17a. What going-away gift have you received or given?
17b. Have you experienced unity with other believers? How did you know?
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What's happening in John 17?
vv 1-5 Jesus prays for himself
vv 6-19 Jesus prays for his disciples
vv 20-26 Jesus prays for all believers
3 comments:
17a.
Last month my neighbor and I traded our used jigsaw puzzles before she moved. Now when each of us works them later in the year, we’ll remember the other family also spent time enjoying that same puzzle together.
17b.
Experiencing unity for me comes first from the knowledge of shared common beliefs in Jesus.
We then can experience unity in more ways—through praying together, through sharing the Lord’s Supper, through singing, through sharing common favorite scriptures and their effects on us, through sometimes just a strong sense of the Lord’s Spirit in the midst of us, etc.
Misc:
This is a hugely meaningful verse to me from this chapter:
“And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.” John 17:3
Eternal life is knowing the Lord. There is no real life without knowing him. And I am eternally thankful that he pursues us so that we’ll want to know him.
17a I always get the gift of a kiss when leaving from wife and daughter. Even early in the morning Jenna will not allow me to leave without the gift of a kiss...when I am home
17b Other believers no matter where I am across the country I have experienced unity. This weekend will be a great example of believers from coast to coast when we meet in Nashville for Summer Celebration.
17a. This is a hard question to answer as nothing overt comes to mind in the traditional way from my going away or someone I know moving away. But I do have remembrance of a last gift from my mother although I did not know it at the time. It was the gift of words of thanks and love for all the care I had given her not only this particular day she said these words but for all the days of my life as her daughter. The next morning she had a massive stroke and never spoke again although she lingered for a month before she died. Such precious last words. They will live within me forever.
17b. I have experienced moments of unity often and they usually are during times of sharing personal prayer or someone entrusting me with deep needs that they feel they can take nowhere else. One special moment comes to mind from 30 years ago when a group of believers held hands and said the Lord Prayer under the night sky on the shores of the Sea of Galilee. As we lifted our hands I realized that we were standing on the ground where Jesus had prayed under those same skies and stars. Tears streamed down my face. I looked across the small circle and tears were streaming down the face of one of the others in our group. What a moment.
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