John,
I loved last night’s reading, The Crucifixion: God Had a Son, 18 PDF .
There are so many nuggets it’s difficult to absorb them all in just one sitting.
You mentioned that we really don’t know exactly what the conversation was between God and Satan regarding the sifting of the disciples and Peter. Using the conversation between God and Satan in the book of Job was a good example of how it could have been.
What I kept thinking about during the reading was Jesus telling Peter, “Satan has earnestly asked for you men, that he might sift you like wheat. But I have prayed for you that your faith will not give out.”
I tried to imagine the conversation between Jesus and his Father. There was Satan earnestly asking God to sift the disciples like wheat, and there was Jesus asking his Father not to let their faith fail. What love Jesus had for those men, and us.
As I was thinking about what words Jesus may have spoken to his Father, John 17 came to mind. According to John, Jesus prayed this prayer before his arrest. I won’t copy the entire chapter, even though each verse could apply:
1. Jesus spoke these things, and then he lifted his eyes toward heaven and said, “Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, so that your Son might also glorify you,
6. I have manifested your name to the men whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word.
9. I pray for them. I’m not praying for the world, but for those you’ve given me, for they are yours,
11b. Holy Father, keep them in your name which you have given to me, that they may be one, just as we are.
12b. Those you gave me, I watched over, and not one of them has been lost except the son of damnation, that the scripture might be fulfilled.
21 …that they all might be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they may also be one in us, so that the world might believe that you sent me.
What comfort there is in knowing that when we are being sifted, Jesus is asking his father to not let our faith give out. I love what you wrote about how Peter’s self-confidence was sifted out of him. “But Jesus prayed for Peter, and Jesus’ prayer saved him. Peter would never have recovered after vilely denying the Lord, but for the intercession of the Lord whom he had denied.”
I hope I am thankful enough for the many times Jesus prayed and interceded for me.
Thank you John, for sharing these wonderful messages from Jesus with us.
Tom
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