 |
Home | Mission Statement | Video Gallery | Audio Gallery | Photo Gallery | Daily Manna | Testimonies | | Links | Contact us |
 |
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness Gal 5:22 |
 |
| Archived Manna: | |
Dear
Friend,
If you do not already have a habit of gathering daily manna the first thing in the morning (we can look at the example given to us in Exodus 16 and find the pattern for make it a habit. Establish your life and your schedule to allow you the necessary time to do your daily collection first thing every morning to give you the strength to make it through the day. And remember that today’s manna will not be sufficient for tomorrow; tomorrow’s manna must be collected tomorrow morning. Monday, September 5, 2022
Today's Passage : Today's Passage :Betrayal and Arrest of Jesus Bible Verse:Matthew 26:47-56 (ESV) "While he was still speaking, Judas came, one of the twelve, and with him a great crowd with swords and clubs, from the chief priests and the elders of the people. Now the betrayer had given them a sign, saying, “The one I will kiss is the man; seize him.” And he came up to Jesus at once and said, “Greetings, Rabbi!” And he kissed him. Jesus said to him, “Friend, do what you came to do.” Then they came up and laid hands on Jesus and seized him. And behold, one of those who were with Jesus stretched out his hand and drew his sword and struck the servant of the high priest and cut off his ear. Then Jesus said to him, “Put your sword back into its place. For all who take the sword will perish by the sword. Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels? But how then should the Scriptures be fulfilled, that it must be so?” At that hour Jesus said to the crowds, “Have you come out as against a robber, with swords and clubs to capture me? Day after day I sat in the temple teaching, and you did not seize me. But all this has taken place that the Scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled.” Then all the disciples left him and fled. " Message:
The timing of our read-through of Matthew has us studying the arrest of Jesus in late summer, which might feel a bit odd. But in the Easter season, we cannot present all four gospels, so it is good to be able to study some events in the Passion, as told specifically by Matthew.
We learn in John that the disciple who cuts off the servant’s ear is Peter. He is throughout the Gospel depicted as the bravest and also rashest of the apostles. He was possessed of a pervasive love for Jesus and we must realize what it meant, to pull his sword on a detachment of Roman soldiers.
Dove of peace on turquoise background
But then, the last line: “The disciples all left him and fled.” Not even the stouthearted Peter could long stand and face certain death, once Christ was arrested. The behavior of Peter and the disciples, from this time through the Pentecost, informs the nature of Christian courage for all ages. It demonstrates the courage that can come from God. We see Peter break when God, in the person of Christ, is taken from him; but as Christ has promised, the Holy Spirit will be sent to the disciples, and we will see a dramatic return of both moral and physical courage, beyond that which they possess by nature, when God returns to them in person as the Holy Spirit, the “Paraclete”.
In other words, the apostles have a normal amount of natural courage. We will be able to see how they behave, relying on their natural courage, in the period between the arrest of Christ and the coming of the Holy Spirit, while they do not have a person of God with them. And we will thus have a baseline to demonstrate the courage that comes only from God, by their behavior after the Holy Spirit comes to dwell within them.
The other great lesson of this passage is the reminder of the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:38-48), when Christ orders Peter to sheath his sword. The electrifying commandment Christ gave not to resist evil, to “turn the other cheek,” is not popular with a lot of people. If one tried to pick the passage in the Bible that is the most widely ignored, passed over, distorted, and/or rationalized into non-existence by professed Christians, it would be a prime contender.
Meditation : Prayer : Now God himself and our Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ, I pray that you direct my way unto you, and make me and all of us to increase and abound in love one toward another, and toward all men, even as we do toward you; to the end that we may establish our hearts unblameable in holiness before you, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints........Amen |
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
|
 |
 |
