My Father’s House

 “One year my mom and dad decided to build a house in our hometown of Pueblo Nuevo, Guanajuato, Mexico. All of my family, except my little brother, were born there, and all of us have visited our town at least once since we left back in the early Seventies. My dad felt that if he built it, that his kids would always have a place to go to and stay, and not worry about accommodations. It’s a really “big house with lots and lots of rooms” as Audio Adrenaline sings but it does have five bedrooms and two floors, and one of my brothers lives there full time. When I took my daughter there when she was around eight, and she loved running to the store to get fresh tortillas, and just loved hanging around with cousins, that she didn’t want to come home.

John chapter fourteen writes what Jesus is telling His disciples, and it is a great reminder for us,

 “"Let NOT YOUR HEARTS BE TROUBLED. Believe in God; believe ALSO IN ME. In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to Myself, that where I am you may be also. And you know the way to where I am going."”  ‭(ESV‬‬) (Emphasis added)

I love how Jesus reminds us to not let our hearts be troubled! The time for Jesus to die was close, and the “religious” leaders, and the people had begun to turn their backs on Jesus. If you read John’s account of Jesus' life, you will see The Lord Jesus and His love, compassion, but also the truth of who He was. I love what John records with Jesus saying, “Believe in God; believe also in Me.” Why would Jesus say it like that, as many cults and skeptics use this to say, even Jesus knew He wasn’t God. Is that really what Jesus was saying? I don’t believe so because too many scriptures support that fact that Jesus is Lord and Him and God are one. 

The religious leaders believed Jesus a fraud and the reason they wanted Him dead was for blasphemy, because He aquatinted Himself as God. People are okay with believing in God, but my question always is, “What God?” Because man has many little g gods. You have the god of self, money, sex, drugs, cars, alcohol, work, sports, and anything else you want to write in. But from chapter six of John to the end, we see Jesus not pulling any punches of who truly were His followers and who just wanted a room in the mansion without believing. Listen to what John chapter six says beginning in verse 

“After this many of His disciples TURNED BACK AND NO LONGER WALKED WITH HIM. So Jesus said to the twelve, “Do you want to go away as well?” Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, TO WHOM SHALL WE GO? YOU HAVE THE WORDS OF ETERNAL LIFE, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.”” (ESV) (Emphasis added)

Jesus had just finished saying that He was the bread of life and that you had to eat His flesh and drink His blood in order to get eternal life. Jesus was not saying He was Dracula or Hannibal Lecter, as skeptics think, but was explaining that the people were only coming to be fed and healed and not truly seeing and tasting that the Lord is good. They only wanted the “giving” Jesus, but not the suffering Messiah. Loving God is one thing, but ask people to love and follow Jesus by repentance, and that is a whole other thing. To give up sin and self is hard! So many say the “little” prayer, but their hearts are not in it. So many attend church, but it’s mostly out of tradition, or to check off a box, or because they’re taken there, but the Spirit isn’t in their life’s. 

Jesus knew that His true disciples would run and hide and He knew that they would be lost without Him. When my father on earth passed, we as a family were not the same and many didn’t and still don’t talk for whatever reason, we are lost. But being lost without an earthly father is tough, how much tougher it will be to be lost with the One who can lead us to the Father’s house? He comforts them and us, and though Thomas said, “We don’t know where You’re going, how can we know the way?” Thomas wasn’t doubting, he was asking the question the others were probably thinking. Isn’t that us? 

We may read God’s word and occasionally do “Godly” things and yet a calamity hits and all of a sudden we forget what Jesus promised. John fourteen six continues, 

“Jesus said to him, "I Am the way, and the truth, and the life. NO ONE COMES TO THE FATHER EXFEPT THROUGH ME.”  ‭(ESV‬‬) (Emphasis added)

I Am, the same Name Jesus gave Moses as the burning bush. Wait what did I just say? You may be thinking I’m crazy but look at what Exodus Three says,

“There the ANGEL OF THE LORD appeared to him in flames of fire coming out of a bush. Moses saw that the bush was on fire, but it was not burning up.” (NCV)) (Emphasis added)

People overlook this fact that the Angel of the Lord in the Old Testament is Jesus. Because cults, and false prophets teach there is only Jehovah God, Yahweh, The Lord, One God, but look at what is said later in this chapter, and who this Angel is, beginning in verse five

“Then God said, “Do not come any closer. Take off your sandals, because you are standing on holy ground. I Am the God of your ancestors—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” Moses covered his face because he was afraid to look at God.” (NCV) 

The same Angel is talking,  but now the writer of Exodus who many believe is Moses, refers to Him as God, because the Word is consistent and God never changes. Finally the Angel (Jesus and not Gabriel as some might say) says in verse thirteen and fourteen, 

“Moses said to God, “When I go to the Israelites, I will say to them, ‘The God of your ancestors sent me to you.’ What if the people say, ‘What is His Name?’ What should I tell them?” Then God said to Moses, “I AM who I AM (YHWH). When you go to the people of Israel, tell them, ‘I AM sent me to you.’ ”” (NCV)

Back to John fourteen, Jesus was emphasizing that there is no other way, because He is I AM, Jehovah, Yahweh, and The Lord. Call me narrow minded or naive, but I believe what Jesus said. No other person has died and rose again, no other Name under heaven by which we can be saved. I do not pray to saints, other “Baal” gods, statues, or Mary because the Word is clear! Jesus is the only way. 

When my dad built the house, we didn’t go to a neighbor's house or call a cousin or stay with a stranger, we stayed where our fathers house was. So my question is, where is your hope and home at? Is it in a government bail out, a medical cure, or a promise of a better tomorrow here on this rotting planet? Or, are you trusting in God's promise that He will come again and take us home? Remember, there are many, many rooms for all who will accept His invitation. Come home running, walking, stumbling, broken, afraid, or wherever you are in life, but just come home to Jesus, the Way, the Truth and the Life!” Jose Barajas