I think of how I live and I name the help I need. RayStedman.org/permissions. Is it possible that the World Council of Churches will succeed where God the Father has failed? 20"My prayer is not for them alone. The last hours that Jesus had with his disciples before he went to the cross ended in a prayer meeting. I ask That is the key, that you love one another. Christ! Three generations of family are gathering for their traditional Thanksgiving Day meal. The test, of course, is, Does it accomplish what Jesus says will be accomplished when the church is one? Every military campaign must envision all three of these. These are the tactics by which the divine strategy is implemented to reach the great objective "that the world may believe that thou hast sent me." Note the strategy by which God intends to accomplish his objective of reaching the world: that they may be brought to complete unity. nourishment that I need for my spirit, prayerfully considering the ways in Unity, as indicated here, is the sharing of a life. Lord, I treasure all the chances of fellowship with others who do not believe in you. If that were the case it would be much simpler if we would erect a chopping block in every church, and as soon as someone becomes a Christian chop his head off! Jesus tells us in Verse 22: "The glory which thou hast given me I have given to them that they may be one..." (John 17:22a RSV), This is what makes them one. Nor does this union create oneness. We need one another. We have already seen something of the possibilities, the priorities and the perils of the Christian life reflected in this prayer, but the last six verses are the most unusual of all. Why, in this day of ours, is there widespread apathy to biblical authority, this indifferent unconcern of the world at large to hear the voice of the church? What thoughts and feelings arise in me as I listen to Jesus’ prayer for me? That means a recognition that we need each other, that we are not condescending when we give ourselves to another Christian; we need each other. What is it? It isn't "our kind" of Christian, our specific group that we are to love, the ones that we feel something in common with. for you take over your heart. Jesus wants me to be drawn into the life he shares with his Father. (John 17:26 RSV). You can see this in these six verses, if you look closely: Twice in these six verses, Jesus states precisely the great objective which was ever before him as he lived his own life on earth, and now that he is leaving he is committing to the disciples. I am drawn in to the vast immensity of God’s project in Christ, the Cosmic. He told us that he was embittered against the church. Through my words and actions others might come to believe in The first one is mutual contact. There it is, "that they may become perfectly one." He is to share with all of us what is deepest in his heart - the glory he had from the beginning of time. He prays for everyone I know. 26 I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.”. If that is the objective, what is the strategy? God's whole redemptive plan is aimed at one target: the world. There is much of it going on today. These occasions may not be labelled 'ecumenical events', but they carry your blessing. Paul's great chapter on the Holy Spirit in First Corinthians clearly establishes the fact that in his coming he accomplished what Jesus prayed for. Now that remarkable unity which exists above and beyond the denominational differences is being threatened, and do you know what is threatening it? Love wants to share all that is best with the beloved. Lord, help me to understand that in love there is difference, but not division. His prayer is that all of us will be united with God our Father and with him. Our task, as believers in Jesus Christ, is not to save the world. What’s my part in it? Now in this prayer of Jesus which, as I have suggested in a previous message, was not prayed in the quiet sanctuary of a cathedral but was really uttered on a battlefield, you have these three ingredients of a military campaign. That is the basis for Christian unity. That is the very thing we are here to reach, that is the goal, the target, that is the objective. The life of Jesus Christ in the Body of Christ is an invisible thing. The objective is the goal, the hilltop you wish to take or the city that needs to be captured; some specific target toward which all is aimed, that is the objective. It is in us by the very virtue of the fact that Jesus Christ is in us, but it does require our consent. May a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth, break forth into joyous songs of praise. Is it only coincidence that the decades before this were preeminently characterized by church conflict, that during those years the world saw Christians hurling invectives at one another, and splitting theological hairs with ecclesiastical razor blades then splitting over the splits, publishing newspapers and magazines devoted to name calling and heresy-hounding and devoting their energies to fighting one another, rather than to proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ? I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 21 that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. (Matthew 5:47 RSV). Jesus prayed not only for himself that he would not waver from the task of … This is the prayer of Jesus for his followers through the ages. opening ourselves to Jesus praying for us. which I am called to witness. Unity, as indicated here, is the sharing of a life. The thing that makes this whole thing practical, and keeps us from sabotaging the work of the Holy Spirit in his thrusting urge to reach the blinded, confused world outside, is that we give willing, glad consent to love any Christian, any time, for Jesus' sake. There was one man who, as the weekend went on, evidenced that he was not yet a Christian. This is the divine strategy by which the world may be led to believe in him. All his defenses melted in the presence of Christian oneness. It is this remarkable thing that the world waits to see in Christian people. Let him name you. Can you make this prayer for yourself? I must say, in observing the world scene today, that there is little evidence that this is the case. We have the record of that prayer in the Gospel of St. John. What is that? invited into this relationship, I consider what it might cost me and I ask (John 17:21 RSV), "I in them and thou in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that thou hast sent me ..." (John 17:23a RSV). Lord, who at your first Eucharist did ... God whose love is always stronger Than our weakness, pride and fear. This business of making all Christians one does not depend upon us, it depends upon the Spirit of God. NIV Reverse Interlinear Bible: English to Hebrew and English to Greek. Here is what we may view as a great planning session between the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, to which we are privileged to listen. Teach your people to love one another. Lord, this is the nature and character of the love that is shed abroad in my heart by the Holy Spirit. Union is one thing; unity is quite another.
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