An Affair of the Heart by Dee Dee Wike

In a permissive society such as ours where mainstream media and the entertainment industry often dictate what is and is not acceptable behavior, it is not uncommon for men and women to become involved in relationships that are harmful and violate God’s principles regarding marital fidelity. Many of us find ourselves faced with the question: As a married person, is it okay to have a friendship with a member of the opposite sex?

Through the years some of my best friends have been male co-workers or guys I knew during my high school and college years. Although I get along well with women, I have always been quite comfortable conversing with males. But as I have grown in my walk with the Lord and comfortable in my marriage, I have had to guard my heart very closely and at times walk away from relationships that became a little too close for comfort.

Dangerous liaisons are more common than we might think, even in our churches. An opposite-sex friendship that doesn’t involve physical intimacy can be just as harmful as an adulterous affair. How can that be? you might ask. Simply put, any relationship that becomes a stronghold in our mind – whether we obsessively justify it on the basis that we are not physically intimate or simply because we hold such admiration for the other individual that our love for our own spouse is diminished – becomes an idolatrous, adulterous affair of the heart. The mind and emotions are powerful forces which, when left untamed, can lead us to think ungodly thoughts and commit ungodly actions before we realize what has happened.

Although physical attraction was a key factor in my relationships as a single woman that has not been the case in my twenty-five year marriage. Nor have I ever given thought to being unfaithful to my husband by having an extra-marital affair. But I have had friendships where the spiritual and emotional connection was so strong that my marriage was threatened and my husband’s security was compromised. The danger of loving someone other than our spouse just a little too much is a very real threat to our marriages and a danger to which we are all susceptible. So how can we keep an opposite-sex friendship from becoming an affair of the heart? The most obvious way would be to not have opposite-sex friendships to begin with, but that is neither practical nor easy, so here are some other thoughts.

1. Keep your priorities in order when it comes to your relationships – God first, spouse second, family third, and so on. “Likewise, teach the older women to be reverent in the way they live, not to be slanderers or addicted to much wine, but to teach what is good. Then they can train the younger women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind, and to be subject to their husbands, so that no one will malign the word of God” (Titus 2:3-5).

2. Maintain accountability by making sure that your spouse is aware of the friendship. The surest sign you are headed for trouble is any secrecy on your part regarding the friendship.

3. Do not allow yourself to be in situations where you are alone with the other individual. If your friendship is with a co-worker at the office or in ministry, include another co-worker or your spouse in your conversations or any social situations that may arise. Even something as seemingly innocent as praying together can spark an emotional reaction that eventually gets out of control.

4. Keep communication on a professional level and keep it at the office (no after-hours Facebook, emails, tweets, or text messages!). Stay away from sensitive subjects such as family issues or personal problems, which could expose you emotionally and leave you vulnerable to the sympathy and comfort you may not be receiving from your spouse. Pour out your heart to God or to a godly counselor, not to a sympathetic opposite-sex friend who might complicate matters by making you feel even more confused than you already are! God is more than able to compensate you for what your marriage may lack, and he is the only One who is trustworthy, dependable, and true!

5. Scripture tells us that “if someone is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual should restore him gently. But watch yourself, or you also may be tempted” (Galatians 6:1, NIV). In other words, realize that no one is immune from the temptation of an emotional affair. If you suspect a friend is headed that direction, lovingly and gently admonish him or her, but do so knowing that you could as easily fall into temptation.

6. “If your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell” (Matthew 5:30, NIV). You may wonder what a hand has to do with emotional adultery, but I like to think of this particular verse in terms of communication and contact information. If you have an unhealthy emotional attachment to someone who is not your spouse – someone who occupies much of your thought life – delete him or her from your Facebook friends, your email contacts, your mobile phone call list, and your address book. As painful as letting go may be for you, think of the pain you are sparing that special friend and the significant others in his or her life, not to mention your own loved ones!

7. Ask God to take the love you have for that individual and turn it into love for God himself. God gives us the capacity to love others deeply, but he never intended us to love any one person more than him. To do so is to make an idol of the relationship, whether it is our marriage or a deep friendship with someone else.

8. “Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life” (Proverbs 4:23, NIV). The best way to guard your heart is to surrender yourself completely to the Lordship of Christ and to arm yourself with the spiritual weapons of God’s Word and prayer. Fully clothed in God’s armor, no weapon fashioned against you – whether Cupid’s arrows or Satan’s fiery darts – can stand!

If you find yourself in a relationship you know is not God’s will for you, turn and walk away from it. Only by repenting of your sin, turning from the relationship, and running as fast as you can toward God’s open arms will you find peace and true, lasting love. God proved himself more than sufficient for me and he will do the same for you!

http://devotionalchristian.com/an-affair-of-the-heart/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+DevotionalChristian+%28Devotional+Christian%29

The Not-So-Massive Non-Believers Rally in DC

The event was expected to be the “largest gathering of the secular movement in world history,” a “massive rally” that could provide “a sort of ‘Woodstock for Atheists,’ a chance for atheists to show their power in numbers and change their image.” But when pre-rally hype gave way to reality this past Saturday on the Mall in DC, the results were hardly earth-shattering, let alone movement-making and message-sending (especially to politicians, part of the targeted audience of the so-called “Reason Rally”).

The crowd that turned out for this drizzly Saturday was estimated at between 8,000-20,000 (I have seen atheist reports, however, that put the number at 30,000), which is actually less than some American mega-churches draw every week in their Sunday services.

There were blatantly sexist speakers at the rally, like Bill Maher and Penn Jillette, but their presence was justified by atheist bloggers like Hemant Mehta, who explained that, yes, these men “have their faults, but they amplify our way of thinking more than just about anyone else.” Therefore, Mehta explained, it is still worth having them speak because “we need big-name celebrities to attend. . . . This isn’t just about spreading science and atheism. This is about drawing attention to our movement. This is about getting media attention.”

If that was the goal, the event certainly fell short of its mark, as the Reason Rally Facebook page complained about the lack of media coverage while the Drudge Report didn’t even mention the rally in its weekend news coverage, finding items like this more newsworthy: “Hippies head for Noah’s Ark: Queue here for rescue aboard alien spaceship. Thousands of New Agers descend on mountain [in France] they see as haven from December’s apocalypse.” (It looks like the hippies are living out their legacy while the atheists are still waiting for their “Woodstock” moment.)

Prof. Richard Dawkins was one of the keynote speakers, calling on the faithless not only to reject religious beliefs but also to “ridicule and show contempt” for religious doctrines and sacraments, including the Eucharist (Holy Communion). (In keeping with this, he once referred to Mary, the mother of Jesus, as a “submissive cosmic doormat.”) Yes, such are the enlightened sentiments of one of the self-styled “brights” – a self-defeating designation if ever there was one – and we can only imagine how beautiful the world would be if the Dawkins’ mentality ruled the day. (Sarcasm intended.)

And while it is true that “the brights” are still trying to figure out the origin of life, physicist Stephen Hawking has now explained how the universe began without God, stating in his book “The Grand Design,” “Because there is a law of gravity, the universe can and will create itself out of nothing.” Yes, nothing (which is really something) created everything! How did we miss that for so long?

As pointed out by Oxford mathematician and scientist Dr. John Lennox (unfortunately, not one of “the brights”), “The main issue . . . is that gravity or a law of gravity is not ‘nothing’, if [Hawking] is using that word in its usual philosophically correct sense of ‘non-being’. . . . If, therefore, we say ‘X creates X’, we imply that we are presupposing the existence of X in order to account for the existence of X. This is obviously self-contradictory and thus logically incoherent – even if we put X equal to the universe! To presuppose the existence of the universe to account for its own existence sounds like something out of Alice in Wonderland, not science.” (From his book “God and Stephen Hawking.”)

But I digress from the main topic at hand, namely the “Reason Rally.” Perhaps the most illustrative part of the day was the talk given by 16 year-old atheist Jennifer Alquist, who successfully fought to have a prayer banner removed from her Rhode Island High School. Hailed as a hero at the rally, she wanted everyone to know that if she could bring about change, anyone could.

And what, exactly, was so offensive about the prayer banner? It contained these words, written with the encouragement of school leadership almost 20 years ago:

Our Heavenly Father.
Grant us each day the desire to do our best.
To grow mentally and morally as well as physically.
To be kind and helpful to our classmates and teachers.
To be honest with ourselves as well as with others.
Help us to be good sports and smile when we lose as well as when we win.
Teach us the value of true friendship.
Help us always to conduct ourselves so as to bring credit to Cranston High School West.

Amen.

If only those values were inculcated in our schools across America! What a dream that would be. But for the atheists, if those values are associated with God on a banner, then they and God must go.

Atheist David Silverman, one of the event organizers, stated before the gathering that, “We’ll look back at the Reason Rally as one of the game-changing events when people started to look at atheism and look at atheists in a different light.”

I believe he was right. From here on, we’ll probably look at them with more pity.

Tags:                 Religion            ,                                    Faith and Family            ,                                    Faith            ,                                    DC            ,                                    Atheists

Michael Brown

Michael Brown holds a Ph.D. in Near Eastern Languages and Literatures from New York University and is the author of 20 books. He has served as a professor at a number of seminaries and hosts the nationally syndicated, daily talk radio show, the Line of Fire.

http://townhall.com/columnists/michaelbrown/2012/03/26/the_notsomassive_nonbelievers_rally_in_dc/page/full/

Mad About GLAAD

Dear Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC):

You don’t know me but you should. I’m an angry white guy. As a white guy, I’m angry a lot. But today, I’m even angrier than usual. So you should probably put me on your list of dangerous persons. Given that I might have a mental breakdown at any moment, you should probably go ahead and designate me as hate group. I feel a strong case of multiple personality disorder coming on. Yes I do. No you don’t. Oh, shut up and let him talk!

The Gay and Lesbian Alliance against Defamation (GLAAD) Commentator Accountability Project came out to the media earlier this month. As you know, this project aims to put “critical information” about “anti-gay interviewees” into the hands of “newsrooms, editors, hosts and reporters” who “don’t often have the time to dig into the histories of a commentator.” In other words, it is a branch of the Gaystapo using Nazi tactics to ban those who disagree with them from appearing in the media. I call it pink-listing. This is not to be confused with pink-lisping, which refers to the tendency of homosexuals to develop speech impediments as soon as they come out of the closet.

The GLAAD project seeks to pink-list those “comparing LGBT people to Nazi Germany, predicting that equal treatment of LGBT people will lead to the total collapse of society, and even making accusations of satanic influence.” As you can see, I am one of the people in the media who likes to accuse GLBT people (Gilberts), GBLT people (Giblets), and TLGB people (Total-goobers) of being like Nazis. Despite this, I’ve been excluded from the list. What is wrong with these people? Are they trying to destroy decent society? Or has Satan finally overtaken their twisted souls?

The Commentator Accountability Project claims it is “bringing all of these statements to light while calling attention to the sentiment behind them.” That’s just not true. I’ve made plenty of statements against Gilberts, Giblets, and Total-goobers that have been overlooked by GLAAD. They need to call attention to these statements so they can know what’s going on behind them. Even when they aren’t in prison, gays should always know what’s going on behind them!

Although they say that their list of 25 commentators “represent nothing but extreme animus towards the entire LGBT community” they are wrong. Some of them are actually pretty nice. In fact, they are way nicer than I am. So I’m writing today to argue that GLAAD should also be designated as a hate group for including these nice people on their pink-list. More importantly, they should be designated as a hate group for refusing to include me!

Michael Brown: Are you kidding me? I met Michael Brown last summer at Summit Ministries. He and his wife are really nice people. I spoke to him for at least thirty minutes and he didn’t make any gay jokes. He’s a pathetic excuse for a gay-basher. He should be thrown off the list immediately. 

Chuck Colson: Please! I once wrote a “recommending reading” column that featured one of his books. He was so nice that he sat down and wrote me a very long personal letter of thanks. There was not one single reference to “homos” in the entire letter. It was pathetic, really. He’s undeserving. Take him off the list!

Maggie Gallagher: Stop picking on girl. That’s just gay. Next, please.

Kevin McCullough: What a joke. I once heard him correct a Baylor University professor for being too “harsh” in a debate with a homosexual. No one who stands up for civility in debate with homosexuals deserves to be on this list. I thought the Baylor professor was right so I deserve to be on this list. Plus, someone told me McCullough likes some of Elton John’s older music. I think that counts for something.

Jennifer Roback Morse: This woman called me a “meanie” on Facebook last week. So even she knows I’m meaner and more deserving of a pink-listing. Didn’t I tell you guys to quit picking on girls?

Frank Turek: This guy is the biggest joke of them all. I should know because we’re really good friends. What bothers me about his inclusion on (and my exclusion from) the pink-list is that I’ve helped nurture his anti-gay reputation. Remember my columns “The Cisco Kid” and “Bank of Gay America?” They highlighted the times Turek was fired from consulting gigs in corporate America just because he wrote a book opposing same-sex marriage. Don’t I get at least some credit for writing about Turek’s misadventures in an inflammatory way?

 

And, speaking of inflammatory, what about some of my column titles on homosexuality; “The Old Rugged Cross-Dresser,” “Big Fat Appalachian Drag Queens,” “Fat Lesbians on Crack,” “Perversity and Diversity at my Little University,” and “It Ain’t Over Till the Fat Lesbian sings”? What exactly do I need to do to get pink listed by these people? I even call them “these people” but to no avail.

In short, I have been unfairly excluded by a group that claims to be inclusive. You guys at SPLC are experts in making main-stream people appear radical enough to blacklist. So I thought I would turn to you for some advice. If you think of any, please do not hesitate to write. Until then, I’m headed to the cigar shop to smoke a couple of fags. But I’ll be checking my email (adams_mike@hotmail.com) on an hourly basis. Let the games begin!

Tags:                 Media and Culture            ,                                    Gay            ,                                    Homosexuality            ,                                    GLAAD

Mike Adams

Mike Adams is a criminology professor at the University of North Carolina Wilmington and author of Feminists Say the Darndest Things: A Politically Incorrect Professor Confronts “Womyn” On Campus.

http://townhall.com/columnists/mikeadams/2012/03/27/mad_about_glaad/page/full/

Handling Criticism the Right Way (2)

“Christ…while being reviled…did not revile in return.”1Pe 2:21-23 NAS

When it comes to handling criticism the right way you must: (1) Demonstrate emotional and spiritual maturity. Exhaustion can affect the way you act when you’re under pressure. Elijah slipped into depression because of it. Queen Jezebel hounded him relentlessly. Her opposition sapped his strength and caused him to say, “It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life” (1Ki19:4). Satan will take advantage of your weariness. When you’re fatigued you can become overly sensitive and miss the opportunity for growth that comes with the criticism. (2) Realize that good people get criticized. Jesus was called an overeater (See Mt11:19); a drinker (See Lk 7:34); a friend of disreputable characters (See Mt 11:19). People whose opinions are set and whose thinking is off, won’t understand behavior based on obedience to God. So when your ideas and values clash with theirs, try to be gracious. (3) Always keep a good attitude. Your own attitude can be more detrimental to you than somebody else’s. You know what they say: “A chip on your shoulder usually indicates wood higher up.” Peter writes: “You have been called for this purpose, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps, who committed no sin, nor was any deceit found in His mouth; and while being reviled, He did not revile in return; while suffering, He uttered no threats, but kept entrusting Himself to [God] who judges righteously.” Give it to God, and press on!

http://theencouragingword.wordpress.com/2012/03/27/handling-criticism-the-right-way-2/

First Things First

Then Samuel took a flask of olive oil and poured it on Saul’s head and kissed him, saying, ‘Has not the Lord anointed you ruler over his inheritance?’” — 1 Samuel 10:1

This passage describes the inauguration of Saul as the first king of Israel. In ancient time, indeed, through much of history, monarchs had a tremendous amount of power and prestige which is why the Torah contains several restrictions limiting a king’s authority. In fact, according to biblical commands, a Jewish king’s first responsibility was to write for himself on a scroll a copy of all God’s laws:  “When he takes the throne of his kingdom, he is to write for himself on a scroll a copy of this law, taken from that of the Levitical priests” (Deuteronomy 17:18).

Anyone who has ever seen a Torah scroll up close can appreciate just how difficult it is to write one. After years of training, only an expert scribe, called a sofer in Hebrew, can approach the precise craft because even if one letter is missing the entire Torah scroll is invalid and cannot be used. You can imagine that it takes even the most skilled scribes many months to write a Torah scroll.

Nevertheless, the first thing a Jewish king was commanded to do was to write a scroll of the Torah to ensure that he would obey and enforce God’s laws and commands, rather than his own. A Jewish king must always remember the source of his authority, and that is the Torah or God’s laws. The scroll which he must always carry served as a constant safeguard against arrogance and abuse of power because the true purpose of a Jewish king was to serve as a moral guide and leader to his people.

But there’s a lesson for us as well. In requiring a Jewish king to first and foremost write a Torah scroll upon taking the throne, we are taught that power is never meant for the sake of our own personal gain, but rather the means by which a just society can operate.

Each and every one of us holds some position of power, whether in our families or at work, and we must constantly remind ourselves never to abuse the power that is entrusted to us. We can learn leadership lessons that are truly timeless from the Bible, and even though we might not have to write a Torah scroll, we would do well to remember God’s laws and live according to them.

http://www.holylandmoments.org/devotionals/first-things-first

“Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.” 1 Corinthians 2:12

What thick clouds of darkness spread themselves at times over our souls; all things out of sight; our signs and tokens buried, as it were, in mist. It is like a sea fog, that comes out of the bosom of the vasty deep, and hides all objects from view. The ships are on the sea, notwithstanding, but this deep fog prevents their being seen. So with our souls at times, all is misty, cloudy, and no signs can be seen of the work of God upon our hearts. And yet we “know” them, by receiving the Spirit of God, for it is the only way whereby they can be known. We can only see light in God’s light; only believe by God’s faith; only love by God’s love; therefore can only know the things freely given to us of God by the revelation of the Spirit. What we know savingly, experimentally, feelingly, we know only by divine teaching. How dark our mind often is; how low we sink at times; it is only the Son of God that can enable us to rise; only by the revelation of his Spirit can we believe that we are his. We know he is God when he shines forth, as we know the sun when it blazes forth in the summer sky. We know him by the teaching of the Spirit, but cannot see him till our eyes are divinely opened. The sun may shine in all its glory–does that communicate light to the eyes of the blind? or warm the corpse lying in the coffin? The blind see not; the dead hear not; the living, the living alone see and know the Son of God.

http://devotionals.ochristian.com/j-c-philpot-daily-portions.shtml

Time For A Change

Time For A Change.

The Real Thing

A church in Naperville, Illinois, is basking in excitement about its brand-new bells in the belfry above its sanctuary. When the church was built many years ago, they didn’t have the money to purchase bells. However, for its 25th anniversary they were able to raise the funds to hang three bells in the vacant space. Even though they are stunning, there is one problem: the congregation will never hear the bells ring. Although they look real, they are artificial.

The apostle John wrote his first epistle to encourage believers not to just look like real Christians, but to prove they are genuine by how they live. The evidence that a person’s faith is real is not found in some mystical experience with God. The proof that people truly know and love God is found in submitting to His authority and to His Word. John writes, “But whoever keeps His Word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him. He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked” (1 John 2:5-6).

If we claim that we have been transformed by the gospel and intimately know and love God, we should validate it by our obedience to His Word.

Don’t listen to the Word of God And then ignore what you have heard; Instead obey God’s will for you— Be doers of the Word. —Sper

Obedience to God is an expression of our love for God.

http://odb.org/2012/03/27/the-real-thing/

Are You Fit To Enjoy Heaven?

Are You Fit To Enjoy Heaven?.

The Third Station: Jesus Is Condemned by the Sanhedrin by Mark D. Roberts

Luke 22:66-71

When day came, the assembly of the elders of the people, both chief priests and scribes, gathered together, and they brought him to their council. They said, “If you are the Messiah, tell us.” He replied, “If I tell you, you will not believe; and if I question you, you will not answer. But from now on the Son of Man will be seated at the right hand of the power of God.” All of them asked, “Are you, then, the Son of God?” He said to them, “You say that I am.” Then they said, “What further testimony do we need? We have heard it ourselves from his own lips!”

Luke 22:66-71

According to Jewish law, it was wrong to try a criminal in the night. So, properly, those who accused Jesus waited until dawn, when the “assembly” or “council” could legally gather (the “council” is, more literally, the “Sanhedrin”). The leaders of the council, which was moderated by the high priest, wanted to know if Jesus claimed to be the Messiah. For them, this would be tantamount to a revolutionary claim, exactly the sort of thing that got the Jews into major trouble with Rome. False messiahs led to nothing but heartache and suffering for the Jewish people. Given Jesus’ failure to raise up an army suitable to rid Judea of the Romans, there would have been little reason for the members of the Sanhedrin to believe that he was the true messiah. He didn’t fit the bill, as far as they were concerned.

This may help to explain Jesus’ strange reticence with respect to his messiahship. Nowhere in the Gospels does he ever say, outright, “I am the Messiah.” Only in the Gospel of Mark does Jesus admit plainly to being the Messiah (Mark 1:62), but even there he quickly changes the subject to focus on the Son of Man seated at the right hand of God.

Of course, Jesus didn’t deny that he was the Messiah either, something that might have allowed him to be released by the Sanhedrin with only a severe beating. His failure to say that he was not the Messiah, combined with his cryptic, “You say that I am,” was enough to convince the Sanhedrin of Jesus’ guilt.

In his trial, Jesus not only wouldn’t reject his messiahship, but also he claimed that he would be “seated at the right hand of the power of God” as the promised Son of Man (Luke 22:69). This was perceived by the council, beginning with the high priest, as blasphemy and clear evidence of Jesus’ guilt. But making this claim wouldn’t have been a crime if Jesus was telling the truth. In the minds of the members of the Sanhedrin, however, there was no possibility of Jesus actually being the Son of Man who would share in God’s own power and glory. Sure, he could do a few miracles. But usher in the divine kingdom? Hardly. So the rabble-rouser, temple-destroyer, and all-around troublemaker was now, as far as the Sanhedrin was concerned, an obvious blasphemer. (Not all members of the Sanhedrin agreed that Jesus was guilty and worthy of death. Joseph of Arimathea, for example, “had not agreed to their plan and action” [Luke 23:51]).

Have you ever wondered why Jesus wasn’t clearer about who he was and what he had come to do? I certainly have. It seems like it would have been so much easier for all, including those of us who seek to follow Jesus today if he had only said, “Yes, I am the Messiah, but not in the sense you expect. I have been anointed by God to bring the kingdom, but not in a military-political way. The kingdom is coming through transformed hearts, communities, and cultures. Most of all, the kingdom is coming through my death, as I bear the sin of Israel, and, indeed, the sin of the world. As Messiah, I must also suffer in the role of Isaiah’s Servant.”

Yet Jesus didn’t say this. It’s something we have to piece together from his words and deeds. And we, like the people of his day, even his disciples, often get things confused. We rightly reject the notion of Jesus as a military-political Messiah. But then we tend to limit his saving work to post-mortem heaven for individual believers, rather than transformation of the whole cosmos, beginning with our world today. We don’t make the connection between Jesus as the Messiah and the prayer he taught us: “Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”

When we confess Jesus as Christ or Messiah, we’re acknowledging him as our personal Savior. (“Christ” is an English variation of the Greek word christos, which is equivalent to the Hebrew mashiach, or “messiah.” They all mean “anointed one.”) But we’re saying more than this. We’re also recognizing that he came to inaugurate the kingdom of God. Though this kingdom won’t fully come until Jesus himself brings it, we get to share in the blessings and responsibilities of the kingdom even now. Our calling as followers of Jesus is to do the works of the kingdom, so that the reign of God might invade this world. At the same time, we look forward to the day when all will be fulfilled. Then, in the classic words of Revelation 11:15, put to such wonderful music in Handel’s Messiah, we’ll celebrate the fact that: The kingdom of this world is become, The kingdom of our Lord, and of His Christ, And He shall reign forever and ever. Hallelujah!

QUESTIONS FOR FURTHER REFLECTION: When you think of Jesus as the Messiah, how do you understand his role? How might you live today as a citizen of the kingdom of God?

PRAYER: O Lord Jesus, the Jewish officials didn’t understand what it meant for you to be Messiah, and they condemned you as a criminal worthy of death. Your own followers didn’t understand what it meant for you to be Messiah, so they scattered and hid in your hour of crisis. Help me not to be like these! Help me to understand what it means when I confess you to be the Christ, the Messiah, the Anointed of God. And may this confession lead me to a life of true discipleship.

Let your kingdom come, Lord, and your will be done, on earth as in heaven. And let this happen in my life, even today! Amen.

http://www.thehighcalling.org/reflection/third-stations-jesus-condemned-sanhedrin?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheHighCallingDailyReflections+%28Daily+Reflection+%26+Prayer%29