John 17
When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, 2 since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. 3 And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. 4 I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. 5 And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.
6 “I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. 7 Now they know that everything that you have given me is from you. 8 For I have given them the words that you gave me, and they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me. 9 I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours. 10 All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them. 11 And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one. 12 While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. 13 But now I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves. 14 I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 15 I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. 16 They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 17 Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. 18 As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. 19 And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth.
20 “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, 21 that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, 23 I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me. 24 Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. 25 O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me. 26 I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.”
When I pray in the morning, I give up my worries - as in lift them up. Then I pray not to gloss over the concerns, as in live in denial, but to exactly think of this Chapter of Jesus telling about His Life in John's Gospel of Chapters 14, 15, 16 and 17.
The Chapter is a key touch stone of the Cornerstone of God's Plan. This is the way Jesus truly feels about Life.
Today's news thought about Australia, Melbourne locked down for 111 or 112 days. This was severe, you had to stay within 3 miles of home and stay indoors for the exact number of hours. Suicides rose 33%. Even in lockdown, Melbourne saw a spike in their winter in July. And, today, Rome is seeing riots.
And this. When was the last time we thought about our ship coming in?
When our Church cared for the Refugees of Hurricane Katrina for many months in a local hotel, the stress killed two of an extended family of four. The four lived on the Louisiana coast and it was two sisters and their two husbands. The husband was in heart failure and the reaction to the whole loss caused the sister in her early 50s to pass on. I sat with him as he cried the next morning. I will never cease to cry over the conversation of love lost. He had grown up with his sister-in-law and brother-in-law and ridden bicycles to school. Fished the waters of the Gulf of Mexico. Never anticipated living 40 or 50 years without their best friends - their family. And as the kindly man faced this, he told me to value what I had today. I asked him what he would value now. He said he was going to grandparent, not only theirs, but the sister and brother-in-law's children and grandchildren as well. He spoke of all the coffees they'd lived life consuming and conversations.
This has been quite a week.
Facebook Baton Rouge's Family Fun Announces:
a Hurricane, Halloween 2020, a Blue Moon and a Time Change.
One couple recovered from Covid. Another couple has Communion every day and rejoice in employment. Some have seen this separate families by generations due to employment and health. Some have seen adult children worry. One of our friends suddenly lives alone due to a divorce. This friend is angry, upset about the Pandemic making this more difficult. We feel like this is temporary for them and Life and Jesus will find a way forward. We've had 5 or 6 neighbors on the next street retire simultaneously, as planned, and move. Their houses sold quickly as the suburbs are filling up with Exxon and the city dwellers seeking more space. One friend, we have Posted about, was a widow, who just was not going to recover from grief this side of Heaven, and she has gone Home to Jesus Christ. She would say this is Victory and her many years Bible Study would agree with joy for her. Some of my sons' friends have moved in with parents. And I've seen people adapt to the new lives. Find new interests to focus on.
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