by Sharon O | Apr 3, 2015 | Uncategorized
In the book of John chapter 17 Jesus said a prayer.
It was a prayer to the Father.
Jesus knew the time had come, his death would soon take place.
I can’t imagine the feeling of knowing in a few short days, your life would end, and he also knew the hatred and the hostility he would be subjected to.
He had just told the disciples he would be leaving them, and then he looked toward heaven and prayed:
“Father, the hour has come.
Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you.
For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him.
Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.
I have brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your presence
with the glory I had with you before the world began.
I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world.
They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word.
Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you.
For I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them.
They knew with certainly that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me.
I pray for them.
I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours.
All I have is yours, and all you have is mine. And glory has come to me through them.
I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you.
Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name, the name you gave me, so that they may be one as we are one.
While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe by that name you gave me.
None has been lost except the one doomed to destruction so that Scripture would be fulfilled.
I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them.
I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world.
My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one.
They are not of the world, even as I am not of it.
Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.
As you sent me into the world, I have sent them in to the world.
For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified.
My prayer is not for them alone.
I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one,
Father, just as you are in me and I am in you.
May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one- I in them and you in me- so that they may be brought to complete unity.
Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.
Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.
Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me.
I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.”
This was the last prayer Jesus said before the betrayal of Judas and the Roman soldiers arrested him.
I ask that you read it slow.
It is full of prophecy… relationship, concern for the disciples, concern for others.
It is a conversation and prayer between a Son and a Father.
It is powerful. It is good to read and remember it was all a part of the original ‘plan’ for God to show His love to us.
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life. John 3:16
We were the reason He came at Christmas and then we were the reason Easter took place.
It had to happen for there needed to be ‘a Savior’ for us.
by Sharon O | Apr 1, 2015 | Uncategorized
It’s hard to believe that the human spirit and behavior is so unpredictable.
We see and experience the emotional side of that during the week of Easter.
In the New Testament we are told of the entry into Jerusalem, the beginning of the Easter week.
The disciples were walking with Jesus when he said to them in
Matthew 21: verse 1
As Jesus and the disciples approached Jerusalem, they came to the town of Bethphage on the Mount of Olives. Jesus sent two of them on ahead. “Go into the village over there,” he said, “As soon as you enter it, you will see a donkey tied there, with it’s colt beside it. Untie them and bring them to me. If anyone asks what you are doing, just say, ‘The Lord needs them’ and he will immediately let you take them.”
This took place to fulfill the prophecy that said, in the Old Testament book of Zechariah 9:9
“Rejoice, O people of Zion! Shout in triumph, O people of Jerusalem!
Look, your king is coming to you. He is righteous and victorious, yet he is humble, riding on a donkey- riding on a donkey’s colt.”
The two disciples did as Jesus commanded. They brought the donkey and the colt to him and threw their garments over the colt, and he sat on it. Most of the crowd spread their garments on the road ahead of him, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. Jesus was in the center of the procession, and the people all around them were shouting, “Praise God for the Son of David! Blessings on the one who comes in the name of the Lord! Praise God in the highest heaven!”
The entire city of Jerusalem was in an uproar, as he entered.
“Who is this?” they asked. And the crowds replied, “It’s Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee.”
Let’s stop for a minute.
The disciples had no idea what was going on. This was Jesus, who they had spent a lot of time with for many months, do you wonder what they were thinking? I sure do.
It was just the beginning for Jesus and He knew this had to take place to fulfill the prophecy written.
Just like at Christmas when all the prophecy had to be fulfilled.
This season of time was the same for him.
Jesus was in the center.
The people were joyous and exalting him, praising him with adoration.
Then the moods changed and the prophecy continued to be fulfilled.
He would be denied, he would be taken to court, accusations that were not right or real would be thrown at him, he would be lead to the place of the cross.
As it was written:
Jesus was in the center of the story.
by Sharon O | Mar 28, 2015 | Uncategorized
Taking a bit of a detour from the Easter theme.
I have been reading a blog for about a year now.
It is called Mundane Faithfulness and it has been a journey for the author Kara, and her family and her readers.
She passed away last Sunday from stage four cancer.
It’s been quite a journey for her and her little family and for those who have read her words.
This is the last journal writing from her blog.
http://www.mundanefaithfulness.com/home/2015/3/22/homecoming
I share it because, it is so very important to pray for her family and to help in any way we can.
We all miss her even though we have never met, we all cannot know what it will be like, to have her not be the author of her blog any more, as we have shared in the deep abiding love she had in the Lord.
We were there cheering her on and watching as she would make a video for her husband, and her little children, treasures for them later as they grow, pretty painful right now to watch.
Please keep her family in your prayers.
She was a wife and mom to four very beautiful children.
The journey will be hard for all of them to move forward without her.
Saying good bye is never easy.
They will be showing a live stream of her memorial service because of the friends and blog readers who cannot come in person to her service.
If you have a way to donate to her family it would be appreciated.
God desires us to support each other and this little family needs prayers, and if you can also purchase her book it would help the family.
May we pray for them to have comfort as they move through this grief filled time of life.
by Sharon O | Mar 26, 2015 | Uncategorized
The days were moving closer for Jesus and for his ministry to end.
He knew those who learned to follow and walk with him, would experience the darkness of spirit and sadness of soul, when seeing him on the cross.
I imagine the heaviness of heart weighed him down.
He was God, and man fully capable to be both in the same body.
He still felt our feelings. He still felt our sorrow.
He still felt our deep sense of being alone.
When he was in the room with the disciples, breaking the bread with them and sharing the wine.
He knew he would be leaving them soon. They had to have felt his heavy heart and different mood.
Have you ever spent time with someone who had a heavy heart and a ‘quiet countenance?’
Yeah I have and it is a bit ‘unsettling.’
Jesus was in that ‘mindset’ of pulling in yet trying to minister to them.
He knew Judas would betray him, in fact he told him he would.
Luke 22:21 Jesus said, “But here at this table, sitting among us as a friend, is the man who will betray me. For it as been determined that the son of man must die. But what sorrow awaits the one who betrays him.”
The disciples could not fully understand what he was staying.
How could they? I am not even sure Judas understood it.
It is hard to watch someone you love leave. The disciples were sure he wasn’t leaving for good.
They could not take in to their ‘hearts’. Denial is good for a season when someone we love is very ill.
Denial was also good for the disciples.
For they were about to learn a lesson about emotions and commitment and promises, that would follow them for a lifetime.
They were all sure they would stay with Jesus through anything that might take place.
How shallow were they to think that was possible.
When we know someone is ill or dying, we do what we can to grab onto the hope of keeping them here.
I am sure the disciples thought ‘if he was leaving’ he wouldn’t go far.
It had to have been really hard for all of them.
When we know the middle of the story we can understand it better.
The beginning of his life was Christmas, then he grew into a young man, and then the day came for him to became ready to show his ‘spiritual side’, when he did signs and wonders and told stories in parables for a few to understand.
Those who who followed him learned to love him.
When he said to them he was leaving, I believe the wall of their hearts went up and they quit listening.
We can’t blame them. No one wants to say good bye to a loved one.
Denial is a part of death we rarely hear about.
But it’s real and it’s necessary to process the loss that is to come.
I am sure the days following Jesus death the disciples talked about what he told them.
It’s like when you reach for the phone to call your loved one only to realize, you can’t.
You remember and move back into the times of sharing and memories and you wish so much for them to come back to you just one more time, with heaviness of heart, you remember.
by Sharon O | Mar 22, 2015 | Uncategorized
Before Jesus death he had been preparing the disciples the time would come when he would be leaving and going away from them.
They really didn’t fully understand what he was telling them, and I would imagine his patience was tested a time or two by their behavior when he taught them so often only to have them not understand.
There was one specific time when Jesus focused on Peter.
Knowing his heart already, Jesus desire was to not only test his heart response but to teach him.
Remembering when he was in the garden and he was being real with them and asked for some support from them, “stay up with me and pray.”
When he returned he found them sleeping and not supporting him at all.
It must have been a lonely place for him, emotionally.
Jesus was very much aware of the agony of the cross and his heart and spirit was weighted heavy with the knowing, of the flogging, the torture, the weight of the wooden cross he would carry and most of all the isolation and separation from his Father.
I imagine his heart was heavy when he looked at the disciples who he had learned to love and knew he must say good-bye.
He focused on Peter one evening and said to him,
“Peter you will deny knowing me three times after my death.”
Upon hearing this Peter flat out disbelieved him. He said, “Lord, I am ready to go to prison with you, and even die with you.”
Jesus said, “Peter, let me tell you something. Before the rooster crows tomorrow morning, you will deny three times that you even know me.”
Now we can’t blame Peter for being brave and promising.
Wouldn’t we all say the same?
I won’t ever deny you Lord, yet when the pressure comes and we are asked the question.
If our answer would mean life or death to us, what would we all say?
It is a very fair question to sit with.
As we move closer to the Easter story let us challenge ourselves to think of our response.
