Good morning! Today I decided to move on to chapter 15 of John. Jesus' time here with his disciples is short and he is giving them much direction, encouragement, and advice, with a little caution. He continues speaking much of the next few chapters. I do encourage you to read the chapter.
When your children are young and you leave them for the first time in the care of a sitter, you tend to give the sitter lots of advice: Johnny needs a bottle in half an hour and his bedtime routine is this... When the kids are older and you leave them home alone for the first time, whether it be you going to the grocery store by yourself (wow! what a concept, going somewhere alone!) for an hour or you will be gone overnight and the teenagers will fend for themselves for a bit, you give lots of instruction. Some you repeat. Jesus is doing this. He has to go away so that he won't be there in the flesh anymore with his disciples, but he isn't truly leaving them alone. The Holy Spirit is coming to be there for them. He reminds them that if they love him, they (and we as this is for us as well) will keep his commandments. He urges us to love one another, and to teach the world. And he also cautions that the world will hate us for we are not of them. But we should remember that the world hated him first. It is not easy to be a follower of Christ, but the reward at the end is so great. Also, we are not alone. We have Christ within us. We have the Comforter. We have one another to lean on, encourage, care for.
I didn't do anywhere near justice to this chapter. I encourage you to read it for yourself. Have a great day.
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