YOUR WILL BE DONE ON EARTH AS IS DONE IN HEAVEN

“Behold, I will do a NEW THING now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert.” (Isa 43:19) The pace of our lives seems to be increasing faster and faster. We are in such a rush from here to there that we really aren’t even here at all. Our conversations are marked with vacant stares as our minds race ahead to what’s next. The next blockbuster movie, the next American Idol, the next American President, the next world crisis, the next scientific breakthrough, the next natural catastrophe, the next scandalous preacher — and so on and so on and so on. “What’s the next big thing that God will do?” a friend recently asked me. The question reveals our predisposition to a faith that is defined by events, rather than by relationship. We are not completely at fault in this, because God certainly does eventful things in our lives, as in all the world. So the conditioning toward this is understandable. However, we must guard aga...

John 19:1-42 JESUS IS CRUCIFIED A. Jesus is condemned to crucifixion. 1. (John 19:1-4) Pilate hopes to satisfy the mob by having Jesus whipped and mocked. So then Pilate took Jesus and scourged Him. And the soldiers twisted a crown of thorns and put it on His head, and they put on Him a purple robe. Then they said, “Hail, King of the Jews!” And they struck Him with their hands. Pilate then went out again, and said to them, “Behold, I am bringing Him out to you, that you may know that I find no fault in Him.” a. So then Pilate took Jesus and scourged Him: Pilate already declared Jesus “not guilty,” so to scourge Him now was a gross injustice. In doing this, perhaps Pilate thought he could help Jesus, and that the mob would be satisfied with the scourging and mocking. b. Scourged Him: The brutal act of scourging had three purposes. First, it was used to beat the prisoner as a form of punishment. Second, it was used to extract a confession from the prisoner. Finally, in cases of cr...