Betrayed by Judas

by Max Lucado

When betrayal comes, what do you do? Get out? Get angry? Get even? You have to deal with it some way. Let’s see how Jesus dealt with it.

Begin by noticing how Jesus saw Judas. “Jesus answered, “Friend, do what you came to do.” (Matthew 26:50)

Of all the names I would have chosen for Judas it would not have been ‘friend’. What Judas did to Jesus was grossly unfair. There is no indication that Jesus ever mistreated Judas. There is no clue that Judas was ever left out or neglected. When, during the Last Supper, Jesus told the disciples that his betrayer sat at the table, they didn’t turn to one another and whisper, “It’s Judas. Jesus told us he would do this.”

They didn’t whisper it because Jesus never said it. He had known it. He had known what Judas would do, but he treated the betrayer as if he were faithful.

It’s even more unfair when you consider the betrayal was Judas’s idea. The religious leaders didn’t seek him, Judas sought them. “What will you pay me for giving Jesus to you?” he asked. (Matthew 26:15) The betrayal would have been more palatable had Judas been propositioned by the leaders, but he wasn’t. He propositioned them.

And Judas’s method again – why did it have to be a kiss?
(Matthew 26: 48-49)

Be Your Husband's "Sure Thing"

Do you remember being in high school and wondering if that guy across the room liked you? Or whether your teenage crush would ask you to dance at the school-sponsored ball? Or whether the date you had that young-love crush on would plant his lips on yours when you stood on the porch to say goodbye?

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Remember the tingle of anticipation, the anxiety, the fear of rejection, the elation when your questions were answered with a resilient YES! YES, he does want to be with you!

Now imagine, years later, your husband working up the courage to ask if tonight is the night, if the day has gone well enough, if the chaos of family or work has faded enough, if your hormones have aligned like those Mafortuitous stars, such that you maybe, possibly, might could have sex.

Compassion

Pastor Mark Jeske

If this were reality TV, here's how the story would continue. "But while he was still a long way off, his father's security guards spotted him and relayed the message. The father gave strict orders that his wastrel offspring was never to set foot on the family estate again, and if he tried, the dogs should be set on him."

Here's how the Bible describes the father, your Father: "But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him, and kissed him" (Luke 15:20).

There is hardly a more beautiful description in the entire Bible of grace, which is God's decision to love unlovable people because of Jesus' willing death on Calvary. Jesus wants you to know that you can always count on the Father's mercy, because it is not based on your performance.

Compassion means that the father felt his son's shame and pain. And get this: he didn't make his son crawl. The father ran to embrace his prodigal bonehead. Wouldn't you like to be in your heavenly Father's embrace right now?  

A Mother’s Love

Written by Doris Beebe

Being rejected by the very one who gave birth to you is a hard thing to live with.

I can remember at the age of three or four, seeing my mother’s hard, cold face as she turned her cheek to me when I wanted to give her a good night kiss. Why doesn’t she love me? I wondered. I didn’t have an answer, but I knew that she just couldn’t.

I had many feelings growing up with my mother. She was a lot of things I did not ever want to be. She would sleep until noon and leave me to fend for myself. She frequently cheated on my father, who was suffering from schizophrenia.

Eventually, I got to live with my grandparents. Off and on, my mother would move in with my grandparents, my brother, sister and I. She and my father divorced, and when I was thirteen my father committed suicide.

Who did Jesus think he was? And why should I care?
Still have questions?Ask a mentor

My grandmother worked all the time and my mother had no control over me. In fact, we did not speak if we were in the same house. She would come and go with my brother and sister and I would be home alone with Grandma, who allowed me total freedom. With peer pressure and little guidance, I began to make some wrong choices in my search for the love that I had never received.

I got married at sixteen just to get out of the house and to have the family I never had. The relationship was abusive, and I was restless, so I ran away with another man and I became pregnant.

All the things I hated in my mother began to take place in my life. I tried so hard to avoid her mistakes, but I remained in a lifestyle of promiscuity and neglect of the little girl I gave birth to. My life was spinning out of control, and when the spinning stopped I landed back home without my child. She was two when I left.

One night, in a bar, I met a man named Joe. Three short weeks after I met him we were married.

It was then that I began to look for a way to turn my life around. I could feel something tugging at me, pulling me to leave the lifestyle I had been trapped in. I believe that “something” was God.

I began to seek Him out. I needed to know who God was, why He’d made me and what purpose there could be for my life. Fortunately, He promised us that if we seek Him, we will find Him. Jesus said, “Everyone who asks will receive, everyone who searches will find, and the door will be opened for everyone who knocks.” In 1993, I met God.

I learned that I could have a personal relationship with God, through His Son, Jesus Christ. He would love me and never leave me. He would forgive me for the things I had done and make me a new person. I could have the family and the love I had never known through Him. I invited Him into my life and I have been walking beside Him ever since.

My hatred for my mother caused me a lot of years of pain, but I finally realized that I was not hurting her. I was hurting myself and I was in bondage to her because I held her in my heart full of hate. God released me from this when I forgave her. A couple of years ago I came face to face with my mother at my grandmother’s funeral. I told her about the changes in my life and I told her that I forgave her. I was able to tell her that I loved her.

I am still separated from my oldest daughter, but she knows that I love her and that I made some wrong choices. I am now raising three of my own children and my sister’s child. When I look into the eyes of my sister’s baby–who is now the same age as my oldest child was when I left her–I can see myself at that age. I know that Jesus forgives, as I am allowed to be the mother I never knew.

Take a look at your life. How would you describe it? Contented? Rushed? Exciting? Stressful? Moving forward? Holding back? For many of us it’s all of the above at times. There are things we dream of doing one day, there are things we wish we could forget. In the Bible, it says that Jesus came to make all things new. What would your life look like if you could start over with a clean slate?

Living with hope

If you are looking for peace, there is a way to balance your life. No one can be perfect, or have a perfect life. But every one of us has the opportunity to experience perfect grace through a personal relationship with God through His Son, Jesus Christ.

You can receive Christ right now by faith through prayer. Praying is simply talking to God. God knows your heart and is not so concerned with your words as He is with the attitude of your heart. Here’s a suggested prayer:

Lord Jesus, I want to know you personally. Thank you for dying on the cross for my sins. I open the door of my life to you and ask you to come in as my Savior and Lord. Take control of my life. Thank you for forgiving my sins and giving me eternal life. Make me the kind of person you want me to be.

Does this prayer express the desire of your heart? You can pray it right now, and Jesus Christ will come into your life, just as He promised.

Is this the life for you?

If you invited Christ into your life, thank God often that He is in your life, that He will never leave you and that you have eternal life. As you learn more about your relationship with God, and how much He loves you, you’ll experience life to the fullest.

If you have a question first, click here.

gotquestions  http://powertochange.com/discover/faith/amotherslove/

8 Responses to “A Mother’s Love”

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• Doris says:

  April 11, 2012 at 1:55 pm

  I am the Author of this article and want to say to Belinda that the gift of forgiveness is the best gift you can give to yourself… It is about freedom !!
  I am Proud of you … hopenotwasted@yahoo.com is my contact …

  Blessings,

  Doris
• Brenda Millersays:

  March 6, 2012 at 6:37 am

  HI Belinda,

  I am so sorry for your pain. The rejection you experienced is heart-wrenching, and the sorrow you continue to undergo is palpable.

  Belinda, it is wonderful that you forgave your mother on her deathbed, and I believe that if you continue to claim that forgiveness daily you will find healing. The enemy wants to remind you of the pain, of the rejection, but Jesus wants to remind you of His amazing love and healing that He has for you. It is so important that you believe in the Hope that can be found in Christ, Belinda. I want to give you a couple of links to encourage you. The first one is on hope, and the second is on overcoming bitterness. I pray they are a blessing to you:

  http://powertochange.com/blogposts/2012/03/01/rebuilding-old-ruins-in-christ/

  http://www.gfa.ca/resource/audio/

  Look at the bottom of the page under the mp3 downloads for the second link, Belinda, for KP Yohannan’s message on bitterness. It is tremendous, and has blessed me greatly, as I was also rejected by both of my parents when I was a child right through until my adulthood, when my mother and father and I were able to reconcile.

  I am thankful that you have been able to share so honestly with us your pain, Belinda, and I will be praying for you. May God richly bless you in every area of your life as you turn to Him for your healing.
• BELINDA says:

  March 4, 2012 at 12:12 pm

  Thank you for sharing your story. I’m fighting the same rejection. My mother did everything she could to destroy me. I living in hell right now with no direction.
  Before she passed, she turned everyone against me. I have no self purpose and everyone is in denial about her abuse to me. She had a nervous breakdown after she gave birth to me. I think she blamed me and and tried to destroy my life. She secretly abused me, by pushing me down in extreme hot water burning my back, slapping me when no one was looking, pulling my finger back. I grew up very angery and was confused that no one would help me. When I told on her she told them I was crazy. That label has destroyed my life!

  I have no relationships with my siblings,due to her lying and making them look at me as the worst person in the world. I have prayed and ask god to take this pain from my heart. I wont go away, I told her when she was on her death bed I forgive you and I love you. I told her I just wanted her to love me and hold me. I didn’t know what her touch felt like.
• Juliana Kratman says:

  September 5, 2011 at 12:17 pm

  Doris, you are a wonderful person to be able to accept god as your personal savior and be able to forgive your mother. You are a true amazing person.
• Juliana Kratman says:

  September 5, 2011 at 12:15 pm

  Steve, is it true that your relationship with Doris was abusive? And Doris, that was beautifal.
• Doris says:

  January 24, 2010 at 10:03 pm

  I am Doris and want to say thank you to Steve and Sarah.
• Sarah says:

  January 19, 2010 at 7:26 pm

  great testimony
• Steve Cimerhanzel says:

  June 12, 2009 at 5:52 am

  I’m the 1st husband that married Doris at 16 years old. I’m happy to see she has accepted the lord as her personal savior.

Gethsemane: The Traitor's Kiss

Dr. Ray Pritchard

“Jesus asked him, ’Judas, are you betraying the Son of Man with a kiss?’” (Luke 22:48).

When we study the four gospels, we find a remarkable series of facts about Judas:
He was personally chosen to be an apostle by Jesus Christ.
He forsook all to follow the Lord.
He spent 3 1/2 years traveling the length and breadth of Israel with Christ.
He saw the miracles of Christ in person.
He heard Christ give all his famous discourses.
He watched as Christ healed the sick, raised the dead, and cast out demons.
He, along with the other apostles, was sent out to preach the gospel.
He was one of the leaders of the apostolic band.
No one ever suspected him of treason.

That’s what makes his story so perplexing. What would make a man follow Jesus so closely for so long and then betray him at the end? The Bible itself gives us some tantalizing hints but no final answer to that question. We don’t know all that motivated Judas to go to the Jewish leaders with his evil plan. Was it envy? Was it disappointment? Was it misplaced patriotism? Was it greed? Was it some backhanded attempt to force Jesus to lead a revolution against Rome?

Perhaps the motives in his heart were as mixed as ours often are.

In the end the only thing that matters is that he betrayed Jesus. For that one act his name will live forever in infamy.

What he did, I could do. If I think otherwise, then I have missed the point of this story. Judas is a lot like us and we’re a lot like him. In fact, the more religious we are, the more like Judas we are. After all, you can’t get much more religious than being an apostle. He was as “in” as any person could ever be.

And yet he betrayed the Lord.

The story of Judas is in the Bible for many reasons, not the least of which is that before we take anything for granted, we should at least ask the question the other apostles asked that fateful night:

“Lord, is it I?”

Search me, Lord Jesus, and see if there be any Judas in me. Would I betray you, Lord? Reveal the truth and then heal my soul lest I for thirty pieces of silver should betray you again. Amen.

 

You can reach the author at ray@keepbelieving.com. Click here to sign up for the free email sermon.

About Dr. Ray Pritchard

Dr. Ray Pritchard is the president of Keep Believing Ministries, in Internet-based ministry serving Christians in 225 countries. He is the author of 27 books, including Stealth Attack, Fire and Rain, Credo, The Healing Power of Forgiveness, An Anchor for the Soul and Why Did This Happen to Me? Ray and Marlene, his wife of 37 years, have three sons-Josh, Mark and Nick, two daughters-in-law--Leah and Vanessa, and two grandsons--Knox and Eli. His hobbies include biking, surfing the Internet, and anything related to the Civil War.

http://www.crosswalk.com/blogs/dr-ray-pritchard/gethsemane-the-traitors-kiss.html

10 of the raunchiest world records

RealBuzz

Biggest orgy

Is Japan one of the horniest nations?  It’s quite possible. They have an anuual fertility festival that celebrates the penis, the world’s favourite sex toy – the rampant rabbit – was designed and produced in Japan, and now they also hold the world record for having the biggest orgy ever. 250 Japanese men and 250 Japanese women had sex in a warehouse at the same time. They’ve even released a DVD.

Longest smooch

Pucker up guys and girls and get ready for this shocking record: the longest kiss lasted a whopping 46 hours and 24 minutes. The contestants had to kiss continuously, with their lips touching at all times. Toilet breaks weren’t even permitted. The couple who locked lips longest was Ekkachai and Laksana Tiranarat from Thailand, Pattaya. And were the chapped lips worth it? Well, the couple not only gained a world record they also won a diamond ring and 100,000 baht.

Biggest boobs

Fancy carrying an extra 8 stone in weight around with you? We thought not. This is the cost of having the world’s biggest, natural boobs. The bad boys belong to 52 year-old Annie Hawkins-Turner (aka Norma Stitz) who wears a size 102ZZZ bra. Annie’s under breast measurement is 109.22cm and her around chest-over-nipple measurement is 177.8cm. The world’s largest, surgically enhanced boobs belong to porn star Chelsea Charms who wears a 164XXX bra.

Oldest prostitute

Apparently the age of retirement is a little later for prostitution than most other occupations. The oldest working “Roxanne” known to the authorities is Chiu, who recently celebrated her 82nd birthday. Chiu began working the streets 40 years ago and has been working in Tai Pei ever since. Chiu has been working for so long she’s acquired a nickname – grandma. Unfortunately for Chiu, ageing prostitutes don’t feature much in men’s sexual fantasies and her rates have had to be radically reduced in recent years.

Strongest vagina

For those of you who thought women weren’t tough, you must not have heard of Tatiata Kozhevnikova, a 42-year old Russian mother. Tatiata may appear normal, but it turns out she likes lifting weights... with her lady parts. Tatiata suffered from weak pelvic muscles after the birth of her first child and tried lots of things before reading about women who used wooden balls to strengthen their weakened area. These days Tatiata can pump some serious iron, lifting 14 kilograms worth of weights.

Most bras removed in one minute

The awkward fumble and the disappointment felt when a guy can’t undo a girl’s bra is one devastating social scenario that quick fingered Chris Nicholson must never have experienced. Chris proudly holds the record of removing the most bras in one minute. Chris managed to whip off 20 bras, using just one hand. That means Chris was able to remove one bra every three seconds. He believes that his career as a magician helped him overcome the bra challenge; who knew magic could be so sexy.

Biggest nude wedding

Your wedding is the most romantic day of your life; at least it is for some. For others it’s a chance to ditch the confines of your clothes and find a little easy fame. In 2003 29 couples chose to get married in Jamaica at a club called Hedonism III. The mass wedding group exchanged their vows on Valentine’s Day completely in the nude. The brides were completely in the buff except for a veil.  Can you imagine the wedding photographs?

Biggest penis

Most men want to be bigger or at the very least a little better endowed down there, but Jonah Falcon is one man who has never felt ashamed by his manhood. Mr Falcon is the owner of the world’s largest human penis. His massive member measures an incredible 13.5 inches or 34.29cm; that’s longer than the average wine bottle. Jonah says that size isn’t everything and he seems to be right because Jonah still lives at home.

Most orgasms

A lot of women struggle to reach the pillow-biting big O, but for one lucky woman orgasms come easy. An anonymous lady was said to have 134 orgasms in one hour. She was recorded by two doctors William Hartman and Marilyn Fithian. By having 134 orgasms in just one hour it means that this girl had at least one orgasm every 2 minutes. However, another researcher has claimed that he has found one woman who could have 20 orgasms within 20 minutes.

Most castrations

If you’re squeamish, look away now. In 1300BC King Menephta defeated the Libyans in a huge battle. As a celebration against those he defeated he castrated the beaten army and cut off 13,000 penises. The list details that six Generals, 222 Sirculian Soldiers, 542 Etruscans, 6,111 Greek soldiers and 6,359 Libyan men all lost their members. We’re so glad that defeats are no longer celebrated in this way. 

Read more on realbuzz.com...
7 global sex facts 
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http://ph.she.yahoo.com/10-raunchiest-world-records-090000494.html

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