If ye love me, keep my commandments.

I am still drawn to the message found in John 14.
Jesus Christ expresses so much love and patience in these scriptures!
When I read this chapter to get the history before John 16, the verses about the Holy Ghost jumped off the page.
Yesterday, my hubby and I went to the temple.
We arrived there with time to meditate and read before the session started. The Bible opened right to John 14.
This time, as I read, the scriptures of Christ’s love and desire to teach his disciples touched me. Even though he originally was speaking to the twelve, his words transcend all time and reach us also. We are his disciples if we love him and keep his commandments.
1 LET not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me.
2 In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.
3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.

And just like our children who think they are paying attention, but not really learning the lessons there to be taught the disciples questioned….
5 Thomas saith unto him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest; and how can we know the way?
Also….
8 Philip saith unto him, Lord, shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us.

Christ patiently answered Thomas…
6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
7 If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also: and from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him.

To Philip…
9 Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father?
10 Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me?
12 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father.
13 And whatsoever ye shall aask in my bname, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.

In other words, they were missing the point of his life and teachings. Christ came to earth to exemplify his Father’s will, to teach us what to do to return to the Father’s presence, and that if we believe in him, the works we do shall also be great when we ask the Father in Christ’s name.

14 If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it.
15 If ye love me, keep my commandments.
16 And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever;
19 Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me: because I live, ye shall live also.
20 At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you.
21 He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.
31 But that the world may know that I love the Father; and as the Father gave me commandment, even so I do.

The scriptures are filled with these amazing promises. Christ offers us the ability to ask for anything in his name! If we keep his commandments, the things we ask will be in alignment with the Father’s will. As part of his promise, The Holy Ghost will guide us and teach us how we can have peace and joy in this life and return to our Father in the life to come. The question is, will we take up our end of the covenant and live in a way that allows Christ and our Heavenly Father to fulfill their end?