A GOD-CENTERED LIFE...

Becoming GOD-Centered ~ ~ ~ The Way of The Cross
Pascha Season Meditation 1
(Passover or Lenten Season)
Year of His+ Grace,
2009

These things spoke JESUS,
and lifted up His+ eyes into the Heaven,
and said,
FATHER, the hour is come;
glorify Thy SON+,
that Thy SON+ also may
glorify THEE:
John 17, verse 1,
Italics from the Greek text

The LORD dipped the morsel and gave it to Judas Iscariot in the account of the Last Supper we see recorded in John 13. When Judas had received the morsel and gone out into the night, The LORD said these mysterious words:

Then, when he [Judas] went, JESUS said,
Now was glorified the Son of Man+,
and GOD was glorified in Him+.
John13:31
[Literal Greek translation from J.P. Green’s Interlinear New Testament]

The LORD explained something important to His+ remaining Disciples who did not betray Him+.

HE+ pointed out that HE+ had made a deliberate decision from His+ Will to do what The FATHER asked Him+ to do.

When The LORD put that decision in motion, HE+ explained what HE+ was really doing: becoming glorified in The FATHER.

In the next verse, Our LORD explains more about what HE+ just did. HE+ refers to Himself+ as HE+ often did in the third person, [i.e., he instead of I,]. JESUS said, referring to Himself+:

If GOD was glorified in Him+,
GOD also will glorify Him+ in HIMSELF,
and immediately will glorify Him+.
[Greek translation from J.P. Green’s Interlinear New Testament]

Here The LORD tells His+ Beloved Disciples that The FATHER will do something for Him+ and to Him+. Why? It is because JESUS brought The FATHER glory by doing HIS will.


<(((><
Dear Heavenly FATHER,

We ask YOU to help us do Your Will so that we can bring glory to You. Strengthen us so that we do not shrink back and pull away from the path You have shown us to walk… be it in loneliness, in strict economy, or in any other straightened circumstance of body, mind, or soul. We thank You for sending Your SON+ as our Example so that we do not have to walk in darkness …nor in aloneness as we embrace the cross You have laid out for us as Your Will. Glory to YOU, LORD GOD of our fathers; You are worthy of praise. Glory to You.

In the Name of The FATHER,
The Beloved SON+,
and The Blessed HOLY SPIRIT.
Amen.
+ + +

Lenten Meditation 10
For the Year of Our LORD, 2.15.2008

The Prayer of our LORD for His+ Followers,

Whom HE+ now calls Brethren:

And now I am no more in the world,
but these are in the world,
and I come to thee.
Holy Father, keep through thine own name
those whom thou hast given me,
that they may be one, as we are.

And for their sakes I sanctify myself,
that they also might be sanctified through the truth.
Neither pray I for these alone,
but for them also which shall believe
on me through their word;

That they all may be one;
as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee,
that they also may be one in us:
that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.

And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them;
that they may be one, even as we are one:

I in them, and thou in me,
that they may be made perfect in one;
and that the world may know that thou hast sent me,
and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.

The Mouth of The LORD hath spoken it;
The Apostle John recorded it

(in chapter 17, verses 11 and 19-23).

Let us strive to be ONE with HIM+.