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Tag: father

God our Father estranged from Trinity
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places..
Letter of Paul to the Ephesians 1:3 ESV

christianity-lite Doctrines of the Christ-less Era

WE began our series by asking, Are christian pulpits erasing Christ’s Biblical line of DOCTRINE?

The Trinity and Doctrine of the C.E. Church

‘Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ..’
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+ FOCUS ON THE TRIUNE GOD the Father, Son and Holy Spirit? 
OR 
++ FOCUS on OUR EXPERIENCE as worshipers?
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I introduced this series on DOCTRINES of the Common Era by quoting scripture from the first letter of the Apostle Peter to the Church.

christianity-lite – ERASING Scripture, “It is written..”

Last time I strongly suggested that Scripture has NOT changed.

We looked at several Scriptures from Before Christ and in New Testaments from the years of our Lord written during the A.D. 1st century.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.
Second Letter of the Apostle Paul to the Church a Corinth 1:3-4 ESV
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Our overriding question is this:
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What changed in C.E. church worshipers?

‘SOMETHING CHANGED, but I’m not certain when.
Roger@TalkofJesus.com

I listed some facts from the A.D. 1960’s and changes in OUR thinking as a church.
- The minimum wage was $1.00
- Farmers made up 8.3% of the U.S. labor force..
- about 65% of Americans were churchgoers.
- first commercially produced birth control pill was forbidden by many churches
  - EVEN for married couples (a man and a woman)
- Christian CHURCHES, pulpits and doctrines PREACHED, TAUGHT and encouraged:
NO SEX before marriage, Divorce is discouraged and THOU SHALT NOT ABORT a baby living in its mother’s womb under ANY circumstances!

COULD IT BE THE COMMON ERA CHURCH THAT HAS CHANGED?

Although GOD has NOT changed it seems that worship and OUR Common Era approach to worship may have.

THUS our lite approach to a cultural ME-focused church calling OURSELVES ‘christian.’

What changed (in Common Era preaching)?
- It wasn’t God.
- it was not Jesus Christ
- Neither did the Holy Spirit change in the six decades since the 1960’s.
Doctrine of God in a Common Era of christianity-lite

NO Doctrine of the COMMON ERA or any other millennia will stand the test of time without defining GOD truthfully.

Scripture of the New Testament since the A.D. 1st century Gospel always points to the Trinity of God the Father, Son and Holy Ghost (Holy Spirit).

GOD IS!

The LORD reveals Himself through His creation, the Holy Scriptures, the HOLY Spirit and IN THE PERSON of His Only Son JESUS CHRIST.

WE THE COMMON ERA CHURCH drift dangerously with the chaff of every worldly sin upon prevailing cultural winds of these last days.

“His winnowing fork is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clear His threshing floor; and He will gather His wheat into the barn, but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”

Gospel of Matthew 3:12 LSB

so what must WE do?

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
Gospel of Matthew 28:19-20 ESV – Commission of the crucified, risen and returning Christ to His Disciples

The Common Era challenge of Trinity

Holy & unholy ghosts & spirits

https://www.facebook.com/reel/1452049838875053

Anyone can preach!

You can preach in the Holy Spirit and shout out in the Holy Ghost! (Preach it, pastor.)

– BUT – is the word of the Spirit truly that from Almighty God?

– OR – is the preacher moved by a different spirit, perhaps a ghost of the past or demon opposed to the angels of the Lord God and Jesus Christ?
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I have witnessed the Holy Spirit for a time with a woman preaching or by a man sharing the cup of communion with the beloved saints. Yet it's mysterious power wandering flocks will follow. Beware if false preachers who also claim power from the pulpit or aisles of cloaked darkness. 

Test the spirits and quantify their truth by the Word and by Scripture. - RH
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For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.
1 John 5:7 King James Version

‘Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with Me. He who overcomes, I will grant to him to sit down with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne.
Revelation of Jesus Christ to John 3:20-21 LSB

Will preaching any imagined Jesus do?

‘He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’” – Rev. 3:22

The Apostle John preaches Jesus Christ as ‘the Word in the flesh.’

YET even from the apocalypse of the risen Word many churches of the Common Era will preach and imagine ONLY those events which draw in the crowds.

.. I will grant to him to sit down with Me on My throne…

What a gracious and POWERFUL KING Jesus HE is! And just so WE Common Era christians can claim our part of this inheritance.

Jesus welcomes ALL sinners with the love of a friend. This Common Era king embraces sinners of ALL cultures and beliefs without requiring any turn toward His righteousness and away from The Life of this world.

JESUS did many miraculous things for real people when He came to earth.

And now that HE is in heaven after he died on a cross for ME and MY sins, all is well with MY faith.
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In the years of our Lord prior to this Common Era a remnant of pastors
have preached JESUS in the context of Scriptural exhortation to every believer. For the 'knock at the door' passage of Christ's Revelation is a call of repentance to a lukewarm church.
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‘Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline. Therefore be zealous and repent.
Revelation 3:19 LSB (the Word to those on the other side of the door)

Many worshipers lack the Spirit and christians of every era fail to have ears to hear the very breath of the Word.

Will your Common Era Pastor preach that some standing inside the door on which your ‘king Jesus’ knocks ‘do not know that you are wretched and pitiable and poor and blind and naked‘?

And there YOU stand without His white robes believing HE is ready to embrace YOU!

Through all the years and recent decades of our Lord, few 21st century christians have a problem with JESUS..

since by omitting the hard parts WE can preach his gospel with so many variations.

Our estranged Father in Heaven

Common Era christians ESTRANGED from fathers

What changed (in Common Era preaching)?

If not our worshipers lifting up with the chaff in the Holy Spirit

— if not our re-imagining a jesus to our liking —

THEN certainly our all-too-common era trouble with the Trinity must lie in a single broken relationship: that of Common Era christians with God the Father.

Revealed Honor to God the Father of Glory

“Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be prolonged in the land which Yahweh your God gives you.

‘You shall rise up before the gray-haired and honor the aged, and you shall fear your God; I am Yahweh.
From the Book of the Law – Exodus 20:12; Leviticus 19:32 LSB

“I kept looking
Until thrones were set up,

And the Ancient of Days was seated;

His clothing was like white snow
And the hair of His head like pure wool.

His throne was ablaze with fire,

Its wheels were a burning fire.
Daniel’s vision of the Ancient of Days 7:9 LSB

a few more facts of Common Era worshipers

‘SOMETHING CHANGED, but I’m not certain when.’
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Do YOU know? Can YOU contribute a comment with YOUR opinion?
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- The 1960 Census showed a record proportion married, 67.4 percent, among persons 14 years old and over.
  - In 2022, about 132.3 million or 49.3% of Americans age 15 and over were unmarried, according to the Current Population Survey. [compared to ~33% in 1960]
- JULY 2023 C.E.
  - Of the 63.2M parents living with their children
    
    <18, 76.1% lived with a spouse,
    
    15.1% had no spouse/partner present.
    
    The rest [~ ONE in TEN PARENTS] lived with a cohabiting partner.
    
    Note: Direct identification of both parents began in 2007, resulting in the ability to identify children living with two unmarried parents.
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Source: Census.gov library
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How do YOU react to God the Father?

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven.

“.. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son desires to reveal him.
Gospel of the Apostle Matthew 7:21,11:27b CSB

“I and the Father are one.”
Testimony of Jesus from the Gospel of John 10:30 Christian Standard Bible

Do YOU have a problem with THAT, dearly beloved Common Era christian estranged from GOD our FATHER?

NEXT: More on this doctrinal challenge of the Common Era… God willing.

Comment on Scripture + Share the Gospel
November 11, 2023
The Hour Is Come – Glory to the Son AND the Father
Jesus’ High Priestly Prayer of intercession begins simply and humbly.

Even from the confines of a dark upper room in Zion which Judas has now left on the eve of Jerusalem’s great darkness, Jesus looks up to the light of a glory the Son once had – the glory of the LORD God our Father in heaven.

Glorify your Son

Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee…
John 17:1 b KJV

John 17:

When Jesus had finished saying these things, he looked upward to heaven and said,

“Father, the time has come.

… glorify your Son, so that your Son may glorify you— just as you have given him authority over all humanity, so that he may give eternal life to everyone you have given him.
John 17:1b-2a NET

Our eternal High Priest has much more to say in His prayer of high importance to sinners for whom He intercedes. These include eternal life and as previously mentioned who the Father has given to the Son.

Yet today let’s focus in on why Jesus prays for the Father to glorify the Son – His reason for entering the Holy of Holies beyond the veil of our distanced understanding, on behalf of these eleven witnesses and more.

What is GLORY?

The Apostle John, one of the Eleven remaining had previously witnessed the glory of Jesus.

Luke 9:

The Transfiguration
28 Some eight days after these sayings, He took along Peter and John and James, and went up on the mountain to pray. And while He was praying, the appearance of His face became different, and His clothing became white and gleaming…

… when they were fully awake, they saw His glory and the two men standing with Him… a cloud formed and began to overshadow them; and they were afraid as they entered the cloud.

35 Then a voice came out of the cloud, saying, “This is My Son, My Chosen One; listen to Him!”

δόξα – doxa –

From the base of δοκέω (G1380) – generally used meaning to ‘think.’

The LORD God is a thinking All-powerful, Ever-existing Being!

Think about it. As created and fragile beings our worship of the LORD God considers humbly our own humanity beneath His glory.

We who can think should glorify the LORD above all, but often we will not.
- δόξα dóxa, dox’-ah; glory (as very apparent),
  - in a wide application (literal or figurative, objective or subjective):—dignity,
  - glory(-ious),
  - honour,
  - praise,
  - worship.
These humble acknowledgements so rare in men of flesh, yet plainly evident in all creation, reflect the glory of God. Therefore a soul who thinks about the LORD our Creator and glorifies Him is a worshiper, flesh and spirit looking up and bowing down to our Lord and God.

Jesus prays to the Father as a Son of Man.

Having been sent by the Father to the world He has completed the work for which He was sent by the Father. The hour now approaches for Him to return to His former glory.

His former GLORY with the Father

Never forget, beloved Christian disciple of Jesus, that He and the Father are One.

Prior to creation and in the early history of God’s chosen, Jesus had the same former glory. You have read of it. Yet so often we remain blind to the LORD’S glory. How rare the time men bow before it.

The GLORY of the LORD is perhaps as foreign to 21st c. christians as hebrew.

וַיִּשְׁכֹּ֤ן כְּבֹוד־יְהוָה֙ עַל־הַ֣ר סִינַ֔י וַיְכַסֵּ֥הוּ הֶעָנָ֖ן שֵׁ֣שֶׁת יָמִ֑ים וַיִּקְרָ֧א אֶל־מֹשֶׁ֛ה בַּיֹּ֥ום הַשְּׁבִיעִ֖י מִתֹּ֥וךְ הֶעָנָֽן׃
וּמַרְאֵה֙ כְּבֹ֣וד יְהוָ֔ה כְּאֵ֥שׁ אֹכֶ֖לֶת בְּרֹ֣אשׁ הָהָ֑ר לְעֵינֵ֖י בְּנֵ֥י יִשְׂרָאֵֽל׃
Exodus 24:16-17 WLC [click for translations]

כָּבוֹד
- כָּבוֹד kâbôwd, kaw-bode’; rarely כָּבֹד kâbôd; from H3513; properly, weight, but only figuratively in a good sense, splendor or copiousness:—glorious(-ly), glory, honour(-able).
Exodus 24:

15 Then Moses went up to the mountain, and the cloud covered the mountain.

16 The glory of the Lord rested on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it for six days; and on the seventh day He called to Moses from the midst of the cloud.

17 And to the eyes of the sons of Israel the appearance of the glory of the Lord was like a consuming fire on the mountain top.

18 Moses entered the midst of the cloud as he went up to the mountain; and Moses was on the mountain forty days and forty nights.

the GLORY of a consuming FIRE

Moses later confirms in Deuteronomy [ דברים 4 ]:

“You said, ‘Behold, the LORD our God has shown us His glory and His greatness, and we have heard His voice from the midst of the fire; we have seen today that God speaks with man, yet he lives.

This is the former glory the Messiah Jesus knew with the Father!

Later the prophet Isaiah would write:

Sinners in Zion are terrified; Trembling has seized the godless. “Who among us can live with the consuming fire? Who among us can live with continual burning?”
Isaiah 33:14

Jesus knew a former glory with the Father, a fearful and awesome consuming fire which refines and humbles men made of dust and ashes.

The writer of Hebrews, restating Moses warning of keeping the covenant, reminds of this glory:

Hebrews 12:

18 For you have not come to a mountain that can be touched and to a blazing fire, and to darkness and gloom and whirlwind, and to the blast of a trumpet and the sound of words which sound was such that those who heard begged that no further word be spoken to them. For they could not bear the command, “If even a beast touches the mountain, it will be stoned.”

21 And so terrible was the sight, that Moses said, “I am full of fear and trembling.”

Do you fear the LIVING GOD? And do you, O man, humbly bow down to the GLORY of the LORD?

What is the chief end of man?

Any teaching of faith must begin from the glory of God and consequent worship of God by man, for we are nothing more than a created being glorifying our Creator.

We have glanced at a Hebrew origin, then New Covenant Greek.

Moving beyond millenia of teaching from ancient latin we receive an English version of this elemental Christian teaching since the 1640’s during the Reformation.

The Westminster Catechism begins with God’s glory.

“Man’s chief end if to glorify God, and to enjoy him for ever.

Another foundational Protestant teaching, The Heidelberg Catechism, begins by asking, “What is your only comfort in life and in death?”

Perhaps the Disciples had wondered this often while following their Lord and Master Jesus for three years.

What is about to take place on the Cross will fully bring light to Jesus’ prayer to the Father asking Him to bring the Son His former glory along with the Father.

Jesus’ prayer for glory

4 I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed…

10 All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them…

(John no doubt realizes that Jesus includes the Eleven here, but our Lord’s prayer of intercession goes much further than praying just for the Disciples in the room.)

22 The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.

(Much to think about here even beyond the glory of the Lord.)

24 Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.

High Priest of the New Covenant

Jesus intercedes as High Priest on our behalf — between the Father and all sinners given to Him

From here the Son our High Priest will move deeper into the unseen Holy of Holies where Jesus will present Himself as a living and acceptable Perfect Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world.
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To be continued...
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June 1, 2020
Father, the hour is come
Jesus uses ‘Father’ as a relational approach to God, just like the trust which the boy Jesus surely must have had with Joseph, husband of His mother Mary, many times.

Yet what does this mean to a disciple of Jesus’ teaching to address the Lord God as Father?

Father, the hour has come

There’s a certain immediacy to saying, ‘the hour’ is come, or now is or has come. It is the precise time we have been awaiting – a time prepared long before now.

Our present focus of The Hour Is Come is Jesus’ prayer at the precise time after Judas left the room and prior to the Lord and the Eleven departing for Gethsemane where He is about to be betrayed.

When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, “Father, the hour has come;
glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him.
John 17:1-2 ESV

Jesus begins His conversation in prayer by addressing the LORD God in a most intimate and relational way.

“Father,” the Son of Man so boldly addresses Almighty God in heaven. What a connection!

A Man Who IS more than a man — speaking directly to the LORD GOD, as if He Who IS the very Son of God would humbly address his papa on earth.

Trinity begins with the Father

The lesson and relationship learned from Jesus’ prayer is both mysterious and wonderful — glorious in a sense of worship and humbling in the light of an intimate relationship.

Later we will focus again on Jesus the Son of God, His connection through the Holy Spirit and a new covenant of grace for all who will follow Jesus as Lord. But for now we look up only to the Father, as did Jesus in His prayer..

πατήρ – patēr

Choose any of the three definitions you like, but realize that John and the Eleven are listening to the Son of Man, Jesus their Master and Teacher, pray directly to the LORD God in heaven, whose Voice they have heard previously.
1. generator or male ancestor
2. metaphor for:
  1. the authors of a family or society of persons animated by the same spirit as himself
  2. one who has infused his own spirit into others, who actuates and governs their minds
  3. one who stands in a father’s place and looks after another in a paternal way
  4. a title of honour
    teachers, as those to whom pupils trace back the knowledge and training they have received (We don’t really honor teachers in this way in these last days, but some give this authority to a priest leader of a flock.)
    the members of the Sanhedrin (As you know, Jesus had some issue with these ‘fathers of Israel’ as well & they will be the ones to clandestinely convict the Messiah of God our Father sent as our atoning Sacrifice to save a remnant of Abraham.)
3. God is called the Father (This applies is many ways you may read here, but above all ‘Father of spiritual beings and of all men.’)
By all Authority implied in Jesus’ opening of HIS High Priestly Prayer, it is highly significant that the Lord Jesus ‘lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father …’

And from Vine’s Expository Dictionary of New Testament the definition instructs us from the everyday Greek word used by Jesus and those in Jerusalem governed by Rome:

πατήρ : ‘from a root signifying “a nourisher, protector, upholder” (Lat., pater, Eng., “father,” are akin), is used

[God’s] “Fatherhood” in spiritual relationship through faith is the subject of NT revelation, and waited for the presence on earth of the Son. The spiritual relationship is not universal.
Vine’s Expository Dictionary of New Testament

[& an additional insight: Note: Whereas the everlasting power and divinity of God are manifest in creation, His “Fatherhood” in spiritual relationship through faith is the subject of NT revelation, and waited for the presence on earth of the Son, Mat 11:27; Jhn 17:25.

The spiritual relationship is not universal, Jhn 8:42, 44 (cp. Jhn 1:12; Gal 3:26).] [I will leave you to your own further revelation of the Father through your research of these scriptures. RH]

The ‘Father’ of Jesus’ prayer

With additional insight of bowing down to God the Father in our prayer to heaven, let us recall that Jesus had already taught the Disciples that which we know so well and do take for granted.

The Lord’s Prayer

After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.
Matthew 6:9 KJV

‘Our,’ which precedes Father, in the Lord’s Prayer is a personal possessive pronoun, a possessive plural in corporate prayer.

So perhaps appropriate in a singular personal possessive sense in prayer, you or I might reasonably pray,

“My Father in heaven. Holy is your Name.”

(And recall that the Lord Jesus has declared: “I and the Father are One.” [John 10:30]

What glorious mystery for us to observe Jesus and the Father, who are One, in this, His most personal prayer prior to the Son’s sacrifice on a Cross for our sins.

The Disciples had been accustomed to Jesus praying to the Father at many times corporately before the multitudes, more privately among them and privately away from them at times.

Luke 11:

And it came to pass, that, as he was praying in a certain place, when he ceased, one of his disciples said unto him,

‘Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples.’

And he said unto them, ‘When ye pray, say,

Our Father which art in heaven,
Hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come.
Thy will be done,
as in heaven, so in earth.
Luke 11:2b KJV

When your mortal ‘time is come’ will you able to approach your heavenly Father saying, ‘Thy will be done?’
Roger Harned – talkofJesus.com on Jesus’ prayer in John 17

So from this final prayer following the last supper of Jesus and the Disciples, John witnesses this high priestly prayer of their Master and Teacher Jesus, a beloved father to the Twelve for these past three years.

πατήρ – patēr – a title of honour – teachers, as those to whom pupils trace back the knowledge and training they have received

John 17:

… “Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son, that the Son may glorify You…

5 Now, Father, glorify Me together with Yourself…

11 I am no longer in the world; and yet they themselves are in the world, and I come to You.

Holy Father, keep them in Your name, the name which You have given Me,

that they may be one even as We are.

One with the One Father

Do you think that it is important to the Apostles that Jesus again prays to the Father with words confirming that He and the Father are ONE?

שְׁמַ֖ע יִשְׂרָאֵ֑ל יְהוָ֥ה אֱלֹהֵ֖ינוּ יְהוָ֥ה אֶחָֽד׃
“Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD is one!
Deuteronomy 6:4 Masoretic Text, NASB

Jesus continues and prays just a short time later:

21 that they may all be one;

even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You,

that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me.

Relationship with our Father in heaven

Paul, Apostle to the gentiles, later writes to the church in Corinth:

Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? … But the one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with Him… Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you
1 Corinthians 6:15-19 excerpt NASB

Again, the Apostle Paul and Jesus both point to the glorious mystery of the Trinity of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit as ONE, as well as a personal relationship between the spirit of a redeemed man like you or me to the ONE GOD, Who IS Spirit and truth.

John 17:

Jesus continues His High Priestly Prayer as intercession for these disciples and those to follow:

24 Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am…

25 O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me…

What must the Disciple have thought following Jesus’ prayer to the Father?

What do you think of this prayer to the Holy Father in heaven by the Highest of High Priests praying for your soul?

“Lord,” they called Jesus — “the existing One” as more than a Son of Man, as the LORD GOD IS ONE!

אֱלֹהִים

‘elohiym – ʼĕlôhîym, el-o-heem’; plural of H433; gods in the ordinary sense; but specifically used (in the plural thus, especially with the article) of the supreme God

Our LORD is the ONE GOD — Trinity — the Son interceding by prayer and His own priestly Sacrifice for those who believe and would be saved.

When Jesus had spoken these words, he went out with his disciples across the brook Kidron, where there was a garden, which he and his disciples entered.
John 18:1 ESV
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To be continued...
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May 28, 2020