Assistance For Living

"And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever -
the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him or knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you."
John 14:16-17 (NKJV)

Sometimes when people get older, or due to a medical condition, they will need help doing some everyday things.  What often happens is that a person will move into a place, or have someone else come to their home, to help them.  This type of care is called assisted living, because someone is helping another person do the necessary, everyday things of life.  If a person was in a situation where they needed assisted living, and that help was available, it would be good for that person to take advantage of the help that was there for them.

When Jesus was on the earth with His disciples, He was their leader, their teacher, and their guide.  Shortly before His crucifixion, Jesus told His disciples that while He would be going away, He would send them another Helper, referring to the Holy Spirit.  When Jesus said He was sending the Holy Spirit, another Helper, Jesus was saying that the Holy Spirit would bring the same kind of assistance that Jesus Himself had given to His disciples, not that the Holy Spirit would be something completely different.

The Holy Spirit has been sent to be our Helper in life.  The Holy Spirit will give us the same kind of assistance that Jesus gave to His disciples; the Holy Spirit will lead us, teach us, and guide us in life.  The Holy Spirit is not here to do everything for us, but to assist us.  The question is, are we cooperating with Him, are we allowing the Holy Spirit, our Helper, to assist us in our life, or are we trying to do everything on our own?  We need to learn to allow the Holy Spirit to help us and assist us, by following His direction and guidance in our life.

Do You Need To Change The Channel?

"You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You."
Isaiah 26:3 (NKJV)

We have all had the experience of watching something on television and then deciding that we did not want to see what we were watching.  And we have all had the experience that when something like this happened that we simply changed the channel.  If we are watching some sports program and we want to watch the news, we just change the channel.  It is not some big thing to do, and we do not even give it any thought, we just change the channel from what we are currently watching to something that we want to see.

There are people who deal with things like anxiety, fear, and depression, things which are usually summed up as mental health issues.  But why do people have these things in their life?  Why are some people anxious, fearful, or depressed, and why is it some people are not anxious, afraid, or depressed?  When I have talked to people about these issues, sometimes people act as though they have nothing to do with those things, but when people have these problems in their life, in their thoughts, it is often because they are thinking about the wrong things.

Just like changing the channel on a television, if we are having the wrong kind of thoughts, we need to change what we are thinking about.  Sometimes people make it sound as though this is not possible, but it is possible, or the Bible would not tell us in Isaiah 26:3 that God will keep us in peace if our mind, our thinking is stayed, focused, on Him.  We need to know what the Bible says, and when wrong thoughts come, we need to change the channel to think about what God's Word says, instead of the negative and harmful thoughts we may have had before.

You Are That Disciple

"Now there was leaning on Jesus' bosom one of His disciples, whom Jesus loved."
John 13:23 (NKJV)

Sometimes parents have a child that they seem to favor more than their other children, which is not a good thing, but it does happen.  Sometimes a teacher will have a favorite student in their class, and that teacher will show favoritism towards that student.  Again, this is not good, but it does happen.  Other children and students, who are not treated as the favorite, normally resent it when special treatment is shown to someone else, but if they were that person who was treated as special, that can be a different story.

The Bible tells us that God is love (1 John 4:8), that God loved the world so much that He sent Jesus to save us from our sin (John 3:16), and there are many other verses that talk about how much God loves us.  But, while this shows us that God is a loving God who shows His love to all, and that God has no favorites and does not show partiality towards anyone (Romans 2:11), it seems strange that in the Gospel of John that the Apostle John would refer to himself as the disciple Jesus loved.  How can this be correct?

In the Gospel of John, John refers to himself as "the disciple whom Jesus loved."  While that sounds like John thought that he was the only one that Jesus loved, by looking at the relationship that John had with Jesus, we can see that it is just that John understood how much Jesus loved him.  And this is not something that only John could say, we can say it too, because we are all the disciple that Jesus loves!  We need to know who we are in Christ, we need to understand how much God loves us, and know we too can say that we are the disciple that Jesus loves!

Getting On Course, And Staying On Course

"For we all stumble in many things.  If anyone does not stumble in word, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle the whole body.
Indeed, we put bits in horses' mouths that they may obey us, and we turn their whole body.
Look also at ships: although they are so large and are driven by fierce winds, they are turned by a very small rudder wherever the pilot desires.
Even so the tongue is a little member and boasts great things.  See how great a forest a little fire kindles!"
James 2:2-5 (NKJV)

When you are traveling somewhere, you have some destination in mind.  When you start towards your destination, you might go straight ahead, or you might turn, but if you start on your journey by moving straight ahead, you normally do not just keep going straight ahead. Eventually you will probably need to turn to the right or the left to stay on your course.  While you may start well, if you do not stay on course, you will have problems and you will not reach your destination.

There are people that God has called to do something, and people who want to do what they see in God's Word, who do not succeed.  To be successful doing what God is directing us to do, specifically or from the general will of God in the Bible, we must realize that our words will steer us in the right direction, and our words will also help us stay on course.  We need to say what God has said in His Word, about ourselves and what God wants us to do, and we need to keep on saying those things.

In James 3, the tongue is compared to the rudder on a ship.  Our words set the course for our life, good or bad, and our words will help us to stay on course, and that can also be good or bad.  It is not that our words have some magical power, and by saying something we will make it happen, but the Bible is very clear that our words are extremely important.  By speaking God's Word, and continuing to say what God says, we can set, and maintain, the right course for our life.