gethsemane.

"Jesus said, wait with me. and maybe the stars did, maybe
the wind wound itself into a silver tree, and didn't move,
maybe
the lake far away, where once he walked as on a
blue pavement,
lay still and waited, wild awake.

oh the dear bodies, slumped and eye-shut, that could not
keep that vigil, how they must have wept,
so utterly human, knowing this too
must be part of the story."

-mary oliver.

a natural extension.

"the really good news for humanity is that the message of and about Jesus is specifically a gospel for our life now, not just for dying. it is about living now as his apprentice in kingdom living, not just as a consumer of his merits. our future, however far we look, is a natural extension of the faith by which we live now and the life in which we now participate. eternity is now in flight and we with it, like it or not."

-dallas willard.

Chutzpah:

1. headstrong persistence. 2. brazen impudence. 3. unyielding tenacity. 4. raw nerve.

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"we pray with chutzpah, because G-d is good." -brad young.

continue.

"as you therefore have received Messiah Jesus the Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving."

-letter to the colossians, ch. 2.

in every detail, worthy.

the geneology and the virgin birth show that the King is legally qualified to reign. at the baptism Jesus received divine approval. now the King is proven as to His moral character through the temptations.

matthew has carefully presented the legal geneology of the King, His supernatural birth in fulfillment of prophecy, His confirmation of prophecy by His childhood, His forerunner, His baptism, and His temptation.

in every detail the King is qualified - legally, scripturally, and morally.

all is now in readiness for the presentation of the Messiah to israel.

-stanley toussaint.

the heart of Jesus.

"simon, simon, satan has asked to sift you as wheat. but I have prayed for you, simon, that your faith may not fail. and when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers."

-rabbi Jesus to peter, after he denied him.

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stunning and beautiful. Jesus prays for us and over our mistakes through his lens of grace even before we sin, and continues to believe in us despite of it.

"and when you have turned back..."

and his mighty vision of grace whispers in this passage;

I know your heart. you will fail and you will sin and you will hurt people, BUT,

you remain what I name you to be. you are still mine.

TURN.
TURN.
TURN.

and then use the experience of the grace i offer you to encourage your brothers who will do the same.

unbroken, and constant.

"read as a particularly clear example psalm 5: repeatedly there are two voices, bringing the same concern to God. is this not a hint that one who prays never prays alone? always there must be a second person, another, a member of the fellowship, the body of Messiah, indeed, Jesus himself, praying with him, in order that the prayer of the individual may be true prayer. is there not in these repetitions of the same thought, which in psalm 119 rise to the point where it seems that it would never end, the tremendous suggestion that every word of prayer must penetrate to a depth of the heart that can be reached only by unceasing iteration? is this not an indication that prayer is not a matter of pouring out the human heart once and for all in need or joy, but of an unbroken, constant learning, accepting, and impressing upon the mind of God's will in Jesus Messiah?

-dietrich bonhoeffer.

tension.

sometimes the worst thing for faith is our ideals.

the beauty of following Jesus does not grow from His removal of life's messiness;

the weight and the power and the glory of following Jesus manifests in the fact that amongst all of life's chaos and failure and struggle and tension,

the power of the resurrection, the living Word, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the gentle One, Victor and Shepherd and Defender, King of all kings,

MESSIAH,

resides with us in the midst of it,

and breathes, speaks, creates,
resurrects

new life.

(amen).

שְׁלַח

by Your light,
do i see light.

send forth Your light and Your truth.

new dimensions.

"a purely ethical monotheism in which God, the guardian of moral order, keeps the world subject to the law, would restrict the scope of God's knowledge and concern to what is of ethical signifigance. God's relation to man would, in general, run along the lines of a universal principle. the divine pathos alone is able to break through this rigidity and create new dimensions for the unique, the specific, and the particular.

it is not law and order itself, but the living God who created the universe and established its law and order, that stands supreme in Biblical thought.

before the Torah, the covenant was.

prophecy is a reminder that what obtains between God and man is not a contract but a covenant. anterior to the covenant is love, the love of the fathers, and what obtains between God and israel must be understood, not as legal, but as a personal relationship, as participation, involvement, tension. God's life interacts with the life of the people. to live in the covenant is to partake of the fellowship of God and His people. Biblical religion is not what man does with his solitariness, but rather what man does with God's concern for all men.

the gulf that separates man from God is transcended by His pathos."

-abraham joshua heschel, excerpts.

promise.

"He shall not grow dim or be bruised until He has established the true way on earth..."

-isaiah 42.

Jesus mean and wild.

"in the end, the lover of truth and the doer of love will sometimes, like Jesus, be both mean and wild - mean with righteous anger, and wild with inconsolable grief: "jerusalem, jerusalem!"

-mg.

"As I have read the Gospels over the years, the belief has grown in me that Jesus did not come to found an organized religion but came instead to found an unorganized one. He seems to have come to carry religion out of the temples into the fields and sheep pastures, onto the roadsides and the banks of the rivers, into the houses of sinners and publicans, into the town and the wilderness, toward the membership of all that is here. Well, you can read and see what you think."

-wendell "jayber crow" berry.

a dim reflection.

we little know what a great man walked this earth and took up our burden.

someday we will know fully.

how my heart yearns.

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2 corinthians 13. Job 19.

a prayer for peace.

In the midst of our current times, with all the tensions and fractures intensifying in Israel, the words of this prayer seem very fitting, and daily move my heart.

may we all pray for israel. may we all pray for God's people. may we all pray for peace.

section 19 of the amidah prayer, a prayer for peace:

"Grant peace, welfare, blessing, grace, loving kindness and mercy to us and to all Israel your people. Bless us, Oh our Father, one and all, with the light of your countenance; for by the light of your countenance you have given us, Oh L-rd our G-d, a Torah of life, loving kindness and salvation, blessing, mercy, life and peace. May it please you to bless your people Israel at all times and in every hour with your peace. Blessed are you, Oh L-rd, who blesses his people Israel with peace."

amen.

our great Defender.

"in the Hebrew scriptures, satan was the angel who was the counsel for the prosecution against men in the presence of God. he was the adversary of men." -w. barclay.

i came across this passage in a revelation commentary this morning, and i found it interesting to think of satan in this way, as a prosecutor in the presence of God, bringing before heaven all the evil things that humanity has done and bringing to God's attention the selfishness that consistently resides in our hearts.

our accuser.

highlighting what we once were,
emphasizing our crooked choices,
and reminding us of all we do not deserve.

and it was such a beautiful and moving thing for me to then compare that image to Jesus.

our beautiful, compassionate, generous, powerful, victorious, and faultless Defender, sitting at the right hand of God, intimately speaking with Him on our behalf.

making hollow all those accusations of guilt.

and God, the great and merciful Judge, choosing to listen to the voice and the witness of His Son, the great Messiah of humanity, rather than the adversary.

no longer is it our own lives that stand as witness.

it is now the life of the unblemished Lamb, Son of the MOST HIGH GOD, that stands on trial as evidence in the Kingdom.

and the verdict comes in: not guilty.

and the verdict comes in:

GRACE.

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"the forgiveness which is in the Cross has left satan the accuser no possible accusation to make." -w. barclay.

"be strong in the grace of Jesus." -paul.

the water of life.

"The Spirit and the bride say, 'Come!' And let him who hears say, 'Come!' Whoever is thirsty, let him come; and whoever wishes, let him take the free gift of the water of life.

He who testifies to these things says, 'Yes, I am coming soon.'

Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.

The grace of the Lord Jesus be with God's people.

Amen."

revelation 22.

the Lord's favor.

"the spirit of the Lord God is upon me,
because the Lord has anointed me;
He has sent me as a herald of joy to the
humble,
to bind up the wounded of heart,
to proclaim release to the captives,
liberation to the imprisoned;
to proclaim a year of the Lord's favor
and a day of vindication by our God;
to comfort all who mourn -
to provide for the mourners in Zion -
to give them a turban instead of ashes,
the festive ointment instead of mourning,
a garment of splendor instead of a drooping
spirit.
they shall be called terebinths of victory,
planted by the Lord for His glory."

-isaiah 61.

"today, this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing." - Jesus, Luke 4.

a rabbi's prayers.

"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."

-the last prayer of Jesus the night before His death, His prayer for you and you and you, and me too.