Blessings to you, family and friends of BBT. I never did write down the prayer requests from last week. I started that practice back when we first built the web site. I thought it would be a good way for us to have a reference as we pray throughout the week. I am also very aware that what is written here is available to the world, so I always try to be careful not to reveal too much personal information. It might be more useful to us if I took it private, requiring members to log in to read them. That way, I or whomever keeps the requests in future would be able to be more specific without revealing things that ought to be kept among ourselves. Let me know what you think. Do you refer to the prayer request page? Would you find it more useful if we could provide more detail on the requests? Do you have other ideas that would make our web site better?

This Sunday, I’ll be continuing with our study of John’s gospel in Chapter 15, verses 18-27. Jesus has been preparing His disciples for his immanent departure. He has told them to love each other and showed them what He means. He has told them how to show their love for Him, and these things are connected. He has promised them the Holy Spirit. Now, he tells them how the world is going to respond. It will hate them, just as it hated Him. This is because they are no longer of it. He has called them out.

He has also called us out. When we answer, he begins a transformation within us that makes us something completely alien to the world. We think differently. We act differently. Our values change. At least, these are the things that should happen. If they don’t, we have some tough questions to ask ourselves. In too many churches today, we are trying to make the world love us. If the world loves us, it means we are still a part of it. That makes us His enemies, not His friends. That is not a place we want to be. Let us be known as those who follow Jesus, even to the cross.