Category Archives: The Gospel of John

“Dwelling Among Us” Devotion Written for WOW Ministry

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Word of the Month: Home

     “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.”John 1:14 NIV

When I was engaged to my husband Rich, he lived in a small apartment in St. Charles, Missouri. It held his bed and his clothes. It was a place he landed on occasion after work or school. It really was not his home. Cleaning it, decorating it, and making meals there was not a thing of concern to him. He was too busy with working full time and going to school full time. However, all this changed when we got married and I moved in. I did my best to give the apartment and his new life a woman’s touch. It went from a dirty bachelor pad to a cleaned-up home. It went from plain white walls to decorations and pictures. Rich went from his nightly dinner of McDonald’s cheeseburgers to home cooked meals. He went from sitting alone each night to companionship. I had come and turned a place he used only to sleep in, to a place where he abided with affection and found refuge and rest. With he and I together in that little apartment, we experienced home. 

This month at WOW our verses are about a special relationship of oneness with God – home. Our spiritual hearts experience their true home as we live attached, connected, united, indivisible, and inseparable with God. It is God in man and man in God. As we have faith in Him, loving and obeying His Word, desiring to delight to do His will, we will experience this relationship with God. We will be led home to the heart of God expressed in His Word, knowing Him and all His goodness. 

This week’s WOW verse speaks of this expression of God’s heart. “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory…” Jesus is the Word made flesh. He came to dwell with us. Not only did He dwell with us, but He died on the cross so that the heart of God could once again dwell in the hearts of men like it was in the beginning before sin entered our world. This is the relationship of oneness with God that He desires for us to experience with Him.

In a small way, this relationship of oneness is similar to the relationship Rich and I experienced when we were married, and I moved into his apartment. When I came to dwell with Rich, our lives changed for the better as we have experienced home together. Jesus, the Word of God, came to establish a relationship of home with us, a place of intimate relationship. He has come to dwell within us through His Word. When we receive the Word into our lives, understanding what He desires to do within us, and believing every Word He is speaking, we will obey Him. We will truly experience Him and His love. We will know Him as our true spiritual home. 

Perhaps as you read this, you realize that your heart has been empty and void of its true spiritual home? The Word, Jesus, is longing to come and reside inside of you. The Word wants to clean up the mess that sin has left behind in your spiritual heart. He wants to make Himself at home in your heart filling you with His love. He wants to change your heart into His image so that you can experience Him fully. May we receive the Word, understanding and believing Him. May we obey what He says! May our hearts experience this beautiful relationship of oneness, home, – attached, connected, united, indivisible, and inseparable – with Jesus, the Word! 

This week’s song is “Abide” by Aaron Williams. 

Love,

Janet

Devoted and Determined in the Word

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Invitation to Know Him

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“For I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me.”
‭‭John‬ ‭17‬:‭8‬ ‭NIV

Shortly after Rich and I started dating he went home with me to meet my parents. I had been in college for three years and was 21. He was 19 and had been in college for one. We were driving along and he took off his high school class ring, flipped it up on the dashboard and said, “Here, why don’t you take this so the other boys won’t flirt with you?” This was his way of saying, “Would you like to be in an exclusive relationship? Just me and you?” He had extended an opportunity and expressed a desire for us to know each other better. At that moment, I had a choice. Accept what he offered or deny it.

Jesus offers us an invitation. It is to an exclusive relationship. He wants us to know Him. This is why He has given us His Word. The key is for us to accept His Word. We have to take it in and allow it to work in our lives.

In a small way it is like that high school class ring Rich offered to me. God holds out the invitation for us to receive what He has offered, His Word. When we receive God’s Word into our hearts, we receive an exclusive relationship. We are His. We grow in our knowledge of Him and our love for Him. We will believe Him, because we have accepted His Word.

God help me to always have a heart that is receptive to the Word You have given me. Help me to always take the time and make the time to be with you each and every day engaging with You and Your Word in a deep and intimate relationship.

Wash Feet

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“Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him.”
‭‭John‬ ‭13‬:‭3‬-‭5‬ ‭NIV‬‬
“Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.” John 13:1 NIV

When I was a kid I had to wear prescription orthopedic shoes. I had foot issues and my feet often hurt. Often there were times that my mom would sit by me on the couch in the evening and ask me if I would like for her to rub my feet. It always felt so good. She loved me and offered herself as a servant to me not only by rubbing my feet but all the other sacrifices she did.

Jesus loved His own. He wanted to teach them a very important lesson — to serve. Why? Because living our lives as a servant focused not on ourselves but on God and His will is the way to a blessed life. (Verse 17) So Jesus washed feet. He displayed humility and love to His disciples.

The truth is you and I are by nature selfish and self focused. When we come to Jesus and ask Him for a heart that is like His, He gives us a new heart. This heart enables us to become more and more like Jesus. It gives us the desire to be humble and loving as He is. He empowers us to no longer be focused on ourselves, but focused on God and pleasing Him.

In this life, there will be many who we encounter that come to us with dirty, stinky, hurting feet. May our hearts desire be as Jesus desired on that night. May we love, bow down onto our knees, and wash the feet — meet the needs — of those around us.

Jesus help me to wash the feet of others so I can be like you.

Room For His Word — John 8

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“To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.””
‭‭John‬ ‭8‬:‭31‬-‭32‬ ‭NIV‬‬

“If you hold…”. Continue, abide, dwell to Jesus’s teachings/ Word. That is the mark of a true disciple. It is impossible to pattern our lives after, give our lives to, and follow closely someone we do not know or relate to on a moment by moment basis.

Jesus warned that it is possible to encounter Him, but to not allow Him to dwell in our hearts. He told those listening to Him. “…you have no room for my word.” We can fill our lives with all kinds of ideas, passions, and pursuits and yet miss the most important pursuit of all, knowing God and His Word.

There is only one way to true freedom and to fulfillment. It is to make room for Jesus in our lives.

More of Jesus, Less of Me— John 7

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Jesus and God the Father are one. Jesus said that He did what He saw the Father doing. “The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being.” Hebrews 1:3. When we see Jesus, we see God the Father.

Jesus repeatedly spoke about “the one who sent” him. He wanted us to understand that He was not working on His own. He was connected in a real and intimate relationship with His Heavenly Father. Jesus said, “… but I know Him because I am from Him and he sent me.” Jesus had and still has an intimate relationship with God the Father and the Holy Spirit. They are one.

Jesus came to show us what our Heavenly Father is like. He revealed God to us. He also came to restore the relationship mankind lost long ago in the Garden of Eden. He came to restore our connection to Him through the Holy Spirit, who we can now receive to live within us.

When the Holy Spirit lives within us, we are able to identify with Jesus in His own words, “My teaching is not my own. It comes from the one who sent me.” May this be our desire. That we do nothing from ourselves and for our own ambitions, but that we live for the glory of God. That He is lifted up in our lives, and that we will display God as His visible representation — Image Bearer — to the World around us.

More of Jesus … Less of me!