HIS FINAL PRAYER WAS ABOUT YOU - - -
by Max Lucado
As Jesus stepped into the garden, you were in his prayers. As Jesus
looked into heaven, you were in his vision. As Jesus dreamed of the
day when we will be where he is, he saw you there.
His final prayer was about you. His final pain was for you. His final
passion was you.
He steps into the garden, and invites Peter, James, and John to come.
He tells them his soul is “overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of
death,” and begins to pray.
Never has he felt so alone. What must be done, only he can do. An
angel can’t do it. No angel has the power to break open hell’s gates.
A man can’t do it. No man has the purity to destroy sin’s claim. No
force on earth can face the force of evil and win—except God.
“The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak,” Jesus confesses.
His humanity begged to be delivered from what his divinity could see.
Jesus, the carpenter, implores. Jesus, the man, peers into the dark
pit and begs, “Can’t there be another way?”
Did he know the answer before he asked the question? Did his human
heart hope his heavenly father had found another way? We don’t know.
But we do know he asked to get out. We do know he begged for an exit.
We do know there was a time when if he could have, he would have
turned his back on the whole mess and gone away.
But he couldn’t.
He couldn’t because he saw you. Right there in the middle of a world
which isn’t fair. He saw you cast into a river of life you didn’t
request. He saw you betrayed by those you love. He saw you with a
body which gets sick and a heart which grows weak.
He saw you in your own garden of gnarled trees and sleeping friends.
He saw you staring into the pit of your own failures and the mouth of
your own grave.
He saw you in your Garden of Gethsemane—and he didn’t want you to be
alone.
He wanted you to know that he has been there, too. He knows what it’s
like to be plotted against. He knows what it’s like to be confused.
He knows what it’s like to be torn between two desires. He knows what
it’s like to smell the stench of Satan. And, perhaps most of all, he
knows what it’s like to beg God to change his mind and to hear God
say so gently, but firmly, “No.”
For that is what God says to Jesus. And Jesus accepts the answer. At
some moment during that midnight hour an angel of mercy comes over
the weary body of the man in the garden. As he stands, the anguish is
gone from his eyes. His fist will clench no more. His heart will
fight no more.
The battle is won. You may have thought it was won on Golgotha. It
wasn’t. You may have thought the sign of victory is the empty tomb.
It isn’t. The final battle was won in Gethsemane. And the sign of
conquest is Jesus at peace in the olive trees.
For it was in the garden that he made his decision. He would rather
go to hell for you than go to heaven without you.
___________________________________
From And the Angels Were Silent
Copyright 1992, Max Lucado
Saturday, March 18, 2006
Great little essay
Nice little essay on the void in the soul I wrote about earlier.
Growing Your Soul
by John Fischer
Your soul is the place where you know there is a God even before you meet Him. The soul is that in us which longs for the right thing. And once we come into a relationship with God, it’s the place where we commune with Him. The soul can be filled with God or devoid of Him, but if it is empty, God is the only thing that will fill it. We can throw all sorts of pleasures and loves in there, but none will satisfy like God, because the soul was made to long for Him and no other. When God breathed into Adam, he became a living soul, forever longing for God’s breath to fill him again.
So growing your soul means to enlarge your capacity for God and truth. It’s all about learning to walk with God -- listening to Him through His word and through the natural revelations of Him that come through the things He has made, which includes all the people you know since they were made in God’s image. Growing your soul can also involve finding God in the ordinary life and activities we share in every day. It’s about being more conscious of the presence of God within you as you go about your normal routines of life. Growing your soul doesn’t only happen through spiritual activities like praying and reading the Bible; it can also happen in the way we do everything else. It’s a God-consciousness that enlarges as we grow it. When Paul says to pray without ceasing, he means to be more of a soul-conscious person.
This may be hard sometimes, even for the most mature of believers. We all go through times when everything around us seems dry and barren, spiritually. Our souls still long for God. David’s soul longed for God in a dry and weary land where there was no water (Psalm 63:1), and like a deer panting for water, his soul panted for the Lord (Psalm 42:1).
This is important to know, because it is not a longing that is over once we meet God. We still long for Him because we long to know Him more, and we sometimes lose sight of Him even though we know better. Just as we must regularly take in physical food in order to stay alive, our souls must have spiritual food in order to grow and be healthy. If your soul is undersized, it is because you haven’t been paying attention to it. It’s been telling you all along what it needs and wants. It’s time to do something about it.
[Today’s devotional is taken from John Fischer’s introduction to “The Better Life,” PurposeDrivenLife.com’s free monthly online newsletter. Our current issue is on “Growing Your Soul,” and it is going out today. Sign up here to have yours delivered to your email address.]
6Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. -
John 14:6 (New International Version)
Growing Your Soul
by John Fischer
Your soul is the place where you know there is a God even before you meet Him. The soul is that in us which longs for the right thing. And once we come into a relationship with God, it’s the place where we commune with Him. The soul can be filled with God or devoid of Him, but if it is empty, God is the only thing that will fill it. We can throw all sorts of pleasures and loves in there, but none will satisfy like God, because the soul was made to long for Him and no other. When God breathed into Adam, he became a living soul, forever longing for God’s breath to fill him again.
So growing your soul means to enlarge your capacity for God and truth. It’s all about learning to walk with God -- listening to Him through His word and through the natural revelations of Him that come through the things He has made, which includes all the people you know since they were made in God’s image. Growing your soul can also involve finding God in the ordinary life and activities we share in every day. It’s about being more conscious of the presence of God within you as you go about your normal routines of life. Growing your soul doesn’t only happen through spiritual activities like praying and reading the Bible; it can also happen in the way we do everything else. It’s a God-consciousness that enlarges as we grow it. When Paul says to pray without ceasing, he means to be more of a soul-conscious person.
This may be hard sometimes, even for the most mature of believers. We all go through times when everything around us seems dry and barren, spiritually. Our souls still long for God. David’s soul longed for God in a dry and weary land where there was no water (Psalm 63:1), and like a deer panting for water, his soul panted for the Lord (Psalm 42:1).
This is important to know, because it is not a longing that is over once we meet God. We still long for Him because we long to know Him more, and we sometimes lose sight of Him even though we know better. Just as we must regularly take in physical food in order to stay alive, our souls must have spiritual food in order to grow and be healthy. If your soul is undersized, it is because you haven’t been paying attention to it. It’s been telling you all along what it needs and wants. It’s time to do something about it.
[Today’s devotional is taken from John Fischer’s introduction to “The Better Life,” PurposeDrivenLife.com’s free monthly online newsletter. Our current issue is on “Growing Your Soul,” and it is going out today. Sign up here to have yours delivered to your email address.]
6Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. -
John 14:6 (New International Version)
Saturday, March 04, 2006
My original girl
5 and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’ 6 So then, they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate.”
- Matthew 19:5-6
I was reading a blog that has awesome writing, she eloquently lays bare her emotions almost every day, and she was talking about relationships and such and I posted a comment that was way too long so I just cut and pasted it here.
2 or so months before I met my wife I had just ended another empty relationship and by empty I mean neither one of us were getting what we needed. I came to realize I was fairly pathetic, I was 25, I had no direction, no purpose, no ambition, I drank too much, I smoked too much(cigarettes and weed), and I could not "connect" in a relationship to save my life.
This revelation brought me to tears. Through these tears I talked to God. First time in many years. Well I take that back, I yelled and cursed at God many times prior to that day. None of it justified. Anyway, I told Him what I wanted in a mate. Tops on the list was that she had to be a good person from a good and decent family, integrity and truthfulness was up there too. Good looking was mentioned but was quantified with "at least something about the outside that would match the inside" As I was telling Him this I came to realize that this type of girl would probably be found in a church.(duh) So I told Him that I would be open to a church going girl, I told Him I promise to try going to said church if He would just send me the one.
Well, short story long, the day I met my wife, I didn't realize it yet but deep down I knew she was "THE One" To this day, I can tell you exactly what she was wearing, what we said to each other, and what I said after she walked away, that was 15 years ago. We complete and compliment each other. I got what I needed in a mate and she got what she needed.
I didn't remember the little talk with God until many months later when we were talking engagement. I was floored. God listened to an honest heartfelt plea from someone who resented and cursed Him. Not only did He listen, He gave me everything I had asked for. I firmly believe that our purpose and happiness are planned out by God since before time. My wifes experiences and upbringing made her the perfect one for me and vice versa. The point is, I knew that I could love this girl for the rest of my life and never ever regret it. I knew it with every fiber of my being. I thank God for her.
Word of advice from experience, if want ability to cook in a mate, you better ask for it! :-)
- Matthew 19:5-6
I was reading a blog that has awesome writing, she eloquently lays bare her emotions almost every day, and she was talking about relationships and such and I posted a comment that was way too long so I just cut and pasted it here.
2 or so months before I met my wife I had just ended another empty relationship and by empty I mean neither one of us were getting what we needed. I came to realize I was fairly pathetic, I was 25, I had no direction, no purpose, no ambition, I drank too much, I smoked too much(cigarettes and weed), and I could not "connect" in a relationship to save my life.
This revelation brought me to tears. Through these tears I talked to God. First time in many years. Well I take that back, I yelled and cursed at God many times prior to that day. None of it justified. Anyway, I told Him what I wanted in a mate. Tops on the list was that she had to be a good person from a good and decent family, integrity and truthfulness was up there too. Good looking was mentioned but was quantified with "at least something about the outside that would match the inside" As I was telling Him this I came to realize that this type of girl would probably be found in a church.(duh) So I told Him that I would be open to a church going girl, I told Him I promise to try going to said church if He would just send me the one.
Well, short story long, the day I met my wife, I didn't realize it yet but deep down I knew she was "THE One" To this day, I can tell you exactly what she was wearing, what we said to each other, and what I said after she walked away, that was 15 years ago. We complete and compliment each other. I got what I needed in a mate and she got what she needed.
I didn't remember the little talk with God until many months later when we were talking engagement. I was floored. God listened to an honest heartfelt plea from someone who resented and cursed Him. Not only did He listen, He gave me everything I had asked for. I firmly believe that our purpose and happiness are planned out by God since before time. My wifes experiences and upbringing made her the perfect one for me and vice versa. The point is, I knew that I could love this girl for the rest of my life and never ever regret it. I knew it with every fiber of my being. I thank God for her.
Word of advice from experience, if want ability to cook in a mate, you better ask for it! :-)
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