1.  The Importance of Relationship

A.  Where was Jesus before He came to earth?

1.    Read John 17 (Text for lesson)

This is a direct prayer from Jesus to His Father.  He is in the garden.  The timing is right before He is to be taken into custody; soon, the trial and crucifixion will begin.

Jesus acknowledges His mission on earth and concludes that He has carried it out.  God has granted Him authority over all the people, that He might bring them into eternal life. All who will come.  Eternal life with the Father comes only through knowing and coming into relationship with Him through His Son, Jesus Christ.  

Now Jesus is thinking of who He was before leaving His Father’s side and coming to earth.  You see, before He came to earth, He was always at His Father’s side in that place where God abides.  We call it heaven.  Use your imagination for a minute and picture this …

The Father and Son working together during the time of Creation.  The Father and Son sitting together in the heavenly throne room, on their thrones.  See the Son at the right hand of The Father.  They are communicating and planning.  They fully trust each other. They are inseparable. Then, one sad day, one throne sits empty …  

Jesus' whole life has been about honoring His Father's wishes.  Working to bring about His Father's purposes, whether on earth or in Heaven.  This is the way He brings His Father Glory.  And His Father shares the glory with Him.  Oh how He now, in John 17:5, is missing those "Glory Hugs".  He pleads: 

“Father, glorify Me in Your Presence with the Glory I had with You before the world began.”

He knows it will still be a little while before that will be possible.  There is still something left that He must do first.  But Jesus is homesick and just wishing that it could all be over with, already.

Read John 1:1-3.  Who is The Word of which this passage speaks and what was He doing?  Who was He with?  We see that Jesus is known by other names as well. 

You may also read, Genesis 1:26.  Notice how God uses the word “us” in this passage.  Along with the above scriptures, you will see where Jesus was and what He was doing before He came down to earth to be with “us”.  Take note of John 1:14.

“The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us.  We have seen His Glory, the Glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father full of Grace and Truth.”

Now we know why that second throne in heaven was empty.  The Son had a job to do and that included taking on human flesh. How did Jesus make it through His journey, from there to here and back again?  Where did his strength come from?  After all, now He was just a man, living under Adam’s curse.  What kept Him going to the very end?  One more question.  What was the hardest part?

Jesus was truly a human in every sense.  His physical body felt all the pain that He was subjected to.  Emotionally and mentally he was just like us.  The crown of thorns being thrust onto His brow, the beating he took and then the task of carrying His own cross (which, incidentally, was ours) up the hill to the place where it would be mounted for all to see.  Did He feel the discouragement?

Scripture tells us Jesus collapsed under the weight and had to have help.  His physical body took on unimaginable trauma.  His heart was pounding, broken.  His mental state was devastation.  But His spirit was strong and determined.  Why?  He had complete trust in His Father’s ability to facilitate the plan which they had agreed upon and to bring Him safely home on time.  Why?  Because of relationship.   

Jesus also had vision.  He knew the plan well and its timeline.  He and His Father had built it together.  Even though He was now a man, He knew even as a man what He had to go through to get it done.  The hardest part was not feeling the trauma and pain afflicted onto His physical body though.  It was the agony of being separated from His Father.  Relationship.  I think it can safely be said that, without that relationship, it wouldn’t have gone as well.    

When the sins of the entire world were thrust on Jesus, as He hung there suspended between heaven and earth, God the Father had to turn away from Him.  He was alone and cried out: 

“My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?”

This was the voice of a mortal man crying out for understanding even though, spiritually He was determined to see it through to the end.  He knew the plan.  He even knew what to expect.  He knew He had to keep going to get through it.  But it hurt so much … 

He had to finish what He had started.  He had to have complete faith in God that when the plan was complete, He could go home.  But why this terrible strategy?  Why did it have to be so painful?  So violent …

The Bible says, God hates sin.  That is why He could not look upon His own Son during that period of time.  Jesus was covered, saturated with the sins of the world, crying out in anguish. His Father, for the first time ever, was helpless, unable to protect or comfort Him.  These were restrictions they had placed on themselves.

“Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.”Hebrews 9:22.

In the first law which God gave to Moses, God required animal sacrifices because He needed a way to demonstrate the severity of sin, the cost of rebellion, the death that sin brings, and the price that must be paid to be redeemed.

“But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship.”  Galatian’s 4:4.

“He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; He was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth.”  Isaiah 53:7”

“Knowing that everything had now been finished, and so that Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, “I am thirsty.” A jar of wine vinegar was there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put the sponge on a stalk of the hyssop plant, and lifted it to Jesus’ lips. When he had received the drink, Jesus said, “It is finished.” With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. John 19:28-30

"It is finished" is the English translation of the Greek word Tetelestai, which was the last thing Jesus' said before dying on the cross. Tetelestai comes from the verb teleo, which means "to bring to an end, to complete, to accomplish." It's a crucial word because it signifies the successful end to a particular course of action. The word means more than just "I survived." It means "I did exactly what I set out to do."

Holy God and His Precious Son had lived up to their own Word.  Without the perfect Lamb of God shedding His own blood, there could have been no forgiveness of sins.  They put us first.  No wonder, when John the Baptist was baptizing in the river Jordan and saw Jesus coming, he cried out, “Behold the Lamb of God who taketh away the sins of the world!”  John 1:29 

Do you realize that the love God had for His Son and the love Jesus had for His Father could only be matched by the extravagant love they both had for you and me?  John 17:24-26 says:

“Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world …”

Now, read Ephesians 1:4-

“For He chose us in Him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight.  In love He predestined us to be adopted as His Sons, through Jesus Christ, in accordance with His pleasure and His will, to the praise of His glorious grace, which He has freely given us in the one He loves.  In Him we have redemption through His blood …”

Do I need to say anymore?  Ok, just one more thing.  Turn to Luke 4:1-8.  During the temptations of Jesus, Satan took Him to Jerusalem, to the highest point of the temple.

“If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, for it is written, He will command his angels concerning you to guard you carefully; they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.” 

What the human part of Jesus had to hear was, here is your chance to show the people who you really are without all of the suffering.  They will believe that you are the Son of God when you jump off the pinnacle of the temple and God’s angels come to rescue you on the way down.  They will be flat on their faces worshipping you before your feet touch the ground.  That’s what you want, right?  But what was Jesus’ answer?

 “Do not put the Lord your God to the test.”  Luke 4:12.  Yes, Jesus knew that He could have gone the easier route and canceled the traumatic, painful "cross event".  He chose not to though because He wasn’t looking for more power or someone to worship Him.  He had all the power He wanted with His Father.  He just wanted us to be with Him and His Father …  and without the shedding of His blood, the power of sin could not have been broken. 

In closing, God could not look on us either, until Jesus did what He did.  Sin separated us from God too.  He had to make a way to break it's power.  He loved us and wanted us to be together.  His first choice of animal sacrifice was temporary. That is history.  To think that anymore bloodshed or sacrifices are required would be an insult to Him. The sacrifice of His Son was mutually planned from the very beginning to cover it all.  Was there ever such a great love as this?

Many so called "gods" are dead and buried.  They made no claim of returning to life or having a plan to bring us all together again.  They were not willing to sacrifice a thing.  Some of these "gods" are still demanding blood.

Our God demanded blood and then provided the blood he demanded.  He provided it Himself.  And He did it for us, for relationship.  

When you are going through hard times, remember, you do not have to be alone.  Relationship matters.  Jesus couldn't see His Father either but He knew that He was there.

Jesus sent back the Holy Spirit after ascending to Heaven.  As a human,  The Son could only be one place at a time.  But the Holy Spirit is not limited by time, space or location.

Here's the best part though.  Remember the empty throne next to the Father?  It's filled again.  Imagine the celebration when the Word returned, triumphant.  "Glory Hugs" for everyone!

God bless us all and teach us what we need to know so that we can be a conscious part of what He is doing.  Like His Son, we pray:

"Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven …" 

  

       

Funny how things just come to you during times of study.  I have been reading about the crucifixion of Christ and what it means to us who believe.  There are so many details that make up the whole story.  Moment by moment thoughts pass through our minds and then, suddenly, it seems that someone pushes the pause button.  This just happened to me.

The ragged, thorny crown, what does it represent?  In Genesis,  Adam and Eve, because of their disobedience are told that they must leave the garden.  The consequences have begun.  They are trading lush green landscapes for ragged thorns and weeds.  Blessings for a painful curse.  Read chapter 3, verses 14-19.  God speaks to the serpent:

"Cursed are you above all the livestock and all the wild animals!  You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life.  And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head and you will strike his heel."

To Eve God spoke, "I will greatly increase your pains in childbearing;  with pain you will give birth to children.  Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you."

Then God said to Adam: "Cursed is the ground because of you;  through painful toil you will eat of it all the day of your life.  It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field.  By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return."  Adam and Eve left the garden sorrowful that day and wishing they had not taken God's goodness, provision or instructions for granted.

As I was studying the sacrifice of Jesus, His crown of thorns made me wonder.  See, this ring of thistles wasn't just the final touch to Satan's devious, yet failing plan.  It wasn't a "designer" piece of Jesus' crucifixion wardrobe.  It wasn't even just one more attempt to mock Jesus while He had Him where he wanted Him.  Although that is what Satan intended.  Nobody puts The Son of God anywhere He doesn't choose to go.

Jesus could not and would not be mocked.  He willingly wore this crown of thorns for us.  He wore that splintery crown recognizing the curse which He was breaking.  See, thorns are actually seeds ... They represented fruit from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, a last-ditch dig of Satan to hurt Him. They pricked His scalp and made Him bleed.  The blood ran down His face and Satan smiled thinking he had won.  He knew so little ... about the blood.   

Before the fall, were only good seeds and these good seeds produced other good seeds.  After the fall, even the seeds changed.  And the bad seeds reproduced more bad seeds.  Just like sin reproduces sin.  Jesus could have rejected the crown, refusing to wear it but He didn't. These thorns were symbolic of man;  Full of beauty and goodness in the beginning, but severely twisted and mutated by sin.  

Like the soldiers below, they mocked and made him bleed.  But making Jesus bleed was the wrong thing to do. See, the one who represented the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil was not very knowledgeable, himself, or he would not have done what He did.  But then again, it had to be done.  It was all predetermined from the beginning.  Not that Adam and Eve would fail,  but that this sacrifice may be required.

Satan couldn't even be original.  He himself was following a predetermined course. Apparently he must have forgotten about Moses's rod which became a serpent and devoured Pharoah's magician's serpents.  And now this crown of thorns which was intended to mock the Son of God was being raised up high above their heads ... just like the serpent on a pole in the desert which brought healing to the people of Israel.  Now, who was mocking who?

This crown was symbolic of all that Christ was doing for us.  He took the thorns and thistles of adversity meant for us and wore them upon His own head.  At His heels soldiers struck and mocked him but it wasn't really them.  They were just pawns also, in service to the serpent.  God had the enemy right where he wanted him.  Satan thought he had the upper hand, boy was he wrong. Those nails that pierced Jesus' hands and feet nailed him instead.

When Jesus walked out of that tomb, the enemy realized something that maybe even we haven't fully understood.  God's love for us.  Satan misjudged the power of  Love.  But we don't need to.

 

"... listen to the LORD who created you. O Israel, the One who formed you says, 'Do not be afraid, for I have ransomed you. I have called you by name; you are Mine.'” (Isaiah 43:1)

 

I believe I have learned a very important lesson in life. Life is not all about me. My happiness, well being and contentment is not all that matters. I will now step down from trying to be the center of my universe.

People are allowed to fail me, as I will also fail them. I will not let these failures … theirs or mine, define and destroy my life. I choose to forgive myself and others and move on.

I do not have to understand others. They are free to think differently than me. I will not try to control them nor will I judge them when they do something I disapprove of.

Bob Dylan recorded a song, "You Gotta Serve Somebody".. We all make our own choices. Those choices influence moments and take on a lot of power in our lives. In fact, they become our lives.

I am called to be a witness, not a judge. I will witness to the grace of God and how His Power has transformed my life. No man or woman; no bold set of new ideas or creative energy; no universal force other than the power of Jesus Christ could have brought me this far. 

I am commanded to walk in love, even if I do not understand. I am encouraged to pray for wisdom and assured that He will give me what I need. I am not the center of my own universe, but I am the center of His …

How can this be? I will trust Him with my life.

Cry me a river, build me a bridge and get over it!  Good advice.

Now days we are ashamed to cry because we think it makes us look weak.  Tears are a part of our natural defense system, though.  God made us that way.  Tears are a way of relief, releasing pressure that builds up on the inside and needs an outlet.  So, cry me a river!  It's better than building a dam that will eventually break and destroy you and everybody in it's path.  Then, take up bridge building. Open up the bridge to others.  Offer them Kleenex and prayers.  Their eyes may be wet but their feet will be dry as they cross on over to the other side.

Being there for others is what life is really about. Still, more important yet,  is our relationship with God.  He was the first bridge builder.  He taught us about bridge building when He sent his only Son to bridge the gap between Him and us.  Cross over that bridge.  Pray to take others with you.  We are the reason He built it.

How He finds time to wait for us all at the other end is beyond my comprehension.  But He does. He went to a lot of work to build that bridge.  Don't let it go to waste. He is expecting you.  (O:

Jesus had a way of drawing people to Himself even though they were living contrary to his teaching. He had this love that made people feel safe even though He would not compromise His Words or say what they wanted to hear. 

They knew what He stood for but His love was unconditional and irresistible. They were often willing to listen to the rest of His Story … even if it involved change.

People just want to be loved and accepted. We can't deny scripture and we need to be honest about that, but if they can feel the love and enjoy being with us … to me, I feel that is an honor. Maybe they can come to trust Jesus, in us. Bringing people to Christ so that He can change them is our mission. Not shunning and preaching at them.

I'm not saying this as if I know how to do it. Love is an attitude of the heart though. If our hearts are right with God, He will show us. We are good at laying down the law. Jesus laid down His life. That took real love. (O:

Resistance training is good. It's when you get really angry and resist the urge to cut somebody down. Or, somebody offends and you decide not to strike them back. You want something really bad and turn it down because you know it is not good. You pay your bills first. You discipline yourself before you judge others … and do more listening than talking.

Then, there's making that choice to go to the gym and work out, eat right and be positive when it's a real struggle. This is all Resistance Training at it's best. Just do it and be better for it. Folks really will notice. And if they don't, who cares? You are doing this for you, not them.

Oh and resist the temptation to give up … set your resolution and stick with it. I'd say you will be doing so well next year about this time that you won't need to do anything new, but … you will see the value and want to. 

Resistance training. Resist comparing yourself to others. Be the best that you can be, yourself. Don't expect others to live up to your expectations either. Help them to meet their own goals.

Have a Happy New Year, one day at a time. Be thankful and share with others. Many will struggle and want what you have. Tell them what you did to achieve what you have. Invite them to join you in the challenge. Because that is what it is, a challenge. And if they don't want to take it, they will stay right where they are. 

Let the forces of challenge and resistance work FOR you. That's the way it was meant to be.

I watched a video of two big bull elks competing against each other until they locked horns and could not get apart. They died that way. Which one won?

Fighting words bring on fighting words. Somewhere in those fighting words are real people who are afraid, angry and often hurt. On both sides. Because that is where the answer lies.

Nobody has the whole picture and the whole truth. When we start thinking we do, we become just like those we fight against.

Elections can bring out the worst in us … not necessarily of us. There's a difference.