THE GETHSEMANE PRAYER

Never was a more important prayer prayed in all of history.  It was prayed in great agony by the One who prayed in the dark morning hours before dawn.  After a last meal with His apostles He went to this His favorite place of prayer and He prayed.  "Deeply distressed and troubled" He prayed.  "My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death."

It would be His last prayer before going to His death.  It contained three parts:  1.  Abba, Father, everything is possible for You.  2.  Take this cup from Me.  3.  Yet not what I will, but what you will.  (Mark 14:36)

A beautiful pattern of pray for us all.  1.  An acknowledge that all things are possible when it comes to God.  2.  A personal prayer for deliverance from something He was facing.  3.  A very Personal surrender to God's will no matter what the outcome.

What do you suppose was in that cup that He beg for deliverance from?  What did He see in the cup?  Why was it so important for Him to drink it?  A cup is often referred to in the Bible in special ways.  (Isaiah 51:17; Jeremiah 25:15; Revelation 14:10)  In these passages it is called the cup of God's wrath.

Is this the cup that Jesus was being ask to drink?  And what does it mean?  I think it is obvious that the cup contained all of God's angry against sin and what it had done to His creation.  God was angry.  Satan used sin and its curse to bring destruction upon God's special creation and God was angry with Satan, with Sin's cruse, with the destruction that it had caused.

The cup had to dealt with.  The wrath of God against sin had to be turned away.  Someone would have to take the cup into His own hands and willingly drink the cup's contains to its dregs.  Someone qualified.  Someone who was exempted from the wrath that was in the cup.  Who qualified for such a task?

There was a man.  A man born without sin and subsequently not under the curse of the cup's wrath. Someone whose love for others would be so great that He would drink their cup for them.

The agony of the prayer of Jesus lets us know that He knew the consequences of drinking the cup.  He knew the intense suffering that it would cause Him.  He knew that at some point, the Father would turn away from the one drinking the cup, even if it were His on Son.  "My God, My God why have you forsaken Me?"

This is Good Friday.  Do not forget how important this day is.  If it had not been for Good Friday there would have been no resurrection Sunday.  It is Friday.  But Sunday is come.

WHERE HAS FACEBOOK TAKEN US AND WHERE ARE WE GOING WITH IT?

Yes, I am on Facebook.  I find it very intriguing and it seems many others do.  I eased in to it at first wondering just what I was getting in to.  But my easing began to carry me faster than I anticipated.  I found lost friends.  Caught up on wonderful newsy things.  I am a pastor so I saw a use to communicate my various thoughts very quickly.

My friends list grew very fast.  It was amazing.  I found myself accepting "friends" I did not even know.  So my circle of friends became very strange.  I don't why I called some of them friends.  But, still it was fun.

I soon found myself saying very personal things without much thought.  Sometimes it was just an answer to a question.  Other times it was just an involuntary act.  This personal information was growing faster than I gave thought too what I was doing.  It really seemed innocent enough.

My friends list eventually reached into thousands.  I really don't know how that happened so quickly except that I am a pastor and I do know a lot of people and they seem to know me.

A few weeks ago I began to read of organizations throughout the world that were gathering information about people from "social networks."  This caught my attention and I read more.  I researched the various organizations to try and discover just why they would want to do this.

When you talk about social networks, of course, you are talking about a number of internet groups formed for various reasons.  Most where not originally organized to gain information on people.  It seems that this part of their work developed as they realized there was something that could be very useful in knowing as much about people as they could possible gather.

These organizations began the process of gathering information from every "social network" that was open to them.  Facebook seems to be the most popular and is full of personal information.  The companies then began to put together personal profiles of individuals.  Their likes and dislikes.  The friends lists was easy to get.  Food they liked and places they would frequent often.  Their religion, their politics, their views on sensitive issues such as abortion, birth control, gay rights, and on and on it would go.  There seem to be no end to what these organizations knew about people.

They then became to realize how valuable this information was.  It could be sold.  People would pay large amounts of money for this kind of personal information.  Advertisers, political parties, products to be sold, proselytizing religions, and of course governments.  Companies started making millions selling this "free" information.

The information gathering process is growing.  The speed is amazing.  It grows because more and more people are joining the networks.  And the members who have been there are adding almost daily.  While we add our information vast computer systems of these organizations are collecting, co-ordinating and making more useful the information.

Where can this be taking us as a society?  I am afraid that the end maybe be terribly frighting.  As I read more and more on the goals of these organizations I realize something may be going on that we can not control and certainly is not going to be good.  By using systems that we could never understand they are forming personality profiles on individuals that enable these groups to predict our life style.
They can predict our buying habits; our weaknesses; our decisions before we make them.

Some companies are even predicting that in time they will be able to read our minds by using the information that we have willing given them.  This could be done without our even knowing it is happening.

Should we be concern?  The Bible talks about a last day world we will live in where an identifying mark will be used to control our everyday lives.  A mark offered at first,  but finally demanded that will already have all the information it needs to control us. To carry on our everyday business the mark will be required.  A government required mark in order for it to control a world that has last its way and has become dangerous. A mark needed so they will know where the terrorist are located and what they have in mind.  A mark needed because crime will have reached a stage that knowing each person will be a must.  Illegal people moving from county to country will have to be controlled.  On and on the reason will go for the need of this mark.

The Bible is not a book to put placed on a shelf somewhere as being outdated and of no use.  It is relevant and speaks of our day as if it were written only yesterday.  It warns.  Are we listening?

IF I WERE ON THE OUTSIDE LOOKING IN

The fact is I am on the inside.  But I just can't help but wonder, what do outsiders see if they look into our church world.  I know what we hope they would see.  We would like for them to see people loving each other with an unusual love.  We would expect them to see joy that they have heard exists there.  They would look for a caring community that quickly rushes to those hurting within the church.  Peace, calmness, purpose, an unhurried and sureness of life would be expected.  At least that is probably what they have heard about us.

We that live daily in the church world get a little nervous when we are looked at to closely.  We fear that the unconditional love will not be seen because it does not exist.  The care and selfless sharing is usually missing.  Those hurting may be found pushed aside because of important programs that need attention.  We have talked so much about joy but the outsider may have a hard time finding it.

If they listen to our sermons they conclude that what is more important to us is the world we plan on going to rather than this present life.  They then may wonder just why we gather around us more material things than we possible can use.  This seems more important than treasures in another world.

They hear us pray, "Give us this daily bread," but what they find is our homes filled with more food that we could use in a month while around us people are in deed praying for their daily food.  They may see us walk by the person in need without a thought of compassion.

Let me be quick to make sure we understand that this is not to be the real church of Jesus Christ.  Our mandate is to be a compassionate caring church.  We are to give food to the hungry.  We are to bind up the wounded.  We are to follow the example of our Master Jesus Christ and the life style He lived.

The secular world of news tells us that the gulf between the rich and poor grows daily.  The hungry go to sleep at night with no hope for a better to morning.  They have come to understand there is not going to be anyone who cares.  Not even the church.

I cannot help but wonder just what our Lord thinks of us as His church when He watches us in action.  He will see us gather for our times of worship but somehow we are able to separate that from our daily lives outside the church.  Giving a couple of hours in worship.  Putting a few pesos into the offering plates.  That seems to appease God.  What more could God possibly ask from us?

"God bless you," seems to be our way of dealing with our responsibilities as followers of Christ.  When we see someone in need we merely say, "God bless you."  Do we expect God to do what He expects us to do for one another.  A "God bless you," is to be accompanied with what the person needs.  That is a true "God bless you" and is fully understands to be just that - God blessing them.

Caring, compassion, a hand of mercy, giving, touching and helping is the church in action.  If we do this the people of the world will not have to look into the church to see what it is all about, they will see it in us.  We lend a hand in need and we do not need to say much of anything else.  They will understand.  That's the church.