John 5:24 I assure you, anyone who hears what I say and believes in the one who sent me has eternal life. They will not be judged guilty. They have already left death and have entered into life.

Listen: The Gift that Keeps on Giving


I remember way back in my life that when those Christians started talking about Jesus and sin and forgiveness and “being saved” and eternal life, all that stuff, it seemed so irrelevant – in fact, completely irrelevant to my life then and there, like they were from Mars or something.

Whatever you believe – maybe you call yourself a Christian, maybe you don’t – the more you’re head-down, pedalling hard just to make it through each day, the more irrelevant all that Christianity stuff can appear when it crosses your path, as it’s doing right now.

But it was the same back in Jesus’ day. Life was hard, man. Subsistence farming, scratching to make ends meet. A brutal Roman dictatorship and occupation, topped off by hypocritical religious leaders who heaped more and more rules, more and more restrictions, on people’s shoulders.

It’s into that, into the lives of those people, that Jesus spoke these words:

John 5:24 I assure you, anyone who hears what I say and believes in the one who sent me has eternal life. They will not be judged guilty. They have already left death and have entered into life.

Eternal life that begins today, here and now, to lead us through all the joys and challenges we’ll face. Eternal life when we breathe our last, with no more death or sadness or crying or pain. Eternal life in God’s Presence, for ever and ever.

Jesus. Listen. Believe. He is the gift that keeps on giving.

That’s God’s Word. Fresh … for you … today.