John 14: 12-14 “I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.” These amazing verses quite closely follow after Jesus has told his Disciples in John 14: 6 “I am the way and the truth and the life, No one comes to the Father except through me.” Jesus makes clear to his followers that He is THE WAY to God not one way among many. That is very important for all believers to understand.How could it be that humans could do “greater” things than Jesus had done? Even though this is a challenge to understand I choose to believe it. Jesus tells his Disciples “I will do whatever you ask in my name...” For the Disciples that were alive at the time of Jesus’ time on earth, they could ask him for things in person. Now the way we “ask” is through prayer. Verse 13 says He will do whatever we ask in His name “so that the Son may bring glory to the Father.” Verse 14 promises that we may ask Jesus for anything in His name and He will do it.When I allowed those verses to sink into my thoughts as they seemed to leap off the pages of my Bible, I began to realize that I had not been asking Jesus for “Greater Things”. How many times had I failed to allow Jesus Christ to glorify the Father because I had not prayed and asked him to do great things through me? My prayer and the answer would show my level of obedience to Jesus Christ and then God would be glorified. I decided to identify some things that I could pray for and when those things were answered, I would know that I had allowed Jesus to Glorify His Father.The first thing I identified was my relationship with my mother-in-law. I felt tension in our relationship and found it difficult to express kindness and forgiveness for hurtful words and some treatment of our children that I thought unloving and petty. I knew things needed fixing and it would only happen with God’s intervention so I prayed and asked God for it.A year later, my mother-in-law was in failing health but an opportunity arose in which some hurtful things were said. My father-in-law asked my husband and me to meet with him and his wife - my in-laws. That meeting was just what God used to bring about forgiveness and acceptance and love. I knew that God had answered my prayer as my mother-in-law acknowledged the part she had in the tension between us.Within a week, my mother-in-law was diagnosed with a grapefruit sized malignant gall bladder tumor. It was removed but the Dr. said it would reoccur within a year. It reoccurred in two months and was unable to be treated. A nurse called my husband with this message, “Come if you wish to see your mother before she slips into a coma.” As my husband prepared to fly to WI for a visit with her in the hospital, he asked me if there was anything else that needed to be resolved between us. I honestly told him, “No. Nothing more needs to be resolved.” It was an answer to prayer.Another situation that we faced was something that came about very early in my husband’s third pastorate. We had moved from Brooklyn, NY to Hartland, WI where we had bought a house, gotten our children into school and began to serve this new church. We were now back in our home state where we were able to visit both sets of Grandparents as well as some other family members. It seemed to be a wonderful opportunity for the calling John had. But midway through the first year of this position, there began to be some opposition from a small portion of the church leadership. John listened to and addressed the issues but there remained in the church’s leadership a majority of the 26 members at that time that voted to end the employment of John. After a “members only” vote, he was given ten more days to serve as Pastor and three months more of It was devastating at first but we trusted and prayed and knew that God would guide our path. Both John and I were able to substitute teach in the local schools and he was able to actively search for another pastorate. No pastorate became available. At a men’s meeting one Saturday morning at the church we now attended, John sat next to an employee of Camp Timber-lee. We knew of that camp from a time of attending events there. The discussion included the fact that John was looking for his next place of employment. The employee from Camp Timber-lee asked John if he had considered becoming the Director of Family Camping and Adult Ministries at the camp?John did not know that the camp had that position available but decided to look into it. He was hired and began his work there as the three months of payment from the church ended. Our family moved to the grounds of the camp which had 60 horses, a lake for swimming during the summer, skating in the winter, eight miles of cross-country ski trails, wonderful speakers and fellow employees plus many other features that our family enjoyed.Before God showed us this next place of employment for John,we received a letter from a dear woman who knew us from our first church which had been in Loomis, NE. She had heard about the third church’s decision and sent us a letter of encouragement. She gave us the following scripture: Colossians 2:8 “See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ.” The assurance of her prayers and this scripture were balm to our wounded souls. Her confidence in us to do the right thing and take the high road in our painful pilgrimage, helped me get through the process that God was lovingly taking us through.Many years after I had experienced these challenging situations I just wrote about, I had the opportunity to spend a month in Kenya, Africa with missionary friends. My friends were working among Muslim people. One day while there, I was able to attend a Bible Study with seven Christian women believers. I was asked to share a personal testimony with these young women. I was willing to do this but I wondered how I could possibly relate to them. What commonality in our lives could I find in order for us to have a point of reference? These young ladies were from Somalia and were raised in Muslim families. It was hard to think of anyone for whom life had been more unjust.The birth of a woman is a sad event. The Koran compares women to dogs. These girls were refugees from civil war torn Somalia.They were barely scraping by financially. We were meeting in the home of someone who would protect the identity of these girls. I was taken to the back room of this home where there was no furniture and no open windows. We all sat on the floor in a circle.I was introduced to all of them. I actually can’t remember if they understood English or if I had a translator but I think I had a translator. I began to speak sharing John 14:12-14 to begin with. I wanted to empathize Jesus words of promise which stated that“anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these... And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.” I continued by sharing the times that I had experienced wounds from members of my own family and from situations that felt like injustice which our family experienced at our third church. At that time, another family member who was very close to me had made a number of bad choices which were of great concern to me. I tearfully shared some of those details with these young women. I mostly kept my head down in order to concentrate on what I would share with them. I wanted to keep my composure so they would understand me. As the translator spoke my words to them, I prayed to know what else to share and also for them to hear truth about how the Lord has promised to answer our prayers and bring us through difficult times in our lives. As I decided I had reached the end of what I wanted to share, I looked up into the faces of those seven young Somali gals and saw that they had truly understood my words and the truth of scripture. Tears were flowing down the cheeks of each girl as they smiled and thanked me sympathetically and joyfully. What a treasured moment it was for me.
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