DOWNPOUR

John 17

Hey Downpour! In updating how Texas has been, I'll cut the verbosity and save that for John 17 :)

• Houston is warm. I'm in my shorts and flip flops.
• My cat has become super obese after just 4 months. It's become a cow.
• I've finished 2nd, 3rd, 4th seasons of House! :D
• Go watch Marley and Me and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.
• Watch out for the nasty flu. Got it in AA and suffered through my first week in Tx.
• Alot of Friends and Family time. 
• Going back to AA on Monday. (When are everyone else going back?)

Other than that, I'm met with a lot of decision making situations. For one thing, I'm so indecisive I'm still not sure what classes I'm taking next semester. Yes, I'm aware that classes begin next Wednesday :(

(v.2) "For you granted him[Jesus] authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him." This verse reminds us of the fact that those coming to accept Christ and to know God are sent by God himself. No man can convert another man to believe in God. It is all of God's work and only he can make non believers become believers. This is again emphasized when Jesus is praying for his disciples. (v.6) "I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours;"

(v.11) "Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name--the name you gave me--so that they may be one as we are one."  Remember that God's working to protect the disciples to make sure they don't fall out of faith or tempted away but to stay "as one."

(v.14) "I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world." World today is completely different from world with God. The disciples will be met with hostility and the world will turn against the them because they believe in Jesus, who is not of this world, which makes them not of this world either. (v.18) "As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world."  

And then Jesus prays for all Believers. (v.20) "My prayer is not for them[disciples] lone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their[disciples'] message, that all of them  may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you." (v.22-23) "...they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me..." Accepting Jesus fully to heart is like accepting God. Everything comes from God through Jesus. "May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them eve as you have loved me."  Jesus prays to God to protect the believers to stay as one, to branch out to the unreached, let the world know God's love is great enough for God to send his one and only son to this world.

The last part of this chapter reminds all of us, as believers to stay in faith, love each other (to stay as one under God)

to work to speak out to the unbelieving world. And because Jesus prayed to God, God's working to make all this happen, he has it under his control. Because just as God sent Jesus, disciples and believers are sent by God through Jesus to carry out God's will. 

Okay, see you guys soon!