I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life

The boldest of statements which effectively draws a line in the sand that must be crossed.  Simply put, a decision must be made, but not without the entire body of knowledge given prior to this, or else it doesn't make sense.

John 14:6  "I am the Way, the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father, except through Me."

These words are often called Jesus' parting words to His disciples. Since He spent three years teaching and training them, we should take that into consideration before making the claim to an unbeliever.  Why would I want to take the chance of alienating someone without the benefit of introducing them to the compassionate Savior first?

His great compassion
At the beginning of our relationship with Him, we only love Him because He first loved us.  To think differently is to think more highly of ourselves than we ought to.  We are not capable of godly love until we are regenerated by the Holy Spirit, whose task it is to continually remind us of just how much God loves us.  How can we not respond to that?

Recently at church we were singing the chorus (only the chorus) to a Journey song called, "Open Arms." If you know the song, disregard all but this part:

So now I come to you with open arms,

nothing to hide, believe what I say,

So here I am with open arms

hoping you'll see what your love means to me

...open arms.

I know it's not a hymn or a worship song, but it brought to mind a vivid word picture of my Jesus, with outstretched arms, beckoning me to come into His embrace.  I've been saved since I was nineteen, but this was an effective and creative tool the worship team used to show just how approachable our Savior is, especially to the lost sheep.

Our declaration of faith
He is the Way.  When we affirm this, we have seen the light of the truth and the error of going our own way. He is the Truth.  When we affirm this, we reject worldly wisdom as foolishness and express our sorrow in departing from His Truth somewhere along the way. He is the Life. When we affirm this, we attest to His infinite power and omniscience, gladly accepting that He alone is the source of abundant life—apart from Him we can do nothing good.

As the gospels come to a close, we are left to make the same decision the disciples had to make upon His death.  In the quietness of Saturday, they must have pondered all He'd claimed and wondered what the future held. When Sunday dawned, their world was turned upside-down with His resurrection, and they were never the same again.

Our own encounter with Him is much the same.  Our world should be turned upside-down by His resurrection power, and we should never be the same again.

In Jesus' Name, Amen.

We often learn by osmosis; just the fact that we are around particular people, in a certain environment or culture we absorb details, facts, even mannerisms.  A boy will swing a hammer the same way his dad does, or a daughter will copy mom's way of doing housework or even putting on lipstick in a particular way.  We absorb what is modeled for us and it's no different in the church.

While studying a lesson for kids' church concerning prayer, I was trying to compose a teaching that was extremely simple, yet meaningful, that would help take away the mystique of praying—especially praying aloud.  It felt as though the kids were repeating things they had heard from parents or other adults without realizing what they were saying.

I asked them if they'd ever heard people saying (or shouting) "Amen."  Most of them said yes, but none could tell me what it actually meant, so we began right there, defining the word as: truly, or, so be it.  What a revelation that turned out to be—nobody under thirty really says truly or so be it anymore, either, but it felt good knowing they could say the word with a newfound comprehension.

What about, "In Jesus' Name?"
In the manner in which we normally hear it said, it almost sounds like a magic phrase like, "Bibbity, bobbity, boo."  No offense intended, it's only that people throw it in at the last second like an ending salutation on a business letter—sincerely yours, amen.

His Name is the authority by which we pray, ask or declare.  Jesus said, "All authority has been given to Me..." and "whatever you ask for in My Name I will do it..."

His Name assures that we will fix our desires on His will, not our own.  We can be confident that He hears us whenever we ask for things that please Him (1 John 5:14).

He receives glory when our prayers are answered.  As Christians we desire to bring honor to the Lord in our living, giving and serving, so when we talk about the things that He has done in our lives it brings glory to God.

Next time you use the phrase, "In Jesus' Name, Amen," think about its meaning and use it intentionally.