Write it down.

 Write down the revelation and make it plain. (Habakkuk 2:2)

Write in a book all the word I have spoken to you. (Jeremiah 30:2)

I'm partly afraid. Afraid of rejection. Of people critiquing my lack of education, or research, or perhaps my poor lexicon and word choice (or redundancy). I want to write like Tim Keller, and Edgar Allan Poe, and Shakespeare, and Jesus, and NT Wright, and really all great authors combined. 

But it is safe to assume that none of those, except Jesus, began writing beautifully, richly, compellingly. They worked at it and honed their craft. So that's what I am setting out to do. 

This morning I was reading in John 14. I've been doing the Robert Murray M'Cheyne reading plan this year with a handful of guys. It's the Old Testament once, the New Testament twice. Just about four chapters each day - sometimes five if the chapters are shorter. 

Something about reading John 14:6 this morning hit me. 

"I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." 

The truth of it didn't hit me... it was more the tone. Definitive. Solid. Resolute. 

It's an incredibly, unimaginably?, astonishingly bold statement of Jesus declaring His exclusivity when it comes to the way to the Father. It isn't even Him 'claiming' His exclusivity. That's not a bold enough word. It is a declaration. He didn't mince words. 

The way, the truth and the life are three concrete picture-words of how God led the Israelites throughout the Old Testament. The way was the staff - the tangible item that led the people of God from Egypt through the sea. The bronze serpent that was raised up to heal people from the swarm of vipers. The staff (of Aaron I believe) that budded and declared who the rightful leader of God's people was. 

The truth was the tablets of stone, the Ten Commandments as we now know them, which were to clearly show the Israelites (and subsequently all people) how life is to be lived. The truth goes beyond the ten, but it isn't any less than those. 

The life was the manna that God miraculously delivered to His people six days a week for forty years. Can you imagine? Your survival, for forty years, being dependent on the mysterious arrival of something like bread every single morning, a double portion on the sixth day so that you would be satiated throughout the seventh, AND none of it appearing on the seventh. Gathering too much would be of no use; it would spoil. Gathering too little (not for lack of trying; laziness) would not be too little. And then on the sixth day, the increased amount, the added sustainability. 

NOT TO MENTION this is the way God led an agrarian society. People who knew, really knew well, had become professionals at, agriculture, farming; they knew the times to prepare the soil, plant the seed, cultivate, and harvest. These actions aren't flippant, but seasonal. God tells them that He's going to provide on a day to day basis, not a season by season basis. Almost (not almost, but actually) contradicting the natural rhythm of seasons. 

It was said that three things were kept in the Ark of the Covenant. The staff, the ten commandments, and a jar of manna. All reminding the people of the way, the truth and the life. The way to stay close to God, to maintain relationship, is through that staff, the tablets of stone, and the manna. 

Here, in John 14, Jesus definitively states that He is, in fact, in reality, the only way to the Father. He's the staff that leads the people, they are to follow Him. He is the law that describes how life is to be lived. He is the bread of life that nourishes far more than our bodies, but keeps our souls alive. 

For me today, I am 'prone to wander' ... and Lord do I feel it. To find all sorts of alternatives to deliver me the way to live, truth to build my life on, the 'best' life. While I am strongly in favor of learning and gleaning from resources outside of the Bible, I have to remind myself, honestly daily, that the absolute Way, the actual Truth, and the Life that is actually Life, is found only in and through the person of Jesus. 

He goes on in John 15 to say this "He who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing." (John 15:5) Far from adding a new set of laws for us to legalistically pursue and uphold, He makes it clear that the only way we're able to live the life that He created us for, calls us to, and died to allow us into, is through abiding. Dwelling. Remaining. 

"Jesus' approval and presence is all I need for everlasting joy." 

Lord, Jesus, Yeshua, the great I AM - you know who you are - let me become more aware of your presence. Let me experience the glory of your goodness. Come to me this morning Lord. Remind me of your approval of me, not through what I've done or in spite I how I've failed, but because you died for me, taking all of my sins and flaws with you on the cross; and giving me your righteousness and perfection. That right now at this very moment, when God looks on me, He sees your blood covering me, and looks on me lovingly, as His very own, as a joy-bringer.