Morning, brothers and sisters.
Let’s just read a verse, and then we’ll pray. Okay?
In John 20, verse 30 is kind of the theme that we’ve been doing for the Gospel of John. Let’s just read John 20:30.
And truly Jesus did many other signs in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book;
but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God,
and that believing you may have life in His name.
Let’s pray.
Father, we do want to thank You again for the covering that You’ve provided for us, the salvation You’ve given to us in Your Son, Jesus Christ. I just want to thank You.
I want to thank You, Lord, that, like Ralph was sharing this morning, we can see You and hear You. And Lord, that’s what we want to do today. We want You to come and speak to us. We want to hear You.
Like the song said, we’re asking that You would break bread to us, and You would open the Word to us, and that we would see You. Lord, we want to be drawn to You. We want to be drawn to You more than we’ve been drawn to before.
So we ask You, Lord, by Your Holy Spirit, speak to us today through Your Word. Let us hear the voice of Your Son speak to our hearts, our spirits. In Jesus’ name, amen.
As you know, what’s really neat about this is that this is much more intimate today, isn’t it? You know, I can look people in the eyes, and I can say almost like, “I know you by name, and you know me by name.”
That’s a wonderful thing, because I have trouble making eye contact. If I’m sure you’ve noticed, I have trouble making eye contact, and I’m usually staring right at your foreheads or just above, because I’m afraid that I’ll get caught like a deer in the headlights and freeze up.
But this is such intimacy. And the part that we’re sharing—all the Gospel of John, really—is an intimate thing. It’s not just that, you know, we think sometimes, being religious-minded, that Jesus is always preaching to these great crowds and things of that nature. But some of the most wonderful things He did were one-on-one, or one-on-two, or one-in-twelve, where He had not just the ears, but the hearts and the minds engaged, and the spirit opened when He spoke.
And that’s really where we’re at this morning as we come to read this section of Scripture. So far, we’ve seen that John has pointed and shown us that the Christ who came down and suffered for us was not just a man, but He was God.
Then we saw that John the Baptist testified of Him, and that his testimony was that He was the Lamb of God, and He was the One who baptizes with the Holy Spirit. And that brings us to this little part where we’re at right now: the finishing touches of the chapter.
So we’re going to go ahead and start with John 1:35. We’ll read the rest of the chapter, and then, Lord willing, bring some points out of it.
Again, the next day, John stood with two of his disciples.
And looking at Jesus as He walked, he said, “Behold, the Lamb of God!”
The two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus.
Then Jesus turned, and seeing them following, said to them, “What do you seek?”
They said to Him, “Rabbi,” which is to say, when translated, Teacher, “where are You staying?”
He said to them, “Come and see.”
They came and saw where He was staying, and remained with Him that day. Now it was about the tenth hour.
One of the two who heard John speak and followed Him was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother.
He first found his own brother Simon, and said to him, “We have found the Messiah,” which is translated, the Christ.
And he brought him to Jesus.
Now when Jesus looked at him, He said, “You are Simon the son of Jonah. You shall be called Cephas,” which is translated, A Stone.
The following day Jesus wanted to go to Galilee, and He found Philip and said to him, “Follow Me.”
Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter.
Philip found Nathanael, and said to him, “We have found Him of whom Moses in the law, and also the prophets, wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.”
Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?”
Philip said to him, “Come and see.”
Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward Him, and said of him, “Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom is no deceit!”
Nathanael said to Him, “How do You know me?”
Jesus answered and said to him, “Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.”
Nathanael answered and said to Him, “Rabbi, You are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!”
Jesus answered and said to him, “Because I said to you, ‘I saw you under the fig tree,’ do you believe? You will see greater things than these.”
And He said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, hereafter you shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.”
Now, here we have in this section what some people say is the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry. I really think the beginning of His ministry was when He was baptized. That was His saying, “Father, I submit to what You have Me to do,” because His ministry really led Him to the cross.
But many people say that this is the part where He really goes out and calls His disciples to Him. Actually, we have six, even though a couple of them aren’t mentioned. Some think that one of the two disciples is John. John has a tendency not to mention himself, usually commenting only of himself as “the disciple that Jesus loved.”
Some people think that Andrew got Peter, and John went and got James, and they both brought their brothers. But only Andrew is recorded here. Then we have Philip and Nathanael.
But all of this intimacy starts out with just this simple saying by the Baptist: “Behold, the Lamb of God.” Any fellowship that we have with God starts at this point. There can be no fellowship with God without us seeing the Lamb, without us having that Lamb—not only seeing the Lamb, but having Him.
The day before, the last time I spoke, we talked about the testimony of John. Here we had him speaking to a whole group of people, saying, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.”
Here, it says on the next day, it seems when the crowds have left, John is with some of his disciples. It seems that Andrew and John are his disciples. He says, maybe not directly to them but in their hearing, as he sees Jesus walking—not coming toward him, but walking away, because it seems again that He wants to go up to Galilee—he just says, “Behold, the Lamb of God.”
It seems at this time that the disciples take their cue. They say, “There He is. Let’s follow Him.” Now, this is not a put-down of John. John’s ministry was to do this very thing: to point us to the Lamb of God. That’s what he was. And then we are to follow the Lamb.
In Revelation 14, they follow the Lamb wherever He went, wherever He led. And so, the same thing here. He says, “Behold, the Lamb of God.” I think this is directed personally to these men. It’s a personal consideration. It’s not part of the crowd; it’s you. Look at Him. Behold Him. Take Him in. Discern who He is.
And in doing that, there was a personal recognition. It says that they followed Him. They began to follow Him.
Now, I think this is really interesting, because it’s almost as if they’re stalking Him. You know, because He’s walking on ahead and they’re following at a distance. It’s almost like, have you ever been walking down the street and you go, “Who’s following me?”
Well, the Lord Himself turned around. He noticed that these two guys were following Him. I don’t think they were ducking in an alleyway or anything like that when He turned around, but they were following Him.
He turns around and He says to them, “What do you seek? What are you looking for?” And these really are the first words in His public ministry: “What do you seek?”
Really, what’s happening here is that He’s bringing them into an interaction. He’s saying, “What do you want? What are you looking for?”
We could go into volumes of saying, “What are you looking for? What is mankind looking for?” But He’s not talking about mankind. He’s talking to these two guys, and He’s saying, “What do you want? What are you looking for?”
These disciples aren’t those who are just going to blow it off and give something off the top of their head. When you look at their response, they say, “Where are You staying?”
They’re not really asking for His address. “I’m going to put it in my address book.” But it’s almost as if they’re saying—it’s more of a request than a question—“Can we go somewhere private to talk?”
“We’ve got all these distractions over here. Can we go someplace private? That’s what we really want. We want to come along. We want to be alone with You. We want to talk to You that way. We want Your full attention, because we want to give You our full attention.”
It’s like the song said: “We want to go beyond the sacred page. I want to see who You are.”
You have to remember, these guys were disciples of John the Baptist. What does that mean? When I think about if I was a follower of John the Baptist, what would I have gotten from his ministry?
I think the first thing I would have gotten from his ministry is that I would have had a sense of my sin, because that’s what he called people to: repentance. I would have had a sense of my sin.
I think these men did, and I think it bothered them. I think they hung around him because they wanted to deal with things. They wanted to be right with God in some way. It wasn’t that these were fishermen and they could have said, “Okay, we got baptized; let’s go back to fishing.” But they stayed with John the Baptist.
So there was something more that they were looking for—something more than what John had to give them. Because I think what happens when you get a sense of your own sin is that you come up with a deep, a very deep, sense of inadequacy to deal with your sins.
It’s not some surface thing. It’s something that goes deep within you and makes you say, “How do I get rid of this?” It’s not just the things that I do; it’s what I am. It’s something that goes much deeper than that.
So I can go and get baptized in this sense, but I need something more. What do I do about this inadequacy?
John didn’t have the answer to that except for this: there’s One who baptizes with the Holy Spirit. That’s what John did—he turned these men to Him.
John knew that he couldn’t fulfill anything that they really had, but he did give them one other thing. He gave them a hope that there was Another coming.
So despite all this saying, “Oh, I’m so depressed at what I am, and I can’t get rid of it,” deep down there is also this hope that they are not being left to themselves. And to us, that is the same thing. We’ve been given a hope that we’re not left to ourselves.
And so they go and they follow Him. They’re seeking from Jesus something that John could never have given them, something that the Baptist had awakened in their spirit.
Now they’re saying, “How do we overcome this? How are we to be right with God? How are we to have God in our lives?”
Jesus speaks again and just says, “Come and see.”
The thing is, all Jesus does is say, “Do you want to know?” and He opens the door. “Do you really want to know? Do you really want to find out? Well then, come.”
They come, and notice what it says about them: “They remained with Him that day.” It doesn’t look like they got to the place and said, “Oh, this is where You live. A little small, isn’t it? Well, thanks. We’ll see You,” and then just went on their way. No.
Remember, the idea is the request: “Can’t we talk to You in private?” He brings them to His home—probably a temporary home at that time—and says, “Come on in.” It says they stayed; they remained with Him that day.
Now, it depends on what watch you’re wearing. If you’re wearing a Roman watch, it’s ten in the morning. If you’re wearing a Hebrew watch, it’s four in the afternoon. But whatever it is, it’s the rest of the day.
They put everything else they had on hold and gave Him the rest of the day. They said, “It’s so important, what’s on our hearts, that we have to give You the rest of the day.”
He didn’t say, “Hey, you know something? I’ve got somewhere else to be. I’m going on to Galilee, and I’ve only got a few minutes here, so I’ll give you my few minutes.” No, they stayed with Him the rest of the day.
What they got out of it, we have no idea what they talked about. But we do have this: out of that conversation, Andrew went and got his brother Peter. According to some people, John went and got James.
All of a sudden, from this little phrase, “Behold, the Lamb of God,” Andrew did not run to Peter and say, “Hey, we found the Lamb of God.” Something had been translated to them. Now it was, “We found the Christ, the Messiah.”
Something became bigger. Something happened, something transpired in that little place, in that little time—could have been twelve hours or fifteen hours. Something had been shown to them. Something they discerned, something had been revealed to them, so that they said, “We have found the Christ.”
Again, it was the two-on-one. It was the intimate fellowship, the intimate calling in, that brought about something greater. It brought about seeing what in a crowd they may never have seen. But because they came this way, there was something given them—something very intimate, and it was for them.
Now, the second thing that we want to deal with is Andrew brought Peter. Jesus sees him and says, “You are Simon, son of Jonah. You shall be called Cephas.”
To me, if I was Simon, I’d go, “What do You mean You’re going to call me Cephas? My name’s Simon. What are You doing?” So what is this thing that’s transpiring here?
This is the next conversation that we have, and we don’t have any response by Peter. So I can only think that Peter was either so dumbfounded by this, or that he said, “Well, we’ll have to see.”
But what is this? He looked at him. If we could picture this, it’s almost like Andrew is bringing Peter and telling all about Peter. Maybe Peter is saying, “Oh, you know, I’m a fisherman. I’ve got a boat out there.” During all this time, the Lord is just looking at Peter.
He’s not sizing him up like, “We’re going to fight. I think I could take him.” But He’s looking at him. He’s beholding him, like John said, “Behold, the Lamb of God.”
In looking at him, He says two things. First of all, He says, “You are something.” Then He says, “You shall be something.”
He says, “You are Simon, son of Jonah.” As if Peter didn’t know. Well, what is He talking about? He didn’t just say, “You’re Simon.” He said, “You’re Simon, son of Jonah.”
I think what the Lord is really saying to Peter—to Simon—is, “I know who your father is.” And it’s not just that his father is Jonah. Who is his father? You can go all the way back to Adam. “I know your lineage. You’re Simon. I know exactly who you are. I know the stock.”
He doesn’t call him Cephas, change his name, because He sees some rock-like character in Peter. Because when we read the Scriptures, do we see a rock-like character in Peter? We don’t, do we?
He denies the Lord. He’s afraid in the boat, things of that nature. There’s no rock-like character in Peter. He’s just like us. He’s a human being. Some of us are stubborn. I think Peter had stubbornness in him.
The thing is, He says, “I see who you are.” Really, when it comes down to it, that can’t be a part of what God is doing. But He says, “You shall be Cephas.”
What does He mean? Is He talking about, “You shall be a rock-like person”? I don’t think so. You go to Galatians and you see Peter being swayed by the people who come up from Jerusalem to Antioch. He’s talking about how Gentiles and Jews, as Christians, are all one. Then people come up from Jerusalem, and Peter won’t eat with them anymore. That’s really rock-like, don’t you think?
So what is He saying then? What is a stone? He’s not saying a rock; He’s saying a stone.
A stone is building material. That’s basically what Jesus is saying: “You know something? I know you. I know the old man. I know the Adamic nature in you. But I’m going to make you a stone. You shall be a stone.”
“You’ll be building material that I can put in My building.” We could even say being stoned is the character of Christ in him. But the whole thing is that this is a little divine parenthesis: “He’ll call you Cephas,” which is translated, “a stone.”
A stone is building material. Stone is something the Lord can use in building something up and building something together. He says, “Peter, I know your Adamic nature, but I also know that I will make you a stone. I will take you and give you a new nature. I will give you that stone nature, so I’ll be able to build.”
We can look back and say, “Simon is crucified. Simon Bar-Jonah is crucified. But Cephas lives.”
Then it says He found Philip. This is interesting because it says He found Philip. He didn’t find John and Andrew. He didn’t find Peter. John and Andrew were pointed out to Him. Peter was brought to Him. He found Philip.
Now, we don’t know a lot about Philip, and you can’t find a lot about him. But one commentator I read—supposed to be the prince of expositors, G. Campbell Morgan—said this about Philip: “Philip was a shy man.”
I don’t know how many of you people are shy in here, but shy people don’t put themselves forward. They kind of hide away a little bit. But you know what shy people really like? They like to belong.
And you know what shy people really like? They like to be sought after, too. So He found Philip. Philip didn’t come looking. No one pointed him out. Jesus found him, and He just said, “Follow Me.”
I want to look at this in a different way. It wasn’t just, “Follow Me,” like, “Get behind Me and just come along.” It’s like, “Travel with Me. Come alongside so we can actually talk, and we’ll be going the same direction.”
But I want to deepen it even more. How about this: “Companion with Me.” That’s even better, don’t you think? Companion with Me. Because that seems to be a relationship.
When I asked my wife to marry me, that’s what I was asking her: “Be my companion.” She accepted that, and I’ve accepted her as my companion.
Because of that companionship, there’s a closeness between us, because we are companions. We’re traveling the same road. We’re going through the same things together. There’s an openness to me, and hopefully there’s becoming more of an openness to her, because men are really hard when it comes to opening. Most of you women know that.
I think in looking at companionship, you’re not looking at just being familiar. You are looking for intimacy. You’re looking to share with one another. That’s what Jesus is doing to Philip. He’s saying, “Companion with Me. I’m going to Galilee. Companion with Me.”
This intimacy has effects on our life. There are only two other times we hear about Philip besides the naming of the apostles.
One time, the Greeks come to Philip because he has that Greek name and say, “We want to see Jesus.” Philip, being shy, takes them to Andrew. Andrew brings them to Jesus.
The other time we find him is when they’re in the upper room at the Last Supper. Jesus is talking to them, and Philip has the boldness to say, “Show us the Father, and that is enough.”
There’s only one other person I know in Scripture who said that. You guys know who it is? Moses: “Let me see Your glory. If I have found favor with You, let me see Your glory.”
Philip, in the same way, through that intimacy—from traveling years with Christ, two or three years with Christ—now has the boldness, because he knows he’s accepted by Him, to say, “Show me. Show me Your glory. Show me the Father. That’s what I want to see. I want to see the Father.”
He has that boldness come out of him because of that intimacy, even this shy man. Isn’t it interesting that it says he went and found Nathanael? Just from a little while with Christ, he goes out and finds Nathanael. I don’t know what Nathanael’s relationship was, but it says Philip found him. Maybe they were buddies.
When Nathanael comes, Jesus is talking to the other disciples, saying, “Hey, there’s an Israelite in whom there is no guile.” What that means is there’s nothing in him that’s trying to get an upper hand, like Jacob.
In other words, some have said, “Here’s an Israelite in whom there is no Jacob.” Remember, Jacob was given the name Israel. But if you read Genesis, they’re always going back. They call him Jacob, then Israel, then Jacob, then Israel.
Finally, Jesus says, “Here’s one. There’s no Jacob in this one. He’s not trying to get an upper hand. He’s not trying to connive his way into this.”
Nathanael says, “How do You know this?” The Lord says, “Before Philip went and got you, I saw you under the tree.”
Here you have a man who probably—I don’t think they were in seeing distance—but the thing was, how could He know, even if He just saw him under the tree, that he had no guile?
Again, being God, discerning his thoughts, the Father to Jesus saying, “Here’s a man who’s seeking after Me with a pure heart.”
You know something? It says, “Blessed are the pure in heart.” What? “They will see God.” That’s exactly what Nathanael says. He says, “You are the Son of God.”
Jesus says to him, “You’re saying that just from this statement, but let Me tell you this: from now on, you’re going to see heaven open. Heaven’s going to be open, and you’re really going to see who I am. You’ll see the angels ascending and descending.”
Now, this is all the little factual stuff that’s in here. But really, we don’t want to deal with the factual as just saying, “Here’s a letter.” Like the song says, “Beyond the sacred page, we seek Thee, Lord.”
So how does this apply to us? We can just say, “Well, let’s read there and find out how the disciples are going,” but everything has an application. So what is this application to us today?
First, I want to say this: in everything, God initiates. You say, “Well, wait a minute. Didn’t John the Baptist say, ‘Behold, the Lamb of God’?” Who gave John the Baptist his ministry?
He found Philip. The talk with Andrew and John brought about Andrew getting Peter. Who initiated all these things?
There’s a wonderful hymn, Joe De Leon’s favorite hymn, and it goes:
I sought the Lord, and afterward I knew
He moved my soul to seek Him, seeking me.
In other words, God was already seeking me, and I was just trying to find out that He was coming after me. Is that your experience? I know that’s my experience.
When I found the Lord, it was because the Lord had already put some things in my way that made me seek Him out. I was looking for that eternal life.
But here’s the thing that I really want to bring: Jesus asked, and He’s asking us today, “What are you seeking?”
And I mean, what are you seeking? He was asking this of these men who were sent to Him and told, “Here’s the Lamb of God.” Finding the Lamb of God, the Lamb turns to them and says, “What are you seeking?”
That’s my question: what are you seeking? Are you seeking anything?
Or do we just come here to sit down and say, “I’ve done my religious duty,” and then afterward we’re going to go home, watch football or baseball, have dinner, plan your lessons for the next day, and just go on with life?
Happy to have a Lamb of God. Okay? Are we just seeking nothing, but happy to have the Lamb of God?
I don’t know. I don’t know where you’re at. But that’s the question Jesus asked: “What do you want from Me?”
In order to answer that, you can’t just give a flippant answer. Oh, you can. But in the deepness of your heart, if it reaches the deepness of your heart, you’ve got to start thinking, “Lord, what do I want from You?”
You know what I want? I want to see my soul saved. I know my spirit’s saved. I want my soul saved. I want my soul under command of the spirit. That’s what I want.
I don’t know what you want, but boy, I tell you, that’s what I want. I can’t say I want it more than anything, because there are other things that crop up in my way that say, “Well, maybe I want this more.” But I tell you, when it comes down to the bottom of it, I want my soul saved.
My body’s already going away, but I want my soul saved.
The other question I want to ask you is this: I think the Lord is asking the same thing. How intimate do you want to get? How intimate would you want to get with God?
Do you want to get intimate enough so that He can look into you and say, “You’re Simon, son of Jonah”? Not that you’re Cephas; you’re Simon. Do you want to be that intimate, where all of a sudden you know that you’re found out?
Now remember, just being found out isn’t the end. But that’s the thing we protect ourselves against. We don’t want to be found out.
I mean, we don’t want to be found out by brothers and sisters, let alone God. A lot of us say, “Well, you know, God knows.” But when we come face-to-face and really think that God really does know, it undoes us.
Do you want to get that intimate? Find out that you have no redeeming qualities, and yet He would say to you, “I know who you are, but you shall be called Cephas.”
It’s a painful thing, becoming Cephas, because you’re yourself exposed to God, sometimes to others. But that’s how you’re smoothed out. That’s how you’re made to fit with other people.
Do you want to be intimate enough to be found where you are, like Philip? You might want to be found where you are. “Lord, this is where I’m at. I’ve got a great spiritual façade. Look, I even wear a tie when I speak. That must make me really spiritual.”
I can say good things, and I can go to meetings. But the Lord doesn’t want to just find me here at the meeting. He wants to find me where I really am.
Hey, maybe I’m in the dung heap, but You wouldn’t know, because I’ve got a great façade. Maybe I’m in bondage to something. You wouldn’t know.
But to be intimate means that you let Him find you where you are. You let Him find you. You don’t let the brothers and sisters find you; you let Him find you where you are.
Because He’s the Good Shepherd who cares for His sheep and loves us. You let Him find you.
Do you want to be intimate enough to see heaven open? That’s real intimacy, because isn’t that where the Lord really lives?
One of the wonderful things I read about Jacob’s ladder was that one person said it was the bond between God and man. I thought about that. What is a bond? It’s something that holds things together, right? Like glue.
The Lord Jesus is the glue that holds us to God and God to us. I thought that was just a wonderful little picture.
But to see that heaven is open only comes by your being with that Person, because that’s where it opens up. If you’re not intimate, all we see is the ceiling.
How high does Christianity go? “Well, I know that Jesus is my Savior.” But to have heaven open, that’s letting you in. You understand what I’m saying?
When you’re intimate, it’s not intimacy on one person’s behalf. My wife isn’t the only one who’s supposed to be intimate in the relationship; I’m also supposed to be intimate with her.
It’s not just that the Lord wants to come into your world. He wants you to come into His. He wants you to see where He’s from, what He’s about.
Do you want that intimacy with Him that brings you into heaven, even while living here on earth? It’s a question.
Now, we talked about how it seems like the Lord has gotten away from the Lamb, how He has become bigger and bigger and bigger. I’m not dissing the Lamb, but I want to close with this.
When we first see the Lamb, the Lamb is everything, right? When we first come out, what Jesus has done for us is so wonderful.
Then, as we begin to see Him and know Him for who He is—He’s the Messiah, He’s the Son of God, He’s all these things—all of a sudden, He becomes bigger and bigger and bigger.
But because He becomes bigger and bigger and bigger, it doesn’t mean the Lamb is left to the side. In Revelation, what do we find? We find it’s a Lamb who is sitting on a throne. We find that the overcomers are following this Lamb.
So what happens? The more we see of Him, it makes us appreciate the Lamb that much more. Because who became the Lamb? This One who is becoming greater and greater in our eyes.
In a sense, our focus isn’t fixed just on the benefits that we have through this Lamb; it’s fixed on who the Lamb Himself is.
The Lamb is this great One. It’s not just how He did it, what He did, or who He is, but it’s all of them together. What He did is a great thing, but it’s even greater when you realize who He is. It’s even greater when you realize how He went about doing it.
All these things go together, and all of a sudden the Lamb becomes bigger and bigger to us. Then we can say to ourselves, “If the Lamb is this way, how can I ever be unloved? How can I ever be unloved?”
So the question I want to leave us with is this: I want to point us to the Lamb, like John the Baptist: “Behold, the Lamb.” But I want to leave you the question: what do you want from Him? And how intimate do you want to be with Him?
It’s almost like—I remember one time—I liked someone, and you want to find out if they like you too. That’s a very scary thing.
I went out on a limb and did what I thought I should do, and I did not get the response I wanted. It was okay; I was persistent.
The Lord’s persistent too. But you know something? The Lord asks the same question. He’s not looking for us to say, “Oh yeah, I want to be real intimate with You,” and then we go and do our things. He’s asking for honesty.
“Lord, I love something more than You.” Okay. But that doesn’t mean I don’t want that intimacy with You. I want it even more. Do you understand that?
So the question we leave you with today, going through the week, is this: How intimate do you want to be with Him?
He wants to be very intimate with you, but that’s not the question. The question is you—me. How intimate? The question is: what do I want? What am I seeking?
Let’s leave it with that, shall we? Let’s pray.
Lord, I want to thank You that You called regular men to Yourself—regular men and women. They had nothing special going on for them. Matter of fact, they had the same things that hold us from You that would hold them from You.
Lord, that’s just the way it is. I just pray, Lord, for us, as we consider these questions in going through this week, that we’ll open up to You.
I pray You’ll give us an openness to You, and that out of that openness, You can come in a little further.
Lord, we want to love You. You know we do. It’s hard, but we want to, Lord. So help us, we pray, in Christ’s name.