Let not your heart be troubled

I love the ending of John 13 and the beginning of John 14.
Sometimes it pays to not stop reading at chapter divisions.
Somebody definitely messed this one up.

Let me set the stage for you.

Jesus is with His disciples at the Last Supper and He's telling them some things
He really wants them to grasp.

He's telling them that He is leaving them and then He says,
"Love one another as I have loved you."
('I won't be around to love you like I love you
so love each other like I love you.')

Peter asks Jesus, "Where are you going?"
Jesus says, "You can't come with me where I am going now
but you'll come later."
Peter says, "I want to come with you now! Why can't I?
I'll lay my life down for you!"

This makes me cry.
Jesus looked at him and asks gently,
"Will you lay your life down for Me?
Before the rooster crows,
(before morning comes)
you will have denied me three times.

Let not your heart be troubled;
you believe in God, believe also in Me.
In My Father's house are many mansions;
if it were not so,
I would have told you.
I go to prepare a place for you,
And if I go and prepare a place for you,
you better believe that I'll come back again
and take you to that place,
so we can be together there."

There's more.
Read it for yourself in chapter 14.

I love that Jesus addressed Peter's cocky statement
with a gentle rebuke.
(And then said, "Let not your heart be troubled.")
When His words were later fulfilled,
Peter could look back and remember
that Christ already knew.

Jesus turned to Peter and said these personal words
but then moved on to
address the real cry of Peter's heart,
which was,
"Don't leave me!
I left everything to follow You
and now you're leaving me?!
Don't leave me!"

"Let not your heart be troubled...
Don't be afraid...
I'm going to prepare a place for you in My Father's mansion...
And then I'll come back for you...
I'll receive you to Myself...
Where I am, you'll be also...
Where I go, you know, and the way you know..."

The One who minutes before
had served the wine and the bread-
His brokenness,
to those who would deny Him
and run from His trouble,
That One
comforts those who don't want Him to leave them.

Even if you deny Me.
Even if you run.
I'll be back.
For you.
Don't worry.
Don't be troubled.
I'll be back.
For you.

Thank you dear Jesus
for reaching into our hearts with your healing balm
to touch the real issues of our souls
hidden by our prideful words.

Thank you dear Jesus
that even though we fail to prepare a place for You,
You prepare a place for us
to be with You.

Thank you
that even if we would deny You,
Your grace is offered back to us.

Father and Son

I love smart people.

It's the first thing I notice about a person.
Is he or she smart?
Not, is he or she nice to look at.
Not, is he or she kind.
But, is he smart? Is she smart?

The computer guy was here the other day and how do I describe
him to Phil? "You could tell he was smart."
I guess being smart was a family value growing up.

I grew up free from the need to be beautiful
because I just wasn't.
No one said, "Oh, Annette. You are so beautiful."
And I am glad that I was free from that burden.

But it was important to get very good grades.
And it was important to remember who I was
and to behave accordingly.

I never felt that I was as smart as anyone else in our family.
You should see how smart my siblings are.
I said something to my mother sometime during this past year
when I was with her.
I said, "I never thought I was as smart as my siblings."
She made a little sound and said,
"I never noticed the difference."
Her words filled my smart tank.
She has no idea!
Well, actually, she probably does now.

Anyway, I had no intention of going off about myself like that.
I really wanted to compare two different writings of a father and son.

I was reading Solomon's words recorded in Eccl. 1:17,18-
"And I set my heart to know wisdom and to know madness and folly.
I perceived that this also is grasping for the wind.
For in much wisdom is much grief,
And he who increases knowledge increases sorrow."

(I thought of Christ's words that He would like us to be
ignorant of evil but knowledgeable of the truth.
Something like that.
Harmless as doves. Wise as serpents.)

If only Solomon had not set his heart to know madness and folly.
If only he had stuck with wisdom.

And then there is David, Solomon's father.
He wrote one of my favorite Psalms.
I read it when life is overwhelming
and I have gotten caught up with the madness
and folly that comes from too much knowledge.

Psalms 131~
Read it and rest.

"LORD, my heart is not haughty,
Nor my eyes lofty.
Neither do I concern myself with great matters,
Nor with things too profound for me.
Surely I have calmed and quieted my soul,
Like a weaned child with his mother;
Like a weaned child is my soul within me.
Oh Israel, hope in the LORD
From this time forth and forever."

Be responsible for the knowledge you have
that you are responsible for.
But don't be responsible for the knowledge you have
for which you are not responsible.

Do not concern yourself with great matters,
nor with things that are beyond you.

Calm and quiet your soul
like a contented child on its mother's lap.

And hope in the Lord.
Don't put your trust in your own understanding of things.
Hope in the Lord
and trust in Him forever.

Arete-(ar-et-ay)=Virtue

I am about to close another scribbled blog journal from which I edit as I type, but first, there are several writings I want to jot down here. This is especially challenging when all I have given myself are a few notes but I'll try. I discovered yesterday, the reason why I always feel like I am running behind, and it is because I am always trying to catch up on my blog. Writing has taken a back seat this summer. But I hope to change this because writing makes me happy and knowing I am going to write helps me notice things and helps me live more fully.

2 Peter 1-the first part of the chapter tells us that God's divine power has given us all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue,
by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these we may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.
For this very reason, giving all diligence, we must add to our faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love.
For if these things are ours and abound, we will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
For he who lacks these things is short-sighted, even to blindness, and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins,
Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make our call and election sure, for if we do these things we will never stumble;
for so an entrance will be supplied to us abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

That's from the New King James Version.

If we want to be fruitful,
if we want to know God,
if we want to see clearly,
if we want to remember that our sins have been forgiven,
if we want to never stumble,
if we want to escape the lustful corruption of the world,
if we want to enter the kingdom of our Lord,
then,
we need to be faithful in making our calling and election sure.

And this is our calling-to be filled with the divine power of God.
That divine power has given us all things that have anything to do with life and godliness.
And He has given us great and precious promises,
that through these promises,
we may partake of His divine nature.

So for that reason, we add to our faith-
virtue, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly kindness, love.

If these are ours in abundance
we will be fruitful in the knowledge of Jesus Christ.

This knowledge of Christ is more than head knowledge.
It is knowing the Three In One; God,the Holy Spirit, Jesus Christ.
Experiencing who they are changes and transforms us,
and keeps us from the error of false teaching.

Virtue-arete-has come to mean moral excellency and goodness.
But 'many scholars feel that in biblical times
arete was commonly used to refer to manifestations of
God's miracle power.'

Remember when the woman touched Jesus's robe
and He felt virtue leaving His body?
Did He feel moral excellency and goodness leaving His body?
Or did He feel God's miraculous power leaving His body?

What if holy goodness and moral excellence left His body
and entered ours?
Would it manifest itself as God's miraculous power?

The other thing I noticed was that His divine nature
and the very things we are to add to our faith
so we can grow,
are really one and the same.

Do these words describe God?
Did Jesus manifest God's character as a human
in these ways?

Was He full of faith?
Was He full of virtue?
Did He know God?
Did He exhibit self-control?
Did He persevere?
Was He godly?
Was He full of brotherly kindness?
Did He love?

There is such depth to this scripture.

I keep trying to organize it in a straight line
but I think it goes in a circle.

Divine Power
The Knowledge of God
Precious Promises
Partaking of His Divine nature
Add the character of God to our faith
(faith without works is dead)
Bear fruit
Never stumble
Enter the everlasting Kingdom

It's all about God.
But it's also about us.

We receive His divine power.
We grab hold of those great promises.
We partake of the divine nature.
We add to our growing.
We be diligent and make sure of our calling.

He provides the power and the promises.
He provides His righteousness.
He provides the glory and the virtue.
He provides the divine nature.
He prepares the everlasting kingdom.

It's a win-win situation.
It always is with God.