Of all the words John, one of Jesus' closest disciples, could have used to capture the essence of who Jesus is and introduce Him to us, he chose the word "Word"!  John knew Jesus well, really well and then decades after he last saw Jesus he sits down to write an enduring account of Jesus' life for succeeding generations.  Those of us who would not have the benefit of walking and talking with Jesus physically would now have to rely heavily of the personal testimony of people like John.  I wonder if John realized the impact of the words he was writing?  I find it fascinating that John chose to call Jesus the "Word"! John 1 ¹⁴ The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

I use words to communicate.  Last Sunday's message about "communication" in family relationships really highlighted for me the importance of me "owning" my communication - verbal and non-verbal.  I need to take responsibility for all I communicate.  I am notorious for saying one thing with my words and communicating another thing with my actions or non-verbals (tone, body language, eye contact)!  When I do that I am not being very grace-full to my listener and certainly not being truth-full.

How can I get better at "grace-full and truth-full" communication? Perhaps John is giving us some real help here!  He is saying that Jesus is the greatest communication from God and that communication embodied grace and truth.  Later in chapter 15 John records Jesus saying "if you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit but apart from me you can do nothing." The greatest communication and communicator ever is inviting us to remain in Him and for Him to remain in us.  I have Jesus to not only be an example of great communication...no more than that... He actually wants to be in me communicating through me as I remain in Him and He remains in me!

The hope that this gives me today is immeasurable.  I truly get to surrender my soul to Jesus right now and receive Him and His communication agenda for me today.  The great Communicator of grace and truth is not only telling me to be "grace-full and truth-full" as I communicate, He is present ready to do just that through me.

Today is September 11th. Fourteen years ago today something awful was communicated from evil men.  That communication was not full of grace nor truth.  We best commemorate this day by being the opposite of that... we get to live this day as a testimony that the way of Jesus is alive and well and is full of grace and truth even in the face of evil and hate.

It is the way of Jesus and I want to walk in it today!

delton