Key Thought

Today's Prayer

Holy and almighty God, please use me and the circumstances of the lives of the following people to open their hearts to Jesus ... I pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.

Today's Verses in Context

There were many Jews that came to visit Mary. They saw what Jesus did. And many of these Jews believed in Jesus. But some of the Jews went to the Pharisees. They told the Pharisees what Jesus did. Then the leading priests and Pharisees called a meeting of the Jewish council. They said, "What should we do? This man (Jesus) is doing many miracles. If we let him continue doing these things, all the people will believe in him. Then the Romans will come and take away our temple and our nation." One of the men there was Caiaphas. He was the high priest that year. Caiaphas said, "You people know nothing! It is better for one man to die for the people than for the whole nation to be destroyed. But you don't realize this." Caiaphas did not think of this himself. He was high priest that year. So he was really prophesying that Jesus would die for the Jewish people. Yes, Jesus would die for the Jewish people. But Jesus would also die for God's other children that were scattered {in all the world}. He would die to bring them all together and make them one people. That day the Jewish leaders began planning to kill Jesus. So Jesus stopped traveling around openly among the Jews. Jesus left {Jerusalem} and went to a place near the desert. Jesus went to the town called Ephraim. Jesus stayed there with his followers. It was almost time for the Jewish Passover festival. Many people from the country went to Jerusalem before the Passover. They went to do the special things to make themselves pure {for the Passover}. The people looked for Jesus. They stood in the temple area and asked each other, "Is he (Jesus) coming to the festival? What do you think?" But the leading priests and the Pharisees had given a special order about Jesus. They said that if any person knew where Jesus was, the person must tell them. Then the leading priests and the Pharisees could arrest Jesus.

Related Scripture Readings

Jesus answered, "The things I teach are not my own. My teaching comes from him (God) who sent me. If a person wants to do what God wants, then that person will know that my teaching comes from God. That person will know that this teaching is not my own. Any person that teaches his own ideas is trying to get honor for himself. But a person that tries to bring honor to the one that sent him—that person speaks the truth. There is nothing false in him.

At one time you were separated from God. You were God's enemies in your minds, because the evil things you did were against God. But now Christ has made you God's friends again. Christ did this by his death while he was in his body. Christ did this so that he could bring you before God. He brings you before God as people who are holy, with no wrong in you, and with nothing that God can judge you guilty of.

God shows his anger from heaven against all the evil and wrong things that people do. They have the truth, but by their evil lives they hide it.