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THE KING OF THE JEWS
Good Morning, Faith Family! I remain in Luke continuing our march to the crucifixion. This week we're in the Garden of Gethsemane where Jesus was praying before He was betrayed. Jesus understands that the time has come and He retreats to a familiar place with his disciples - a place that' 'He is accustomed to'. As is also typical, the disciples followed Him. What Jesus proceeds to do in these verses is show us the love He has for His disciples, His obedience to the Father, and His humanity.
Good Morning, Faith Family! Easter is on my mind and this week and I found myself in the book of Luke right before Jesus was taken into custody. In these verses, Jesus is both addressing all the disciples and Peter singularly. Jesus knows that all will suffer because of Him and He also knows that Peter will be challenged sooner than he realizes. In Peter's beloved fashion, he responds with arrogance and pride, which is a sure sign that he is about to fall.
Hello, Faith Family! The verses I've chosen for today are well-known and because of that, they often get read without too much thought. I know I do this all the time. Today, I stopped on these verses because of the words "Have Faith" and "Believe". I think these words are often taken for granted. Every day, in addition to having faith in God, there are many things we put our faith in. Faith that the sun will rise, the grass, flowers, plants, and trees will grow when Spring comes back, we'll go to work, the chair we sit on won't break... so many things we put our faith in without even thinking. But Jesus commands us in these verses to "Have faith in God." This means that we are to put our reliance upon Jesus Christ for salvation; that we have a confiding belief in the truth. And God is that truth. Sure, probably all of us would say, "Yes, of course I have faith in God and rely on Jesus Christ for my salvation." These words are easy to say, but can be hard to do on a day-to-day basis. In reality, these four words are a huge command. Not only does Jesus command us to have faith in God, He also commands us to "believe" that whatever we ask in God's name has already been granted to us. This doesn't mean that God will provide whatever we ask of Him. God is not a genie in a bottle. But, if we have faith, we are to pray asking for God's will to be done and we are to believe that what we have asked has already been done.
