So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you. John 13: 14,15
One of my most valued possessions is “time.” Even though I know my “time” is really not mine, but the Lord’s, I continue to guard it. In contrast, my wife gives her time away freely, day in and day out not only to our extended family and friends, but often to complete strangers. She makes others feel special by giving them the gift of her time and attention, which is immediately grasped as authentic. Encourager could be her middle name. Recently, she received a sweet note from a friend who had an epiphany: I have just realized that you are “washing my feet.” I love you for that. How I wish I could impact others like that! Although I have watched her minister like this for nearly 20 years, I am still an apprentice learning how to love others by “washing their feet.”
Prayer - Jesus teach me to treat others as you treat me; teach me to wash feet. Amen
Written by Isaac Sanchez, Elder and Life Group Leader at WHPC
This is indeed the will of my Father, that all who see the Son and believe in him may have eternal life; and I will raise them up on the last day. John 6:40
It reminds me of how much God loves all creation when I read that it is actually God’s will that everyone who sees Jesus will have eternal life. I wonder how we can help people see Jesus today? Jesus means love, gentleness, compassion, and great self-control. Maybe by acting like Jesus today, we can open up the possibility for others to see Jesus.
Prayer - Loving God, may your Holy Spirit fill me up so much, that I cannot help but spill out the love of Jesus onto those around me. Amen
Written by Emily Wright, Senior Pastor at WHPC
I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, it you have love for one another. John 13:34-35
Jesus taught his disciples about love with both words and deeds. He began his last meal with them by humbly washing their feet as an example of how they should serve each other. At the end of the evening Jesus tells his disciples that they should love one another just as he has loved them. He has shown them a love that requires both service and sacrifice. The example he set for them, is also the example we are to follow. By living and loving as Jesus did, others will come to know Jesus through us.
Prayer - Jesus, help me to love as you do, serving others and placing their interests before my own. Let my life be filled with such love that others can see you through me and come to follow in your footsteps. AMEN
Written by Bill Allaway, Deacon and Bible Study Leader at WHPC
Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.” John 6:35
Have you ever stood in front of the frig – staring at the shelves – knowing you are hungry but not seeing anything you want to eat? It’s an odd feeling - your body yearning for something that you can’t identify. Jesus knew that our spirits hunger and thirst as surely as our bodies, and that we fill our souls in ways that won’t sustain us or give us life.
I am the bread of life, says Jesus. I can satisfy your longings. I can sustain you. Come to me with your hunger, with your thirst, with your fatigue and your fear. Come, and let me give you life.
Prayer - Jesus, you know my hunger and thirst. This day help me to turn to you for life. Amen
Written by Stacy Ikard, Senior Associate Pastor at WHPC
I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete. John 15:11
Jesus has just told the disciples that “he is the vine and they are the branches.” He brought glory and joy to God on Earth by doing the work he was sent here to do, and we are the fruit of that work. Just as God got joy from the work of Jesus, he gets joy in seeing his work produce fruit through us. He wants us to experience that same joy as we, rooted in Christ, produce fruit for the kingdom. “For the Lord your God will bless you in all your harvest and in all the work of your hands, and your joy will be complete.” (Deut. 16:15) Nothing can produce greater joy than bringing others to God through Christ.
Prayer - Jesus, let us be the kind of people who bring you joy. Let us come to know the joy of seeing our work produce fruit for the kingdom.
Written by Bill Allaway, Deacon and Bible Study Leader at WHPC