Betrayal....

Betrayal...

I read this devotional this morning after receiving a note from a friend about one of her facebook "friends".  The facebook "friend" desired to "unfriend" anyone who disagreed with the latest Supreme  court court ruling on gay marriage...okay...so much for tolerance that others want..

Jesus knew who were his enemies before he came, but He came anyway...and he still desired that they repent of their evilness to the end. "Father, forgive them", from the cross..

Forgiveness seems foreign to many, as our world  seems to head more and more toward anger...

Churches and families forgiving a gunman who guns down part of the congregation during a prayer service, parents forgiving a gunman who guns down their children in school...to name a few..

Forgiveness...I know I can't do it in my own...only through the Spirit's strength...but Jesus showed the way.....

Thank YOU for the example for forgiveness...only through You can we gain the strength to do it....

Matthew 6:9-15 “This, then, is how you should pray:“

'Our Father in heaven,hallowed be your name, 

your kingdom come,your will be done,on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. 

And forgive us our debts,as we also have forgiven our debtors. 

And lead us not into temptation,but deliver us from the evil one.’ 

For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 

But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins. 

Matthew 5:13-16 “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot. “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven. 

Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he now showed them the full extent of his love (John 13:1).

The passage begins with a parable in action rather than a discourse or a message. It begins with Jesus' washing the disciples' feet. And in that remarkable event, simple as it was and yet strange in many ways, John sees some very deep and remarkable meanings. There are two movements that John sees in this event, and he gathers them up in the preface to this account. John sees first in this remarkable scene the evidence and the demonstration of the unchanging love of Jesus for His disciples. Jesus remains considerate, compassionate, and thoughtful about His disciples, and that impresses John. He is amazed by the fact that Jesus is not thinking of Himself, even though He knows that this is the dramatic hour toward which He has been living. Rather, His thoughts are still upon His disciples. He teaches them and manifests love and compassion and concern for them to the end. The second movement concerns Judas. John sees in the act of foot washing a demonstration of the truth that is in Jesus, of the remarkable passion that strips away all pretense and hypocrisy and reveals things exactly the way they are, In this dramatic act in which Jesus stoops to wash the feet of Judas as well as those of the other disciples, John sees a manifestation of that honesty of God, that reality of God that exposes all hypocrisy, and by means of such revelation seeks to lay hold of the traitor's heart and show him what is happening to him. Jesus is moved to do this, John says, by an awareness of His own authority. The Father gave all things into His hands; He knew that. He knew who He was, knew He had come from God, and knew He was going to God. And, moved by this sense of His own identity and authority, Jesus begins to speak direct words to Judas, exposing what he was doing and where he was headed. John sees all this as intertwined in this remarkable scene: the commitment of love that taught to the end and the passion of truth that fought to the end for the deliverance of Judas. Lord, thank You for the love that stoops to serve me. Thank You for the honesty that seeks to deliver me from my own hypocrisy. Help me to surrender once again to the way You are working in my life.       Life Application   Actions speak louder than words. How do we demonstrate the highest form of love - even to those who may not deserve it?