DEVOTION - FRIDAY, MARCH 30, 2012

DEVOTION - FRIDAY, MARCH 30, 2012
Holy Land Devotions 2010 - Day 32

Church of All Nations next to the Garden of Gethsemane
by Rev. Steven Herman, Richwood UMC
Reading: John 17
"Jesus Prays for Himself
1After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed: "Father, the time has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. 2For you g
granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him. 3Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. 4I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do. 5And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.
                Jesus Prays for His Disciples                     6"I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word. 7Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you. 8For I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me. 9I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours. 10All I have is yours, and all you have is mine. And glory has come to me through them. 11I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you.
Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name-the name you gave me-so that they may be one as we are one. 12While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe by that name you gave me. None has been lost except the one doomed to destruction so that Scripture would be fulfilled. 13"I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them. 14I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. 15My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. 16They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. 17Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. 18As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. 19For them I sanctify myself, that they too m7ay be truly sanctified.           

    Jesus Prays for All Believers   
20"My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 21that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: 23I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. 24"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. 25"Righteous Father,  though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. 26I 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."The beautiful mosaics in the picture are on the front of the Church of All

Nations located at the Garden of Gethsemane in Jerusalem. Many believe  the great intercessory prayer of Jesus found in John 17 was prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane on the night before he died on the cross. On that night Jesus prayed that his church would be one through God's love. How appropriate that the church located at this site is named the Church of All Nations. Through the years many people have asked me why there are so many denominations and churches and which one is the "right" or "true" church. My answer is to remind them that Jesus prayed the church would be one, and that the divisive history of the church tells us far more about human nature than divine intent. During Lent, let us pray again with our Lord that the church might be made one through the love of God.