The way

 

John 14

Jesus Comforts His Disciples

 ¹ “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. ⁴ You know the way to the place where I am going.”

 ⁵ Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?”

 ⁶ Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. ⁷ If you really know me, you will know^[b] my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.”
 ⁸ Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.”
 ⁹ Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? ¹⁰ Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. ¹¹ Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the works themselves. 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.

These verses are so full I am having a tough time focusing on one aspect.  The overall theme is clear though.  Jesus has authority over ... everything.   I believe Lord.  Continue to help my unbelief.

John 9 

The Pharisees Investigate the Healing

 ¹³ They brought to the Pharisees the man who had been blind. ¹⁴ Now the day on which Jesus had made the mud and opened the man’s eyes was a Sabbath. ¹⁵ Therefore the Pharisees also asked him how he had received his sight. “He put mud on my eyes,” the man replied, “and I washed, and now I see.”
 ¹⁶ Some of the Pharisees said, “This man is not from God, for he does not keep the Sabbath.”
   But others asked, “How can a sinner perform such signs?” So they were divided.
 ¹⁷ Then they turned again to the blind man, “What have you to say about him? It was your eyes he opened.”
   The man replied, “He is a prophet.”
 ¹⁸ They still did not believe that he had been blind and had received his sight until they sent for the man’s parents. ¹⁹ “Is this your son?” they asked. “Is this the one you say was born blind? How is it that now he can see?”
 ²⁰ “We know he is our son,” the parents answered, “and we know he was born blind. ²¹ But how he can see now, or who opened his eyes, we don’t know. Ask him. He is of age; he will speak for himself.” ²² His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jewish leaders, who already had decided that anyone who acknowledged that Jesus was the Messiah would be put out of the synagogue. ²³ That was why his parents said, “He is of age; ask him.”
 ²⁴ A second time they summoned the man who had been blind. “Give glory to God by telling the truth,” they said. “We know this man is a sinner.”  
²⁵ He replied, “Whether he is a sinner or not, I don’t know. One thing I do know. I was blind but now I see!”
 ²⁶ Then they asked him, “What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?”
 ²⁷ He answered, “I have told you already and you did not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you want to become his disciples too?”
 ²⁸ Then they hurled insults at him and said, “You are this fellow’s disciple! We are disciples of Moses! ²⁹ We know that God spoke to Moses, but as for this fellow, we don’t even know where he comes from.”
 ³⁰ The man answered, “Now that is remarkable! You don’t know where he comes from, yet he opened my eyes. ³¹ We know that God does not listen to sinners. He listens to the godly person who does his will. ³² Nobody has ever heard of opening the eyes of a man born blind. ³³ If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.”
 ³⁴ To this they replied, “You were steeped in sin at birth; how dare you lecture us!” And they threw him out.

______________________________________________________
I absolutely love this scripture.  The way the "religious leaders" get mad at the healed man is rather comical if it weren't so tragic.  How many times do we ask God for a "sign" to show us he is with us?  Instead today, I will take this scripture as a sign and ask Him to show me the other signs already in my life.  For starters, I praise God that I am alive because my wife diagnosed my endocarditis before any doctor did and without her in my life I would not be here any longer. 

Praise God and forgive me Father for my blindess.  I really didn't see the truth then, Lord.  I know now that you have showed me how blind I was so I can see how great your mercy is to us all.

<sup>John 8

19</sup> Then they asked him, “Where is your father?”
   “You do not know me or my Father,” Jesus replied. “If you knew me, you would know my Father also.” ²⁰ He spoke these words while teaching in the temple courts near the place where the offerings were put. Yet no one seized him, because his hour had not yet come.

 ²¹ Once more Jesus said to them, “I am going away, and you will look for me, and you will die in your sin. Where I go, you cannot come.”

 ²² This made the Jews ask, “Will he kill himself? Is that why he says, ‘Where I go, you cannot come’?”
 ²³ But he continued, “You are from below; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world. ²⁴ I told you that you would die in your sins; if you do not believe that I am he, you will indeed die in your sins.”

Just in case you aren't sure who Jesus is, he spells it out pretty clearly here.  He does this throughout the gospels.  Jesus does not give us a choice to view him as a "good prophet".  He is either the son of God or something terrible. 

<sup>John 6

26</sup> Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw the signs I performed but because you ate the loaves and had your fill. ²⁷ Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For on him God the Father has placed his seal of approval.”

Oh Lord, have mercy on me that I have not worshipped you in spirit and in truth.  Thank you for your grace. Jesus is God.  Trust in him.

Jesus came to seek the lost

^{Luke 19
1} Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. ² A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was wealthy. ³ He wanted to see who Jesus was, but because he was short he could not see over the crowd. ⁴ So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way.
 ⁵ When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.” ⁶ So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly.
 ⁷ All the people saw this and began to mutter, “He has gone to be the guest of a sinner.”
 ⁸ But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.”
 ⁹ Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. ¹⁰ For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”

This is a well known passage to me.  I was raised in the Baptist Church.  I can sing the little song I learned in Vacation Bible School about Zacchaeus to this day.  The song however does not touch on the redemption that is so apparent in this great scripture.  The song in fact ends when Jesus says to Zacchaeus "For I am going to your house today."  There is no mention of verses 7 through 9 in the song.   First, Jesus is muttered about for going to a sinners house.  Then, Zacchaeus repents and gives money to the poor and makes amends to those he has stolen from.  Finally, Jesus tells him that he is saved.  It might seem that Zacchaeus is saved because of his repentance, but this is not so of course.  It is Zacchaeus repentance that proves that he is already saved.  Zacchaeus' love for the Lord has made him repent, turn away from his wrong actions and become generous.  Zacchaeus is even willing to return his stolen goods with interest.  This is an act of real repentance.