John 17:1-12

For Reading and Meditation:     2 Timothy 3:12-17

We continue from where we left off yesterday in saying that persecution is one of the proofs that we are true disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ. Many Christians find great difficulty in coming to terms with this issue of persecution, and because they have never understood that those who reject Christ will also...

For Reading and Meditation:     Hebrews 6:1-20

Out of all the aspects of truth that surround the fact of our Lord's ascension, one of the greatest is surely this - Christ is our Precursor. A precursor is really a forerunner - an advance runner - and that is precisely the term which our text for today applies to the climactic ministry of our ascended Lord. The NIV...

Twice in His great high priestly prayer, our Lord prayed that His people might be one (verses 21 and 22, 23). This prayer for unity has been seized as Scriptural support for the ecumenical movement - a great organizational union of all professing Christian churches. Unfortunately this ecumenical unity is achieved through abandoning or reinterpreting fundamental Christian doctrines. As Malcolm Muggeridge wrote, "By one of our time's larger ironies, ecumenicalism is triumphant just when there...

When you pray, say: Our Father in heaven. § My Father and your Father, and . . . My God and your God.As the Father gave Me commandment, so I do. § The words that I speak to you I do not speak on My own authority; but the Father who dwells in Me does the works.The Father loves the Son, and has given all things into His hand. § You have given Him authority over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as You have given Him.“Lord, show us the Father, and it...

Jesus … was made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death … that He, by the grace of God, might taste death for everyone. § One died for all. § As by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man’s obedience many will be made righteous.“The first man Adam became a living being.” The last Adam became a life-giving spirit … However the spiritual is not first, but the natural, and afterward the spiritual. § God said, “Let Us make man in Our image,...

The Lord said, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am doing?” § It has been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven. § But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. § The hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages for our glory.Blessed is the man You choose, and cause to approach You, that he may dwell in Your courts. We shall be satisfied with the goodness of Your house, of Your holy...

I have manifested Your name to the men whom You have given Me out of the world. They were Yours, You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word … I pray for them. I do not pray for the world but for those whom You have given Me, for they are Yours. And all Mine are Yours, and Yours are Mine, and I am glorified in them …Father, I desire that they also whom You gave Me may be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory which You have given Me; for You loved Me before the foundation of...