Leaving Life Behind? : John 6:63-66 : What Jesus Did! : HEARTLIGHT®

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Leaving Life Behind? - John 6:63-66

It is not the body that gives a person life. It is the spirit that gives life. The things I told you are spirit. And so these things give life. But some of you don't believe." (Jesus knew the people that did not believe. Jesus knew this from the beginning. And Jesus knew the person that would turn against him.) Jesus said, "That is why I said, 'If the Father does not let a person come to me, then that person cannot come.'" After Jesus said these things, many of his followers left him. They stopped following Jesus. (ERV) Full Text

Key Thought

The Bible opens with the creative and life-giving power of God's word revealed: he speaks and order is formed out of chaos and life out of inanimate dust. His Spirit hovers and fills his precious human creations, and they have life! Jesus claims to have this same creative and life-giving power in his words. His words bring life. His words set loose the holy wind of heaven and the Spirit brings life to those who are dead. The people of Jesus' day couldn't handle such powerful claims, especially on the heels of such demanding and hard teaching. The story begins with them wanting to make him king, but he will not be king on their terms. He calls them to follow him as heaven's King, but most cannot accept that and turn away. Will you? Is Jesus the King of your life or do you want him to just be another religious "king" you can control on your own terms?

Today's Prayer

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Father, I confess that I sometimes try to make Jesus into the kind of messiah, the kind of king, that I want him to be. Please forgive me! I want to honor him as you want him honored. I want to hear his words and be changed. I want to receive the Spirit he has promised and be transformed. I really do want Jesus to be my King. I confess this, and ask for your power and grace, in the name of Jesus, my Lord and King. Amen.

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Today's Verses in Context

The followers of Jesus heard this. Many of the followers said, "This teaching is hard {to accept}. Who can accept this teaching?" Jesus knew that his followers were complaining about this. So Jesus said, "Is this teaching a problem for you? Then will it also be a problem for you to see the Son of Man going back to the place where he came from? It is not the body that gives a person life. It is the spirit that gives life. The things I told you are spirit. And so these things give life. But some of you don't believe." (Jesus knew the people that did not believe. Jesus knew this from the beginning. And Jesus knew the person that would turn against him.) Jesus said, "That is why I said, 'If the Father does not let a person come to me, then that person cannot come.'" After Jesus said these things, many of his followers left him. They stopped following Jesus. Jesus asked the twelve apostles, "Do you want to leave too?" Simon Peter answered Jesus, "Lord, where would we go? You have the things that give life forever. We believe in you. We know that you are the Holy One from God." Then Jesus answered, "I chose all twelve of you. But one of you is a devil." Jesus was talking about Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot. Judas was one of the twelve {apostles }. But later Judas would turn against Jesus.

— John 6:60-71 (ERV)

Then God said, "Now let's make man. We will make people as a copy of ourselves. People will be like us. They will rule over all the fish in the sea and the birds in the air. They will rule over all the large animals and all the little things that crawl on the earth." So God made people in his own image. God made people as a copy of himself. God made them male and female. God looked at everything he had made. And God saw that everything was very good. There was evening, and then there was morning. This was the sixth day.
Genesis 1:26-27, 31 (ERV)

This is the history of the sky and the earth. This is the story about the things that happened at the time God made the earth and the sky. This was before there were plants on the earth. Nothing was growing in the fields. This was because the Lord had not yet made it rain on the earth. And there was no person to care for the plants. Water came up from the earth and spread over the ground. Then the Lord God took dust from the ground and made a man. The Lord breathed the breath of life into the man's nose, and the man became a living thing.
Genesis 2:4-7 (ERV)

Like the Scriptures say, "The first man (Adam) became a living thing. " But the last Adam (Christ) became a spirit that gives life.
1 Corinthians 15:45 (ERV)

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HEARTLIGHT^® Magazine is produced by Heartlight, Inc. HEARTLIGHT is a registered service mark of Heartlight, Inc. PO Box 7044, Abilene, TX, USA 79608-7044. Copyright © 1996-2009. Heartlight is supported by Westover Hills Church, Southern Hills Church, and loving Christians from around the world. Scripture quotations are taken from the Easy-to-Read Version copyright © 2001 by World Bible Translation Center. Used by permission. All rights reserved.