Week 23, Day 5: Unity with the Father

Today’s Reading:  John 19:1-20:31

Some thoughts from yesterday’s reading…

Chapter 17 of John contains a prayer by Jesus for the disciples to have unity.  In this prayer Jesus ask that the disciples be one as He is one with the Father (17:21-22).  I want to take the opportunity to point out a few verses here and ones that we have already read that point to the deity of Christ.  Deity meaning that Jesus is God.  As stated in these verses, Jesus is one with the Father.  Also verse 5 speaks about the Father glorifying Jesus with Himself with the glory He had with Him before the world began.  Jesus shared glory with the Father before this world was started.  My question to those who deny the deity of Jesus is would God share His glory with another?  In John 5:23 Jesus spoke of all the people honoring Him even as they honor the Father.  Knowing that God is a jealous God who will not share His people with other so called gods (Exo 20:4-5), is it then consistent to say that God would allow people to honor Jesus as they honor the Father?  These things only make sense if Jesus is deity? 

If Jesus is not one with the Father, then how can Jesus say that all things that the Father has are His (16:15, 17:10)?  The things that Jesus says does not reflect that He is just “a god” but that He is God.  Nor can these statements be made if Jesus is just a prophet or a good teacher.  A man or a prophet cannot make these kind of claims.

Although the emphasis of chapter 17 is not on Jesus’ deity I think several points are made that show this to be true.  The emphasis of the chapter is on the need for unity among the disciples.  We ought to be one just as Jesus is one with the Father.  We ought to be perfected in unity so that the world may know that Jesus is true and was sent from the Father.  Too often infighting and division ravage the church and cause it to be less than what it could be.  People look upon this and have a reason to criticise God’s word and faith in Jesus.  Let brotherly love abound and let the bond of peace help keep us sanctified in the truth.

Popularity: unranked [?]

Week 2, Day 5

Today’s Reading:  Luke 19-20

Some thoughts from yesterday’s reading…

Luke chapter 18 has a couple of parables that are focused on prayer.  Prayer, I believe, is often an overlooked blessing.  God has made it possible for us to talk to Him, no matter what circumstances we might have in our lives.  These parables are designed to help believers know how they “always ought to pray and not lose heart.”

The first parable speaks of a widow who came to a judge asking for justice from her adversary.  The judge did not “fear God nor regard man,” and yet he was willing to listen to this widow because of her persistence.  She was willing to come back to him time and again until he was willing to do what she asked just so that she would not continually pester him.  The application, as made by Jesus, was that God will bring about justice for His elect who cry out to Him day and night.  He does not require the constant “pestering” that the judge required, but was willing to do for His children what they ask of Him.

The second parable is one that most of us are very familiar with.  It is the prayer of the Pharisee and the tax collector.  The Pharisee was boisterous, and boastful in his prayer–”I thank God that I am not like other people…”  But, the tax collector on the other hand, drew no attention to himself.  He stood a great distance away, and would not even lift up his eyes to heaven.  he asked God to be merciful to him, identifying himself as a sinner.  Of course, the second man was accepted by God–he was able to go up to his house justified.

These two parables give us two very important aspects of prayer.  First, God wants us to ask Him for what we need.  He doensn’t need for us to ask–He knows even before we ask.  However, He still wants us to ask!  Consider the example at the end of chapter 18.  A blind man was crying out to Jesus, asking for Him to have mercy on him.  When he gained an audience with Jesus, we do not see Jesus just automatically heal him.  First, Jesus asked the man what he wanted.  Jesus wanted the man to ask!  Do you think Jesus knew what was wrong with the man, and even what he wanted by coming to Him?

Let’s make sure to learn from these parables.  Make application to your own prayer life.  Be persistent in your prayers.  Be humble in your prayers, and in life in general.  We can enjoy the great blessing of prayer and show our reliance on our Father in Heaven!

Popularity: 37% [?]

Learning to Pray…

In Luke chapter 11, we see the disciples come to Jesus and ask Him to teach them to pray.  There are many things that we can learn from this account, and it’s parallels in the other gospels.  I just want to make a couple of observations about this.

First, the disciples recognized the need to learn to pray.  Prayer, surely, was not a foreign concept to them.  They had all been “good Jews” and as such surely they would have had some concept about prayer.  However, they saw something in Jesus’ prayer life that told them they needed further instruction in this act of service.  Perhaps their prayers had become the “vain repetitions” that Jesus condemned elsewhere.  Whatever their motivation, they had determined that they needed to learn more about prayer from Jesus.

Prayer is not a natural thing.  Consider that when we pray, we are talking to All Mighty God.  What a blessing that is.  But, it should also, in many ways, be intimidating.  We need to learn to do it right, so that we might show the proper reverence, the proper respect to God when we pray.  In the instructions that were given by Jesus, He showed His disciples (and us by extension) the method to pray to God in an acceptable method.  We should not be so presumptuous as to think that we can address God any way that we want to.  We need to address Him as He desires, and that is what Jesus shows us!

Secondly, through this “model prayer,” Jesus gives us some idea about the things that we can and should pray for.  Realize that He was not addressing every single thing that we can pray for, but rather giving us an idea of how, in general, to pray.  He certainly wasn’t giving a prayer to be recited mindlessly throughout all generations as this prayer is often used.  There are a few things that we see that can certainly be used as we speak to our Father in prayer today as well:

• Hallowed be Your Name. When we pray, we should show proper respect to our Father.  We should never speak to God as we would “one of the boys.”  We need to speak with reverence, and address Him with the honor that is due to Him.  It is hard to fathom how anyone could have the blessing of going to God in prayer bestowed upon Him, and then speak with disrespect!
• Your kingdom come. Of course, we understand that the Kingdom of God has already come.  We do not pray for its inception, but we can certainly pray for its success.  We should pray for the Kingdom of God, that it might grow, and also that we might be active and beneficial in that Kingdom!
• Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. In heaven, God’s will is followed without exception.  What a wonderful prayer, that things would be done on earth the same as they are done in heaven.  Of course, the application is more difficult than the prayer.  If we are going to pray for such a thing as this, we have to do our part in the implementation!  How can I pray for the will of God to be done on earth, and then not do it myself?
• Give us this day our daily bread. Do we really realize, and appreciate the fact every thing we have comes from the hand of God?  He has blessed us so abundantly!  Often we become self centered, thinking that we provide things for ourselves.  But, God has promised to give us all that we need, and He goes way beyond that, giving us blessings beyond measure.  James 1:17 tells us that “every good and every perfect gift is from above…”
• Forgive us our sins for we also forgive everyone who is indebted to us. Asking for forgiveness of sins is a common part of nearly every prayer.  And it should be!  We realize that we are not perfect, and we fall short of what God expects us to be.  We must ask Him for forgiveness in those times of faltering.  But, also notice that Jesus connected our forgiveness with the forgiveness that we offer to others.  In this account, He states that we forgive others.  God will not forgive us if we are unwilling to forgive those who might do us wrong.  How many people will be lost because they are unwilling to heed this warning?
• And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. God is on our side, and it is important for us to not only know that, but acknowledge it.  He will help us, making sure that we will not have to face anything that is beyond our abilities to overcome (1 Corinthians 10:13).  He can deliver us from the evil one, but it requires that we turn fully to Him, and His revealed word.  If we listen, He will indeed save, He will indeed deliver us from Satan.

Prayer is certainly one of the greatest blessings that God has given to His children.  He has granted us the ability to “come boldly before the throne of grace” (Hebrews 4:16).  But, when we approach Him, it must be with the right attitude, and we must pray for the types of things that God allows.  We could spend much more time examining various scriptures that address prayer more fully.  But, for now, realize that Jesus teaches us how to approach God in prayer.  Use this blessing often, and you will have a much stronger relationship with God, and will be much stronger as child of His!

Popularity: 19% [?]