I Have Given Them Thy Word.....the Wayfarer 3/24/16

I Have Given Them Thy Word
3/24/16

¹⁴ I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.

(John 17:14)

Just before His arrest, trial by the kangaroo court that convicted and sentenced him, IMMEDIATELY prior to the betrayal that led to the cross and the attempt to silence forever the love he brought to a world filled with hatred, Christ knelt in the garden of Gethsemane to pray for strength…. for his disciples.

The passion and purpose of this prayer should resound as stridently to every heart that hears it today as it did that day to the Father hearing it, who honors that prayer, each moment, with continuing grace and patience, waiting for the last one he spoke of in the 20^th and 21^st verses of this passage:

²⁰ Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word;

²¹ That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.

(John 17:20 & 21)

Important to note and comprehend , is the fact that despite the extension of that Grace, given from a position of power, not from a position of weakness, the acceptance of that gift must come also from a position of power, a position of faith, before that unity with God that grants eternal LIFE, that Grace itself, can be achieved.

Cacophony of the violence propagated by those who have refused that gift of Grace, and refused the terms of that prayer given by Christ resound throughout the world, ever increasing in volume, ever demanding attention, ever attempting to distract attention from the promise given us through that precious moment of prayer in the garden and the action taken by Jesus that gave power to that prayer.

As that volume increases, so too must the volume of that prayer, as it is echoed by believers, until all that may be reached are reached while remembering that not all will choose to be reached, choosing instead to flounder and perish in denial, choosing to believe in the power of men rather than the power of God.

 John 17 King James Version (KJV)

17 These words spake Jesus, and lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee:

² As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him.

³ And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.

⁴ I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do.

⁵ And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.

⁶ I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world: thine they were, and thou gavest them me; and they have kept thy word.

⁷ Now they have known that all things whatsoever thou hast given me are of thee.

⁸ For I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came out from thee, and they have believed that thou didst send me.

⁹ I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me; for they are thine.

¹⁰ And all mine are thine, and thine are mine; and I am glorified in them.

¹¹ And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are.

¹² While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name: those that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition; that the scripture might be fulfilled.

¹³ And now come I to thee; and these things I speak in the world, that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves.

¹⁴ I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.

¹⁵ I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil.

¹⁶ They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.

¹⁷ Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.

¹⁸ As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world.

¹⁹ And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth.

²⁰ Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word;

²¹ That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.

²² And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one:

²³ I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.

²⁴ Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world.

²⁵ O righteous Father, the world hath not known thee: but I have known thee, and these have known that thou hast sent me.

²⁶ And I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it: that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them.

The Word has been given. The Promise given through that Word remains.

No power conceived by man, no ideology concocted by man can remove that Word, or the Promise given through that Word.

Celebrate the promise by declaring that promise, and its Truth in spite of the noise that attempts to drown it out.

The hard work has been done. It remains only to accept the rewards of that work already completed by Christ Jesus.

(1 Peter 17-25)

¹⁷ And if ye call on the Father, who without respect of persons judgeth according to every man's work, pass the time of your sojourning here in fear:

¹⁸ Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers;

¹⁹ But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot:

²⁰ Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you,

²¹ Who by him do believe in God, that raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory; that your faith and hope might be in God.

²² Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently:

²³ Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.

²⁴ For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away:

²⁵ But the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you.

Amen and Amen

2 Timothy 1:12 King James Version (KJV)

¹² For the which cause I also suffer these things: nevertheless I am not ashamed: for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day.

the Wayfarer