Luke 22:43 and the Garden of Gethsemane

A few nights ago I went to read my Bible and didn’t know where to read so I randomly found a passage. It just happened to be Luke’s account of the Garden of Gethsemane. I didn’t think I would find anything new since I had read it multiple times before and had heard countless lessons and sermons that addressed the happenings before Christ’s death. Right after the verse where Christ asks God to remove the cup, however, I noticed an awesome verse I can’t recall every noticing before:

Luke 22:43
Now an angel from heaven appeared to Him, strengthening Him

The very next verse is one that is often referred to, however.

Luke 22:44
And being in agony He was praying very fervently; and His sweat became like drops of blood, falling upon the ground.

So many things can be taken out of this one little verse. First God didn’t remove Christ’s trials but he did send help. 1 Corinthians 10: 13 says the same thing only more directly:

1 Cor 10:13
No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it.

I’ve heard that verse quite a bit too but it’s just incredible to see how many times God used Christ to show his mercy and love.

The other thing I took from the verse in Luke is that hard times won’t quit just because God is helping you. Even after the angel appeared and strengthened Jesus he still struggled so much that his “sweat became like drops of blood, falling upon the ground.”
God doesn’t always give you a magic wand to wave and make everything better but he does give you the strength and tools that you need to get through.

II Corinthians 12

I read II Corinthians 12 the other day and it is such an amazing chapter. I don’t know what led me to read it but it is incredible. I highly encourage you to read the whole thing but if you just want a couple verses to read be sure to check out vs. 9-10. They don’t mean quite as much with out the context of he rest of the chapter but they are still incredible no matter what.

A Thought on Harry Potter

Sorry again no post about Ecc. I reread the chapter 3 a couple times but I think I was led to spend some time thinking about this instead:

I was up until almost 2:00 am this morning finishing the latest Harry Potter book. When I only had about 15 pages left I realized something that almost made me grimace: I was on the edge of my seat. I really cared about the fictitious characters and the plot and the ending. In itself that isn’t bad but then I thought of the night before and what would probably happen before I went to bed after I finished the book: I would probably open my bible to some random place in the New Testament and read 10 verses just out of force of habit. If I was tired enough I would probably only actually read 3 or 4 and just briefly skim the rest. How could I be so enthralled in this fictitious book that I had read all 6oo pages in less than 3 days and yet I couldn’t take the time to spend time reading more of the most truthful book in all of creation.

It’s not just Harry Potter I do this with that just happened to be the book I was reading at the time. But how many times do we do that? As humans we would rather read a bunch of words thrown together by someone who has an imagination (that was given to them by God) than read the words of the very God that created our language.

Indeed I did read my usual 10 verses before I went to bed and try as I might to stop myself I skimmed a few of them. How could I be so selfish and close-minded?

In my opinion there is nothing evil with Harry Potter (we can get into the whole stumbling block issue later). I don’t honestly think there is anything wrong with getting engrossed in a book either. No where in the Bible does it say ‘read the Bible or you’ll go to hell” (as far as I know). But it is part of growing closer to God. You can be Baptized and accept Christ as your Lord and savior and be saved without really meditating on the Bible. However how are you supposed to know you are saved? How can you know when you screw up if you didn’t read what counts as screwing up. The Bible is such an incredible book. At times it seems to drag on but if you can get passed the long lineages and the repetition of parts than you can find so many incredible lessons.

I pray that someday I could get to the point where I have an unquenchable thirst for the words of my Lord. I hope that one day I will be to the point where I’m on the edge of my seat because I’m reading the Bible. I don’t know how to get to that point besides to pray that God will lead you there and to continue to read the Bible so you can understand it better. I hope you will pray the same thing.