Devotional Guide -- April 8

Monday, April 8, 2019
Jesus, the Christ

“No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.” John 15:14-15

I was once in the home of a man in eastern North Carolina who had a most impressive study, beautifully paneled with every piece of furniture carefully selected for that room. It was a room designed especially for this man’s comfort.

One entire wall was filled with carefully placed pictures: Roosevelt, Churchill, Rockefeller (probably several of them), Eisenhower, Truman. And not just presidents and heads of state. Governors of several states, senators, congressmen. Country music stars, Hollywood starts. Each picture showed my new acquaintance as he smiled for the photographer next to the “dignitary of the day!” He had really been around, and he proudly showed us all the famous people he called “friend.” Had they met him on the street, they probably could not have called his name.

Not so with Jesus! We are not his servants but his friends! We don’t have his picture in our study; we have him with us constantly. We did not designate him our friend; he designated us his friend, his very own friends, whom he knows by name. We wouldn’t trade him for a whole wall of dignitaries’ pictures!

Prayer: Father, we love knowing we are your friends, that we don’t have to hang your picture on the wall to impress ourselves and others. Thank you for letting us be your friends. Amen.

“I am the resurrection and the life.” John 11:25
Lenten Devotional Guide
prepared for Homosassa United Methodist Church, Spring 2009
by Patience Nave, Christian Education Director