those who have been given to Jesus hear and believe in Him. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ (Rom. 10:17). When we believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, we entrust our lives entirely to Him. We have the hope of eternal life and being raised up with Christ on the last day when “He comes to be glorified in His saints on that day, and to be marveled at among all who have believed” (2 Thessalonians 1:10). So all who believe in Christ are encouraged today that their hope is secure. God has willed that Jesus, Himself, raise us up with Him. Since nothing can separate us from His love, let us live with Him and walk in love for the glory of God on the last day. I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of "giving it forward," so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.

John 6:38-39 For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. This is the will of Him who sent Me, that of all that He has given Me I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day. These two verses give us some very important, encouraging information by answering five questions. Where did Jesus come from? What did He come to do? What is the will of the Father for Jesus? What is the will of God for those given to Jesus? What hope do those who are given to Jesus have? Where did Jesus come from? He came down from heaven. He isn't from this world. He is separate from His creation and therefore isn't tainted and corrupted by this fallen world. What did Jesus come to do? He came to do the will of His Father, who sent Him. What is the will of the Father for Jesus? It is the Father's will that Jesus not lose anything or anyone the Father has given Him, and that He present all that He was given back to the Father in a redeemed state on the last day of the history of the world. And the last question: What hope do those have who are given to Jesus ? On the last day of the history of the world, they will be presented by Jesus to the Father, not in a fallen state, but raised up into a redeemed state. Look at the security we have in Christ! None will be lost. The life which Jesus gives is eternal life. Once it is given, it cannot be lost, otherwise it wouldn't be eternal life. These verses fortify Jesus' previous comments that all the Father gives to Him will come to Him, and He will not cast them out. He won't cast them out because they were given to Him by the Father for the purpose of raising them up, out of their fallen state. My, how we have been loved. We were loved before the foundation of the world and given to Jesus. Why do we believe? Why do we come to Christ and surrender our lives? Because we were given to Him by the Father, and it is the Father's will to save us in Christ. That's the love of God: the sustained direction of the will toward our highest good, no matter what the cost, for His glory. Our highest good is to be raised up for the glory of God. Our confidence is that God's will won't change, and Jesus is faithful over His house to do His will, whose house we are if we hold fast our confidence and the boast of our hope firm until the end (Heb. 2:6). It is out of this confidence and sealed in God's love that we live our lives with Jesus. He lives in us to raise us up. We are being raised up daily by the power of His love and presence into His image, filled with His life, and displaying His fruit—the same kind of love. So we have much to praise God for, as we are encouraged by John 6:38-39. We praise Him for His gracious will toward us, for sending His Son to raise us up, and let us boast of the hope we have in Him. May our praise and thanks be expressed as we love with Jesus today. I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of "giving it forward," so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.

John 6:36-37, But I said to you that you have seen Me, and yet do not believe. All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me, I will certainly not cast out. We don't have the account where Jesus told this crowd that they have seen Him and yet don't believe. John recorded in John 5:44 that Jesus told the Jews, “How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another, and you do not seek the glory that is from the one and only God?” In these verses, He was essentially telling them that the Father had not given them to Him. If He had, they would come to Him in faith, and He would receive them. I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of "giving it forward," so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.

John 6:34-35 Then they said to Him, “Lord, always give us this bread.” Jesus said to them, “I am the Bread of Life; he who comes to Me will not hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst.” The spokesman or men speaking for the crowd when Jesus said the Father gives bread from heaven that gives life to the world said, “Lord, always give us this bread.” Then He couldn't have made it more clear. “I am the bread of life.” So our first encouragement today is to eat the bread of life given by the Father. He is our daily bread. Our daily sustenance. Jesus, Himself, is our bread. Do you love bread? Do you love Jesus like you love bread? Those who love bread want to eat it every day. Lord, always give us Yourself. Always. Every minute, every hour, every day, every year until we are glorified with You. We are also encouraged in this verse with what it means to partake of Jesus, the bread of life. We are to come to Him, which is synonymous with believing in Him. To believe in Jesus is to come to Him, believing He is the source of my life from the point of my coming until my time in this world is over. The promise to the one who comes because He believes in Jesus is that His hunger and thirst will be forever quenched. He will never hunger or thirst for life again. How is that possible? Because once one is given life, there's not anything or anyone else to compare to the satisfaction, peace, fullness, and hope experienced on this earth. It is out of that satisfaction and fullness that the love of God flows. Remember when Jesus broke the bread and fed them, they were full and there were leftovers. The love of Jesus fills our hearts and souls to overflowing, and that is living to love with Jesus. What a wonderfully, meaningful, satisfying way to live life in this world. As recipients of His life, we can say, “Thank You, Lord, for answering our prayer to always give us this bread of life.” May our hearts enjoy Him more than we enjoy our favorite bread. I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of "giving it forward," so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.

Jesus is the True Bread Out of Heaven by Norm Wakefield

John 6:30-31 So they said to Him, “What then do You do for a sign, so that we may see, and believe You? What work do You perform? Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread out of heaven to eat.'” What a shameful testimony of unbelief we have in these verses! They had just experienced one of the most incredible signs of Jesus' ministry. He multiplied 5 loaves of bread and two fish to feed a crowd of probably over 15,000. What more proof did they need to believe Jesus was sent from God? They brought up the comparison of Moses, who gave their fathers manna to eat for forty years, to which Jesus will respond in the following verses. Today, let's ask ourselves if there is this kind of unbelief present in our own hearts. How many times has God shown Himself to be faithful to us in our lives? Countless. Haven't we been tested many times, and God has brought us through every time? Consider when God has given us grace to love people that have been difficult or even hostile. Hasn't God proved Himself over and over, enough so that we should never need another sign before we trust Him with our lives? Shouldn't we believe everything Jesus says as the words of God? That was the question facing this crowd. Do we have good reason to believe what Jesus says about Himself and about the work of God? The answer for them was, “No.” What about us? Although in the previous paragraph I asked about God's faithfulness to us in our lives, the fact is, we have the word of God recorded in our Bibles. That should be enough for us to believe Jesus is the Son of God and the giver of eternal life. Truly, truly, that's why John wrote his gospel. He recorded sign after sign as an eyewitness and recorded Jesus' words so that we might not be doubtful or unbelieving. We have the foundation of faith of Jesus, given to us from God, when He gave us eternal life in Christ. The faith of Jesus has become our faith! His life is our life! We have His life so that we might trust Him with everything in our lives. Regardless of the circumstances or the difficulty of relationships, we look to Jesus, revealed as the Son of God in the word of God. His love is the source of our love, which means we are living to love with Jesus for the glory of God. Today, may we be grateful for the undeniable proof we have that Jesus lives in us. We have the Holy Spirit doing the work of God in and through our lives. To God be the glory. Great things He has done. I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of "giving it forward," so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.

John 6:28-29 “Therefore they said to Him, “What shall we do, so that we may work the works of God?” Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent.” In the previous verse, Jesus told the crowd to work for the food that endures to eternal life. Their response shows they missed the point Jesus was making about Himself being the giver of the food. Their natural frame of reference was work they had to do to get eternal life. We want to be careful not to make the same mistake. Notice, Jesus didn't say, “This is the work you have to do; believe in Him whom He sent.” Jesus didn't answer their question directly. Instead, He told them the work that God is interested in. It isn't the work of man, but the work of the Son of Man, Jesus Christ. That's why Jesus told them the work God does, namely, believing in Him. We are going to learn later in this chapter that, indeed, it is God who does the work in the hearts of those who believe in Jesus (44-45). In effect, in this verse, He told them to do something they cannot do. They cannot do the work of God. Only God can do the work that results in eternal life. This is why it is misleading to tell people to put their faith in Jesus, which by the way, isn't in the NASB. When I typed in “put your faith in” in the search box of my Bible app, the app replied, “There are no verses in the current range of the NASB which fit the current search entry.” To tell people they must put their faith in Jesus to be saved is dangerous and destructive in two ways. First, it implies that God gives eternal life on the basis of something they do. It puts the power of salvation in their hands, so to speak. That's exactly what the crowd was looking for. “What shall we do?” Second, it robs the person of assurance. Faith is the assurance we receive as a witness from God that we have eternal life in Christ. This is clearly taught in Hebrews 11. As Jesus said in this verse, faith is the work of God. It is a witness to us and to the church that we belong to Christ. Peter testified to this reality after the Gentiles believed in Christ in Acts 15:8-9. “And God, who knows the heart, testified to them giving them the Holy Spirit, just as He also did to us; and He made no distinction between us and them, cleansing their hearts by faith.” Furthermore, later in this conversation Jesus confirms this truth by saying no one can come to Him unless they are brought and taught by God. It is God's work that they believe in His Son. Jesus spoke the truth in love to this crowd, and we should as well when people ask what they can do to be saved. We should say what Jesus said. It is God's work that you believe in Jesus. Share the gospel. God sent Jesus to die for the unjust, to do what they cannot do—namely, pay the price for their sinful, self-glorifying lives, putting an end to their attempts to justify themselves by anything they do (1 Pet. 3:18). Then three days later, God raised Jesus from the dead to declare that the sacrifice of His life is acceptable and pleasing to Him. God raised Jesus from the dead because He is the way, the truth, and the life, and the only way to the Father (John 14:6). Jesus has been authorized by the Father to give eternal life to those the Father gave to Him (John 17:2-3). Jesus was raised to live for them and produce fruit in their lives for the glory of God (John 15:7-8). He therefore calls all men to repent and believe in Jesus, which entails turning from reliance on their own efforts to live for God. Dying to their own life in this world, and turning from seeking to please God in their own strength and good deeds. Rejecting the desire to receive glory and significance from men rather than from God.

John 6:27 “Do not work for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you, for on Him the Father, God, has set His seal.” We have a wonderful, sure, assurance that we have eternal life if we believe in Jesus. Let's navigate through this verse, one truth at a time. First, we will learn in the following verses that Jesus is the food that endures to eternal life. He's the bread of life. The crowd pursued Jesus because of the earthly food, the multiplied fish and bread they had received. They were working for an earthly kingdom and for food that perishes. If the purpose of our lives is rooted in something temporal, then we are working for food that perishes. That's why I believe our highest purpose as human beings is to work to glorify God by living to love with Jesus. That purpose never perishes, can't be taken from us, and will sustain us forever. Second, pursuing glorifying God by living to love with Jesus endures to eternal life. In fact, it is eternal life. Knowing the Father and the Son is eternal life (John 17:3). Loving with Jesus is how we know Him. The only way we can love with Him is to abide in Him, be discipled by Him, live out of His fullness. That's eating the True Bread. He gives us eternal life, Himself, who is ours forever. Third, Jesus called Himself the Son of Man, His favorite title for Himself. The title communicated that He was the Messiah. The One sent from God to be the Savior of the world. Our confidence in Jesus as the Son of God, the Son of Man, is the Father's validation or seal that He set upon Jesus. Although the works of God that Jesus did were the Father's witness to Jesus' Sonship, there were three times recorded in the gospels where God “set His seal” on Him. Matthew 3:17 “and behold, a voice out of the heavens said, ‘This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased.'” Matthew 17:5 “While he was still speaking, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and behold, a voice out of the cloud said, ‘This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well-pleased; listen to Him!'” John 12:28 “Father, glorify Your name.” Then a voice came out of heaven: “I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again.” If you have not believed in Jesus Christ as the Son of God, the authorized giver of eternal life, then please consider what Jesus said in this verse. You're wasting your life working for food that perishes. He said He is the way, the truth, and the life, and the only way to the Father in John 14:6, which echoes this same truth here in John 6:27. You need eternal life! Temporal earthly life is just that—temporal. You'll lose it someday. The crowd following Jesus didn't get who He was and what He had to give. Do you? I hope you'll tune in regularly to the Live to Love Scripture Encouragement podcast the next several days as we draw eternal life encouragements from John 6. I'm inviting you to rethink your purpose in life. You were made to glorify God and the only way for God to receive glory through your life is by living to love with Jesus instead of living for yourself, for your own glory. Jesus said that it's impossible to believe in Jesus if you seek glory for yourself from men. Their setting their seal of approval on you, means nothing. You receive it, and it is gone. It perishes. But if you live out of the life of Christ, God will set His eternal seal of approval to your work because it is united with Him, upon whom He has already set His seal. That confidence is assuring, encouraging, and enduring. Won't you surrender your life to Him today and work for the food that does not perish?

John 6:22-26 “The next day, the crowd that stood on the other side of the sea saw that there was no other small boat there, except one, and that Jesus had not entered with His disciples into the boat, but that His disciples had gone away alone. There came other small boats from Tiberias, near to the place where they ate the bread, after the Lord had given thanks. So when the crowd saw that Jesus was not there, nor His disciples, they themselves got into the small boats, and came to Capernaum seeking Jesus. When they found Him on the other side of the sea, they said to Him, “Rabbi, when did You get here?” Jesus answered them and said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled.” A few days ago, we mentioned the discernment that is necessary as we live to love with Jesus. There may be people who expect others to do what they want. They will use those who love because of the benefit they gain. We are reminded from these verses today that we need Jesus' discernment. He knew they intended to make Him king by force (vs. 15), and He revealed their motives for their benefit. As we love people, we must be careful that we don't serve people because we want to please them and want their good opinion of us or their friendship. Our one motive in life is to glorify God, to seek His good opinion or pleasure. The way we glorify God is by abiding in Christ and loving with Him. Jesus said that explicitly in John 15:7-8. “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples.” We don't produce the fruit, Jesus does. He's the vine, and we are the branches. We display His fruit, which is love, the fruit of the Spirit. By this is our Father glorified through His Son. Abiding in the Father, Jesus confronted the crowd who wished to make Him king. We can draw another important lesson from these verses. We need to check our own motives in our relationship with Jesus. Do we seek Him for the benefits we enjoy? Are we seeking the blessing rather than the blesser? This is easy to do because we receive grace upon grace from Him. He fills us with His goodness, grace, and love. We have the joy of meaningful relationships in the body of Christ. If we are focused on God being glorified in Christ, we will be protected from selfish motives. Living to love with Jesus for the glory of God keeps us in God's will and blessing. Enjoy this day, recognizing Jesus is your king, your life, and your way to glorifying the Father with your life. I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of "giving it forward," so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.

John 6:20-21, “But He said to them, “It is I; do not be afraid.” So they were willing to receive Him into the boat, and immediately the boat was at the land to which they were going. Once the disciples knew it was Jesus, and heard Him say, “Don't be afraid,” they overcame their fear and welcomed Him into the boat. Although He didn't say, “I'm here with you,” that was the effect of His words. When we are being tossed to and fro by the storm winds of life, feel the terror of being out of control and imagining things we can't explain and that make no sense, and are enveloped in darkness, Jesus' words of comfort are, “I am with you; don't be afraid.” This is our confidence as we live to love with Jesus in all circumstances. I'm reminded of many times when God's people were in dire straits and God spoke these words of comfort and encouragement. Deuteronomy 31:6 “Be strong and courageous, do not be afraid or tremble at them, for the LORD your God is the one who goes with you. He will not fail you or forsake you.” Jeremiah 1:8 “Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you to deliver you,” declares the LORD. Matthew 17:7 And Jesus came to them and touched them and said, “Get up, and do not be afraid.” Hebrews 13:5-6 Make sure that your character is free from the love of money, being content with what you have; for He Himself has said, “I WILL NEVER DESERT YOU, NOR WILL I EVER FORSAKE YOU,” so that we confidently say, “THE LORD IS MY HELPER, I WILL NOT BE AFRAID. WHAT WILL MAN DO TO ME?” In the moment that they knew it was Jesus with them, their fear turned to comfort and their long, arduous night of rowing in the storm ended. Once He got in the boat, John said they were immediately at the shore in Capernaum. Our confidence as we walk through each day to love whoever God puts in our paths in whatever circumstances He orchestrates is that He is with us to help us. He's in our boat, we are brought through the storm, and that's what mattered. It's interesting that John didn't record any conversation between the disciples and Jesus. I don't know about you, but I would like to know what Jesus had to say to them. However, apparently what John wanted to communicate was that once Jesus was with them, the storm had served its purpose and so had His midnight hike on the sea. We are meant to be encouraged by this one great reality: Jesus is the Christ and the Son of God who gives life to all who believe. Those who have Him in their boat don't need to be afraid, and can be assured that they will arrive at their final destination safely. So be it! I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of "giving it forward," so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.

John 6:16-19 Now when evening came, His disciples went down to the sea, and after getting into a boat, they started to cross the sea to Capernaum. It had already become dark, and Jesus had not yet come to them. The sea began to be stirred up because a strong wind was blowing. Then, when they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the sea and drawing near to the boat; and they were frightened. What an interesting and memorable scene. Matthew, Mark, and John all record events of this night on the Sea of Galilee. The boat was large enough for 13 people. It was between 3 and 6 a.m. and dark, so their visibility was limited. The sea was choppy due to a strong wind. The disciples had strained at the oars for hours. Jesus walked on the water toward the boat. Certainly unexpected. Wouldn't it be interesting to know the comments of the disciples once one of them saw Jesus? Matthew's and Mark's accounts inform us that they were frightened, terrified, when they saw a form walking on the sea. They didn't immediately recognize who it was. Both accounts said the disciples exclaimed, “It is a ghost!” And they cried out in fear.” Matthew records that once Peter heard Jesus, he asked Jesus to command him to come to him on the water, which Jesus did. It seems the distraction of the waves occurred once Peter got to Jesus. When he started to sink and called out to Jesus to save him, Jesus took hold of him, and they walked to the boat together. Yes, Jesus rebuked Peter for having little faith, but hey, he did walk on water to Jesus and then with Him back to the boat. I'm impressed, aren't you? So here are my questions. Why did the Father do this? Why have His Son walk the 3 or 4 miles on choppy waters in the middle of the night when He needed to be resting up for another day of ministry? Jesus certainly could have gotten a good night's sleep and waited until morning, when He could have made the trip in another boat or have walked in daylight along the shoreline. In Mark 6:48, Mark wrote that Jesus intended to walk past them. Why didn't Jesus do that? Why did He go near the boat at all if He intended to meet them in Capernaum? That would have been easy to do. How far could they see on a dark, windy night? Maybe 10 or 15 yards? So what's with going on a four-mile walk on the Sea of Galilee in the middle of the night? Furthermore, why did John leave out Peter's walk on the water with Jesus? The reason for all of it was clearly stated by John in 20:31. It's so we might read this and believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, and that we might have life in His name. For John's purpose, what mattered wasn't if Peter walked on the water, but that Jesus loved them so much that He provided undeniable proof that He is the Son of God. In fact, in Matthew's account, those who were in the boat worshiped Him saying, “You are certainly God's Son” (Matt. 14:33). That was the conclusion drawn by the experience on the sea of Galilee that night. But I don't want us to miss Peter's encounter with Jesus on the sea. I have a couple of questions for you. First, are you convinced that Jesus is the Son of God? It's impossible to love with God's love without believing Jesus is God's Son. To believe He is the Son is to believe the whole of creation belongs to Him and that He is the sovereign Lord of all things and everybody.

John 6:15 So Jesus, perceiving that they were intending to come and take Him by force to make Him king, withdrew again to the mountain by Himself alone. There are some liabilities that come with loving with Jesus. One of them is that of being used by others who want what you can do for them. Like some in this crowd of Jesus-followers, they may be forceful in their attempts to control and get what they want. Jesus' response was not to acquiesce to their demands, but rather to distance Himself from them. Perceiving that they intended to forcefully make Him king, He went further up the mountain and away from their influence. My guess is that all of us have been deceived and manipulated by someone who interpreted our love, kindness, and generosity as a weakness to be exploited. If the love, kindness, and generosity is indeed from Jesus, then they will be disappointed when they can't get what they want. However, the danger we face is when we are confused or deceived ourselves and misinterpret the need for approval from men, which can motivate kindness and generosity, as love. When we seek the glory and approval of men, we are not loving God or others. It's a kind of self-love, which can be manipulated by others. Because Jesus sought the glory of God and not men, He knew to avoid people who were self-motivated. As we abide in Christ and love with Him, there may be times when we also discern that we need to avoid such people. Jesus has been tempted in every way that we have, and has not sinned. As we abide in Christ, we can be encouraged that He will give us the discernment we need as we relate to people that God puts in our paths. Everyone God puts in our paths is to be loved, but that doesn't mean we live to please them. They may be placed in our paths as tests so we may glorify the Father by seeking only His will. The encouragement today is to be discerning. May we walk today with Jesus, abiding in Him, seeking the glory of God, filled with His discernment and love. I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of "giving it forward," so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.

John 6:14 Therefore when the people saw the sign which He had performed, they said, “This is truly the Prophet who is to come into the world.” So far in John, Nicodemus, the Samaritan woman, and now the crowd in Galilee recognize Jesus is sent from God into the world as a prophet because of the signs He performed or the authority with which He spoke. We will see this repeated in later verses. But when I read this verse, I was struck by Jesus' greatest sign to Israel that He is THE prophet who is come into the world and has authority over life and death. The sign Jesus performed for the world to see that should absolutely give us unshakable courage and confidence as we live to love with Jesus is prophesied in John 2:18-22. The Jews then said to Him, “What sign do You show us as your authority for doing these things?” Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” The Jews then said, “It took forty-six years to build this temple, and will You raise it up in three days?” But He was speaking of the temple of His body. So when He was raised from the dead, His disciples remembered that He said this; and they believed the Scripture and the word which Jesus had spoken. Herod, Pontius Pilate, the Romans, and the Jews were gathered together against Jesus as the Scripture says in Acts 4:28, “to do whatever Your hand and Your purpose predestined to occur.” Jesus prophesied the sign. Then God performed the first phase of the sign as Pilate condemned Him and His body was destroyed in a few hours by whip and crucifixion. Then three days later, Jesus raised that body to life. Notice, Jesus said, “I will raise it up.” The one who can create bread for 15,000 can create life in His own dead body. That sign is the first in a series of signs where He creates His own life in our dead bodies. Our living to love with Jesus is a sign to the world that Jesus is the Prophet of God sent for the salvation of the world. We embody His greatest prophetic sign because when He died, we died to our lives in this world. When He was raised, we were raised with Him to live with Him forever. In this world, we live with Him to reveal His love and the power of His presence. The reason for this podcast is to plant that seed in the hearts of God's people so that it will grow into a movement of His love in this world. The world is looking for signs that give their lives meaning and purpose. Most don't even know they are longing for a savior, but do know they are longing for love. Our purpose is to help them identify their longing for love and connect it to Jesus, their savior. Did you get it? That occurs as we live to love with Jesus. Love is the sign God has given us to perform in this world. I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of "giving it forward," so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.

John 6:12-13 When they were filled, He said to His disciples, “Gather up the leftover fragments so that nothing will be lost.” So they gathered them up, and filled twelve baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves which were left over by those who had eaten. They were filled. They ate until they could eat no more or were satisfied. That's usually what we mean after eating, and we say, “I'm full.” The point I want to drive home today is that when Jesus spiritually feeds His people, He feeds them until they are filled with His love and grace. John wrote in chapter 1:16, “For of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace.” In Ephesians 5:18, Paul wrote, “And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit.” To say it in the terms of these verses in John 6, “Eat and drink of the Spirit until you are full.” You don't need to be afraid that He'll run out of food or drink. There will be some left over for you to give to others. Jesus gave His disciples confidence to ask to be filled three times in His last instructions. John 14:12-14, “Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it.” John 15:7 “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.” John 16:23, “Truly, truly, I say to you, if you ask the Father for anything in My name, He will give it to you.” There are many other verses of Scripture to which we could turn for us to be encouraged to ask for the filling of the Holy Spirit. I ask for the anointing and filling of the Holy Spirit in my daily morning live to love with Jesus prayer. “Father, anoint and fill me with the Holy Spirit so that I can love and trust You and love those You put in my path today, for Your glory.” We can only love with Jesus out of His fullness. May we abide in Jesus until we are full and don't feel like we can take anymore! When the disciples gathered the leftovers, each came back with a basket of bread. Jesus was intent on nothing being lost, so we may suppose that the leftover bread was given away to others. When we abide in Jesus until we can't take more, that's when we'll find there are leftovers to give away to others. When we are filled with the grace of God, it will spill over to others. That's how He's glorified. God is glorified in the fullness. Had the people still gone home hungry, the glory of God would be diminished. He is glorified in the overflow, the leftovers, so to speak. So today, let's be encouraged to not be satisfied with a little of Jesus. Let us eat of His fullness until we are filled to overflow with His love and grace. Out of His abundance, we will then have what we need to feed others for the glory of the Father through Jesus Christ, His Son—our daily bread. I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of "giving it forward," so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.

John 6:10-11 Jesus said, “Have the people sit down.” Now there was much grass in the place. So the men sat down, in number about five thousand. Jesus then took the loaves, and having given thanks, He distributed to those who were seated; likewise also of the fish as much as they wanted. What an amazing act of hospitality and generosity to feed approximately 15,000 people as much as they wanted. It is also a fitting picture of the incredible generosity and fullness Jesus offers to us. He is going to tell them that He is the living bread, of which the material bread is a type. We'll talk more about that in the days to come, but today, let's be encouraged that God offers us in Christ as much as we want of Him. He gives Himself, totally, fully. In living to love with Jesus, we have everything we need to love for the glory of God. Jesus told His disciples they could ask with confidence for the grace to love and be fruitful for God's glory. It's recorded in John 14 and 15. Because Jesus had just commanded His disciples to love as He loves and believe He is God, I take the following verses to pray to be encouragements to pray for that grace to love and do what He commands. John 14:13-14. “Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it.” Then again in John 15:7-8. “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples.” He offers us as much of Himself as we want in order for us to be fruitful for God's glory. We may have the same expectancy the crowd had on that day as they sat down to eat from His hand. They ate as much as they wanted, and so may we. So, today, I encourage you not to just taste of Jesus. Don't just nibble on the food at the table. Eat your fill! Our Father is generous with His Son, and if He's given us His Son, will He withhold anything from us? I close with Romans 8:32. “He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?” We live to love with Jesus out of His fullness. Thank you, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit for your generosity to us and the promise we have of grace when we need it. I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of "giving it forward," so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.

John 6:7-9 Philip answered Him, “Two hundred denarii worth of bread is not sufficient for them, for everyone to receive a little.” One of His disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, said to Him, “There is a lad here who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are these for so many people?” John chose to record this miracle because it was a public, impossible to deny, pivotal event in Jesus' ministry. The Jews in Jerusalem had rejected Jesus, but the Jews in Galilee wanted to make Him king, but for the wrong reason: material comfort and gain. This lesson is important for us for many reasons. First, the magnificence of the miracle was the Father's testimony regarding His Son. This was an unparalleled act of love for the crowd. When Jesus asked Philip, “Where are we to buy bread, so that these may eat?” Everyone knows the answer to that question. There's no place that has that much bread (assuming 5000 men with one wife and child accompanying them, with each eating 1/3 of a loaf, that's 5000 loaves of bread or about 1 and 1/2 semi-tractor trailer loads). And if there were a place that had that much bread, it was unaffordable. It would take around 6–8 months of normal wages to pay for it all. Perhaps 200 denarii was what they had, but Philip said that was insufficient. So feeding 15,000 people was quite a generous expression of God's love and provision. This encourages us to be generous in our hospitality, looking to God for His supply. Second, we can be encouraged by Andrew's faith. Would you offer as an answer to this problem a boy's lunch of 5 loaves of bread and two fish? That seems incredulous unless you figure in faith. We aren't told why Andrew mentioned the boy's lunch, but it is possible that Andrew believed Jesus could do something big with such a little thing. And if that's the case, I pray, “Lord, make us more like Andrew!” We are encouraged that Jesus can take whatever we have to give to Him, and He will use it for the glory of God. That's exactly the attitude we should have as we live to love with Jesus. I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of "giving it forward," so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.

John 6:3-6 Then Jesus went up on the mountain, and there He sat down with His disciples. Now the Passover, the feast of the Jews, was near. Therefore, Jesus, lifting up His eyes and seeing that a large crowd was coming to Him, said to Philip, “Where are we to buy bread, so that these may eat?” This He was saying to test him, for He Himself knew what He was intending to do. Jesus and His disciples went up on the mountain just north of the hometown of Andrew, Peter, and Philip. He may have chosen that location because He was thinking of where 15,000 people could sit and listen. He knew they were following Him, and knew why—they were seeking Him as a material, political savior and provider. The timing of this event was significant, it was during a time of preparation for the Passover, which was preceded by 30 days of solemn consideration of the significance of the event. Perhaps that's why Jesus and His disciples were retreating, but unsuccessfully, as the horde of Galileans ascended the hill. Jesus received the crowd as if the Father had sent them to His house. He was obligated to provide refreshment. It was the hospitable thing to do in their middle eastern culture, so He passed the responsibility over to Philip, as a test of his faith. Jesus knew He was going to do a miracle of provision for them. This is where we draw our live to love encouragement for today. Jesus always knows what He intends to do in and through our lives in every situation that is given to Him by the Father. In this case, the Father put around 15,000 hungry, expectant people in Jesus' path. In our cases, we may find ourselves facing impossible situations where there are no apparent, sufficient resources. It's a test! The situation given to Jesus in us will become a test for us. Will we respond to the situation from a secular, natural worldview or from Jesus' position of trust? Remember, Jesus is our life! If we have adopted God's purpose for us, which is to glorify Him by living to love with Jesus, we will pause and filter the situation through Jesus' three foundational worldview truths. 1). There's only one God from whom are all things, and He is love. 2). Our souls are satisfied with God's love and will, revealed in Jesus' love with and in us. 3). God's purpose for this situation is to reveal the life of Christ in us and prepare us for glory. That's how Jesus viewed the situation on the mountain, and He passed the test on to Philip. He did so with a question, “Where are we to buy bread, so that these may eat?” We will see Philip's answer in the next verse, but for now, we know that the situation is impossible from a natural perspective. Have you ever been in such a predicament, an impossible situation with inadequate resources or abilities? I'm sure you have been in, may presently be in, or will be in such a situation. I encourage you to memorize these three worldview perspectives, and apply them to your situation. You are not alone. You have Jesus dwelling with and in you. Expect God to glorify His Son in you as you trust in Him to reveal His life and power in your life. I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of "giving it forward," so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.

John 6:1-2 After these things, Jesus went away to the other side of the Sea of Galilee (or Tiberias). A large crowd followed Him, because they saw the signs which He was performing on those who were sick. As we continue our study in the book of John and enter into chapter 6, we notice there's a change of context, but let's not miss John's overall purpose in writing this gospel account. He wrote these things, so his readers might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing they might have life in His name (John 20:31). There is a change of location for Jesus in this chapter, but it's not a long distance, perhaps less than five miles. Bethsaida is located on the northeast of the Sea of Galilee, home to Peter, Andrew, and Phillip. The area was a grassy area and apparently a good place for Jesus and His disciples to “get away.” However, they were unsuccessful. A large crowd from Capernaum walked the four or five miles to find Him because of the signs which they had seen Him do. I'm encouraged by this from these verses. The Father led Jesus to this place to set the stage for another display of His glory, the miraculous feeding of 15,000 people, counting women and children. We can be encouraged by this great reality. Our Father is always going before us, setting the stage for Jesus to display His glory. As we live to love with Jesus, we have confidence that nothing is random. Where we go today is necessary for what God wants to do through His Son in our lives. Who we meet is also arranged by the Father. Why they are in our paths may depend on a thousand small acts of God, both passive and active. Let's thank God, our Father, for going ahead of us today. “Father, thank You for guiding our paths and for orchestrating the circumstances and encounters we have today with people. Prepare us for loving with Jesus by keeping us abiding in Him and being filled with the Holy Spirit. Give us faith to trust You as things happen today, and keep us mindful that You are at work and desire to bear fruit in our lives through Your Son, Jesus. We love you, and consider it a privilege to be called and empowered to live to love with You and Him. Magnify Your name in us today. Amen. I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of "giving it forward," so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.

John 5:45-47 Do not think that I will accuse you before the Father; the one who accuses you is Moses, in whom you have set your hope. For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me, for he wrote about Me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe My words?” When did Moses write about Jesus? Everything about the tabernacle spoke about Jesus. He is the substance underlying the shadows of the tabernacle, the table of show bread, the lamp stand, the incense, the offerings, the priests, and the Sabbath festivals. We could go on and on. Jesus said the Jews did not believe Moses and therefore can not believe Him. Jesus' point was that Moses, the one in whom they set their hope, will accuse them for not believing Jesus' words. Implied is that one who believes Moses is on the right path to believing Jesus. However, we don't believe Jesus because of the witness of man. As He said earlier, He did not need man to witness for Him. He had the witness of the Father. We who have set our hope in Jesus may receive great encouragement from these verses. There may have been a time when we set our hope in keeping the Law, but we discovered there was no hope in keeping the Law of Moses. The Law could not effectually deal with our sin and make us righteous. We have believed Jesus' words that He is the way, the truth, and the life, and God's provision to bring us to God. So Moses will not condemn us, nor will Jesus. We have set our hope in Jesus. Let me remind you of Jesus' words that we believe. We believe Jesus when He commanded us to love one another with His love (John 13:34) and believe that He is the Son of God (John 14:1). We believe He is the resurrection and the life, and whoever believes in Him will never die (John 11:25). We believe His promise to give us the Holy Spirit, who is a witness to us from God that Jesus is in the Father, we are in Jesus, and He is in us. (John 14:20). We believe He will return and establish a new heaven and earth, where we will dwell with Him in righteousness (Rev. 21:1-5). Everyone and everything will be lovely! As we live to love with Jesus for the glory of God, we live with a wonderful hope. Christ in you, the hope of glory (Col. 1:27). I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of "giving it forward," so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.

John 5:42-44 but I know you, that you do not have the love of God in yourselves. I have come in My Father's name, and you do not receive Me; if another comes in his own name, you will receive him. How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another, and you do not seek the glory that is from the one and only God? I want to make three connections in these verses that will encourage us to live to love with Jesus. Let's first connect the Father and the Son. For Jesus to say that He came in His Father's name meant that He is the Son of God. He was sent by God, His Father. Our first encouragement then is that our relationship with Jesus is also with God, the Father. Second, let's connect love and faith. Jesus in essence told the Jews that they had neither the love of God in them nor faith. He knew them. If the love of God, the Father, abided in them, they would certainly love the Son and receive Him. But the love of God was not in them. The absence of the love of God made believing in Jesus impossible. Jesus' reasoning was that if the love of God were in them, they would seek the glory of God by receiving Him whom God sent, and upon receiving Him, faith could be generated by His word. Our second encouragement is that God, in His mercy and grace, has poured out the love of God in our hearts by the power of the Holy Spirit, and that's why we believe and live to love with Jesus. Third, let's connect faith and seeking the glory of God. Jesus' understanding of faith is that it cannot exist in one who seeks glory from man rather than glory from God. If my understanding of unbelief is correct, then it makes sense. Unbelief looks at the things we can see, taste, touch, and experience in the earthly realm. Faith looks to Christ, who is the author and perfecter of faith (Heb. 12:2). When we receive glory from one another, the gaze of our hearts is on our own significance and what we can get from others. Apparently, no one can believe in Jesus if the heart isn't seeking God's glory. God is only glorified in His Son. To seek glory any other way than through Jesus is an exercise in futility and unbelief. So the third encouragement is that as we live to love with Jesus, we are seeking the glory of God in the way God intended to be glorified—in His Son. What encouragement we have as we realize we are loved by God. If we abide in Christ and live to love with Him, we are exercising the faith God has given us as we love God and others for the glory of God. Let's remember the purpose of our lives is to glorify God by living with Jesus. I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of "giving it forward," so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.

John 4:31-32 Meanwhile, the disciples were urging Him, saying, "Rabbi, eat.” But He said to them, "I have food to eat that you do not know about." In verses 31-38, John let us in on the conversation he and the rest of the disciples had with Jesus while those from the city were on their way to the well. The disciples had returned from the city with the food they went to purchase (vs. 8). Apparently, they were just ahead of the men whom the woman had told about Jesus. They were concerned that Jesus get sustenance for the rest of the journey. Although it isn't mentioned in the text that Jesus either drank or ate, more than likely, He did. But physical water and food wasn't foremost in Jesus' mind; His relationship with His Father was, and John picked up on that for sure. It's always interesting to me to look at Jesus' words and actions through the lens of His relationship with His Father. We know from John 14:9-10 that Jesus is the revelation of the Father. We know that His worldview is that everything that happens comes from His Father with the purpose of making the Father known. So when the disciples say, “Rabbi, eat.” We are to view Jesus' response with what the Father gave Him. Just like with the woman, Jesus redirected their worldly focus, in this case food, to the spiritual focus of being satisfied in doing the Father's will. We are watching what worshiping the Father in spirit and truth looks like. We are seeing Jesus abide in the Father as He lives to love with His Father. We can be encouraged in our living to love with Jesus by following His example. First, receive everything that happens as from the Father. Second, seek your deepest satisfaction in Jesus' love and doing His will. Third, realize that God's purpose in everything that happens in your life is to reveal the living, Lord Jesus Christ, for the glory of God through the Son. The disciples didn't know of this food at the time of this encounter at the well, but we do know that Jesus' food was to do the Father's will, which we will see in the next two verses. I hope you'll be encouraged in your living to love with Jesus by remembering these three foundational worldview truths that guided His life. He lives in you. He still has the same purpose of revealing the Father, for His glory, in and through your life. If Jesus is your life, and His food is to do the will of the Father, then you also will be sustained and strengthened as you do the will of the Father, which is to make Jesus first place in your life (Col. 1:18). Your purpose is to reveal Jesus as you live to love with Him. No one can take that food away from you. You can live in the fullness of Christ as you think like He thinks and abide in Him for the glory of God. Living to love with Jesus is our true food. I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of “giving it forward,” so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.

John 5:41 I do not receive glory from men; reason with me for a few minutes, please. Jesus lives in those who are His, and He hasn't changed. He is life. As Paul wrote to the Colossians in 3:4, “When Christ, who is our life…” As we abide in Christ, we are empowered to live to love with Him. We abide in Christ as we identify with and embrace Jesus' life. We can be encouraged by a couple of things from this verse. First, notice His humility. Even though men may give Him glory and praise Him, He doesn't receive it. The glory of man isn't on His radar because the only glory He is interested in is the glory which comes from His Father. Humility is recognizing that everything we have comes from God. When we look to our Father in heaven as the source of our everything in our lives, we are abiding in Christ, and that's when the love of God can flow through us. Second, there is within all of us a desire for significance and glory from men. It's fleshly, natural, and demonic, as James noted in James 3:14-16. “But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your heart, do not be arrogant and so lie against the truth. This wisdom is not that which comes down from above, but is earthly, natural, demonic. For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every evil thing.” The context of this verse is the various witnesses to who Jesus is. There's been John the Baptist's testimony, which is the witness of men. Then the witness of the works the Father gave Him to do, which testify that He is from God. Also mentioned are the witnesses of the Father and the Scriptures. The only glory Jesus received was that which was from God, revealed in His works and the Scriptures. We also then, as we abide in Christ, should only find our significance in the witness of the works Jesus does in and through us, being testified to in the Scriptures. Our significance in life comes from Jesus' life revealed in us. We must be on guard against loving for the glory of man. We should also say that we don't receive glory from men. I'm reminded of 1 Corinthians 1:26-31. For consider your calling, brethren, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble; but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong, and the base things of the world and the despised God has chosen, the things that are not, so that He may nullify the things that are, so that no man may boast before God. But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption, so that, just as it is written, “Let him who boasts, boast in the Lord.” I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of "giving it forward," so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.

John 5:39-40 You search the Scriptures because you think that in them, you have eternal life; it is these that testify about Me; and you are unwilling to come to Me so that you may have life. To put this verse into its context, Jesus had said that He gives life to the dead. John 5:21, “For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son also gives life to whom He wishes.” And 5:24-26 “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life. Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. For just as the Father has life in Himself, even so He gave to the Son also to have life in Himself;” Let's talk about the wrong idea of the sufficiency of Scripture. The Jews thought that knowing the Scriptures was sufficient for eternal life. They searched the Scriptures because of this errant belief. The Scriptures are inerrant, and they are sufficient for the purpose of witnessing about eternal life. Jesus said here that the Scriptures testify, they witness about Jesus. We can be confident that we have all we need to have accurate knowledge about Jesus, but they cannot give eternal life. The Scriptures are a means of grace to us, but they cannot in themselves impart life. Only Jesus can give life, because He is life and has authority to give life. When Jesus gives life, the Scriptures come alive. They become sufficient for us to know Jesus and walk with Him. It is through the Scriptures that we learn what Jesus' purpose is: to glorify His Father by loving with Him. It is through the Scriptures that we learn Jesus' worldview, what He believes, which informs us as to the worldview we should live by, namely, 1). That there is only one God from whom are all things, and He is love. 2). That the love of God revealed in Christ and the presence of Christ communicated and imparted by the Holy Spirit is enough to satisfy the deepest needs of our souls. He is life. And 3). God's purpose in all things in our lives is to reveal Jesus Christ in us and prepare us for eternity and His glory. As we abide in Him and fellowship with Him in the Scriptures, in prayer, and in the community of believers, we have everything we need to experience the fullness of life in Christ. Without the Scriptures, we would not know what or who eternal life is. We would be ignorant of God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The inspired Scriptures were given by God to us, according to the apostle Paul in 2 Timothy 3:16-17, “for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.” So we thank God for the Scriptures, for the witness they provide about Jesus, and their equipping ministry to us, but we do not think they have the power to give life without Jesus, Himself. They are insufficient to give life. He alone gives life. Our encouragement today is that as we live to love with Jesus, who is our life, we have the Scriptures to testify to us about how to glorify God by walking with Him in love. We search the Scriptures daily so that we may be equipped for every good work of love that God prepares for us to walk in with Jesus. I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of "giving it forward," so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.

John 5:37-38 And the Father who sent Me, He has testified of Me. You have neither heard His voice at any time nor seen His form. You do not have His word abiding in you, for you do not believe Him whom He sent. Today, we are encouraged by the testimony of the Father regarding Jesus. All the miraculous works of Jesus were the Father's validation that He sent Jesus and that He was the Son of God. When Jesus spoke, they were hearing the word of God, but they didn't recognize it. Since they didn't believe Jesus' words, they could not hear God's voice. The voice of Jesus was the voice of God. Amazing! Jesus testified that they had never heard His voice or seen His form. That was Jesus' witness regarding them. He was telling them that they were dead. Let me remind you of what Jesus had said only a few minutes earlier to them recorded in John 5:25 “Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live.” Even though the time now is that the dead will hear the voice of God and live, they haven't heard and therefore were in a helpless and hopeless condition—dead to God. For everyone who has received life in Christ, there is great encouragement. We believe God sent Jesus. We believe His words are the words of God, and therefore His words abide in us. We who were dead have heard His voice and now live. Hallelujah! Will you rejoice with me today in the amazing grace of God that gave us ears to hear His voice? Jesus told His disciples just before leaving them to go to the Father, John 15:7-8, “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples.” If Jesus' words abide in us, we will ask Him to do what He commands us to do, believe in Jesus (John 14:1) and love with His love (John 13:34). The promise here is that the believing and the love will be done for us so that the Father is glorified in the Son as He does it in us. Remember, He had just said that apart from Him, we can do nothing to produce fruit and glorify God. So our encouragement today is that we have heard His voice, have life in Christ, and may ask for Jesus to live His life in and through us for the glory of God, and we know we will be heard and answered. What hope we have today as we live to love with Jesus! We have the witness of the Father—eternal life in His Son, who loves through us. I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of "giving it forward," so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.

John 5:31-36 “If I alone testify about Myself, My testimony is not true. There is another who testifies of Me, and I know that the testimony which He gives about Me is true. You have sent to John, and he has testified to the truth. But the testimony which I receive is not from man, but I say these things so that you may be saved. He was the lamp that was burning and was shining, and you were willing to rejoice for a while in his light. But the testimony which I have is greater than the testimony of John; for the works which the Father has given Me to accomplish—the very works that I do—testify about Me, that the Father has sent Me. When Jesus called Himself the Son of Man, the Jews knew He was saying that He was the Messiah and equal with God. He explained that He had authority to execute judgment because He always sought the will of the Father. He also knew they were questioning His testimony about Himself, so having presented His case for who He is and for His actions, Jesus acknowledged that if he had no other witnesses to testify for Him, His testimony could not stand. Therefore, He cited other witnesses who could be trusted. Today we will look at the first two. First, He recognized His cousin, John the Baptist, who had testified to the truth that He is the Messiah. The people believed John was from God, and therefore was a worthy witness. Second, Jesus presented for their consideration a greater witness—His works. Even one of the Pharisees had testified on behalf of them, “Rabbi, we know that You have come from God as a teacher; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.” We also should have these two witnesses testifying of who we are and where we have come from—the testimony from man and the testimony of our works of love for His namesake. If we are the only ones testifying about ourselves that we have been born again and have Jesus' life living within, then Jesus said in these verses that there is no truth to the testimony. Not only should there be others who bear witness to the transformation of our lives, but our love should prove the case that we are living our lives with Jesus. Love is a sign—the fruit of the Spirit at work in our lives. Our works should testify that our faith is true. The encouragement today is that if Jesus is living in us, we love with Him, and Jesus still has the witness if His works that He is who He says He is. May our faith shine as lights in this world as we live to love with Jesus. I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of "giving it forward," so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.

John 5:30 "I can do nothing on My own initiative. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is just, because I do not seek My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. When I read a verse like this which reveals the heart and attitude of Jesus, I am encouraged because Jesus lives in me. Since Jesus hasn't changed, I gain helpful insight in my relationship with Him and how to live with Him. The context of this and the previous verses is judgment. In verse 27, Jesus declared that the Father gave Him authority to execute judgment, and that He will execute that judgment at the final resurrection. This verse reveals the reason Jesus has that authority. He lives in total submission to the will of God. Here are my takeaways from this verse. First, Jesus said that when it comes to judging, He can do nothing on His own initiative. As He hears, He judges accordingly. This gives us great confidence that Jesus isn't judging out of His own feelings in the moment. He doesn't judge until He hears from His Father because He seeks the will of His Father in every judgment. The Father's judgment and the Son's judgment are one. Can we say that we can do nothing on our own initiative? No we can't. When we are not abiding in Jesus, we can and do act on our own initiative. Why do we act on our own initiative? If I stick with Jesus' reasoning, we do so because we are seeking our own wills. When that occurs, we nor anyone can trust our judgment. I'm convicted by my tendency to seek my own will, but encouraged to abide in Jesus. If we want His will above our own, we must wait on the Holy Spirit to reveal God's will before we act. Like Jesus, we must hear from the Father before doing anything. Love flows out of such submission and devotion to God being glorified and His will being done. This is the first practical insight into how to abide in Jesus and live to love with Him: don't act on your own initiative. Wait on the Lord for His will to be revealed. Second, we learn that Jesus loves and therefore seeks His Father's will in all of His judgments. This encourages us to selfless humility and surrender of our own wills to God. I conclude that it is impossible to abide in Jesus if we are not surrendered to His will. For Jesus, He could do nothing to glorify His Father apart from His Father. For us, we can do nothing glorifying to God apart from Jesus. To abide in Jesus, we must identify with His heart to love and seek God's will. We have this attitude in us if Jesus dwells in us. As we abandon our own personal, earthly desires and embrace Jesus' heart to know and do God's will, we can then abide in Him. There's no other way. Jesus is the way to the Father's heart because He loves the Father with all His heart. Jesus lives to love with His Father—still. Our purpose then, today is to live to love with Jesus. That is the Father's will—that He be glorified as we carry the fruit of the life of His Son. You'll notice there is in all of us a strong ambition and desire for self-satisfaction and accomplishment. As long as self-will rules, our judgment will be flawed, sinful, and destructive. We cannot trust ourselves, nor should anyone else, when we pursue such self-fulfilling purposes. With the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, I'm calling you to surrender your will to God, abide in Christ, don't act on your own initiative, and wait on the Spirit of Christ to reveal and express the Father's will on a moment by moment, situation by situation, basis for the rest of your life. I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of "giving it forward," so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.

John 5:28-29 Do not marvel at this; for an hour is coming, in which all who are in the tombs will hear His voice, and will come forth; those who did the good deeds to a resurrection of life, those who committed the evil deeds to a resurrection of judgment. What a day that will be! A time, that is what is meant by “an hour.” A time is coming when everyone who has ever lived on the earth will be resurrected. They will hear Jesus' voice, like Lazarus heard His voice, “Lazarus, come forth.” Their bodies will be reconstituted, rejoined with their souls, and they will come forth like Lazarus came forth. That will happen when Jesus returns in glory to execute judgment on God's behalf. We notice that Jesus said the judgment will be for deeds already committed. In other words, there will be nothing else to consider, once we die. What occurs in this life determines whether our resurrection will come forth into life or into judgment. We also notice that those who rise to eternal life, do not come into judgment. For them, the judgment already took place. God judged their evil deeds in Jesus at the cross. Their evil deeds were those deeds that were done without Jesus, and therefore were unrighteous, and fell short of the glory of God. Hopefully you remember what Jesus said in John 15:5 that apart from Him, we can do nothing to produce fruit for God's glory. That helps us understand what the “good deeds” were that were done by those who are resurrected to life. Everything done with Jesus as we abided in Him is a good deed. Or we can think of it this way. Whatever the Holy Spirit did in those who are His is a good deed. The apostle John described the good deeds, the sinless deeds in his first epistle when he wrote in 1 John 3:5-6, “You know that He appeared in order to take away sins; and in Him there is no sin. No one who abides in Him sins.” So when we aren't abiding in Jesus, we sin, and those deeds are evil. When we do abide in Jesus, and He loves through us, they are good deeds. Jesus said in this verse that those who did the good deeds will come forth to resurrection of life. Do you get how this verse encourages us to live to love with Jesus? Loving with Jesus, abiding in Him, so His life is revealed in us, are the good deeds! That's incredibly significant. It reveals the hope of living with Jesus' purpose and from His worldview. That's how we abide in Him. When we think and apply what we know of Jesus' purpose and worldview, He lives His life in and through us. Living to love with Jesus is a life of hope—the hope of eternal life. If you would like to learn more about Jesus' purpose and worldview, please check out my book, Live to Love: Experience Freedom and Joy in Relationships. It is available for free as an e-book, audiobook, or print book at www.livetolovewithjesus.com I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of "giving it forward," so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.

John 5:25-27 Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. For just as the Father has life in Himself, even so He gave to the Son also to have life in Himself; and He gave Him authority to execute judgment, because He is the Son of Man. The time we are living in, ever since the first coming of Jesus, has been the time of Jesus' reign as King. All things were given into His hands, as Jesus said recorded in Luke 10:22. “All things have been handed over to Me by My Father, and no one knows who the Son is except the Father, and who the Father is except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son wills to reveal Him.” He told His disciples in Matthew 28:18 that He has authority over heaven and earth. In Luke 10:18, upon the return of His disciples from a ministry adventure, Jesus said, “I was watching Satan fall from heaven like lightning.” In this verse, He made the stunning declaration that He has authority to execute judgment and that the time had come for the dead to be given life by the Father through the Son. We are children of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, the Lord of life and the Lord of love. We will see in the next two verses the resurrection of life is juxtaposed with the resurrection of judgment, so I take Jesus' being given authority to execute judgment to mean He has the authority to determine who will be resurrected to life because He has been given the authority to give eternal life by the Father. Jesus said that He has that authority because He is the Son of Man. It is His favorite title for Himself as it signifies His humanity, humility, divinity, and fulfillment of prophecy. We who live to love with Jesus are encouraged today, by this verse, because living to love with Jesus is the fruit of eternal life. Because we see His love flowing through us, we know we have life. We should be able to remember when we were dead in our sins, and we heard the voice of the Son of God, as the gospel was either presented to us, or read in the Bible. We were given repentance and faith as His life came to dwell in us. The Word of God came alive, our heart desires changed, and we became aware of Jesus' presence and power. His love was poured out within our hearts by the Holy Spirit as described in Romans 5:5. His love operates in our hearts today and will be manifested to the people God puts in our paths. I encourage you. You have the life of Jesus in you. You are no longer dead, but alive in Christ. Enjoy living to love with Jesus. I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of "giving it forward," so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.

John 5:24 "Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life. Let me say this verse as I understand it in my own words. Hearing the word of Christ and then believing the Father, reveals one already has received eternal life and has passed out of judgment into life. The truth is this: Faith in the Father's revelation and work in Christ shows one has passed out of death and judgment into life in Christ. Here's another way of stating the truth of this verse. One who has passed out of death into eternal life, upon hearing the word of Christ, he believes Jesus was sent by God to be the savior of the world. This isn't the first time we've read this truth in John's gospel. It must be important. John 3:36. “He who believes in the Son has eternal life.” Then, will see it again in the next chapter. John 6:47 “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes has eternal life.” Luke echoed this truth in Acts 13:48 “When the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord; and as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed.” We learn from the apostle Paul in Romans 10:17 where faith comes from. It comes from hearing by the word of Christ, just like Jesus said in this verse. “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.” How are we encouraged by this to live to love with Jesus? We are first encouraged that we have eternal life by the grace of God. Because we were given to Jesus before the foundation of the world, we heard the gospel and believed. We are encouraged also by the fact that since it is by God's grace that we believe, God gets all the glory. Second, since our faith began in Christ, we are encouraged that what He began, He will perfect. Again, Paul echoed this reality in Philippians 1:6. “For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.” We know with confidence that our faith will grow and mature throughout our lives. Third, we know that faith works through love, as Paul wrote to the Galatians in 5:6. All who have eternal life believe, and that kind of faith is revealed through love. Living to love with Jesus is the outworking of eternal life. That makes sense, doesn't it? Eternal life is knowing the Father and the Son (John 17:3). Abiding in Christ means thinking as Jesus thinks, having His purpose, applying His worldview to life. The one who knows Jesus, knows how He thinks. He renews his mind to live with Jesus as He abides in Christ. John reiterated this truth in 1 John 3:6. “No one who abides in Him sins; no one who sins has seen Him or knows Him.” Do you see the link? The one who knows Jesus, abides in Jesus, and Jesus lives His sinless life through him or her. It doesn't mean that believers never sin. They sin when they don't abide. When they abide in Jesus, and He lives through them, they don't sin, because Jesus is their life in that moment. The only fruit that brings glory to God is the fruitfulness of the life of His Son in us. That fruit of Jesus' eternal life is love in all of its many wonderful expressions. Living to love with Jesus reveals that one has passed out of death into life. Isn't that encouraging?! I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of "giving it forward," so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.

John 5:22-23 For not even the Father judges anyone, but He has given all judgment to the Son, so that all will honor the Son even as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him. You'll notice that these verses are part of Jesus' explanation of an initial statement regarding why He healed the lame man on the Sabbath. That statement was in verse 19. “Therefore Jesus answered and was saying to them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in like manner.' Then Jesus followed with a series of supporting statements, all beginning with “for.” First, we learn that Jesus is God's appointed judge of all things. He's the judge to whom we will all give an account. If you recall John 3:17, you might think this is a contradiction. John wrote, “For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.” The contradiction disappears when we remember that John 3:17 refers to Jesus' first coming into the world. He came to save. However, when He returns, He comes to judge everyone. 2 Corinthians 5:10 says, “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.” Acts 17:31 refers to that day. “Because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead.” So the Father, Himself, doesn't judge, but will judge through Jesus, His Son, whom He raised from the dead and gave life so He could judge the world at the end of the age. Second, in these verses, Jesus aims at the hearts of His detractors. They don't honor God. In an honor/shame culture of the middle eastern world, displaying honor was a big deal. It was a high value. Speaking of value, that is the meaning of the word honor, timao in the Greek, meaning to fix a value or to set a price to something. The reason the Father gave all judgment to His Son is so that He would be valued as the Father is valued. If we don't honor Jesus, we don't honor the Father. Or to put it in the positive, if we honor Jesus, we honor the Father. Third, we draw from these verses that our relationship with the Father, God, is only as good as our relationship with Jesus, His Son. As we abide in the Son, we abide in the Father. As we love with Jesus, we are loving with the Father. Abiding in Jesus is how we show the value of Jesus. He is the Father's appointed life-giver. As we look to Him and value Him as first place in all things, we honor God, the Father. We see this same reasoning in Paul's letter to the Colossians when he wrote of Jesus, He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities — all things have been created through Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. He is also head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything. Jesus is to be valued, honored, as the first consideration in everything we do. How can we glorify God? By honoring His Son. How do we show Jesus' value in our lives? We live with Him in His purpose, to glorify His Father by loving with Him. If we love Him and love with Him, the day will come when we will also exercise that love in judgment with Him. Paul wrote to the Corinthians, “Or do you not know that the saints will judge the world?” So let us prepare for that day by living united with Christ, thinking like He thinks, and loving with Him, for in doing so we honor our Father.

John 5:21 For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son also gives life to whom He wishes. I want to open my comments on this verse with this: to live to love with the Son is to live to love with the Father. I derive this conclusion from Jesus' statements like this one. He continued to drive home the point to the Jews that Jesus' works were the Father's works and will. In this verse, Jesus exalted His Father as the life-giver. He raises the dead and gives them life. Was Jesus referring to physical resurrection such as Lazarus, Jairus' daughter, or the widow's son or to spiritual new birth? Both would be true. Both would also be true of Jesus' power to give life. Let's be encouraged by two things from this verse. One, the Father and the Son have the power to give life because they are the source of all life. Death was conquered at the cross. Just as the Father did it, Jesus did it. The writer of Hebrews wrote in 2:14, “Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives.” Death has been defeated and swallowed up by life. Behold, I tell you a mystery; we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality. But when this perishable will have put on the imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then will come about the saying that is written, “DEATH IS SWALLOWED UP in victory. O DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR VICTORY? O DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR STING?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law; but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Praise the name of the Lord! So first, we who have believed in Jesus are encouraged that we not only know this great truth as an intellectual fact, but we know it by experience. The One who raises the dead and gives life is our Father, and He has given us life in His Son. Two, we may be encouraged that Jesus, like the Father, gives life to whomever He wishes. That means there is no person who cannot be saved. There is nothing anyone has done or can do that can stop the life-giving power of God. This gives us great confidence as we love those God puts in our paths. We aren't relying on our ability to convince anyone to do anything. When the Father and Son give life, they will believe that Jesus has conquered death and is life and the life-giver. We love people and proclaim the gospel with confidence that God is able to give life to them when He wishes. Father in heaven, thank You for another day of life to know and love You and love with Jesus. We thank You for the Holy Spirit, who manifests the presence and power of Christ, so that we can love and trust You and love those You put in our paths for Your glory. We pray that You will give life as we love and share the gospel today. I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of "giving it forward," so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.