<h3>JESUS ENCOURAGES HIS FRIENDS AND HELPERS</h3>
<p>Jesus said, "Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God,
believe also in me. In my Father's house are many homes; if it
were not so, I would have told you, for I go to prepare a place for
you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will return and take
you to be with me that where I am, you may be also; and you know
the way to the place where I am going."</p>
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[270]</SPAN></span></p>
<p>Thomas said to him, "Master, we do not know where you are
going; how then can we know the way?" Jesus said to him, "I am
the way, the truth, and the life; no man comes to the Father except
through me. If you had learned to know me, you would have known
my Father also; from now on you know him and have seen him."</p>
<p>Philip said to him, "Master, let us see the Father and we will
be satisfied." Jesus said to him, "Have I been all this time with
you and yet you do not know me, Philip? He who has seen me has
seen the Father; then how can you say, 'Let us see the Father'?
Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father in me?
The words that I speak do not come from me but from the Father
who lives in me. Believe me, that I am in the Father and the Father
in me, or else believe me because of the work itself. I say to you,
he who believes in me will do the work which I do and still greater
works than these, for I go to the Father. And whatever you shall
ask in my name I will do, that the Father may be glorified through
the Son. If you ask anything in my name, I will do it.</p>
<p>"If you love me you will keep my commands, and I shall ask
the Father and he will give you another Helper to be with you forever,
even the Spirit of truth.</p>
<p>"In a little while the world will see me no more; but you shall
see me, because I live and you shall live also. He who has my commands
and obeys them is the one who loves me; and he who loves
me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and will reveal
myself to him.</p>
<p>"I have told you all this while I am still with you; but the
Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name,
will teach you everything and remind you of all that I have said
to you.</p>
<p>"Peace I leave with you, my own peace I give to you; not as
the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled
nor afraid. You have heard me tell you that I go away and am coming
back to you. If you love me you will be glad because I am going
to the Father, for the Father is greater than I. I have told you this
now, before it takes place, that when it does you may believe.</p>
<p>"I am the true vine and my Father is the vine-dresser. He cuts
away each of my branches that does not bear fruit, and cleans every
branch that bears fruit so as to make it bear more. You are already
clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. Remain
united with me and I will remain with you. Just as the branch cannot
bear fruit unless it remains united with the vine, neither can
you bear fruit unless you remain united with me. I am the vi<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[271]</SPAN></span>ne,
you are the branches. He who remains united with me and I with
him bears much fruit, but apart from me you can do nothing.</p>
<p>"If you remain united with me and my words remain in you,
ask whatever you will and you shall have it. It is by your bearing
much fruit and being my true disciples that my Father is glorified.
As the Father has loved me, so have I also loved you; continue
in my love. If you keep my commands, you will continue in my
love, even as I have kept my Father's commands and continue in
his love.</p>
<p>"I have told you all this that my joy may be yours, and that
your joy may be complete. This is my command: 'Love one another
even as I have loved you.' No man has greater love than that
which leads him to lay down his life for his friends. You are my
friends if you do whatever I command you. I call you servants no
longer, for the servant does not know what his master does; but I
call you friends, for I have told you everything that I have heard
from my Father. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed
you to bear fruit that will remain, so that whatever you ask
of the Father in my name he will give you."</p>
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