vs. 1 & 4: "Father, the time has come...I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do."
So I've got to be careful to not give too much away here, becuase I'll be preaching on these verses on Sunday. DON'T MISS IT FOR ANYTHING...unless you're in the hospital or something...otherwise be sure to be at BridgeWay Sunday, and if you're in the hospital, at least listen online.
Two things this passage says to us:
So I've got to be careful to not give too much away here, becuase I'll be preaching on these verses on Sunday. DON'T MISS IT FOR ANYTHING...unless you're in the hospital or something...otherwise be sure to be at BridgeWay Sunday, and if you're in the hospital, at least listen online.
Two things this passage says to us:
- God has a time for you.
- God has a purpose for you.
Oh man, I can't wait until Sunday!
http://daleschaeffer.blogspot.com/2008/02/john-17-reflections.html?showComment=1204091460000#c7711141926144498773'> 23:51
I don't comment hardley at all for to me it feels as though I am "up front" of people. We know how much I like that . . . anyway in my reading of John 17 tonight the first thing that jumped out at me was how the chapter was devided up.
First . . .
It says Jesus Prayed for himself.
Then He prayed for his disciples.
Finally He prayed for all His believers.
I think that this is a good for me to see b/c I tend to do the complete opposite.
I pray for the believers or non believers and then for the disciples (volunteers leaders or workers) and lastly myself. I am thinking after reading this I am going about this backwards.
I need to pray for myself first and then those in leadership or volunteers in ministry and then for the people He has placed in my life to be able to invite them to church.
The reasoning is you meet people, you build relationships with them why shouldn't your life be "Prayed up". Then after a while, a time comes when your able to invite them to your church and your leadership or volunteers need to be "Prayed up", and then those that you invite in need to be "prayed up" to become believers/Volunteers/Leaders.
If your not ""Prayed up" and Prayed for" how are we going to reach the people we come in contact with???
The second thing that stuck with me was the verse 8.
" For I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me."
How can I apply that to my life . . .
Pray for myself and for the disciples (Leaders and volunteers), and then for the believers/nonbelievers. In this order, so that I am ready to meet others, and invite others. Pray for the leaders that will communicate the message of Christ better than I can, and pray for the believers to come into such a deep relationship with Christ that they become leaders/ volunteers and then they too can be doing as I do.
I've always been real wordy! Sorry for the long comment, hope it's not too confusing.