"Jesus Promises the Holy Spirit"

  "If you love me, obey my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, who will never leave you. He is the Holy Spirit, who leads into all truth. The world cannot receive him, because if isn't looking for him and doesn't recognize him. But you know him, because he lives with you now and later will be in you. No, I will not abandon you as orphans - I will come to you. Soon the world will no longer see me, but you will see me. Since I live, you also will live. When I am raised to life again, you will know that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. Those who accept my commandments and obey them are the ones who love me. And because they love me, my Father will love them. And I will love them and reveal myself to each of them."

 Judas (not Judas Iscariot, but the other disciple with that name) said to him, "Lord, why are you going to reveal yourself only to us and not the world at large?"

 Jesus replied, "All who love me will do what I say. My Father will love them, and we will come and make our home with each of them. Anyone who doesn't love me will not obey me. And remember, my words are not my own. What I am telling you is from the Father who sent me. I am telling you these things while I am still with you. But when the Father sends the Advocate as my representative - that is, the Holy Spirit - he will teach you everything and will remind you of everything I have told you.

 "I am leaving you with a gift - peace of mind and heart. And the peace I give is a gift the world cannot give. So don't be troubled or afraid. Remember what I told you: I am going away, but I will come back to you again. If you really loved me, you would be happy that I am going to the Father, who is greater than I am. I have told you these things before they happen so that when they do happen, you will believe.

 "I don't have much more time to talk to you, because the ruler of this world approaches. He has no power over me, but I will do what the Father requires of me, so that the world will know that I love the Father. Come, let's be going."" (John 14:15-31 NLT) 

"My little children, these things I write unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: and he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments. He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby we know we that we are in him. He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked." (1 John 2:1-6 KJV)

 Having been set free from the bondage of sin, you would think by now that sin would not be such a problem; but it seems more obvious now, sin is still very present, and there is still much that God needs to do in my life! I imagine that this will be the case until I get to stand in His presence. Hopefully, it has stayed here when I am gone! 

 That is pretty much the way I see it, because we have all been forgive, which means that the sins that now haunt us, do not go with us when we are called up into heaven; they belong to this world, and do not stay with us when we go! This body of corruption will be transformed into a body of incorruption, that is holy and glorious; made as white as snow, as the Father sees us now, that we shall be, then! 

 I hope you all know that, because there is a whole lot of baggage that we get to lose, on our way up into glory! Until then, we must deal with this thing, the tent, as it is referred to, that we keep mending and pampering, waiting for it do get placed in the ground. I already have my grave purchased, and my wife and I have a marker next to our son; everything is there, waiting for us to have these tents put to rest. 

 Our born dates are below our names, waiting for the dash and the end date to be etched into the granite. The end date, just so you know, is really not the end, but the beginning of a glorious eternal life in Christ! The dash between the two, is that race we are running right now! What a dash it really is...

 "So if you are suffering in a manner that pleases God, keep on doing what is right, and trust your lives to the God who created you, for he will never fail you." (1 Peter 4:19 NLT)