The Words of Christ: An Everyday Journey With Jesus

JANUARY 1

I Can See Clearly Now

Light always declares itself. Stand early some morning upon a country hilltop and watch the sun rise. Its splendor, like Christ's love for us, is self-declaring.

I AM THE LIGHT of the world. I have come as a light into the world, so that everyone who believes in Me would not remain in darkness.

The light will be with you only a little longer. Walk while you have the light, so that darkness doesn't overtake you. The one who walks in darkness doesn't know where he's going.

While you have the light, believe in the light, so that you may become sons of light.

John 8:12a; 12:35-36,46

If we continue to walk in darkness, it is our own fault, for this Jesus is the light of all life.

JANUARY 2

A Forever Aftertaste

After eating the world's bread, we wake each morning to remember: We are still hungry. Seek a better loaf. Eat, and never die. Taste, savor, and be filled forever.

I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the desert, and they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven so that anyone may eat of it and not die.

I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread he will live forever. The bread that I will give for the life of the world is My flesh.

John 6:48-51

We get hungry three times a day, but too rarely are we hungry for the bread that nourishes eternally. We need a deeper hunger.

JANUARY 3

Behind Door #1

Most of the world is crushed to silence by two heavy questions: Why was I born? and Where am I going? Christians know. And in knowing, we are filled to overflowing.

I ASSURE YOU: I am the door of the sheep. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture.

If anyone is thirsty, he should come to Me and drink! The one who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, will have streams of living water flow from deep within him.

John 7:37-38; 10:7,9b

More than guaranteeing us a lot of good things, Christ offers us the inner certainty that all we will ever need has been supplied in Him.

JANUARY 4

Big, Strong Arms

We are secure in Christ's keeping to the edge of eternity and beyond. His saving grace doesn't depend on how good we are, but on how very good He is.

I AM THE GOOD shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.

The hired man, since he's not the shepherd and doesn't own the sheep, leaves them and runs away when he sees a wolf coming. The wolf then snatches and scatters them. This happens because he is a hired man and doesn't care about the sheep.

Anyone who is not with Me is against Me, and anyone who does not gather with Me scatters.

Matthew 12:30; John 10:11-13

Peace is the sister of assurance. It comes from being sure that we are safe in the Shepherd's arms.

JANUARY 5

A Single Drummer

Be so acquainted with Him that you not only know His voice but you sense every variation of His inflection. Love His voice. Prize His leadership in your life.

I AM THE GOOD shepherd. I know My own sheep, and they know Me, as the Father knows Me, and I know the Father. I lay down My life for the sheep.

But I have other sheep that are not of this fold; I must bring them also, and they will listen to My voice. Then there will be one flock, one shepherd.

John 10:14-16

Other voices lay claim on our goals and dreams. Only Christ's voice comes from Someone who really knows what we need.

JANUARY 6

Making the Connection

Our busy schedules make us think we are really happy and achieving. Yet there is nothing of value—no business or agenda—that exists when we are detached from the Vine.

I AM THE VINE; you are the branches. The one who remains in Me and I in him produces much fruit, because you can do nothing without Me.

If anyone does not remain in Me, he is thrown aside like a branch and he withers. They gather them, throw them into the fire, and they are burned.

John 15:5-6

How much our littleness grows when attached to Christ's greatness. What significance we acquire when attached to His eternal significance.

JANUARY 7

Productive Cuts

To be continually productive, we must be continually pruned. Only when we submit to the lopping off of our unproductive tendrils will we know the joy of bearing fruit.

I AM THE TRUE vine, and My Father is the vineyard keeper. Every branch in Me that does not produce fruit He removes, and He prunes every branch that produces fruit so that it will produce more fruit.

You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you.

John 15:1-3

When we produce nothing, we frustrate the purpose of the vine. Then comes the pruning knife. The vine bleeds and remembers its true nature.

JANUARY 8

The Bread Temptation

The problem with making bread from stones is that it leads to making butter out of tar, cheese out of sand, wine out of water. Self-indulgence gives birth to greed.

IT IS WRITTEN: Man must not live on bread alone.

I assure you: Moses didn't give you the bread from heaven, but My Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is the One who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.

I am the bread of life. No one who comes to Me will ever be hungry and no one who believes in Me will ever be thirsty again.

Luke 4:4;. John 6:32-33,35

If we demand what we want when we want it, we begin to see life only in terms of ourselves. We soon become only the sum of all our cravings.

JANUARY 9

The Power Temptation

Satan handed Jesus the globe, and Jesus handed it back. The gospel would never conquer entire continents. It would instead conquer single souls, one at a time.

IT IS WRITTEN: You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him alone you shall serve.

Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is one Lord. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and most important commandment.

The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets depend on these two commandments.

Matthew 22:37-40; Mark 12:29b; Luke 4:8

We should want only that power that enables us to minister in Christ's name while leaving others unable to remember ours.

JANUARY 10

The Fame Temptation

Satan suggested that Christ could get elected Messiah without the ugly necessity of the cross. Why bother with the Via Dolorosa when you can follow the Yellow Brick Road?

IT IS SAID: You must not tempt the Lord your God.

This generation is an evil generation. It demands a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah. For just as Jonah became a sign to the people of Nineveh, so also the Son of Man will be to this generation.

The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because they repented at Jonah's proclamation; and look—something greater than Jonah is here!

Luke 4:12; 11:29-30,32

Fame is never fully satisfied. The adoration of ego is a fragile and disappointing worship.

JANUARY 11

Inheriting the Business

Already Jesus knew He could never disappoint His Father by being disobedient. Whatever cost would be necessary to redeem the human race, He knew He would pay it.

WHY WERE YOU searching for Me? Didn't you know that I must be involved in my Father's interests?

I assure you: The Son is not able to do anything on His own, but only what He sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in the same way. For the Father loves the Son and shows Him everything He is doing, and He will show Him greater works than these so that you will be amazed.

Luke 2:49; John 5:19-20

Earthly business is so all-requiring. If you want to be a bigger person, get busy with a bigger business—your Father's business.

JANUARY 12

Water into Wine

You sense the reluctance in Jesus' voice as He responds to His mother. This is as close as He comes to saying, So …? But His Father loves people, so Jesus gives a taste of His sweetness.

WHAT HAS THIS concern of yours to do with Me, woman? My hour has not yet come.

I can do nothing on My own. Only as I hear do I judge, and My judgment is righteous, because I do not seek My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.

And if I do judge, My judgment is true, because I am not alone, but I and the Father who sent Me judge together.

John 2:4; 5:30; 8:16

People are the preoccupation of God. That's why Christ was—as we should be—interested in people's little problems as well as their great crises.

JANUARY 13

An Audience of One

Jesus never gave Himself to His ever-expanding fan club. Jesus was God's Son. He understood that we can be popular today and crucified tomorrow.

IF I TESTIFY ABOUT Myself, My testimony is not valid. There is Another who testifies about Me, and I know that the testimony He gives about Me is valid.

Even if I testify about Myself, My testimony is valid, because I know where I came from and where I'm going. But you don't know where I come from or where I'm going. You judge by human standards. I judge no one.

John 5:31-32; 8:14-15

Never attach your faith to anyone but Christ. Others will disappoint you, but you will not be disappointed with God.

JANUARY 14

A Clear Agenda

Jesus knew exactly why He was on earth and what He had come to do. But this awareness of fact did not keep Him from exulting in His sense of call.

I HAVE COME DOWN from heaven, not to do My will, but the will of Him who sent Me.

This is the will of Him who sent Me: that I should lose none of those He has given Me but should raise them up on the last day.

For this is the will of My Father: that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.

John 6:38-40

No one experiences more happiness than those who know Christ and have a firm sense of their calling in life.

JANUARY 15

God So Loved

Listen! You can hear Him saying, It is so like people to love primarily those people who are most like them. God never loved so narrowly.

GOD LOVED THE world in this way: He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life.

Anyone who believes in Him is not judged, but anyone who does not believe is already judged, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.

John 3:16,18

Do not go to sleep tonight without exalting the Father's love. Then, having slept soundly, wake in the morning to praise Him yet again.

JANUARY 16

Heaven the Hard Way

How wide, how fast, how smooth the way to hell. How arduous, how slow, how steep the road to heaven. Those who will not tolerate the climb can never reach the far pavilions.

ENTER THROUGH THE narrow gate; because the gate is wide and the road is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who go through it.

How narrow is the gate and difficult the road that leads to life; and few find it.

Make every effort to enter through the narrow door, because I tell you, many will try to enter and won't be able once the homeowner gets up and shuts the door.

Matthew 7:13-14; Luke 13:24-25a

It's not hard to tell if you're on the road to heaven. The way is not crowded. And the way is not easy.

JANUARY 17

God with Us

An Internet world feels alone and reaches across wires for faceless friends. God reaches down with wisdom that created the world and seeks to touch your heart.

THE ONE WHO believes in Me believes not in Me, but in Him who sent Me. For God did not send His Son into the world that He might judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.

If anyone hears My words and doesn't keep them, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world.

John 3:17; 12:44,47

Christ is the invisible God, made seeable. The inaudible God, made hearable. The intangible God, made touchable.

JANUARY 18

Born Again

The hidden glory of salvation is that everyone gets a chance to start over in life. Just as we are born the first time with all kinds of possibilities for our lives, we can repeat the experience.

I ASSURE YOU: Unless someone is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. Whatever is born of the flesh is flesh, and whatever is born of the Spirit is spirit.

Do not be amazed that I told you that you must be born again. The wind blows where it pleases, and you hear its sound, but you don't know where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.

John 3:5-8

Being born again is God's gift to all people who are destroying themselves with self-will and bad choices.

JANUARY 19

Blinded by the Mind

Helen Keller said the most real things in life are things that cannot be seen. Being born again is like that. That which renovates your life is a mystery.

I ASSURE YOU: Unless someone is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

Are you a teacher of Israel and don't know these things? I assure you: We speak what We know and We testify to what We have seen, but you do not accept Our testimony.

If I have told you about things that happen on earth and you don't believe, how will you believe if I tell you about things of heaven?

John 3:3, 10-12

Is there a certain deadness about your