Category Archives: Life Group lessons

Bible study, goals, Life Group lessons, The Forest Throne, Writing

Monthly Progress and Goals

Leave a comment
The sequel is coming, folks. Hang in there.

In the category of “what was I thinking–I wasn’t thinking, include my post on last Friday. That was the day closest to the first of the month, the day I should have been recording my writing progress for January and goals for February. Instead, I did the post that came to mind first. Ah, well.

Here’s how I did in January relative to the goals I set.

  • Edit The Key To Time Travel, at least once and hopefully twice. I’m happy to say I did three editorial reads of TKTTT, and am pleased with how it turned out. One of those reads was aloud with my wife.
  • Finish one pass through A Walk Through Holy Week, Part 4. If time allows (which it should), make a true editorial reading of it. Also, write whatever introduction is needed, and whatever ending makes sense. And I did this too. That is, I did a devotional reading of it, one section each day. The editor in my couldn’t keep from correcting typos, clarifying the text, making the occasional change. At least this allowed me to know the two places I need to give most attention to as I do my edits in February.
  • Blog twice a week, Mondays and Fridays. I don’t know if I can claim this as done or not. Twice I had only what I call a “dummy” post, just a few words to let my readers know I was alive and kicking, but didn’t have time to write something beneficial.
  • Attend four writers meetings this month. The one I sometimes make, sometimes miss, is a lunch brainstorming session, which I plan to go to.  I was able to attend only two. The two others came during my wife’s hospitalization and I wasn’t able to attend.
  • Work on at least one other part of A Walk Through Holy Week, probably Part 3, which is already well along. No, I did not get this done.
  • Plan out the next part of A Walk Through Holy Week. I will be teaching that in February through April, and last year I found it was easier to write the current part than one from a previous year. Yes, this I did get done. I have a plan for the 10-lesson series and have discussed it with my co-teacher. It begins February 26. Still more prep work to do, however.

So now, we come to February, already six days into it. Here are my goals.

  • Blog twice a week, on Monday and Friday. I believe this is do-able, even with certain distractions planned into the month.
  • I won’t be attending writers meetings this month. The first one, already passed, was snowed out. The three others come while I’ll be out of town.
  • Edit and complete A Walk Through Holy Week, Part 6. This was Part 4 until I restructured the series last month through some serious planning. That wasn’t one of last month’s goals, but I did it. I begin that editing today. Part of this goal is to, at the end of February, have a publication-ready book.
  • Begin work writing AWTHW Part 7, simultaneously to when I teach it. That worked well last year on part 6 (was part 4 before restructuring).
  • Get TKTTT to beta readers and receive their feedback back. I began this process last Friday. Hoping two of my grandchildren will read it this week and next. And I have one other family to check with.
  • Work with the cover designer of TKTTT.

That seems like enough. I’ll check back in on March 3, report how I did, and post some goals for March.

Bible study, Life Group lessons

It Is Time For You To Act, O Lord

2 Comments
A Bible and some paper to take notes. What more could a person want?

I had planned for my blog post today to again be about Documenting America: Making The Constitution Edition. Today I made a few last edits to Chapter 5, based on comment last week by my critique group. This morning I did a run-through for typos, commas, formatting of references, etc. That done, I hereby declare the text finished. I’m now ready to begin the publishing process.

But I’m delaying that post. Yesterday in our adult Life Group at church we had an interesting discussion that I feel deserves a post. We are going through a video-based Bible study on Psalm 119. The video series is an original production of RightNow Media, to which our church has a subscription service. The presenter in this series is Matt Chandler, a pastor in the Dallas Texas area.

Yesterday we were on the 7th of 10 videos in the series, this one covering Psalm 119:121-136. In preparation for the class, I focused on vs. 121-128. I divided the statements in these verses into two categories: statement of existing conditions; and prayer to God. All verses fit well into those categories but one. Here are the statements of condition.

  • vs 121 I have done what is righteous and just.
  • vs 123 My eyes fail looking for your salvation, looking for your righteous promise.
  • vs 125 I am your servant.
  • vs 126 Your law is being broken.
  • vs 127 I love your commands more that gold, more than pure gold.
  • vs 128 I consider all your precepts right.
  • vs 128 I hate every wrong path.

And here are the prayers.

  • vs 121 Do not leave me to my oppressors.
  • vs 122 Ensure your servant’s well-being.
  • vs 122 Let not the arrogant oppress me.
  • vs 124 Deal with your servant according to your love.
  • vs 124 Teach me your decrees.
  • vs 125 Give me your discernment that I may understand your statutes.

And, that one verse that doesn’t fit in? It’s vs 126a:

Vs 126a: It is time for you to act, O Lord.

This is the verse I decided to spend more time on than the others. It’s sort of a prayer, but not exactly. It’s more of a command. A command the pray-er is making to God. The entire verse 126 is:

Vs 126: It is time for you to act, O Lord; your law is being broken.

As if God needed the pray-er to tell Him His law was being broken. As if God needed to be commanded. What audacity in David to make such a statement!

In class, we focused on what to do if we ever found ourselves making such a statement, telling God He needed to act. One class member said instead we ought to be asking God how we can join in what He is doing. “It is time for you to act, O Lord. How can I help You?” Or even, “It is time for you to act, O Lord; your law is being broken. What can I do about it?”

Now that’s a way to address God. You aren’t then telling him what’s wrong and demanding He do something. You’re acknowledging to God that you recognize the present condition in your part of the world, that the condition is because of people disobeying God, and asking how I can effectively take part in correcting the problem. I like that.

It turned out to be a good class. Lots of interaction, people focused on the scripture, many positive statements. Everyone who spoke embraced the concept of asking God how we can participate in the places we believe He needs to act. We left the class energized and, I think, excited about serving him this week.

 

Bible study, books, Christianity, Documenting America, Life Group lessons, miscellaneous, Writing

Progress as Promised, On Several Fronts

Leave a comment

In my last post, I told about the de cluttering effort my wife and I are in. I spoke specifically about the multiple stamp collections I’m dealing with, as well as a few other de-cluttering activities.

The stock book I worked on. I still have a few stragglers to add to it (which fell out before my work commenced), plus perhaps some re-distribution.

This weekend, while de-cluttering is still high on the priority list, so is what I call simply “getting things done.” It began on Friday, where I worked in The Dungeon for a good part of the day, doing my normal writing and stock trading tasks. In the evening I finally finished putting loose stamps into that stock book I mentioned in the last post, and on Saturday I gathered all the stamps in one place, while on Saturday and Sunday I put them all in a larger box and into their designated place in the storeroom. Check one item off the to-do list.

Our newer minivan was overdue for servicing. I finally called on that on Friday afternoon, learned they had appointments on Saturday, and took an early one. I learned of a sensor that’s gone bad; it will be replaced later this week under warranty. I also took that van to a nearby body shop for an estimate on fixing the rear tailgate after the fender-bender I caused in June. Ah, me. Much money to be spend fixing that small folly.

Friday and Saturday remained productive for the whole days. Let’s see what I checked off the list.

  • Elliptical and walking for Friday and Saturday.
  • Work on Acts of Faith each day.
  • Work on Documenting America: Making The Constitution Edition each day.
  • Clean up in the front yard, along with weekend weeding and deadfall pick up in the back yard on Saturday.
  • Seeing about accommodations for a trip we will soon be taking.
  • Making a haircut appointment. (I hate using the phone for things like that and always put off making such appointments, so when I do it it feels like a major accomplishment.)
  • Helping the wife make an omelet Saturday noon.
  • Household budgeting on Friday; balancing the checkbook on Saturday; catch up on trading accounting on Saturday.
  • Dusting the high corners near the ceilings.
  • Preparing to teach Life Group on Sunday.
  • Working on organizing the stamp collections, in place for better storage or, perhaps, selling within a couple of years.
I found time each day to just sit and read in the sunroom, and nap there one day.

I could probably add a few more things to the list, but I’d be getting into minutia if I did. Suffice to say the weekend was full, productive, enjoyable, and, if you can believe it, restful. Yes, I had time to watch TV (while working on the stamps and crossword puzzles), to sit in the sunroom and read, to get full nights’ sleep, and to gather with God’s people in worship and study on Sunday.

Whether every weekend will be so enjoyable and productive remains to be seen. This one was, and I thank God for it.

Documenting America, Engineering, Life Group lessons, miscellaneous, Writing

Days of Accomplishment

Leave a comment

For today’s blog post, I had originally planned on a book review. I’m not sure which. I recently finished two books and will review both. I’ve been debating which would be first. As late as Wednesday I was still debating that, unsure. This isn’t a critical decision, but I just wanted to let you all know what’s going on with me.

Caught this little guy on camera this week. It’s always so nice to see the blue color on the deck.

Then came Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Actually, I could lump Monday in with that. All four days were days of incredible accomplishment. I got a lot of stuff done. Not only me: Lynda accomplished much decluttering, sorting through piles of children’s books to find duplicates, the unused/unread, and prepare to give away many and organize the rest. That’s on-going. The house is a mess, but it won’t be long before it looks much, much better.

As for me, each day I kept up with my routine things. I did my devotions first thing. I kept up with writing and publishing news. I did my stock trading, entering into a number of trades on Monday and seeing some success. And, I resumed my workouts on the elliptical—nothing major, but after a month layoff, it felt good to get back to that routine.

I then shifted to working on Documenting America: Making The Constitution Edition. One day I edited the final three source documents. One day I wrote my part of a chapter, then next day on two chapters, and then yesterday did the last chapter. So, the first draft is now done, excepting whatever I choose to do for an Introduction. This is a very good feeling.

In the afternoons I worked on a construction specification for my former employer. This was the first major work I had for them. It’s major not because it will require a lot of hours (it’s a small construction project), but because it’s something other than random site inspections and correspondence. I had to remember again how to put a spec together. Strange how much you forget in not quite six months of retirement.

The spec was also good because the work of the project is unusual, the widening of a ditch, which requires a farm pond to be moved, both of which require some heavy-duty erosion control (temporary and permanent). I had to write one new spec section and significantly modify another. It’s always good to create something.

The amount of wild blueberries in the woods across from our house is massive. It’s no where near being fully picked, no where near all being ripe. And, blackberry season is about to begin.

Despite this busyness, I was able to do some things for enjoyment. I picked blueberries one day. Started reading two new books on consecutive days, and they both look like good ones that I’ll read through to completion.

In the evenings, I began work on a Bible study. I’m planning on it being part of our Life Group curriculum at church, probably this fall. I had the outline done for over a month, but hadn’t started work on it. On Tuesday evening I tweaked the outline and wrote it out anew. On Wednesday evening I began putting a Word document together, only to end the night finding the file had major corruption issues, about the strangest I’ve ever seen. On Thursday evening (actually some during the day) I started the document over and made major progress with it.

Now it’s Friday. I plan on writing the Introduction to Documenting America. I might pick some more blueberries. I’ll read some more in the two books. I’ll begin one book review for Monday’s blog post. I’ll do some decluttering work of my own, perhaps split between my closet, the garage, and my writing papers. Hopefully, four days of great accomplishment will become five.

Bible study, Life Group lessons

You Don’t Know the Scriptures

Leave a comment

Our adult Life Group (a.k.a. Sunday School) is still in the midst of our Easter study. This is because my co-teacher, a couple of years ago, mused about whether we could do a beginning-to-end Easter study one year, beginning with the Triumphal Entry through Easter day.

The main problem with that is the volume of material. I worked it out, and determined that you had more than 60 lessons to do if you didn’t skip anything. I don’t like to skip things, so that was a dilemma. I worked out a program where we did that in five parts, meaning you do one part each year. My co-teacher agreed with that.

Year one covers Sunday-Monday-Tuesday of Holy Week. Yesterday we had lesson #10 in that, covering when the Sadducees questioned Jesus about the resurrection. It was a bogus, exaggerated question, not for illumination rather than to support their ill-informed beliefs. Jesus, of course, destroyed those beliefs quite easily.

Do you remember the story? Using the Levirate marriage, as defined in Deuteronomy 25:5-10, the Sadducees said a man married, had no children, and left his widow for his brother to marry. He did so, and died in the same status. This went on for seven brothers, all who died, then the woman died childless. Their question was: At the resurrection whose wife will she be, since she was married to the seven brothers?

Jesus’ answer was: You err because 1) you don’t know the scriptures, and 2) you don’t know the power of God. The Sadducees considered only the five books of Moses as authoritative. Naturally their question came from that source. So, naturally, Jesus’ answer came from that source as well.

First, he said they didn’t understand what the resurrection would be like. In it would be no marriages, births, death. It won’t be like life on earth, extended to another realm. Those thought worthy of the resurrection would become like angels, who have no need for such earthly activities. So Jesus answered their question: Yes, silly Sadducees, there is a resurrection but she won’t be anyone’s wife in it.

But Jesus went on to prove there would indeed be a resurrection. In the account of the burning bush, Jesus said that God said to Moses, “I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.” Since they had all died centuries before Moses lived, if both their bodies and souls had died, God couldn’t have said that. He would have had to say, “I was the God of…”, of something similar. Instead, He said “I am the God of….” Thus, He is the God of the dead.

The Sadducees rejected the concept of an afterlife and resurrection because it isn’t explicitly stated in scripture. Jesus showed them sometimes you have to dig deeper. See what the words imply but may not state as clearly as you’d like them to say something. The truth is there, if you just know the scripture through deep study.

Concerning the power of God, it is also seen in the account of the burning bush. The bush in the desert burned, but wasn’t burned up to embers and ashes. It remained an intact bush. A miracle? It was certainly something that defied the laws of nature, so, yes, it was a miracle. It was a demonstration of the power of God. The God who could make a bush burn but remain a bush could make a resurrection happen.

My final words in class were: Don’t be like the Sadducees. Know the scripture, and know the power of God. We discussed how we can do this.

It was a good class. Sixteen of us had the chance to see what the scripture was really telling us, and what the power of God was like. I hope we all take Jesus’ words to heart and really, really get to know the scriptures and his power.

Bible study, Life Group lessons

I Will Not, Father

Leave a comment

One son said, “I will not” when asked by his father to work in the vineyard.

The other son said, “I will” when asked the same thing.

Would they do what their father wanted? Will you do what your Father wants?
[an etching by Georg Pencz, public domain]
Yet, both of these sons did the opposite of what they said. The obstinate one seems to have changed his mind, for later in the day, if his father had gone to look, he would have found this son hard at work, doing whatever the vineyard required at the particular season of the year. The first son, so willing to say he would go, would instead be found somewhere other than the vineyard, apparently at his ease.

When Jesus told this story, as recounted in Matthew 21:28-32, He said nothing about the motivation of the three people involved. Why does the father ask his sons to work? Is it a small farm and they have no servants? Would they normally work in the vineyard but, for whatever reason, neither had at that point in the day gone to do so? Are they perhaps young boys, not adult sons, who are just learning about what was needed to tend an agricultural property?

Work needed in the vineyard will vary depending on time of year and maturity of the plant. So, too, God’s work for us will vary.
[photo by Sanjay Acharya; shared via creative commons license]
Then, I wonder why the two sons changed their minds. The one who said, “I will” may have intended to go but, stepping outdoors, decided the heat of the day was too much, he hadn’t slept well enough for the labor, and decided he wouldn’t go. Or possibly he never intended to go, and his positive response was just to put his father off. The one who said, “I won’t go” might have been filled with remorse, especially if his father had a negative countenance after the son’s refusal. Or, perhaps he was teasing his father and intended to surprise him by going to the vineyard and working hard.

Speculation like this is kind of fun, but perhaps does nothing to help us understand the message Jesus has for us from this story. Neither son did what he said he would do. One spoke well but behaved poorly. One spoke poorly but behaved well. If these were your choices in life, you would most likely want to do well after having spoken poorly rather than do poorly after having spoken well.

I see a third option, however: to speak well and to do well. When the Father asks you to go work in His vineyard, don’t hesitate. Do what He asks of you. Go without hesitation. Go with joy that the Father has thought you worthy of some task, something that will improve His kingdom.

This was where our Life Group was a couple of Sundays ago, as we continued our series “A Walk Through Holy Week”. We had good interaction. Our group likes to talk, and I can usually fill the time just by asking a few questions. I think we all enjoyed digging deeply into this parable.

Alas, I’ve reached my desired word count but still have more to say. Look for part two of this, probably on Monday.

Adam Of Jerusalem, Bible study, Genealogy, Life Group lessons, miscellaneous, research, Writing

Writing In Retirement

Leave a comment

Well, you would think that, after almost a week of retirement (five days, actually, today being the beginning of the sixth), I would have accomplished much on writing. You would be wrong.

I actually started the year spending more time on genealogy and stock trading than anything else. Stock trading because it’s a new year, I needed new spreadsheets, and I needed to be active in it and try to make some money. Genealogy because I love to do it so much, and I had some new leads—or rather a little bit older leads I’d been holding off on until retirement. Following those leads now.

I’ve been holding off on writing also because I had much to do in life, and I knew retirement was coming. But retirement came, and I felt that I needed to get a few other things done first. Lynda is ill, with the flue, and it doesn’t seem to be going away quickly. Perhaps she had bronchitis as well. So I’m having to do some things for her. It’s not a burden, however. I’m glad the family sickness passed me by and I’m able to pick up the load.

I haven’t been totally absent on writing, however. A few days ago I saw a notice in a Bella Vista Facebook page about a new writing critique group someone want to form. I contacted her, and it looks as if it will happen, a once-a-month group at her house. I’m looking forward to that.

Last night I pulled out the manuscript of Adam Of Jerusalem, and began going through it looking for places where I’d marked I needed to add Adam’s backstory. Found them, and began to work on that backstory. I have the notebook next to me, in The Dungeon, and will work on it today.

These are somewhat feeble efforts, however. I wanted to get some other things done first. I felt that writing time would come shortly, and I needed to get my family budget up to date first, then file receipts, then clean up certain clutter stacks, then start a jigsaw puzzle (yes, did that yesterday). Saturday I made wonderful progress on all of these, which gave me freedom of mind to do a little on writing yesterday. Oh, yes, somewhere along the way I knew I needed to start doing some more healthy things. I’ve been doing that, though I need to ramp it up some still. Over time, over time.

Another thing I did was work some (on Saturday, I think it was), on the outline/programming of a Life Group lesson series my co-teacher and I had discussed. I like the way it’s coming together. It concerns Jesus’ activities during Holy Week. Three of the planned lessons might be a little thin on teachable/discussable material, so I’m doing a little more research on them. I should finish that today.

The last thing I’ve done is try to plan out what exactly I’m going to write in 2019. I have a list of things. I don’t know if it’s complete yet, and it’s certainly not prioritized. It reflects my Genre Focus Disorder; it reflect the fact that I have much I want to write; it also reflects that I now see myself with more time to write than I ever had before. I intend to work on that list this week, and maybe have it in shape to report it on my Friday blog.

Planning is fine, but doing is better. Time to leave this and post it, and get to my other work. See you all on Friday.

Engineering, Genealogy, Life Group lessons, reading, Writing

Retirement: The First Three Days

Leave a comment

My first official day of retirement was January 1, 2019. Having gone into the office the day before, and actually having done some meaningful work that day, Tuesday the 1st seemed more like the holiday I would have as a working man rather than a retirement day. We saw our daughter’s family off around 10:30 a.m., then we alternated resting and cleaning the rest of the day. We said we wouldn’t clean until Tuesday, but a few things were obviously easy, so we did it. That night we watched episodes of our favorite show, The Curse of Oak Island on the History Channel.

So Wednesday the 2nd was the first true retirement day. I was up around 6:15 a.m., got coffee, and headed to The Dungeon. I opened my brokerage programs, and realized I hadn’t set up my trading spreadsheet for 2019. I did that in a little more than an hour, and was ready when the market opened. After that, what to do? I read e-mails, Facebook, checked 23andMe, got breakfast, and watched the market.

I decided to work on my genealogy pursuits, and began better assimilation of data I’ve accumulated on the Penson family. Florence Elizabeth Penson married William Henry Foreman and gave birth to Bert Foreman, my new-found birth grandfather. That became my work for the rest of the day—along with watching the market. I took time to clean up Christmas stuff strewn across the work table in the storeroom. The evening was devoted to TV and reading. Thus ended a first, delightful day of retirement.

And, through the day, I had some e-mails for CEI Engineering. Since I have a contract with them for limited work, I still have my CEI phone and computer. The phone will soon be mine, but the computer will some day go back to them. One e-mail, from my former supervisor, included a request to do something, so I get to charge a little time to them. Just a 1/4 hour, but I’ll get paid for it. The extra income is something I’m looking forward to.

Yesterday, Thursday, wasn’t much different, except that I slept until almost 7:30 a.m. I watched the market and made one trade. I kept working on the Penson genealogy data. We did more clean-up, and Lynda did some laundry. She’s still not over the flu she caught just after Christmas, and her cough is terrible. We continued to eat leftovers, and the refrigerators are more or less back to normal. I cleaned out several things yesterday.

In the evening I worked on the outline for a series of Life Group lessons titled A Walk Through Holy Week. My co-teacher suggested this as something he’d like to do someday. A couple of months ago I looked into it, and realized we would never be able to teach it all in one Spring season. Last night I divided it into six parts, and planned the lessons for Part 1, which we will begin teaching in February this year. I still have some planning to do into two or three of the lessons, and will do so tonight.

So here it is, Friday January 4. I got up just after 7:00 a.m., which I think I’ll try to make my regular time. I made coffee, sat with Lynda a bit (she’s still coughing much and hard), called in one of her prescriptions, made a grocery list, and went to The Dungeon. Market futures are up, so it looks like a good opening. A Word document concerning the Penson family is open, and I’ve made some entries into it. And here I am, working on my regular Friday blog.

Truth is, I don’t yet know what my retirement routine will be. I have so many things I want to accomplish. My main January task is supposed to be inventorying my trunkful of Stars and Stripes, passed down to me from my dad. Perhaps I’ll get to that today. I’m going to make a grocery run, help out with more laundry, finish this Penson genealogy for now, finish the Life Group lessons work, and then, who knows? Maybe some reading. Oh, yes, I’ve been doing some of that in the evenings, in magazines I’ve collected but intend to read and not keep.

 

Bible study, Christianity, Life Group lessons

Deeper than an MRI

Leave a comment

At our adult Life Group this morning I was faced with a dilemma. Our pastor is gone on Spring Break, and the youth pastor was preaching. In the first service his sermon was shorter than our pastor’s normally is, and we were out of service in just 50 minutes instead of the usual 65 or so. That meant during the second service, when I would be substitute teaching the Life Group, the time would be shorter than normal.

The man who organizes our card ministry (At the beginning of each class we prepare greeting cards for various people in the church), so that took some time to get going. Finally we got to prayer requests. The first one was by a woman (early 50s, I think) who was recently diagnosed with breast cancer. Two recent tests, a biopsy and an MRI, confirmed the problem, but she doesn’t yet know what the treatment will be.

One of the men in the class suggested we gather around her and her husband and pray for them right then, before we heard other requests. We did so. I was glad for it, and the whole time thing kind of melted away in my mind. This is what the class is for. The lesson is important, but prayer like this should be primary. I asked another woman in the class to lead us in the prayer. She did so with a heartfelt prayer, making one statement in it that was incredible. “Lord, you see deeper than any MRI.”

What a great statement, I thought! Indeed, God does see deeper than any MRI, any test on a biopsy, and Catscan (however that’s supposed to be spelled). He sees our deepest needs. He knows what the problem is, no matter what the problem is. That doesn’t mean that he miraculously solves all problems, instead leaving it to be worked out by human effort and ingenuity, sometimes with a good result, sometimes with a so-so or negative result. But always, always He does not leave the one with the problem alone.

Well, my problem of the amount of time I had to teach a lesson was much less of a problem than what we prayed over. But the lesson went well. We studied 2 John (first time I’ve ever seen it used in a Sunday School lesson). I had been able to pull three critical points out of it, and we found time enough to discuss each one. I think, by the end of the class, all attendees felt blessed and spiritually fed.

And we got out a little late. By the time I hit the church lobby most people had gone, so pastor Aaron must have been short-winded in the second service as well.

Now, I need to decide if this lesson was good enough to save and expand and possibly work into a Life Group lesson series. Stay tuned.

Christianity, Life Group lessons

Gleanings from John 14:15-21

Leave a comment

This was my week to teach our adult Life Group (a.k.a. Sunday school). We were at week twelve in our fourteen week all-church/denomination-wide “Ashes to Fire” study, combining the Lent and Easter seasons and ending on Pentecost, June 12. Marion and I have been trading off. I teach the weeks he is on call for his veterinarian practice and he teaches the other.

The scripture lesson was John 14:15-21

“If you love me, you will obey what I command. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever—the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him.”

I told the class this was “dense scripture”, by which I meant chock full of things to study. Jesus has just told the apostles He is leaving them (13:33, 14:7), they can’t follow (13:33) but that they knew the way to the place He was going (14:4). He has told them to love each other (13:34-35) as a new command, and that this will be how people will know they are Jesus’ disciples. He has told them he is the way, the truth, and the life, and the only way to the Father. Now he says:

  • If you love me you will obey what I command
  • He [Jesus] will ask the Father to send the Spirit
  • The Spirit [Counselor, Advocate] will be with them forever
  • The world cannot accept the Spirit
  • The Spirit already lives with the apostles
  • Jesus will come to them, in such a way that the world does not see
  • They will live because Jesus lives
  • “On that day” the apostles will come to a new realization
  • Whoever obeys Jesus’ commands loves Him
  • That person will be loved by God and by Jesus and Jesus will reveal Himself to that person.

Wow—how packed can scripture be? Stuffed with meaning. I could have chose to take the lesson in any of several directions, but chose to study the Holy Spirit and His work. This is something most evangelical Christians study early in their walk and need to review from time to time, so this was, in my mind, somewhat of a refresher lesson. I tied it to John 14:26, 15:26, and 16:7-15. Class discussion went well. We kept on leaving the work of the Holy Spirit to try and grasp again the Trinity. All three Persons of the Godhead are present in these verses.

We came to see the meaning of Jesus’ words in John 16:12—”I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear.” No kidding. We felt that we understood how the apostles felt. They were in the early stages of separation anxiety. We have the hindsight of 1,980 years (give or take a decade) of theological development, with witness and scholarship. That may or may not be a help to us.

I want to explore these words some more. They are familiar from years of reading the gospel of Jesus according to the apostle John, but I still have much more to digest from this. Children’s pastor Jessica Springer, in her sermon on Sunday, took this same scripture in a very different direction. Using the idea behind the Klondike bar commercials, she asked “What would you do for Jesus?” An excellent sermon it was, showing how dense this scripture is.