This morning, after again reading the words of John 14:1, I put into words what was there for a few months now: 'Jesus was to the disciples what the Holy Spirit is to us'.

I felt like a Barkerville gold miner this morning, still picking nuggets out of John 14, where I've been parked for a few years now. I have not been able to get out of John 14 since sharing some words from that chapter, a few years ago, with a friend where I felt like the words made more sense to my friend than they did to me.

Like the miner with the gold pan full of the gleaming yellow metal, I'm addicted to the rush when you can feel the vital connection with the Lord Jesus you've been part of copying into someone's life just by sharing the words of life that have come alive to you. Knowing you'll see the ones you've shared with again for sure when this life is over, if that developing connection becomes established in them, is beyond the value of gold. Praying for them to become established in their faith is unavoidable once you've made that 'golden contact'.

I think I've found some of that spiritual gold to share this morning; words that will encourage you to seek out and enjoy your own vital relationship with God through the Holy Spirit, and then pass it along.

"John 14: 1 Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me."

Wait a minute, before you say, 'If there is any gold in there it's too small to see", let me say a few things, after I get out my 'magnifying glass'.

First of all, Jesus is acknowledging here that his disciples believed in God, but it wasn't enough to overcome their troubled heart. Consequently, isn't he telling them, and us, that the answer to a troubled heart is to believe, not just in God, but also in him; Jesus?

The answer to a troubled heart? Doesn't everyone want that kind of answer?

"So who, exactly, is Jesus today so I can also believe in him and put my troubled heart to rest?"

We know who he was back in the days when he walked with his disciples; he was the one who was in their face to encourage them and challenge them in their faith and the one who was at the same time God almighty and yet the one, unbelievably, whose chest they could use for a pillow after a meal! (John 13: ²³Now there was leaning on Jesus' bosom one of his disciples, whom Jesus loved.)

His disciples had the image of a God so powerful the mountain shook when Moses climbed it to meet face to face with him, and they had yet to combine the two images into one; Jesus.

Jesus was the one who kept relentlessly convincing them to believe in him through actions and words, as well as prophetic words (John 13:18 I speak not of you all: I know whom I have chosen: but that the scripture may be fulfilled, He that eateth bread with me hath lifted up his heel against me. 19 Now I tell you before it come, that, when it is come to pass, ye may believe that I am he.)

That is whom I have come to know as the Holy Spirit.

He has challenged my faith by causing me to face my faith doubts, which I didn't want to do in case all my faith disappeared in the process. He was the one who made verses of bible scripture come alive to me when I asked him, 'What does this verse here mean?', just as his disciples asked him what his 'coded' parables meant that he spoke to the crowds. He was the one who gave me tiny insights into my future that indeed came to be and in the recollection of those words spoken to my heart over decades I was able to discern the voice of the Lord to my heart and differentiate it from the 'background noise' of random thoughts and imaginings so I could recognize that 'voice' after many such episodes and know it was him speaking to me (again: John 13:19Now I tell you before it come, that, when it is come to pass, ye may believe that I am he).

So, will that be the end of my 'heart troubles', you ask?

It is when I remind myself that Jesus is alive in me through the Holy Spirit and he wants me to share my troubled heart with him. I may have to do that again and again for the same thing, but it brings peace like nothing else can.

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Note:  You will see articles like this on a regular basis.  These articles are submitted by the congregation.  Hope you not only enjoy them but prayerfully consider what God is saying through them.