Day of the New Covenant

    Today is a wonderful and amazingly special day.  Today is the day, that God’s people will celebrate the Feast of Unleavened Bread.  Many years ago, back in Old Testament Scriptures, we can read about how God saved His people from a very hateful and mean people called Egyptian's, who kept God’s people for slaves.  God delivered His people from being the Egyptian's slaves.  On the day that God’s people were able to leave Egypt , they had to leave swiftly.  God told them to make their bread without yeast.  Yeast is the leaven in bread that causes it to rise, but yeast takes time to work.  So, the women made their bread without yeast.  Once they were free, God told them to remember Him and how He saved them by making their bread without yeast the same time every year.  He told them to have a big celebration every year and to call it the, “Feast of Unleavened Bread”.  This Feast lasted seven days, and always started the day before Passover.  That is why God’s people celebrated the two together like a big festival.  It was a happy time for God’s people.  No matter what was going on at that time, when it was the Feast of Unleavened Bread and Passover, they remembered how much God loved them and took care of them.  This is why all of God’s people came to Jerusalem this week.  Since tomorrow will be the Passover, today is the Feast of Unleavened Bread.

     Jesus’ disciples went to prepare the Feast just as He had told them to.  Once all of the disciples and Jesus were together in the upper room above a certain man’s house,  Jesus said something that shook the disciples up.  He told them that one of them was going to betray Him.  One His own disciples would betray Him.  He told them that one of them that had just dipped their bread in the bowl with Him, would be the one to betray Him.  In that day, only friends and family that trusted each other would dip their bread in the same bowl of wine or honey.  Jesus is saying here that the one who would betray Him, was one who had shared the bowl with Him.  Someone Jesus should have been able to trust would betray Him, and Jesus knew it.  The disciples began to ask Jesus one by one if it would be them that hurt Him.  Jesus told them that it would really be terrible for the one that was betraying Him, and that it would have been better for that person to never to have even been born.  Jesus told them that He knew it must be this way because the Scriptures from the Old Testament said it would happen like this.  Even though one disciple would betray Him, it would not happen if God did not have it that way. But God’s plan was that this year, Jesus would be the once and for all,  Passover Lamb.

     Then finally,  Judas asked if he was the one.  Judas knew he was.  He had already been paid to hand Jesus over to the religious leaders.  He was just seeing if Jesus knew it was him that would be the betrayer.   Jesus told him that it was indeed him,  Judas Iscariot, that was the betrayer.

     After this, Jesus did a very amazing thing.  The unleavened bread and wine they were having was because of their celebration.  But,  Jesus was about to change all of those years of tradition.  He took the bread, blessed it, broke it into pieces and gave a piece to each of His disciples.  He then told them, “Take this and eat it, for this is My body. Do this to remember Me.”  They had never heard such a thing.  Then Jesus took the cup and gave thanks to God for it.  He gave the disciples the cup and said, “Each of you drink from it, for his is my blood, which confirms the covenant between God and His people.  It is poured out as a sacrifice to forgive the sins of many.”  This was something new for Jesus to say.  The wine in the cup always reminded the people of the blood over the door posts.  The bread reminded them of how God quickly freed them from slavery.  This was a new teaching  Jesus gave them.  Jesus was teaching the disciples about the new and better covenant they would have.  From here on this would not be called the Feast of Unleavened Bread and Passover.  This time of remembering God’s goodness would be called, “The Lord’s Supper”.  This is very important but they did not understand.... yet.  They all sang a hymn and went out and back to the, Mount of Olives.  They probably sang Psalm 116-118.

     On the way to the Mount of Olives, Jesus told the disciples that tonight each one of them would desert Him, the Old Testament Scriptures said that it would happen that way.  But He told them that after He was raised from the dead that He would go ahead of them and meet them in Galilee.  Jesus’ disciple Peter said he would never desert Jesus.  Jesus told Peter that this very night before the rooster crows in the morning he would deny Him three time and tell people he never even knew Me.  Peter insisted that he would die with Jesus before he would deny Him.  The other disciples said the same thing.

     When they got to the Mount of Olives, they went to an olive grove called, Gethsemane.  Jesus asked His disciples to sit while He went to pray.  He took Peter, James and John with Him.  Jesus told the three of them He was very sad because of the sins in the world.  He asked these disciples to stay watch for Him while He prayed.  Jesus walked a little way from them and bowed down, His face to the ground, and prayed to God.  He asked His Father in Heaven if it was possible for Him to not face this awful death tomorrow.  He told His Heavenly Father whatever He wanted,  Jesus would do.  Jesus went back to Peter, James and John.  They were sleeping.  Jesus woke them up and asked them again to please stay awake and watch out for Him as He prayed.  Jesus went back to prayer.  God had answered Jesus about the awful death tomorrow.  Jesus told His Father that He understood that the cup of death could not be removed from Him.  He told God He would be obedient and see to it that His Father’s will was done.  Jesus went back to His disciples.  They were sleeping again.  He said nothing to them and went back to keep praying.  When He was done praying the third time, Jesus woke the three disciples up.  He told them He had been betrayed into the hands of evil men and to get up and get going back to the other disciples because His betrayer had come back and was now among them.
     At some point, Judas had left the group of disciples because he was the one Jesus was talking about coming back, and was now with the evil men that had come to harm Him.  Judas was walking with a group of men toward the other disciples and Jesus.  The men with Judas were carrying swords and clubs.  The religious leaders sent them to arrest Jesus.  It was night time and there was no one around except these men, the disciples, and Jesus.  These men had come to take Jesus like thieves under the cover of night, this way they did not have to worry about what the people would think or do.  Since it was dark and some of these evil men may not have been sure who Jesus was,  Judas had given them a signal to know which One was Jesus.  He would kiss Jesus on the cheek as a sign for them to arrest Him.   Judas greeted Jesus, and then gave him the kiss.   Jesus knew what this meant and told Judas to go ahead and do what he had come to do.  The men with clubs and swords grabbed Jesus and arrested Him.  Peter grabbed the arresting man’s sword to get him to let Jesus go.  Jesus instructed him to put the sword away.  He asked Peter if he did not understand that He could call on His Father in Heaven for help and that God would send thousands of angels to protect all of them instantly?  He told the disciples that He could do that, but then how would the prophecies of the Old Testament Scriptures be fulfilled as they were meant to be?   Jesus told everyone there He could have been arrested in the temple since He was there everyday; but that this was happening the way it was to fulfill the Scriptures.

     The arresting men took Jesus to the high priest Caiaphas’ house where all of the religious leaders were waiting for Him.  Peter followed some distance behind.  All of the Pharisees, Sadducees, Scribes, Elders and teachers put together in a council of men were called, the Sanhedrin.  They were all there.  The laws of that day said that there was to never be a trial at night, but the Sanhedrin held a trial right then and there at night.  They broke their own laws because they were so desperate to kill  Jesus.  They tried again to trick Him and they tried to get people to lie about Him.  Finally, they asked Jesus if He was the Messiah, the Son of God.  Jesus told them He was.  Caiaphas declared that Jesus was speaking disrespectfully about God and asked the Sanhedrin for a vote.  They said He was guilty and should die. These religious leaders began to beat Jesus, they even spit in His face.

     Peter had secretly watched all of this.  He knew they were going to kill Jesus and he was afraid for his own life.  While sitting outside of a house in a courtyard a servant girl said to Peter that  he was one of the men with that Jesus from, Galilee.  Peter said, No! and that he did not know what she was talking about.  A little later out by the gate, another servant girl noticed him and said to the people standing around, “This man was was with Jesus of Nazareth.”  Again Peter denied knowing Jesus and he swore to it.  A little later some of the the people standing around came over to Peter and said, “You must be one of them; we can tell by your Galilean accent.”   Peter swore, “A curse on me if I’m lying-I don’t know the man!”  Immediately, the rooster crowed.  Suddenly, Jesus’ words flashed through Peter's mind:  “Before the rooster crows, you will deny three times that you even know me.”  Peter left the courtyard crying very hard... he completely undone.  Now, the sun is starting to come up.  And, it will be Friday, the day Jesus has been talking about all week.

   Today was a day of fellowship in the upper room and of announcing a new and better covenant.

   Oh Father, I pray Your church embrace all the Jesus did this night those 2,000 years ago!

Day of the New Covenant

    Today is a wonderful and amazingly special day.  Today is the day, that God’s people will celebrate the Feast of Unleavened Bread.  Many years ago, back in Old Testament Scriptures, we can read about how God saved His people from a very hateful and mean people called Egyptian's, who kept God’s people for slaves.  God delivered His people from being the Egyptian's slaves.  On the day that God’s people were able to leave Egypt , they had to leave swiftly.  God told them to make their bread without yeast.  Yeast is the leaven in bread that causes it to rise, but yeast takes time to work.  So, the women made their bread without yeast.  Once they were free, God told them to remember Him and how He saved them by making their bread without yeast the same time every year.  He told them to have a big celebration every year and to call it the, “Feast of Unleavened Bread”.  This Feast lasted seven days, and always started the day before Passover.  That is why God’s people celebrated the two together like a big festival.  It was a happy time for God’s people.  No matter what was going on at that time, when it was the Feast of Unleavened Bread and Passover, they remembered how much God loved them and took care of them.  This is why all of God’s people came to Jerusalem this week.  Since tomorrow will be the Passover, today is the Feast of Unleavened Bread.

     Jesus’ disciples went to prepare the Feast just as He had told them to.  Once all of the disciples and Jesus were together in the upper room above a certain man’s house,  Jesus said something that shook the disciples up.  He told them that one of them was going to betray Him.  One His own disciples would betray Him.  He told them that one of them that had just dipped their bread in the bowl with Him, would be the one to betray Him.  In that day, only friends and family that trusted each other would dip their bread in the same bowl of wine or honey.  Jesus is saying here that the one who would betray Him, was one who had shared the bowl with Him.  Someone Jesus should have been able to trust would betray Him, and Jesus knew it.  The disciples began to ask Jesus one by one if it would be them that hurt Him.  Jesus told them that it would really be terrible for the one that was betraying Him, and that it would have been better for that person to never to have even been born.  Jesus told them that He knew it must be this way because the Scriptures from the Old Testament said it would happen like this.  Even though one disciple would betray Him, it would not happen if God did not have it that way. But God’s plan was that this year, Jesus would be the once and for all,  Passover Lamb.

     Then finally,  Judas asked if he was the one.  Judas knew he was.  He had already been paid to hand Jesus over to the religious leaders.  He was just seeing if Jesus knew it was him that would be the betrayer.   Jesus told him that it was indeed him,  Judas Iscariot, that was the betrayer.

     After this, Jesus did a very amazing thing.  The unleavened bread and wine they were having was because of their celebration.  But,  Jesus was about to change all of those years of tradition.  He took the bread, blessed it, broke it into pieces and gave a piece to each of His disciples.  He then told them, “Take this and eat it, for this is My body. Do this to remember Me.”  They had never heard such a thing.  Then Jesus took the cup and gave thanks to God for it.  He gave the disciples the cup and said, “Each of you drink from it, for his is my blood, which confirms the covenant between God and His people.  It is poured out as a sacrifice to forgive the sins of many.”  This was something new for Jesus to say.  The wine in the cup always reminded the people of the blood over the door posts.  The bread reminded them of how God quickly freed them from slavery.  This was a new teaching  Jesus gave them.  Jesus was teaching the disciples about the new and better covenant they would have.  From here on this would not be called the Feast of Unleavened Bread and Passover.  This time of remembering God’s goodness would be called, “The Lord’s Supper”.  This is very important but they did not understand.... yet.  They all sang a hymn and went out and back to the, Mount of Olives.  They probably sang Psalm 116-118.

     On the way to the Mount of Olives, Jesus told the disciples that tonight each one of them would desert Him, the Old Testament Scriptures said that it would happen that way.  But He told them that after He was raised from the dead that He would go ahead of them and meet them in Galilee.  Jesus’ disciple Peter said he would never desert Jesus.  Jesus told Peter that this very night before the rooster crows in the morning he would deny Him three time and tell people he never even knew Me.  Peter insisted that he would die with Jesus before he would deny Him.  The other disciples said the same thing.

     When they got to the Mount of Olives, they went to an olive grove called, Gethsemane.  Jesus asked His disciples to sit while He went to pray.  He took Peter, James and John with Him.  Jesus told the three of them He was very sad because of the sins in the world.  He asked these disciples to stay watch for Him while He prayed.  Jesus walked a little way from them and bowed down, His face to the ground, and prayed to God.  He asked His Father in Heaven if it was possible for Him to not face this awful death tomorrow.  He told His Heavenly Father whatever He wanted,  Jesus would do.  Jesus went back to Peter, James and John.  They were sleeping.  Jesus woke them up and asked them again to please stay awake and watch out for Him as He prayed.  Jesus went back to prayer.  God had answered Jesus about the awful death tomorrow.  Jesus told His Father that He understood that the cup of death could not be removed from Him.  He told God He would be obedient and see to it that His Father’s will was done.  Jesus went back to His disciples.  They were sleeping again.  He said nothing to them and went back to keep praying.  When He was done praying the third time, Jesus woke the three disciples up.  He told them He had been betrayed into the hands of evil men and to get up and get going back to the other disciples because His betrayer had come back and was now among them.
     At some point, Judas had left the group of disciples because he was the one Jesus was talking about coming back, and was now with the evil men that had come to harm Him.  Judas was walking with a group of men toward the other disciples and Jesus.  The men with Judas were carrying swords and clubs.  The religious leaders sent them to arrest Jesus.  It was night time and there was no one around except these men, the disciples, and Jesus.  These men had come to take Jesus like thieves under the cover of night, this way they did not have to worry about what the people would think or do.  Since it was dark and some of these evil men may not have been sure who Jesus was,  Judas had given them a signal to know which One was Jesus.  He would kiss Jesus on the cheek as a sign for them to arrest Him.   Judas greeted Jesus, and then gave him the kiss.   Jesus knew what this meant and told Judas to go ahead and do what he had come to do.  The men with clubs and swords grabbed Jesus and arrested Him.  Peter grabbed the arresting man’s sword to get him to let Jesus go.  Jesus instructed him to put the sword away.  He asked Peter if he did not understand that He could call on His Father in Heaven for help and that God would send thousands of angels to protect all of them instantly?  He told the disciples that He could do that, but then how would the prophecies of the Old Testament Scriptures be fulfilled as they were meant to be?   Jesus told everyone there He could have been arrested in the temple since He was there everyday; but that this was happening the way it was to fulfill the Scriptures.

     The arresting men took Jesus to the high priest Caiaphas’ house where all of the religious leaders were waiting for Him.  Peter followed some distance behind.  All of the Pharisees, Sadducees, Scribes, Elders and teachers put together in a council of men were called, the Sanhedrin.  They were all there.  The laws of that day said that there was to never be a trial at night, but the Sanhedrin held a trial right then and there at night.  They broke their own laws because they were so desperate to kill  Jesus.  They tried again to trick Him and they tried to get people to lie about Him.  Finally, they asked Jesus if He was the Messiah, the Son of God.  Jesus told them He was.  Caiaphas declared that Jesus was speaking disrespectfully about God and asked the Sanhedrin for a vote.  They said He was guilty and should die. These religious leaders began to beat Jesus, they even spit in His face.

     Peter had secretly watched all of this.  He knew they were going to kill Jesus and he was afraid for his own life.  While sitting outside of a house in a courtyard a servant girl said to Peter that  he was one of the men with that Jesus from, Galilee.  Peter said, No! and that he did not know what she was talking about.  A little later out by the gate, another servant girl noticed him and said to the people standing around, “This man was was with Jesus of Nazareth.”  Again Peter denied knowing Jesus and he swore to it.  A little later some of the the people standing around came over to Peter and said, “You must be one of them; we can tell by your Galilean accent.”   Peter swore, “A curse on me if I’m lying-I don’t know the man!”  Immediately, the rooster crowed.  Suddenly, Jesus’ words flashed through Peter's mind:  “Before the rooster crows, you will deny three times that you even know me.”  Peter left the courtyard crying very hard... he completely undone.  Now, the sun is starting to come up.  And, it will be Friday, the day Jesus has been talking about all week.

   Today was a day of fellowship in the upper room and of announcing a new and better covenant.

   Oh Father I pray Your church embrace all the Jesus did this night those 2,000 years ago!

Doing Church

   This post is about an article I just read that a friend put on Facebook. Before you read any more of what I have written, you might want to read this article.

   I wish each of you that just read that article and I were all in a room together so I could hear your responses, and chat about them. The author begs the question, "If a worship service includes no prayer and no Bible reading, can we even recognize it as Christian worship?” 

   It is Christian’s worshipping, but ‘what is the focus of their worship?’ is the real question here. Emotional comfort, being “seeker friendly” so as not to make a visitor or newbie uncomfortable, keeping the “service” within a certain time frame, downplaying accountability, and being entertained and not edified, encouraged and oh never... exhorted are the elements of the average church Sunday morning gathering.  God’s Word, which He exalts above His own name, true praise and worship~ the kind that isn’t just a rock concert goose-bump moment, but the kind that comes from within and generates true change and more intimacy with God, and prayer (quiet earnest talking with God where you give Him time to talk with you), are not the focus anymore. So, worship-... well by definition that means, “adoration”, “to move toward and kiss”, an “act of homage or reverence”, “to make obeisance (expressing deep respect by a courtesy as before a superior~ a bow, curtsy or other similar gesture)”-...at least worshipping God, is not even close here. That “service", gathering, is more about going to church than being the Church. This is not the Church God left us a blueprint for through the writing’s of the New Testament, this a social club with a better agenda than secular gatherings.

   We are to worship in spirit and truth. I will offer a waiver here for my next sentence in regard to some pretty amazing charismatic church services I have been to. Sadly however, it is not often you see Holy Spirit movement in most churches, and a few verses of God’s Word laced into a sermon almost NEVER rightly divides the Word of Truth. If you are comfortable with this, I would want to ask you how much time you spend in the Word and with the Lord in private. I have heard it said that church is for the fellowshipping of believers. That is true, but not the total picture. We are the Church and that means more involvement than some guitar chords, driving drums and lyrics put to music?? that can not be sung by the masses, 3 points in a talk, a speedy prayer when we gather together, and then the quick exit out after superficial socializing so we can get to lunch. 

   True worship, the spirit and truth kind, is very powerful. This kind of corporate worship will feed your spirit, your soul and give you victory therein for your flesh.  Anything that powerful the enemy is going to do whatever he can to destroy it, and he often settles for diminishing just enough to steal and destroy a Christian’s joy true worship brings, and therefore his power.

   Matthew 15: 9 and Jesus’ statement about “vain worship” has gone through my mind while writing this, but while it to a degree fits here I think that is more about men’s doctrine. This issue  probably comes a bit closer to the word “lukewarm". 

   This Tim Challies, while I have not looked at anything else on his blog making it unwise for me to make a blanket statement about him, or his blog, I will say this article is spot on.  I have SO much more on my mind here, but I need to scoot. Tim Challies' article caused me to revisit what I already knew, but to give me a good little boost in the application of  how important it really is to share God's Word, and invest my life in people for the the glory of God. I hope his article caused you to think about, or maybe even rethink "church".  After-all, 

"...whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things."

Philippians 4:8

Day of the New Covenant

    Today is a wonderful and amazingly special day.  Today is the day, that God’s people will celebrate the Feast of Unleavened Bread.  Many years ago, back in Old Testament Scriptures, we can read about how God saved His people from a very hateful and mean people called Egyptian's, who kept God’s people for slaves.  God delivered His people from being the Egyptian's slaves.  On the day that God’s people were able to leave Egypt , they had to leave swiftly.  God told them to make their bread without yeast.  Yeast is the leaven in bread that causes it to rise, but yeast takes time to work.  So, the women made their bread without yeast.  Once they were free, God told them to remember Him and how He saved them by making their bread without yeast the same time every year.  He told them to have a big celebration every year and to call it the, “Feast of Unleavened Bread”.  This Feast lasted seven days, and always started the day before Passover.  That is why God’s people celebrated the two together like a big festival.  It was a happy time for God’s people.  No matter what was going on at that time, when it was the Feast of Unleavened Bread and Passover, they remembered how much God loved them and took care of them.  This is why all of God’s people came to Jerusalem this week.  Since tomorrow will be the Passover, today is the Feast of Unleavened Bread.

     Jesus’ disciples went to prepare the Feast just as He had told them to.  Once all of the disciples and Jesus were together in the upper room above a certain man’s house,  Jesus said something that shook the disciples up.  He told them that one of them was going to betray Him.  One His own disciples would betray Him.  He told them that one of them that had just dipped their bread in the bowl with Him, would be the one to betray Him.  In that day, only friends and family that trusted each other would dip their bread in the same bowl of wine or honey.  Jesus is saying here that the one who would betray Him, was one who had shared the bowl with Him.  Someone Jesus should have been able to trust would betray Him, and Jesus knew it.  The disciples began to ask Jesus one by one if it would be them that hurt Him.  Jesus told them that it would really be terrible for the one that was betraying Him, and that it would have been better for that person to never to have even been born.  Jesus told them that He knew it must be this way because the Scriptures from the Old Testament said it would happen like this.  Even though one disciple would betray Him, it would not happen if God did not have it that way. But God’s plan was that this year, Jesus would be the once and for all,  Passover Lamb.

     Then finally,  Judas asked if he was the one.  Judas knew he was.  He had already been paid to hand Jesus over to the religious leaders.  He was just seeing if Jesus knew it was him that would be the betrayer.   Jesus told him that it was indeed him,  Judas Iscariot, that was the betrayer.

     After this, Jesus did a very amazing thing.  The unleavened bread and wine they were having was because of their celebration.  But,  Jesus was about to change all of those years of tradition.  He took the bread, blessed it, broke it into pieces and gave a piece to each of His disciples.  He then told them, “Take this and eat it, for this is My body. Do this to remember Me.”  They had never heard such a thing.  Then Jesus took the cup and gave thanks to God for it.  He gave the disciples the cup and said, “Each of you drink from it, for his is my blood, which confirms the covenant between God and His people.  It is poured out as a sacrifice to forgive the sins of many.”  This was something new for Jesus to say.  The wine in the cup always reminded the people of the blood over the door posts.  The bread reminded them of how God quickly freed them from slavery.  This was a new teaching  Jesus gave them.  Jesus was teaching the disciples about the new and better covenant they would have.  From here on this would not be called the Feast of Unleavened Bread and Passover.  This time of remembering God’s goodness would be called, “The Lord’s Supper”.  This is very important but they did not understand.... yet.  They all sang a hymn and went out and back to the, Mount of Olives.  They probably sang Psalm 116-118.

     On the way to the Mount of Olives, Jesus told the disciples that tonight each one of them would desert Him, the Old Testament Scriptures said that it would happen that way.  But He told them that after He was raised from the dead that He would go ahead of them and meet them in Galilee.  Jesus’ disciple Peter said he would never desert Jesus.  Jesus told Peter that this very night before the rooster crows in the morning he would deny Him three time and tell people he never even knew Me.  Peter insisted that he would die with Jesus before he would deny Him.  The other disciples said the same thing.

     When they got to the Mount of Olives, they went to an olive grove called, Gethsemane.  Jesus asked His disciples to sit while He went to pray.  He took Peter, James and John with Him.  Jesus told the three of them He was very sad because of the sins in the world.  He asked these disciples to stay watch for Him while He prayed.  Jesus walked a little way from them and bowed down, His face to the ground, and prayed to God.  He asked His Father in Heaven if it was possible for Him to not face this awful death tomorrow.  He told His Heavenly Father whatever He wanted,  Jesus would do.  Jesus went back to Peter, James and John.  They were sleeping.  Jesus woke them up and asked them again to please stay awake and watch out for Him as He prayed.  Jesus went back to prayer.  God had answered Jesus about the awful death tomorrow.  Jesus told His Father that He understood that the cup of death could not be removed from Him.  He told God He would be obedient and see to it that His Father’s will was done.  Jesus went back to His disciples.  They were sleeping again.  He said nothing to them and went back to keep praying.  When He was done praying the third time, Jesus woke the three disciples up.  He told them He had been betrayed into the hands of evil men and to get up and get going back to the other disciples because His betrayer had come back and was now among them.
     At some point, Judas had left the group of disciples because he was the one Jesus was talking about coming back, and was now with the evil men that had come to harm Him.  Judas was walking with a group of men toward the other disciples and Jesus.  The men with Judas were carrying swords and clubs.  The religious leaders sent them to arrest Jesus.  It was night time and there was no one around except these men, the disciples, and Jesus.  These men had come to take Jesus like thieves under the cover of night, this way they did not have to worry about what the people would think or do.  Since it was dark and some of these evil men may not have been sure who Jesus was,  Judas had given them a signal to know which One was Jesus.  He would kiss Jesus on the cheek as a sign for them to arrest Him.   Judas greeted Jesus, and then gave him the kiss.   Jesus knew what this meant and told Judas to go ahead and do what he had come to do.  The men with clubs and swords grabbed Jesus and arrested Him.  Peter grabbed the arresting man’s sword to get him to let Jesus go.  Jesus instructed him to put the sword away.  He asked Peter if he did not understand that He could call on His Father in Heaven for help and that God would send thousands of angels to protect all of them instantly?  He told the disciples that He could do that, but then how would the prophecies of the Old Testament Scriptures be fulfilled as they were meant to be?   Jesus told everyone there He could have been arrested in the temple since He was there everyday; but that this was happening the way it was to fulfill the Scriptures.

     The arresting men took Jesus to the high priest Caiaphas’ house where all of the religious leaders were waiting for Him.  Peter followed some distance behind.  All of the Pharisees, Sadducees, Scribes, Elders and teachers put together in a council of men were called, the Sanhedrin.  They were all there.  The laws of that day said that there was to never be a trial at night, but the Sanhedrin held a trial right then and there at night.  They broke their own laws because they were so desperate to kill  Jesus.  They tried again to trick Him and they tried to get people to lie about Him.  Finally, they asked Jesus if He was the Messiah, the Son of God.  Jesus told them He was.  Caiaphas declared that Jesus was speaking disrespectfully about God and asked the Sanhedrin for a vote.  They said He was guilty and should die. These religious leaders began to beat Jesus, they even spit in His face.

     Peter had secretly watched all of this.  He knew they were going to kill Jesus and he was afraid for his own life.  While sitting outside of a house in a courtyard a servant girl said to Peter that  he was one of the men with that Jesus from, Galilee.  Peter said, No! and that he did not know what she was talking about.  A little later out by the gate, another servant girl noticed him and said to the people standing around, “This man was was with Jesus of Nazareth.”  Again Peter denied knowing Jesus and he swore to it.  A little later some of the the people standing around came over to Peter and said, “You must be one of them; we can tell by your Galilean accent.”   Peter swore, “A curse on me if I’m lying-I don’t know the man!”  Immediately, the rooster crowed.  Suddenly, Jesus’ words flashed through Peter's mind:  “Before the rooster crows, you will deny three times that you even know me.”  Peter left the courtyard crying very hard... he completely undone.  Now, the sun is starting to come up.  And, it will be Friday, the day Jesus has been talking about all week.

   Today was a day of fellowship in the upper room and of announcing a new and better covenant.

   Oh Father I pray Your church embrace all the Jesus did this night those 2,000 years ago!

Day of The New Covenant

   Today is a wonderful and amazingly special day.  Today is the day, that God’s people will celebrate the Feast of Unleavened Bread.  Many years ago, back in Old Testament Scriptures, we can read about how God saved His people from a very hateful and mean people called Egyptian's, who kept God’s people for slaves.  God delivered His people from being the Egyptian's slaves.  On the day that God’s people were able to leave Egypt , they had to leave swiftly.  God told them to make their bread without yeast.  Yeast is the leaven in bread that causes it to rise, but yeast takes time to work.  So, the women made their bread without yeast.  Once they were free, God told them to remember Him and how He saved them by making their bread without yeast the same time every year.  He told them to have a big celebration every year and to call it the, “Feast of Unleavened Bread”.  This Feast lasted seven days, and always started the day before Passover.  That is why God’s people celebrated the two together like a big festival.  It was a happy time for God’s people.  No matter what was going on at that time, when it was the Feast of Unleavened Bread and Passover, they remembered how much God loved them and took care of them.  This is why all of God’s people came to Jerusalem this week.  Since tomorrow will be the Passover, today is the Feast of Unleavened Bread.

     Jesus’ disciples went to prepare the Feast just as He had told them to.  Once all of the disciples and Jesus were together in the upper room above a certain man’s house,  Jesus said something that shook the disciples up.  He told them that one of them was going to betray Him.  One His own disciples would betray Him.  He told them that one of them that had just dipped their bread in the bowl with Him, would be the one to betray Him.  In that day, only friends and family that trusted each other would dip their bread in the same bowl of wine or honey.  Jesus is saying here that the one who would betray Him, was one who had shared the bowl with Him.  Someone Jesus should have been able to trust would betray Him, and Jesus knew it.  The disciples began to ask Jesus one by one if it would be them that hurt Him.  Jesus told them that it would really be terrible for the one that was betraying Him, and that it would have been better for that person to never to have even been born.  Jesus told them that He knew it must be this way because the Scriptures from the Old Testament said it would happen like this.  Even though one disciple would betray Him, it would not happen if God did not have it that way. But God’s plan was that this year, Jesus would be the once and for all,  Passover Lamb.

     Then finally,  Judas asked if he was the one.  Judas knew he was.  He had already been paid to hand Jesus over to the religious leaders.  He was just seeing if Jesus knew it was him that would be the betrayer.   Jesus told him that it was indeed him,  Judas Iscariot, that was the betrayer.

     After this, Jesus did a very amazing thing.  The unleavened bread and wine they were having was because of their celebration.  But,  Jesus was about to change all of those years of tradition.  He took the bread, blessed it, broke it into pieces and gave a piece to each of His disciples.  He then told them, “Take this and eat it, for this is My body. Do this to remember Me.”  They had never heard such a thing.  Then Jesus took the cup and gave thanks to God for it.  He gave the disciples the cup and said, “Each of you drink from it, for his is my blood, which confirms the covenant between God and His people.  It is poured out as a sacrifice to forgive the sins of many.”  This was something new for Jesus to say.  The wine in the cup always reminded the people of the blood over the door posts.  The bread reminded them of how God quickly freed them from slavery.  This was a new teaching  Jesus gave them.  Jesus was teaching the disciples about the new and better covenant they would have.  From here on this would not be called the Feast of Unleavened Bread and Passover.  This time of remembering God’s goodness would be called, “The Lord’s Supper”.  This is very important but they did not understand.... yet.  They all sang a hymn and went out and back to the, Mount of Olives.  They probably sang Psalm 116-118.

     On the way to the Mount of Olives, Jesus told the disciples that tonight each one of them would desert Him, the Old Testament Scriptures said that it would happen that way.  But He told them that after He was raised from the dead that He would go ahead of them and meet them in Galilee.  Jesus’ disciple Peter said he would never desert Jesus.  Jesus told Peter that this very night before the rooster crows in the morning he would deny Him three time and tell people he never even knew Me.  Peter insisted that he would die with Jesus before he would deny Him.  The other disciples said the same thing.

     When they got to the Mount of Olives, they went to an olive grove called, Gethsemane.  Jesus asked His disciples to sit while He went to pray.  He took Peter, James and John with Him.  Jesus told the three of them He was very sad because of the sins in the world.  He asked these disciples to stay watch for Him while He prayed.  Jesus walked a little way from them and bowed down, His face to the ground, and prayed to God.  He asked His Father in Heaven if it was possible for Him to not face this awful death tomorrow.  He told His Heavenly Father whatever He wanted,  Jesus would do.  Jesus went back to Peter, James and John.  They were sleeping.  Jesus woke them up and asked them again to please stay awake and watch out for Him as He prayed.  Jesus went back to prayer.  God had answered Jesus about the awful death tomorrow.  Jesus told His Father that He understood that the cup of death could not be removed from Him.  He told God He would be obedient and see to it that His Father’s will was done.  Jesus went back to His disciples.  They were sleeping again.  He said nothing to them and went back to keep praying.  When He was done praying the third time, Jesus woke the three disciples up.  He told them He had been betrayed into the hands of evil men and to get up and get going back to the other disciples because His betrayer had come back and was now among them.
     At some point, Judas had left the group of disciples because he was the one Jesus was talking about coming back, and was now with the evil men that had come to harm Him.  Judas was walking with a group of men toward the other disciples and Jesus.  The men with Judas were carrying swords and clubs.  The religious leaders sent them to arrest Jesus.  It was night time and there was no one around except these men, the disciples, and Jesus.  These men had come to take Jesus like thieves under the cover of night, this way they did not have to worry about what the people would think or do.  Since it was dark and some of these evil men may not have been sure who Jesus was,  Judas had given them a signal to know which One was Jesus.  He would kiss Jesus on the cheek as a sign for them to arrest Him.   Judas greeted Jesus, and then gave him the kiss.   Jesus knew what this meant and told Judas to go ahead and do what he had come to do.  The men with clubs and swords grabbed Jesus and arrested Him.  Peter grabbed the arresting man’s sword to get him to let Jesus go.  Jesus instructed him to put the sword away.  He asked Peter if he did not understand that He could call on His Father in Heaven for help and that God would send thousands of angels to protect all of them instantly?  He told the disciples that He could do that, but then how would the prophecies of the Old Testament Scriptures be fulfilled as they were meant to be?   Jesus told everyone there He could have been arrested in the temple since He was there everyday; but that this was happening the way it was to fulfill the Scriptures.

     The arresting men took Jesus to the high priest Caiaphas’ house where all of the religious leaders were waiting for Him.  Peter followed some distance behind.  All of the Pharisees, Sadducees, Scribes, Elders and teachers put together in a council of men were called, the Sanhedrin.  They were all there.  The laws of that day said that there was to never be a trial at night, but the Sanhedrin held a trial right then and there at night.  They broke their own laws because they were so desperate to kill  Jesus.  They tried again to trick Him and they tried to get people to lie about Him.  Finally, they asked Jesus if He was the Messiah, the Son of God.  Jesus told them He was.  Caiaphas declared that Jesus was speaking disrespectfully about God and asked the Sanhedrin for a vote.  They said He was guilty and should die. These religious leaders began to beat Jesus, they even spit in His face.

     Peter had secretly watched all of this.  He knew they were going to kill Jesus and he was afraid for his own life.  While sitting outside of a house in a courtyard a servant girl said to Peter that  he was one of the men with that Jesus from, Galilee.  Peter said, No! and that he did not know what she was talking about.  A little later out by the gate, another servant girl noticed him and said to the people standing around, “This man was was with Jesus of Nazareth.”  Again Peter denied knowing Jesus and he swore to it.  A little later some of the the people standing around came over to Peter and said, “You must be one of them; we can tell by your Galilean accent.”   Peter swore, “A curse on me if I’m lying-I don’t know the man!”  Immediately, the rooster crowed.  Suddenly, Jesus’ words flashed through Peter's mind:  “Before the rooster crows, you will deny three times that you even know me.”  Peter left the courtyard crying very hard... he completely undone.  Now, the sun is starting to come up.  And, it will be Friday, the day Jesus has been talking about all week.

   Today was a day of fellowship in the upper room and of announcing a new and better covenant.

   Oh Father I pray Your church embrace all the Jesus did this night those 2,000 years ago!

Church Bake Sale and Peanut Butter Banana Date Bread

   I love to bake. I really enjoying cooking, always have, but I love to bake. I especially like it when someone enjoys what I have made. It makes whatever it took to get that baked worth it. Not to mention how much cheaper and more rewarding and fulfilling it is than therapy. :-) When I can bake to help further the Kingdom of God, all the better the blessing. Our Women's Ministry at church periodically will raise money for things like the school we have and missions. The Sunday before Thanksgiving after church we had a bake sale. I pulled out some card stock tags, ink and some stamps and got started.

These are the stamps used for tags on each item to sell.

Happy Thanksgiving 

Blessings

Happy Thanksgiving with autumn leaves

Give Thanks

Tags done~ quick, easy and fun.

   Now it is on to baking. I am going to make No~Bake Cookies, Banana Oatmeal Muffins of which half will be topped with Maple Buttercream frosting and Peanut Butter Banana Date Bread.


   I do appreciate the money I can save shopping at Aldi's and I do like their products. Most of their products are as good and some better than high priced and name brand products at the traditional groceries. I have mentioned I do not like their soap or cleaning products, household or personal hygiene items. I have found another product I will not purchase again and threw out the entire can after I took the 1/3 cup out for the cookies and met the result with complete disaster. See that canister of "Baker's Corner Baking Cocoa"? I highly recommend you skip that one at Aldi's. The recipe for these cookies you will see on blue spiral tablet paper is from a project I did in fourth grade. I have used this recipe ever since and have made it the same way every time. For the last 15 years or so I have made them in the same pot. I have never had a batch turn out badly. I do not work in a cocoa kitchen of any kind but based on the outcome of the batch of cookies this baking cocoa produced they either pressed far too much of  the fat out of the cacao beans or added far too much alkalizing agent to it. My guess is they did both. I do enjoy Aldi's oatmeal almost everyday for breakfast and use it for all my recipes that call for oats or oatmeal. When I went to the grocery to get Hershey's Cocoa I also bought some Quaker Oats. That was probably not necessary but I had things to do on the Saturday I was baking and buying Quaker Oats just gave me a little peace of mind.

Aldi's Oats and Baking Cocoa

Tried and true Quaker Oats and Hershey's Cocoa.

This recipe I use was one I made in 4th grade for a class project.

That was back in the day where I folded everything :-)

No Bake Cookies

2 cups sugar

1/3 cup cocoa

1 stick real butter

1/2 cup milk

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 1/2 cups oats

Put first four ingredients in saucepan and bring to a medium boil for 4 minutes, 5 minutes is too much so take the pan off of the heat before 5 minutes. I usually let it boil for about 4 minutes.

Add vanilla.

Stir in oats until they are evenly distributed and drop on wax paper.

Enjoy!

Let them cool while the other two recipes are made.

 Pale in color, dry, crumbly and slightly more tasty than artificially flavored cardboard. For comparison, these are from the batch made from the Aldi's cocoa which quickly made their way to the trash.

    Whip up two more items for the bake sale and I can package them up. Both recipes will call for ripened banana's and I had two that would work. I am making a double batch of both recipes which will call for a total of 10 bananas. So the eight that needed a little ripening are headed for some manufactured accelerated ripening.

These are just not ripe enough so in the oven they go for about 5-8 minutes on 350°.

They look like a mess, but they were perfect. I buy banana's, Jon eats them. So this is what I do. 

   The next recipe is Banana Oatmeal Muffins. Spark Recipes is full of fun and delicious healthy recipes. It is a cite worth perusing. Because their byline and purpose is to provide healthy recipes I was a little surprised to find one there that had 1/2 cup of shortening in its list of ingredients. This recipe in its original form does call for just that and you will see that if you opt to go to the original recipe. Originally this also called for chocolate chips and chopped walnuts. I only keep shortening around if I am doing a decorated cake that I must have pure white frosting for and can not use a pure buttercream which has a cream colored cast to it. So, I used 1/2 cup of butter instead of the shortening and I do not use the chocolate chips or walnuts in this particular banana muffin recipe. I like both individually or together in banana muffins, but the simple and wonderful flavor of this muffin is just too good to goober it up with other layers of flavor. Using oats in a recipe is a great way to add incredible texture and to bind and hold the ingredients together. When I discovered this recipe an entirely new world opened up for me in the world of baking. Pre~cooked oatmeal offers so much to this recipe. I would not put it in meatballs, but anywhere the oats are not needed for binding other ingredients together I am experimenting with pre~cooked oatmeal. Here is the original Banana Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Muffins on Spark Recipes.

   Below the photos is my rendition of that recipe and I call them just:   Banana Oatmeal Muffins.

Simple ingredients you most likely have at a any given time.

In recipes like this that add mashed banana's I use one bowl. I love to bake, not clean unnecessary dishes.

This recipe calls for sifting. I sift for all recipes with rare exception. Aerating the flour gives a nicer end result.

These are amazingly moist, rich and so full of simple flavor.

Banana Oatmeal Muffins

Makes 12 muffins

Preheat oven to 350. Grease or line muffin pan.

1/2 cup butter

1 cup sugar

1 egg

1 tsp Vanilla extract

2 ripe bananas

1 cup Cooked Oatmeal  (which is 1/2 cup of oats cooked in 1 cup water)

2 cups all~purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

If you are not using leftover oatmeal and are making it for this recipe; make the oatmeal first so it can cool before adding to batter.

In a large bowl cream together butter, sugar, egg and vanilla. Add banana’s and mash them, then add cooked and cooled oatmeal. Stir all together until nicely blended. Sift in flour, baking soda and salt. Stir just until dry ingredients are moistened.  Spoon batter into prepared muffins cups filling to about 2/3 full. 

Bake 22-25 minutes, or until done. They will be golden around the edges and paler on top.

Cool on a wire rack for a few minutes then remove muffins from pan placing them back on cooling rack. Good served warm or cold.

   The next recipe will be a double batch of Peanut Butter Banana Date Bread.

Pampered Chef Measure~All® Cup

   Since there is no creaming of the ingredients in the Peanut Butter Banana Date Bread I have mashed bananas in advance rather than mashing them with the whole of the other ingredients. I don't want to overwork the quick bread dough by mashing them in the batter. I pause to show you this because this Pampered Chef Measure~All® Cup is great for butter, bananas, peanut butter, or any solid ingredient. If you turn the tool around and flip it over you will see that it measures liquid from the opposite end. I love NOT scraping food out of a measuring cup. You simply press the whole of the ingredient measured out with one gentle push. Happiness! 

   My father was a great cook, and if it were bread of some kind he loved to bake. He made the best Pepperoni Bread. It seemed to take forever with the rising time, but well worth the wait! Below is a cookbooklet published spring of 1985 and that is when I bought it. Thumbing through it I happened onto the Peanut Butter Banana Date Bread recipe. It was a quick bread and not a yeast bread, but because of the three mentioned ingredients I just knew dad would want to try it when I showed it to him. I knew being made with a mix wouldn't hinder his wanting to give it a go because quick breads, thought not the boxed ones, were really his thing. I made a mental note to put the cookbooklet in my purse so I would have it with me after church Sunday as the girls and I usually went to Grandma and Grandpa's house for Sunday dinner. Then it occurred to me ~ he's gone Teresa, he is not there. Dad died just a few months earlier in January that year. If you have ever lost someone you had very regular contact with, and loved as one does a parent, you understand I was not crazy for not remembering at that moment so soon after his passing that he was in fact, gone. So, suffice it to say this particular cookbooklet brings a tinge to my heart, a churn to my stomach and brief moment of heat to my eyes. That is why I like to use if for fun things, and I thought to bake a loaf or two of that bread for the church bake sale just seemed right.

The tag says, "tried & true".

Simple ingredients.

I do not want a full loaf sitting about the house so I made a little individual serving to split with Jon.

This would be where Emeril Lagasse's "smellavision" would be nice. Delightful aroma!

Once cool these little darlings can be wrapped for the bake sale.

Ours however are going to be eaten warm. 

Here is the recipe.

Peanut Butter Banana Date Bread

1 box Pillsbury Date or Nut Bread Mix  (I always use date.)
1 cup mashed bananas
1/4 cup peanut butter
2 tablespoons oil
1 egg
1 tablespoon wheat germ

Heat oven to 350°F. Using solid shortening grease and flour bottom only of 8X4 or 9X5 inch loaf pan. In large bowl, combine all ingredients except wheat germ; stir 50 to 75 strokes until dry particles are moistened. Pour into prepared pan; sprinkle with wheat germ.

Bake at 350°F for 45 to 55 minutes or until golden brown. Cool 15 minutes; remove from pan. Cool completely before slicing. Wrap tightly and store in refrigerator. Makes 1 loaf.

You can use creamy or crunchy peanut butter, I use creamy for this bread. Like the photo suggests, I do spread peanut butter on this when I snack on it, I like and use the crunchy then. Fig preserves and orange marmalade age good choices, too. I use canola oil for the oil in the recipe. I rarely use shortening but I do to grease and flour this bread. This may not be tofu on spinach with a balsamic vinaigrette but I did give it the Healthy Eating label because overall for a snack it is not so bad, particularly if you are comparing it to "snack cakes", especially the store bought varieties.

The wrapping and packaging begins.

The flavor in these is rustic and simple, and they are so moist.  They are  perfect for Autumn.

3 cookies to a cup.

Done!

   I hope your Thanksgiving was full of all the people and things you are thankful for!

Day of the New Covenant

    Today is a wonderful and amazingly special day.  Today is the day, that God’s people will celebrate the Feast of Unleavened Bread.  Many years ago, back in Old Testament Scriptures, we can read about how God saved His people from a very hateful and mean people called Egyptian's, who kept God’s people for slaves.  God delivered His people from being the Egyptian's slaves.  On the day that God’s people were able to leave Egypt , they had to leave swiftly.  God told them to make their bread without yeast.  Yeast is the leaven in bread that causes it to rise, but yeast takes time to work.  So, the women made their bread without yeast.  Once they were free, God told them to remember Him and how He saved them by making their bread without yeast the same time every year.  He told them to have a big celebration every year and to call it the, “Feast of Unleavened Bread”.  This Feast lasted seven days, and always started the day before Passover.  That is why God’s people celebrated the two together like a big festival.  It was a happy time for God’s people.  No matter what was going on at that time, when it was the Feast of Unleavened Bread and Passover, they remembered how much God loved them and took care of them.  This is why all of God’s people came to Jerusalem this week.  Since tomorrow will be the Passover, today is the Feast of Unleavened Bread.

     Jesus’ disciples went to prepare the Feast just as He had told them to.  Once all of the disciples and Jesus were together in the upper room above a certain man’s house,  Jesus said something that shook the disciples up.  He told them that one of them was going to betray Him.  One His own disciples would betray Him.  He told them that one of them that had just dipped their bread in the bowl with Him, would be the one to betray Him.  In that day, only friends and family that trusted each other would dip their bread in the same bowl of wine or honey.  Jesus is saying here that the one who would betray Him, was one who had shared the bowl with Him.  Someone Jesus should have been able to trust would betray Him, and Jesus knew it.  The disciples began to ask Jesus one by one if it would be them that hurt Him.  Jesus told them that it would really be terrible for the one that was betraying Him, and that it would have been better for that person to never to have even been born.  Jesus told them that He knew it must be this way because the Scriptures from the Old Testament said it would happen like this.  Even though one disciple would betray Him, it would not happen if God did not have it that way. But God’s plan was that this year, Jesus would be the once and for all,  Passover Lamb.

     Then finally,  Judas asked if he was the one.  Judas knew he was.  He had already been paid to hand Jesus over to the religious leaders.  He was just seeing if Jesus knew it was him that would be the betrayer.   Jesus told him that it was indeed him,  Judas Iscariot, that was the betrayer.

     After this, Jesus did a very amazing thing.  The unleavened bread and wine they were having was because of their celebration.  But,  Jesus was about to change all of those years of tradition.  He took the bread, blessed it, broke it into pieces and gave a piece to each of His disciples.  He then told them, “Take this and eat it, for this is My body. Do this to remember Me.”  They had never heard such a thing.  Then Jesus took the cup and gave thanks to God for it.  He gave the disciples the cup and said, “Each of you drink from it, for his is my blood, which confirms the covenant between God and His people.  It is poured out as a sacrifice to forgive the sins of many.”  This was something new for Jesus to say.  The wine in the cup always reminded the people of the blood over the door posts.  The bread reminded them of how God quickly freed them from slavery.  This was a new teaching  Jesus gave them.  Jesus was teaching the disciples about the new and better covenant they would have.  From here on this would not be called the Feast of Unleavened Bread and Passover.  This time of remembering God’s goodness would be called, “The Lord’s Supper”.  This is very important but they did not understand.... yet.  They all sang a hymn and went out and back to the, Mount of Olives.  They probably sang Psalm 116-118.

     On the way to the Mount of Olives, Jesus told the disciples that tonight each one of them would desert Him, the Old Testament Scriptures said that it would happen that way.  But He told them that after He was raised from the dead that He would go ahead of them and meet them in Galilee.  Jesus’ disciple Peter said he would never desert Jesus.  Jesus told Peter that this very night before the rooster crows in the morning he would deny Him three time and tell people he never even knew Me.  Peter insisted that he would die with Jesus before he would deny Him.  The other disciples said the same thing.

     When they got to the Mount of Olives, they went to an olive grove called, Gethsemane.  Jesus asked His disciples to sit while He went to pray.  He took Peter, James and John with Him.  Jesus told the three of them He was very sad because of the sins in the world.  He asked these disciples to stay watch for Him while He prayed.  Jesus walked a little way from them and bowed down, His face to the ground, and prayed to God.  He asked His Father in Heaven if it was possible for Him to not face this awful death tomorrow.  He told His Heavenly Father whatever He wanted,  Jesus would do.  Jesus went back to Peter, James and John.  They were sleeping.  Jesus woke them up and asked them again to please stay awake and watch out for Him as He prayed.  Jesus went back to prayer.  God had answered Jesus about the awful death tomorrow.  Jesus told His Father that He understood that the cup of death could not be removed from Him.  He told God He would be obedient and see to it that His Father’s will was done.  Jesus went back to His disciples.  They were sleeping again.  He said nothing to them and went back to keep praying.  When He was done praying the third time, Jesus woke the three disciples up.  He told them He had been betrayed into the hands of evil men and to get up and get going back to the other disciples because His betrayer had come back and was now among them.
     At some point, Judas had left the group of disciples because he was the one Jesus was talking about coming back, and was now with the evil men that had come to harm Him.  Judas was walking with a group of men toward the other disciples and Jesus.  The men with Judas were carrying swords and clubs.  The religious leaders sent them to arrest Jesus.  It was night time and there was no one around except these men, the disciples, and Jesus.  These men had come to take Jesus like thieves under the cover of night, this way they did not have to worry about what the people would think or do.  Since it was dark and some of these evil men may not have been sure who Jesus was,  Judas had given them a signal to know which One was Jesus.  He would kiss Jesus on the cheek as a sign for them to arrest Him.   Judas greeted Jesus, and then gave him the kiss.   Jesus knew what this meant and told Judas to go ahead and do what he had come to do.  The men with clubs and swords grabbed Jesus and arrested Him.  Peter grabbed the arresting man’s sword to get him to let Jesus go.  Jesus instructed him to put the sword away.  He asked Peter if he did not understand that He could call on His Father in Heaven for help and that God would send thousands of angels to protect all of them instantly?  He told the disciples that He could do that, but then how would the prophecies of the Old Testament Scriptures be fulfilled as they were meant to be?   Jesus told everyone there He could have been arrested in the temple since He was there everyday; but that this was happening the way it was to fulfill the Scriptures.

     The arresting men took Jesus to the high priest Caiaphas’ house where all of the religious leaders were waiting for Him.  Peter followed some distance behind.  All of the Pharisees, Sadducees, Scribes, Elders and teachers put together in a council of men were called, the Sanhedrin.  They were all there.  The laws of that day said that there was to never be a trial at night, but the Sanhedrin held a trial right then and there at night.  They broke their own laws because they were so desperate to kill  Jesus.  They tried again to trick Him and they tried to get people to lie about Him.  Finally, they asked Jesus if He was the Messiah, the Son of God.  Jesus told them He was.  Caiaphas declared that Jesus was speaking disrespectfully about God and asked the Sanhedrin for a vote.  They said He was guilty and should die. These religious leaders began to beat Jesus, they even spit in His face.

     Peter had secretly watched all of this.  He knew they were going to kill Jesus and he was afraid for his own life.  While sitting outside of a house in a courtyard a servant girl said to Peter that  he was one of the men with that Jesus from, Galilee.  Peter said, No! and that he did not know what she was talking about.  A little later out by the gate, another servant girl noticed him and said to the people standing around, “This man was was with Jesus of Nazareth.”  Again Peter denied knowing Jesus and he swore to it.  A little later some of the the people standing around came over to Peter and said, “You must be one of them; we can tell by your Galilean accent.”   Peter swore, “A curse on me if I’m lying-I don’t know the man!”  Immediately, the rooster crowed.  Suddenly, Jesus’ words flashed through Peter's mind:  “Before the rooster crows, you will deny three times that you even know me.”  Peter left the courtyard crying very hard... he completely undone.  Now, the sun is starting to come up.  And, it will be Friday, the day Jesus has been talking about all week.

   Today was a day of fellowship in the upper room and of announcing a new and better covenant.

   Oh Father I pray Your church embrace all the Jesus did this night those 2,000 years ago!