YESTERDAY IS AS TODAY
And he went a little farther, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt.” (Matt 26:39, KJV)
Could I have traveled to a distant land, an unfamiliar place halfway around the world? Did I somehow journey to a hostile society in a strange culture with a different language, and yet not leave the comfort of my room? And in so doing, encounter the single most significant person in my life? I believe I did.
My typical evening prayer transformed into an extraordinary one when I reflected on Jesus’ great suffering while alone in the Garden of Gethsemane. His earthly companions abandoned him through it all. They couldn’t continue to pray during that daunting hour as he sweat drops of blood in preparation for estrangement from the Father. I reached for my Bible and clung to it as if it was a life raft. For some reason it never occurred to me until then, what a privilege it was to hold the rest of the story in my hands. Something my ancient brothers could only hope to do at least for a time. Yet, they had the indescribable benefit of having met the Lord face-to-face!
Jesus was no more human than on that night in the garden and on the following day when he hung on the cross. And no more God as he bridled his all-consuming power, to not give up on us, but rather fulfill his forever promise to us.
My experience occurred right after I read the famous Matthew passage. Although I had read it several times before, this time the realness of his pain brought me out of denial. It drew the strength from my knees – It created an immediate and overwhelming desire to direct my prayer not only to Him, but with...
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...ought more personal encounters with the Savior since that night, I never had another quite like this. Not all prayers being equal, I realized they can’t always reach that level of intensity.
The questions still remained: Did I travel to a distant land, an unfamiliar place halfway around the world and not leave the comfort of my room? Yet, encounter the single most significant person in my life? Well, maybe not physically. But I did in spirit.
Words? What words can I find that would express my deep appreciation and indebtedness to the God of my salvation? I can’t help but be in awe of him and his desire to
love each and every one of us so intimately.
Hence, I humbly offer myself completely—not just in word or in prayer but as a living testimony to the most significant person in my life—Jesus—Who is Lord!
References: 1Luke 15:3-10 and John 10:11
For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. (ESV)
that I am unable to do anything without God's help, I do humbly entreat him
While this was taking place, I saw before me a mysterious person similar to the one I had seen on the evening of August the 5th. The only difference was that his hands and feet and side were dripping blood. The sight terrified me and what I felt at that moment is indescribable. I thought I should have died if the Lord had not intervened and strengthened my heart which was about to burst out of my chest. The vision disappeared and I became aware that my hands, feet and side were dripping blood.” He then goes on about the pain he experienced for the next week.
And above all, to God, who has always provided everything I ever needed in my life and who tells us:
When Hughes was thirteen he attended a revival with his Aunt it was his turn to "see Jesus," his entire community and church all waiting expectantly for the moment when he was finally saved from sin. Unfortunately for Hughes, salvation did not occur. His fellow peers that he would be delivered, to Jesus convinced him. He was so caught up in the idea that when it did not happen, and when it did not, he felt like an outcast amongst his religious community. People crying, and praying for him at his feet, Hughes did not want to be the reason for all the madness happening around him. He stood up and acted as if his salvation had come to him, although deep within he knew it had not. "My aunt came and knelt at my knees and cried, while prayers and songs swirled all around me in the little church. The whole congregation prayed for me alone, in a mighty wail of moans and voices” (Hughes 111-112). Influenced by the wales and the cries, Hughes started to feel as if he was the problem, that something was wrong and it was up to him to fix it. As the congregation prayed for him alone, and his aunt cried and prayed by his feet, a wave of social pressure came to him at once. To stop the crying, and the constant praying there was only one thing to be done, although he knew he was never actually saved, he stood to his feet, and the religious community and church all rejoiced as they
This certain verse points to my second factor of who Jesus Christ is to me; He is my hero. Sometimes I become overwhelmed when I ponder the magnitude of how the Savior of the world died an excruciating death to save me from my sins and guarantee me a place in heaven one day. I find it amazing that a king who should be seated on a throne in Heaven came down to earth and suffered persecution and crucifixion because He loves me that much! The even more amazing part of His death is His resurrection. He experienced death and hell and yet was strong enough to conquer both, as he rose from the grave on the third day. Jesus Christ is not only my Savior, He is my hero! My heart is forever filled with gratefulness for the incredible thing He did on the
"And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth."(New Revised Standard Version, John 1:14) As the only son of God in the Christian theology, Jesus Christ was tasked with a multitude of trials, and horrors the common man would have rebuked and refused to undertake. However, as a demi-god born of the divine Christian deity and the mortal, virgin Mary, Jesus was not the average mortal man.
The gospel of Luke identifies Jesus as human. For example in chapter 19, verse 41, Jesus is seated on the foal of a donkey and He turns to Jerusalem and bursts into tears.
What is your functional savior? As Christians you’re probably sitting here and you know what to say. Right? We all know the Sunday school answer. My meaning is Jesus.
When our son Andrew was a baby, an accident changed us. I was home alone with our sweet baby boy and our two young daughters. While I was in the kitchen, unbeknownst to me, our Andrew fell into a bathtub of hot water. I sensed an urgent tap on my shoulder and ran in haste to check on him. By the time I reached him, he was underwater, not breathing. I desperately pulled him out of the bath. With my blue, swollen, lifeless baby in my arms, I looked into the image of Divine Mercy hanging above our bathtub -- the blood and water flowing forth from Jesus -- and put my complete trust in Him. In a bargain with God (I now know that He doesn’t work this way), I implored, “God, if you save my baby, I will give my entire life to you and I pray that my son - my sweet boy - will do the same!” It was in that exact room that Andrew had been born underwater- just a few, short months earlier. I was facing the possibility of losing my precious boy….in that same place, where in such joy and trust, he came into this world. After my cry out to Our God, I began CPR on him and did so with faith for 25 minutes while awaiting the arrival of the ambulance. All the while…I attempted to console our frightened young daughters. After 30 minutes, just as the paramedics entered through the doorway of our home, Andrew began breathing on his own. Thanks be to God!
In the book One the Incarnation by Saint Athanasius it talks about why Jesus became human for our salvation. Jesus had no reason not to enter into the world as a human, because “it was right that they should be thus attributed to his as man, in order to show that his body was a real one and not merely an appearance” (Athanasius 15). Showing that it was important for Jesus to be a human and spread his knowledge among us; to help us learn and be able to teach other through oral and written tradition. It was now necessary for Jesus to come for our salvation because “had he surrendered his body to death and then raised it at once…which showed him to be not only a man, but also a God the word” (Athanasius 14). This connects back to by why Jesus wants humans to believe that he died a human death.
One of the greatest debates that continues to rage on amongst theologians, as well as others, is in regards to the balance between the humanity and the divinity of the person of Jesus Christ (also known as Christology). This debate can be especially challenging in the Scripture passage of Matthew 26:36-46 where the reader finds Jesus praying in the Garden of Gethsemane. Many of the ancient and medieval theologians worked to explain away apparent humanistic characteristics seen in this section of the text, while more modern theologians seem to be more open to embracing these characteristics. While the ancient and medieval theologians may not have embraced the humanity of Jesus, the translations and backgrounds of the words “cup”, “grieved”, and “agitated”, along with the translation of the passage itself, the humanity of Jesus is not only present in the passage but also a necessity to the salvation of humanity through the sacrifice of Jesus. Simply put, for the salvation through death to be relatable for humanity, Jesus had to also be, at least in part, fully human as well as being fully divine.
While I was there, I spent the majority of my time frustrated with my Mom for making me go to a camp all about Jesus… I was so certain that he had abandoned me. On the second to last night of camp, a man named John Randal spoke on the power of prayer. Amazed by how it seemed as if he knew exactly what I had been longing to hear; I decided in that moment to dedicate my life to Jesus Christ. After that I knew there was no going back. I swore that I would do whatever I could to help others find the hope in this world that they have been searching for just like I
At one point or another in one’s life you are faced with God, eye to eye and you know it. You can feel the Holy Spirit’s presence, like a humming sound that’s too low to hear, but it’s there and you can feel it, a feeling that you are not alone. For some, this feeling lasts for eternity, and for others God works within them again and again because the Lord’s love is persistent. The feeling I had came and went, for it was not strong enough as a child. But now, I am the strongest I have ever been.