John 14:6  I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.

"Many roads go up the mountain, but they all get to the top."

"All religions are essentially the same."

"One religion is as good as another."

Weird statements, right? The funny thing is, often the same people who make these statements select their one doctor very carefully!

These commonly heard views summarize what is known as "universalism," the myth that ultimately all people will be saved regardless of what they believe or what religion they follow.

But the "Gospel in a nutshell" says, "For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life" (John 3:16).

There is the universal salvation. God offers salvation to all people but only through belief in Jesus Christ. And that atonement, grasped by our Spirit-empowered faith, affects our justification: We are declared righteous, forgiven, by God. We are saved, that is, rescued from our sins, and made God's children and heirs of eternal life through the death and resurrection of His Son.

This is why it's so important to get the Good News about Christ out to everyone in the world as quickly as possible. And we must not forget to be faithful witnesses to Him in our own backyards.

We thank God daily for the salvation He offers to all believers. We pray that all humanity may come to know and believe in Jesus Christ, the only way to the Father and eternal life.
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Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,

Rev. Dr. Brent L Parrish

John 14:1-3 “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God[a]; believe also in me. 2 My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.

Clean the house. Shop for groceries. Cook a lovely dinner. Set out the good china. Light the candles. The company will arrive soon. Preparations have been underway for some time, and we are ready to welcome our guests. Out of love, we prepare for their coming.

In a far more majestic way, Christ is preparing a place for us and dor all who believe in Him. It is His Father's house, a mansion grander by far than we deserve. His preparations are also done out of love, but it, too, is a love more majestic than the love we show for our earthly guests.

Christ has attended to every detail, and He assures us that everything will be ready when He takes us safely there. This preparation began long ago and culminated in His perfect life, death, and resurrection.

In this farewell discourse, Jesus had just predicted Judas' betrayal and Peter's denial. Yet in these words He seeks to comfort those He loves and bring peace to their troubled hearts. In His dark hours, Jesus was characteristically thinking of others.

Jesus promised to return for His disciples, and that promise includes us. He desires that we be with Him eternally - what perfect love. Do not let your heart be troubled. He is waiting to welcome you home.
--Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,

Rev. Dr. Brent L Parrish

John 12:24  I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.

Anyone who likes to garden or comes from an agricultural background understands this image. It is always amazing to think that something so lifeless as a seed - dried up, hard, dead - can, with God's help, grow into a vibrant, green, living plant.

Jesus here is describing what must happen to Him for life to blossom. He was to become dead. Alive, during His ministry on earth, He had many followers. They flocked to Him, witnessed miracles, and listened to His teaching. Yet while still alive, He was abandoned by all but a few of His followers, and He died nearly alone.

But in that death, and the glorious resurrection that followed, the seeds of His ministry, by all appearances dead, were brought to life in faith and grew to a vibrant, living church.

I often start my garden with seeds. This gives me a good opportunity to watch the change in the lifeless seeds. And they give me a good lesson in faith. Some never grow. But some, and often the hardiest of the bunch, grow and come out of the soul with the husk of the seed attached to a leaf or a stem. They grow well and are alive and vibrant, but there is a reminder of their death that grows with them.

We, too, grow with a reminder of our death. We have died, but we have been reborn. In our Baptism, and with the seeds of faith that Christ has planted in us, we live and grow in Him. Yet we remember our death. Not only our death in Christ, which He accomplished for us, but our death to sin. And in that death, there is life - everlasting life in Christ.
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Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,

Rev. Dr. Brent L Parrish

John 11:43-44  Jesus called in a loud voice, "Lazarus, comes out!" The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face. Jesus said to them, "Take off the grave clothes and let him go."

Children acquire likes and dislikes very early in life. Already at the age of three Jacob had some very definite opinions on clothes and shoes. On Easter morning, his mother thought it was a good idea for Jacob to wear his new oxford shoes.

"Today, Jacob, we're going to really dress up because we're going to celebrate Jesus' resurrection," mom said. Jacob ran off to get the shoes he intended wearing, his Nike tennis shoes. "No, Jacob, you're going to wear the special shoes your mom and dad bought you. You're going to wear your new oxfords."

Jacob insisted he would not. His mother insisted he would. Mom won! The oxfords bedecked Jacob's feet for the special resurrection service.

Perhaps, however, Jacob did not have such a bad idea after all. He wanted to wear his Nike tennis shoes. Nike is a Greek word that means "victory." In ancient times, after a victory had been won, the announcement would be made throughout the cities, "Nike! Nike!" It meant a victory had been achieved.

Easter should be a time when the shout of victory is proclaimed with voice, and yes, even with the shoes we wear. Already in the raising of Lazarus, Jesus had given a prelude of what would happen because of His life, death, and resurrection; "'Lazarus, come out!' The dead man came out" (John 11:43-44). So through His victory from death, from sin, and from the power of the devil.

Nike! Nike!
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Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,

Rev. Dr. Brent L Parrish

John 11:25-26  Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?"

Bethany is a town very near Jerusalem. When Jesus arrived there not long before Holy Week and His triumphal entry into Jerusalem, He found friends mourning the death of Lazarus, brother of Mary and Martha and also a dear friend of Jesus. Lazarus had been in the grave for four days. The two sisters both insisted that had Jesus arrived earlier their brother wouldn't have died. They knew Jesus, the Great Physician, had power to restore health.

But power to restore life? That belonged to the glory and power of God, and it was for this very reason - that Jesus would be glorified and seen as God's Son - that Jesus delayed His Bethany arrival until after Lazarus' death.

Jesus' words to Martha in our verses above are loved for their comfort and assurance, especially when we face death, both our own and that of loved ones.

"Do you believe this? Jesus asked Martha. It is an important question that Her also asks us. Through the power of the Holy Spirit, we answer confidently along with Martha, "Yes!" The words that sound like a riddle are as clear as can be. Because of Jesus, we will live and never die. His resurrection secures our own.
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Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,

John 11:10  It is when he walks by night that he stumbles, for he has no light.

How illuminating it is for our lives that Jesus is the light of the world! Without light there is only darkness. And as Jesus teaches in the passage above, those who walk in darkness stumble. Were it not for Jesus shining His light upon us through His death and rising again we would still be walking in that darkness of sin. By God's undeserved love, however, we can assert with Isaiah: "The people walking in darkness have seen a great light" (Isaiah 9:2)

Even as the sun gives light to the moon and the moon reflects that light to us who are His children and we reflect that light. We are the light of the world. We reflect His light to those with whom we live.

What a contrast! "You were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light" (Ephesians 5:8). Our source of power as lights in this world comes from the light of the world, Jesus Christ. Even as the moon cannot shine unless it receives light from the sun and reflects that, so we cannot give light to others unless we receive and reflect from the Son of God the light which He gives to dispel the darkness of sin and to guide people on their journey in life.

With the psalmist we affirm: "The Lord is my light and my salvation - whom shall I fear?" (Psalm 27:1).
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Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,

Rev. Dr. Brent L Parrish

John 10:27-28 My sheep listen to My voice; I know them, and they follow Me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of My hand.

Of all the people you have met, who has the strongest hands? Pastors shake and hold numerous kinds of hands, and many of the clergy would agree that farmers have some of the largest and most powerful hands of anyone around. Evidently, their daily work builds incredible strength in their hands.

The Lord reminds us that as His sheep nothing and no one can snatch us out of the almighty and loving hands of our Good Shepherd. He is the one who gave His life for us, the sheep, when He died on the cross of Calvary. He is the one who rose from the dead and defeated Satan, sin, and death. His conquering and caring hands assure us of a life with meaning and purpose that is for today, but goes on for eternity.

Jesus Christ has us in His powerful grip. We can know and trust in the one who holds us and strengthens us as we listen to His voice and follow Him. His Word becomes His loving and guiding voice as we listen to it, study it, meditate on it, and memorize it. What a comfort to know that with Jesus as our Good Shepherd, nothing can snatch us out of His mighty hands.
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Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,
Rev. Dr. Brent L Parrish