John 17:1-5 After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed:
“Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him. Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. I have brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began. [NIV]The picture above was painted by a man we met in a church we visited in The Republic of Georgia in about 2003. He gave us the painting. I love the way he painted the world visible in the heavenlies as Jesus was carrying the cross. Jesus was with his Father before the world began. They knew Adam would sin, but loved Adam enough to give Adam the freedom to choose who he would listen to. Knowing Adam would allow Satan to deceive him, Jesus already agreed to become the perfect sacrifice to pay for all the sins of mankind. If you have seen the pictures of earth the astronauts are sending us of what the earth looks like in space, it looks sort of like the earth in the painting.
The Gospel of John begins with, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."
Then in John 1:2, that concept was emphasized, "He was with God in the beginning."
In the third verse, John really drives the point home that Jesus is God, and that Jesus was the Word of God spoken that created the world. "Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made."
The Gospel of John begins with, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."
Then in John 1:2, that concept was emphasized, "He was with God in the beginning."
In the third verse, John really drives the point home that Jesus is God, and that Jesus was the Word of God spoken that created the world. "Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made."
The whole first chapter of The Gospel of John is wonderful, and you might want to read it to see if you agree. Shortly after Neil and I were married, we were meeting in our home with friends and felt certain the Holy Spirit was telling us to get connected with a good church. One of the churches we visited was the Assembly of God church in Morris. That Sunday, the pastor was preaching from this first chapter of the Gospel of John. I didn't know the Bible very well at that time, and the idea that Jesus was with the Father before the world was created was a whole new concept to me! But John makes it really plain. That got me so excited about the Bible, I wanted to dig in and learn all about it. But I'm heading down a rabbit trail, and I have a story to tell. The Holy Spirit intervened and put us in touch with another group of wonderful Christians, but that is a wholely different story. You can read that story in our book, Navigating Life: A Mentoring Toolkit, available on Kindle.
But it is Jesus' willingness to become the perfect sacrifice in our place that we are celebrating tomorrow, on Easter Sunday. So much is being said about Jesus' death and resurrection this week, and I hope you are taking it all in.
My goal today is to help you join Neil in Kenya, so we are going to draw the curtain and see what is taking place on the Lord's stage in that part of the world.
Neil is continuing the interviews with ROCK children and their caregivers who attend Christopher's church. Christopher lives in a small village where the internet travels only now and then. Neil has been very busy, but in his free time he tried calling me and wrote several descriptive texts, only a few of which made it to Morris, Minnesota. These were the texts that made it:
Good Friday: We had a service at 10:00 a.m. in Sengera. I spoke of the precursors pointing to the crucifixion: Adam and Eve, Abraham and Isaac, the death of the firstborn when the Pharaoh gave the children of Israel permission to return to their homeland, all leading up to Jesus paying the full price as the perfect sacrifice for sin.
Neil washed his clothes in the morning and completed the ROCK interviews in Sengera. He also counseled Hellen and Mary that trust and forgiveness are not the same. Just as we have been freely forgiven through Jesus' death, we must freely forgive others. However, trust is earned through our faithfulness in loving relationships. Taking that a step further, love is much deeper than receiving USA $. It is through our obedience that we show our love for God, and Jesus learned obedience through the things he suffered. When we receive everything we ask God for, we are treating God as our servant, like a geni in a bottle. It is the other way around. When we give our lives to Jesus, we become His servant, but praise God, He is a kind and loving Master.
During the interviews, Neil also counseled some of the children. He found himself dispensing logic like, "You are a smart lad. Why are you in the bottom third of the class." Or, "Oh, you don't understand your teacher? Why do 2/3rds of the class have no problem understanding her? Let's pray and ask Jesus to help you learn to become a responsible student giving God glory in everything you do."
Each year, Neil tries to visit his friend Joshua's family even though Joshua died a few years ago. His sister, Joyce, always invites Neil to join them for a meal. Hellen and Atkinson came along with Neil and Francis. There was lots of lively discussion around the table. Joyce's brothers are quite opinionated, and in their house they are always respected as correct, but they all leave satisfied that their ideas were heard, even when not agreed upon.
On his way out of Joyce's house, Neil visited with the 103-year-old grandmother who delighted him with her wisdom. Neil plans to write a Facebook post on that conversation when he gets home.
Thursday night Neil was told that the Good Friday morning service would be their last in Sengera, but behold, when they returned, they were summoned for a final service. Neil did not have a message in mind, but he brought several he had prepared ahead of the trip. On one of their first visits to Kenya 20 years ago, when people asked for the Baptism of the Holy Spirit, several of the pastors' wives fell over under the Spirit's power and they began to speak in tongues. Neil had said at that time that it was like he was witnessing Penticost. During the night through the thatched roofs, you could hear a woman in this hut -- and then in another -- speaking out in their tongues with joy and delight -- but to the consternation of their husbands. After that, each year people come forward asking if they, too, can have hands laid on them and be prayed for the Baptism of the Holy Spirit. This year it was Neil's friend Atkinson who at last received and began speaking in tongues. Neil was describing Atkinson's experience in one of the texts that did not arrive, but this much made it to me in his next text:
"I put her hands on Atkinson, and he jerked from the jolt of the Holy Spirit's power touching him. There was another gal who was shaking under the Spirit's presence, so I brought her to Atkinson and had her place her hands on him. Then Atkinson at last broke forth in speaking in tongues! There were 12 at the meeting today who were baptized in the Holy Spirit and spoke in tongues.
Over the years we have been asked how we know whether or not the tongues are genuine, and how do we know it is not the devil speaking through people? We have always had an interpreter who can tell if they are using a known language in their part of the world. Also, when the Holy Spirit is present, the fruit of the Holy Spirit can be noticed. There is peace and joy, not agitation, anger, or fear. In the 1960's my brother-in-law Larry was helping a missionary in the mountains in the Philippines. Larry was singing a solo in English, but the indigenous mountain people were hearing it in their own tribal language. We also had missionary friends who were traveling in the 1990's. When in an airport, the wife asked another couple directions. The wife thought she was speaking English, because she didn't know any other language, but the couple in the airport not only heard her in their language -- our missionary friend's family heard her speaking the other language. When she returned to her family, they asked when she had studied that language. She was astonished, because she thought she was speaking English, but those around her heard her speaking the other language and well enough for the couple to understand. God scattered people at the Tower of Babel by confusing their speech with a variety of languages. He is also able to baptize us in His Holy Spirit with the ability to speak in other tongues.
As Jesus was saying goodbye to his disciples just before he was lifted off the earth, he said they were to wait for the gift the Father promised so they would have power to be his witnesses. Neil and I do not have the ability to speak and understand other languages, but we are able to pray in tongues. It is a language of the spirit, which is helpful in prayer. After we have prayed everything we can think to pray in English, if we still feel like more prayer is needed, we begin to pray in the spirit. Then as we pray, we listen for the Holy Spirit to speak to our hearts. We often are reminded of Bible passages or hymns, or people come to our minds to pray for, or there are images that come into our thoughts of how to proceed with whatever it is that we were praying for. We talk those impressions over and are in that way guided by the Holy Spirit. It is comforting to know that we are never alone. The Holy Spirit is with us and in us 24/7 and he always hears us when we pray.
Have a wonderful Easter!
Prayer items:
- Pray for those who were filled with the Holy Spirit today that they will receive teaching and encouragement to allow God to take them deeper in relationship with Jesus.
- Pray for Neil and Francis to have the strength and energy to complete all of the ROCK interviews at Rosemary's church and school tomorrow.
- Continue to pray for Esther's family who will have her funeral in Sengera on Tuesday.
Thank you again for your prayers.
Love,
Ruth