Doing Great Deeds
John:12-14
12:Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, :and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.13: And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.14: You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.
Guys. I am a MONOTHEIST. I don’t promote any religion or I make fun of any religion. I read all ancient texts and find out what is written there and what wisdom is hiding in those scriptures. I only aim at using these scriptures to encourage myself first, and if it worked for me , then I will share it. I have my own view about God and heavens. Since, both are very controversial subjects, I don’t promote my views and I don’t go for debates to prove which God is which and who is the rightest way of life. If you think your views are precious, the I have every right to think that my views are also right.
Too many people are out there to promote their religion, but I always look into the personal life, values and the standards of these promoters. If a person is truly dedicated to the living god, then their life will be full of divine and truthful fruits. If they preach and the fruits they are producing are evil and poisonous then there is no point in following his or her philosophy. If we are righteous people will get naturally attracted to us and follow our examples. If we are doing all the evil things and preach your concept of god is accurate, then you must crosscheck what kind of signals are you emitting.
As a theologian, I suggest to all those conversion maniacs to read other religious texts as well. Most of these conversion lists do not know what exactly is the content in the books of other religions. Even if they know, they all interpret it wrongly to give mileage to the style of faith which they promote.
For those who ardently work for the promotion of their religion, I have a humble suggestion. If your life is radiant and godly, then people will come to you on their own to know about your faith pattern. Conversions are done by people who are sure that they don’t have anything to attract others with their personal life. God is bigger than any religion or any concept. The truth is that we all are messengers of God.
Well, Whenever I was stuck in my life these scriptures has always encouraged me to move on. Jesus, assured his disciples, that they can do great things by faith
Disciples were very much troubled during the Passover ritual. Jesus gave them hints that he is all set to leave them. Then of course they were troubled. Jesus washed their feet, set up an example for his humility and showed how much we should be serving others. Here we can see, he even asking Judas to speed up the deceiving process. Jesus of course knew his time has come up to leave earth and get Moksha.
He knew Judas will betray him, and after that betrayal, intense sufferings are waiting for him. Yet, he was so courageous to face the sufferings and torture. He was ready to go through those sufferings because he knew he completed his mission successfully. It really needs guts to know what’s going to happen and to go through the sufferings. Only strong-willed people will survive the trials and temptations. If you are fickle minded, the life on earth is not for you. You will leave your life half way like a shit coward.
When we look at Jesus’s life, we can see so many temptations. Ye, whoever live on these three dimensions will have temptations. Yet, he lived a great life, by preaching, teaching, and counseling. He may be Son of God and may not be. His teachings were subtle and great even if you say that he is not God. I am a monotheist and I don’t pray to Jesus. I always get enlightened by his teachings. I dunno what blocks people from following one’s views. Jesus was a taboo breaker. He was a revolutionary. It really need guts to get into the fort of Jews and to call their king Herod a FOX
Luke 13:32
He replied, “Go tell that fox, ‘I will keep on driving out demons and healing people today and tomorrow, and on the third day I will reach my goal.’
Jesus did not hesitate to take out the whip and beat the traders in the synagogue.
One thing I learned from my theology class, is if you are a spiritual being, then you should be full of action, live and zeal, because when we see Jesus, we can see his as the person with full of zeal for his mission.
He wakes up early in the morning, going to the mountain and praying, then going for teaching, preaching and counseling, helping his dad in his carpentry work, going fishing with his friends, serving others, then in the night also he praying and thus ending the day with gratitude. His lifestyle was one goal at my theology class. We were trying our level best to reach the standard of Jesus. Waking up early will naturally come to me because I born to a working woman. My mother gave this habit to me and my brother in the childhood. At our home, it was a crime to wake up after 6 a m. Even my dad also never slept for long. My parents used to wake up before 5 am. Now also.
My daughter and son can also wake up, but they sleep until 5:30 a m. My husband also doesn’t sleep beyond 6 a m. He wakes up and he cleans the room, water the plants, washes the clothes in washing machine, then keep them for drying, in between he updates his FB, whats app, and talk to ex gal friends (LOL) and share what they do and how they are doing in their life with me. My dad also wakes up and do all these things other than FB and whats app.
Since me and my husband being theologians (we were classmates in bible classes) we both had the goal to be like Jesus. That was a campaign to write down what we learn from the daily life of Jesus and what we are looking to adopt in our life. Some people wanted to be more serving, some people wanted to be happier and zealous, some wanted to wake up early. I remember, my prayer life was not great so I kept my goal to pray like Jesus. I used to go to loneliness and talk to my Lord for hours.
So, here in this chapter, Jesus is enlightening and making his disciples strong since he knew, his time to leave earth is fast approaching.
Obviously, this is a hard time for the disciples. Of course, they have so much of struggles ahead. They have to stand alone first. Until then, they were pampered by Jesus, counseled and protected by Jesus. Now it’s time for them to prove how solid they are in their faith.
Jewish clergy, which we all know has set of rules in who can be the priest. Not all have the authority to call upon god. Jesus, we all know that he stood against the power centers and they crucified Jesus for what they felt as BLASPHEMY.
Its Jesus’ duty to fix his disciples on the faith and he is boosting their faith.
Here he says,
John 14: 12-14
12: Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing,an d they will do even greater things than these because I am going to the Father.13: And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.14: You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.
Jesus did those things which some human feels difficult to do. He performed so many miracles. He gave eyesight to the blind, he forgave sins, he turned water into the vine, he controlled the nature. He shared his great wisdom with the power of God.
To his disciples, he is assuring, they can do greater things than what Jesus did. The condition is that your action should be to glorify god. Not for your own glory.
If God has to bless us, the first things are that we should look at glorifying god. Not for personal glory. The personal glory will naturally come up when god start blessing you
These days people are looking for self-promotions. Men or women, they are trying many methods to gain popularity to encash it. I dunno how many of them are glorifying the lord, how many of them are bringing others closer to god.
If I want greater things to happen in your life, I am sure I must do those things to glorify him. When people look at me they should see the glory of god, not the glory of mortal human being. I have done so many things to tarnish the image of god, where people looked at me and said what a calamity on mankind.
The promise from an enlightened being is that we can do greater things than him, but there is only one condition we should glorify God.
There are certain lines which say, we should ask through Jesus. Verse 13 and 14
12: Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing,an d they will do even greater things than these because I am going to the Father.13: And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.14: You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.
Well, as a monotheist, I like to take only what is the ultimate meaning. Those who follow Jesus can follow what their heart Says.
My take on this scripture is this
If we are following a path, where our life path is glorifying god, then we can do great things.
This verse has spurred me to the core and it is keeping on enlightening me. It is pushing me to deny myself and move on a great mission to glorify my Lord, I don’t want to act in order to do greater things than anyone. Being a human being all I want to share the light of wisdom and hope to all, which I have in my life.
Jesus may be the son of god or not, are we respecting the pious lifestyle he had. Are we learning the good things he taught, are we applying those techniques in our life, are we growing in our life………….these are the real questions.
As human beings, we all will fall, but the question is that do we have that guts to stand back on the grace of the Lord despite your religion.