A Prayer From the 7 Last Statements of Jesus on the Cross

1. "Father forgive them, for they know not what they do."
(Luke 23:34)

On this Good Friday, I pray that we can all find some grace in the eyes of the Lord...grace for one another...grace for ourselves...today I'm thinking about the forgiveness that I personally need in my own life, and the forgiveness that I need to show and give others...I pray today for a manifestation of the heart of Christ, so that I can even go beyond forgiveness, and make this kind of pure intercession for those who have wronged me, truly believing with a child's mindset that "they know not what they do"...

2. "Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise."
(Luke 23:43)

On this Good Friday I pray that, as Jesus assured the dying thief that everything would be all right for him in the end, that we would all have the same assurance concerning the things, attitudes, opinions, strongholds...even perhaps some hopes and dreams...that may be in the process of death...and that we would not fear it...that we would let that die which needs to die, knowing that in the death we will ultimately find paradise...

3. "Woman, behold your son: behold your mother."
(John 19:26-27)

On this Good Friday, I pray that we would all be concerned with the preservation of relationships...that as Jesus gave the responsibility of His mother over to John in His last words, creating a new sense of family in so doing, we would also embrace the ministry of reconciliation...that we would be aware that there's much too much pain in the world...too many broken hearts...I pray today for the possibilities of restoration, even in the midst of death...


4. "Eli Eli lama sabachthani?"
("My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?")
(Matthew 27:46 and Mark 15:34)


On this Good Friday, I pray for an outpouring of empathy in and for all of us...that, as Jesus identified with man on the cross, and with his sense of being disconnected from the Creator...as He cried out these desperate words in His native Aramaic to "God", not "My Father", as He had always said before...I pray that we can all feel for each other today, and realize that we are not disconnected, after all...from Him...from one another...that we would cry out for each other in our own familiar words, and that, as we pray for one another, we would all be healed...

5. "I thirst."
(John 19:28)

On this Good Friday, I pray that we would not overlook the needs of the human being...the natural man...that we would remember that all the while Jesus, the holy Son of God, was wrestling with death in the spirit-realm, He was still very much the thirsty (hungry, sweaty, bleeding, stinking, bruised, wounded, naked, pain-ridden) Son of Man, struggling for survival...He said "I thirst", and we can all relate...we're all thirsty...we're all needy...we're all human...all of us...

6. "It is finished."
(John 19:30)

On this Good Friday I pray that we could all, once and for all, accept the fact that it was and is, indeed, finished...that today we would cease from our constant striving...from proving our points...from propping up our own agendas...from waving around our own filthy rags of righteousness, trying to defend ourselves and make ourselves look good at all costs...from always having to be right...and intentionally enter into the rest that only comes from knowing that Jesus truly finished for us what He started...

7. "Father, into your hands I commit my spirit."
(Luke 23:46)

And finally, on this Good Friday, I pray that we would all embrace the blessedness of committing a thing into the hands of God, and then letting it go...that we would grasp the concepts of release...of surrender...of acceptance...and of making peace with our own destiny...Jesus asked "God" why He had forsaken Him, but He volunteered His spirit up to His "Father"...may we all have a revelation of the security we have in the nurturing, loving care of our Creator...

I pray that this Good Friday would truly be good for all people, everywhere...amen.

This and That

Hey bloggers...thank you so much for the feedback on MITN XVI. You brought up several things about the part of the chapter that's finished which I hadn't even considered...good stuff...I like the way you think. There's actually a lot to think about when you're dealing with Greek words like petra/petros (there's a big debate about the use of these synonyms for "rock" between Roman Catholic and Protestant theologians...in Aramaic, Jesus would have simply said to Peter, "You are Kepha...") and the use of "Hades", the Greek mythological ruler of the underworld...especially when you remember that Greek was not Jesus' native tongue...

But my intention in creating the paraphrase is not to add one more voice to the argument about the use of words. Not only am I not interested in entering into that debate, I'm not really even that qualified to do so. But, as I said last night at LifeSkills, a paraphrase of Scripture is sort of like a singer interpreting someone else's song. For instance, on this blog's playlist is Aretha Franklin's rendition of Bridge Over Troubled Waters. It's still Paul Simon's song, and always will be, but her interpretation of it causes you to hear the song in a new way, and, as a result, makes you like (or in my case, love) the song even more...

The Bible In The Now series is not meant to be a potential replacement of the official paraphrases and translations that are available, neither is it meant to compete with them in any way. It's just my personal "cover" of the greatest Song ever written...a Song that I've been singing to people practically all of my life...and I only want to do my interpretation of that Song so that maybe...hopefully...people will hear some subtle, nuanced things that the Composer wrote into it, which might have been lost on them in the familiarity of it...

Anyway, Passover 2009 starts today, the 9th of April, and will continue for 7 days until Wednesday, the 15th. In the story of the Exodus, the Bible tells that God inflicted ten plagues upon the Egyptians before Pharaoh would release his Israelite slaves, with the tenth plague being the killing of firstborn sons. The Hebrews were instructed to mark the doorposts of their homes with the blood of a spring lamb and, upon seeing this, the Spirit of the Lord (some traditions say the Angel of the Lord, or the Angel of Death) passed over these homes, hence the term "Passover".

In the Jewish calender, a holiday begins on the sunset of the previous day, so observing Jews began celebrating Passover last night at sundown.

Today is also Maundy Thursday (also known as Holy Thursday or Great and Holy Thursday...the Christian feast or holy day falling on the Thursday before Easter that commemorates the Last Supper of Jesus Christ with the Apostles. It is the fifth day of Holy Week, and is preceded by Holy Wednesday and followed by Good Friday.

On this day four events are commemorated: the washing of the Disciples' Feet by Jesus, the institution of the Last Supper, the agony of Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane, and His betrayal by Judas Iscariot.

So, today's an important day, and this is an important week. I am looking forward to celebrating Resurrection with all of you this coming Sunday...

MITN XVI, Verses 13 - 20

13. Now when Jesus went into the region of Caesarea Philippi, He called His disciples together and pointedly asked them, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?”

14. And they answered, “Well, some say that You are the reincarnation of John the Baptist, or even that of Elijah; and others believe that you are Jeremiah of old, miraculously appearing in this present time, or that You are a modern manifestation of one of the other prophets.”

15. With no surprise at their answers, or response to their observations, He pressed them further, asking, “But who do you, yourselves, say that I am?”

16. Simon Peter, almost always the first one of them to speak up, replied, “I say that You are the Christ, the Son of the living God!”

17. Then Jesus answered him, “You are truly blessed, Simon, Son of Jonah, because flesh and blood, or natural, human reasoning, has not revealed this to you. You have gained this insight through tapping into the perspective and paradigm of My Father Who is in the heavenly dimension.

18. And since My Father has revealed to you Who I really am, I'm going to reveal to you who you really are. So I tell you, your name is now Peter/Rock, or as the Greeks say, ‘Petros’ (the masculine form of the word ‘Petra’). In other words, others may see you merely as a rolling stone, but you are cut from The Rock, or the ‘PETRA’, nonetheless; and it’s on this Rock…this massive formation like the Rock of Gibraltar…that I will build My Church! Yes, My Church will be built on a mammoth, unshakable, and unmovable revelation of the I AM, from which you have spoken…and the gates of death, and of everything else from the dark side of the unseen realm (or ‘Hades’, as the Greeks call it in their mythology), shall not be able to overpower it, or be strong enough to hold out against the magnitude of it!”

19. And through this revelation, I will give people like you the very Keys of the Kingdom of/from the heavens. So with this power to unlock or lock up heaven on earth, as it were, whatever you declare to be improper and unlawful in this dimension, must be what is already declared improper and unlawful in the heavenly realm. In the same way, whatever you declare to be lawful on earth must be the standard norm in the heavenly realm. You can actually bind or loose…forbid or permit…lock or unlock…with the authority that comes from these revelation-keys!

20. Then He strictly charged the disciples to tell no one that He was Jesus, the Christ, so that each individual would have to know Him by their own revelation, as well, and not by means of hearing it from “flesh and blood”.

MITN XVI, Verses 1 - 12

1. Now the relentless Pharisees and Sadducees came up to Jesus, yet again, this time asking Him to show them a sign, or a spectacular miracle from heaven, that would validate His divine authority.

2. He replied to them, “Look...when it’s evening, you have a tradition of saying, ‘We'll have fair weather, because the sky is red’,

3. And in the morning you say, ‘It will be stormy today, because the sky is red, and looks threateningly gloomy’. You obviously know how to interpret the meaning of the sky’s appearance, but you can’t interpret the signs of the times!

4. Only a shallow and clueless generation is wicked enough to constantly crave a sign, but no sign shall be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah!” And without any commentary, or further explanation, He just left them and went away.

5. When the disciples reached the other side of the lake, they realized that they had forgotten to bring along any bread.

6. During the boat ride, Jesus had said to them, “Be careful, and on your guard against the Pharisee/Sadducee yeast or leaven”,

7. so they reasoned among themselves about it in hushed tones, wrongly assuming that Jesus was annoyed with them for traveling without food supplies.

8. But He, aware of this, asked, “Why are you worriedly whispering among yourselves the fact that you have no bread, and trying to hide it from Me? Honestly, sometimes I’m just amazed at how little faith you men have!

9. How is it possible that you have already forgotten that we literally fed thousands, just the other day, with only five loaves of bread? Don’t you remember gathering up the twelve whole baskets of leftovers after everyone was full?

10. And surely you recall that a little later we also fed another several thousand people with only seven loaves. Can it really be that you don’t remember also gathering baskets of leftovers that day, as well?

11. But even that’s not the issue…my real question is this: How can you, at this point, be so out of touch with what I’m talking about, in general? Why would you even think that I was talking about bread in the first place? How many feeding miracles is it going to take for you to realize that food-supply isn’t the problem? The problem is what’s inside the out-of-touch religious community, which is why I said (and say), beware of the Pharisee/Sadducee yeast!

12. Then, at last, they got it. They understood that He was warning them to not be void of discernment, as the Pharisees and Sadducees were. They finally made the connection that He did not tell them to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the empty teaching of those two misguided religious groups.

What's On Your Mind?

Celebrate Palm Sunday!

The next day, a huge crowd assembled in Jerusalem for the Passover Feast. When they heard that Jesus was coming there for the festival, they took palm branches and went out to meet Him, loudly shouting to Him, "Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in God's name. Blessed is the King of Israel!" But Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it, to fulfill what was written: "Don't be afraid people of Israel. Look, your King is coming, sitting on a donkey's colt."

At first, His disciples didn't get it at all. But after Jesus was glorified, they remembered all this and realized that everything had happened exactly as the Scriptures had said it would. Those in the crowd who had seen Jesus raise Lazarus from the dead, were talking about it incessantly. And as they kept recounting the story over and over, the excitement from the whole thing just spread like wildfire among the people.

And that's why the crowd was so huge and noisy that day. The whole town was so electrified with the news of Jesus' power and ability, that a kind of mania had set in among them. So when the Pharisees saw what was happening, they said to one another, "This thing is out of control! Look! The entire world has gone after Jesus!"

(John 12:12 - 19 - JITN)