“My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one— I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.” John 17:20-23
Jesus prayed this prayer for you and for me. The abundant life Jesus had talked about stems from this one thing: that we yield ourselves to God with such fullness that we become one with Him. That it is His life that flows through us – His mind we think and make decisions with, His heart we love unconditionally with, His eyes of grace and mercy we see others through, His strength we serve with.
I pray that Jesus’ prayer for us is answered more and more in the coming year, and that we come to live the abundant life He promises to us. Everything we search for, everything we use in this world to try to fulfill our desires stem from our inherent need to be reconciled fully to Christ.
He is our abundant life.
And not only is that abundant life for ourselves, but the world needs to see us living it. It needs to see a compass that points to true life. The world desperately searches for hope and it needs to see that hope is found in Christ and in Him alone. We are the chosen lights to point them to Him, if only we will.
May the Lord fill your lives in the coming year with faith and hope, strength and courage, love and peace. May He be yours and you His.
In the mighty Name of Yeshua HaMashiach (Jesus, the Anointed One),
That night God opened a portal between heaven and earth, and a pathway paved with the grace of God was let down in the form of a tiny, unassuming, vulnerable baby.
While the world slept, a miracle happened.
While the world groaned with sin, an offering was given.
He was the gift, and still is, and forever will be.
May you be filled with the joy and wonder of the Christ Child this Christmas and always.
Side nugget – I like to look up the exact meanings of words when I write, and when the first sentence came to my mind, portal was the first word I thought of. I thought that didn’t sound right, and maybe I’d want to use another word for portal, so I looked it up and here is its meaning: “a door, gate, or entrance, especially one of imposing appearance, as to a palace.”
Oh my friends, portal is the exact right word. God knew. The doorway opens to a Palace, the Palace, the Kingdom of God, the royal dwelling place of the King of kings, the One Who came down to free us from sin’s hold, and then to one day greet those who receive Him at the Portal and welcome us into His home forever.
“Praise be to you, Lord,
the God of our father Israel,
from everlasting to everlasting.
Yours, Lord, is the greatness and the power
and the glory and the majesty and the splendor,
for everything in heaven and earth is yours.
Yours, Lord, is the kingdom;
you are exalted as head over all.
Wealth and honor come from you;
you are the ruler of all things.
In your hands are strength and power
to exalt and give strength to all.
Now, our God, we give you thanks,
and praise your glorious name.”
1 Chronicles 29:10-13
“The Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord, and for seven years He gave them into the hands of the Midianites. Midian so impoverished the Israelites that they cried out to the Lord for help.
The angel of the Lord came and sat down under the oak in Ophrah that belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, where his son Gideon was threshing wheat in a winepress to keep it from the Midianites. When the angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon, he said, “The Lord is with you, mighty warrior.” Judges 6:1,6
Mighty Warrior.
If that were the name of a superhero in an epic comic book story brought to life on the big screen you’d expect he’d be a 6 foot 6, muscle-bound behemoth of a man who shook the earth when he walked. He’d carry himself with confidence, a stern face and eyes set while everyone was sure to stay out of his way.
But this was Gideon.
Ancient winepress discovered in Israel
When Gideon heard someone say mighty warrior he may very well have flinched and looked around to see who the person was talking to as he hid from the Midianites in a winepress threshing wheat.
But the Lord was speaking to Gideon, calling him to deliver the Israelites from the hand of the Midianites.
But Gideon didn’t jump up from the winepress, grab a sword, don his armor and shout “Yes, this is my chance! I am ready!”
Instead he questioned, “But, Lord, how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family.” Judges 6:15
Gideon was a young man who came from a small, poor, weakened, and seemingly insignificant family. He was a nobody. At least that’s how he saw it.
Nugget: Gideon’s clan – the Abiezrites – together with five other clans all form the tribe of Manasseh. And Manasseh, together with the tribe of Ephraim form the tribe of Joseph, one of the twelve tribes of Israel. The tribe of Manasseh descends from Manasseh who was one of the sons of Joseph, the boy who was sold into slavery by his brothers (to guess who? The Midianites), and through the continual hand of God, rose to eventually become 2nd in command over Egypt, exceeded only by Pharaoh himself.
Do you know that God loves to call the insignificant, the weak, the poor, the underdog, the nobody, fill that person with His Spirit, and lead him or her to do great and mighty things?
Gideon might have seen himself as young, weak and ill-equipped, but God saw him differently. God saw him not just as he was, but as He would make him to be – a mighty warrior.
And just as God had a great plan for his ancestor Joseph even while he sat in a pit, served Pharaoh’s official, and languished in prison, He had a great plan for Gideon and all the people of Israel.
Throughout the process of overcoming the Midianites, Gideon is unsure and shaky in his next steps, and continually asks God for signs that He is with him, and God continually reassures Gideon that He is.
As the plan begins to succeed, Gideon begins to fulfill the name given to him by the angel of the Lord. He transforms from the young man hiding in the winepress, full of questions and requests for fleeces, into a mighty warrior who is confident in God’s presence, provision, and desire to do a mighty work through him.
Gideon chose to believe in and obey God, and God gave victory to the Israelites through Gideon and his whittled-down army of 300 men to 135,000 Midianite and neighboring peoples, 120,000 of whom were killed.
Gideon’s confidence and boldness had grown, and he himself killed two kings of Midian, while the men of Ephraim killed two leaders of the Midianites, one of them, ironically, at a winepress.
I can relate to Gideon. Can you?
When God told me twelve years ago to be strong and courageous just before my own battle began with my health, I felt anything but strong and courageous. At the time I tried to understand it as best I could. But just like Gideon, I’ve grown in my understanding of God along the way. I know God sees us not only as we are, but as He is making us to be. God was calling me to be something He was going to fulfill in the journey. I have been becoming strong and courageous in Him, for He is with me wherever I go.
What does God call you? What has He called you to do? Do you feel too weak and insignificant? Like a nobody? Well, you’re in good company. David was only a boy; Jonah was filled with fear; Joseph was thrown into a pit; and Mary was just a simple, unassuming young girl who would give birth to the Savior of the world.
In a world where everyone wants to be famous, “…the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to Him” (2 Chron. 16:9) regardless of our fame, standing, finances, intelligence, or anything else the world says is important.
God loves to do His work through a humble spirit, the ones in whom the world takes no notice. They have no agenda, and know they have nothing sufficient in themselves. They must rely wholly on God – where true and lasting success always lies, and He always gets the glory.
No matter what you’re going through, God sees you through the eyes of His Risen Son. He may very well be using that struggle in your life to prepare you for something great. Whatever He’s doing, He knows the plans He has for you, and what He is making you to be.
“After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb.
There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow. The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men.
The angel said to the women, ‘Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; He has risen, just as He said.'”
Matthew 28:1-6
Side nugget – I like to look up the exact meanings of words when I write, and when the first sentence came to my mind, portal was the first word I thought of. I thought that didn’t sound right, and maybe I’d want to use another word for portal, so I looked it up and here is its meaning: “a door, gate, or entrance, especially one of imposing appearance, as to a palace.”
