Bashan Ministries Preparing the way - Do you know my friend

If we met for the first time, I would probably reach out to chake your hand saying, Hello, I am Robert Carter. How are you?
I would like you to meet my friend. Permit me to introduce you. His name is Jesus.

He is a very real person you know, with feelings and emotions just like you, so understands you very well. After all, He lived with us for thirty or so years, walking the planet, getting just as tired, hungry and thirsty as you do, enjoying life to the full with His friends.

He had many friends you know. Lazarus was one. We know about Lazarus in John chapter eleven.
He also had twelve other friends, one of whom betrayed him, but Jesus knew he would do that the day they first met.

I know these things about Him because the bible tells me about His life. Perhaps you do not enjoy the intimacy of relationship I have with Him, so I'd like to share a few things I know with you so that you can get to know Him too.

I know that He wants to have friends, because he said so.In John chapter fifteen, He revealed how much He and the Father desire intimacy of relationship with us. He used a grape vine as an example.
I am the Real Vine and my Father is the Farmer. He cuts off every branch of me that doesn't bear grapes. And every branch that is grape-bearing he prunes back so it will bear even more. You are already pruned back by the message I have spoken. Live in me. Make your home in me just as I do in you. In the same way that a branch can't bear grapes by itself but only by being joined to the vine, you can't bear fruit unless you are joined with me. I am the Vine, you are the branches. When you're joined with me and I with you, the relation intimate and organic, the harvest is sure to be abundant. Separated, you can't produce a thing. Anyone who separates from me is deadwood, gathered up and thrown on the bonfire. But if you make yourselves at home with me and my words are at home in you, you can be sure that whatever you ask will be listened to and acted upon. This is how my Father shows who he is—when you produce grapes, when you mature as my disciples. John 15:1-8.

He spoke about joy. Did you know that God has a sense of humour? He wants to share that with us also. Listen to this-
I've told you these things for a purpose: that my joy might be your joy, and your joy wholly mature. John 15:11.That was just after He told us how much the Father loved Him."I've loved you the way my Father has loved me. Make yourselves at home in my love. If you keep my commands, you'll remain intimately at home in my love. That's what I've done—kept my Father's commands and made myself at home in his love. John 15:9-10.

He added-
I've told you these things for a purpose: that my joy might be your joy, and your joy wholly mature. This is my command: Love one another the way I loved you. This is the very best way to love. Put your life on the line for your friends. You are my friends when you do the things I command you. I'm no longer calling you servants because servants don't understand what their master is thinking and planning. No, I've named you friends because I've let you in on everything I've heard from the Father. You didn't choose me, remember; I chose you, and put you in the world to bear fruit, fruit that won't spoil. As fruit bearers, whatever you ask the Father in relation to me, he gives you. But remember the root command: Love one another. John 15:11-17.

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The verses of the bible that I shared with you reveal that Jesus Christ put His life on the line for this relationship... for you.
Verse fifteen tells us that He does not want a servant/master relationship, although He is truly master of all things, but a relationship in which He can take you into His confidence and share His heart with you in the ways that only the best of friends can do. Dare I say that it is like the closeness or intimacy of relationship that a man has with his wife. My wife Marjorie and I are very close. We are as one. We think alike. We enjoy the same things. We like the same food and often times start doing the same thing at the same time without either of us saying a word. For example, I may be in my office and go the the kitchen to make a coffee at the same time she does and we never said a thing to each other. This kind of intimacy of relationship is definitely as real with the Lord as it is with each other and that is what He wants with you also.

In John chapter seventeen, Jesus prayed for you and for me. It was not the Lord's Prayer that you might have heard about. That was he example of how to pray that He gave His disciples when they asked Him to teach them. In John 17, He was praying for you, shortly before He was arrested and then went to the cross for you.

Jesus said these things.

Then, raising his eyes in prayer, he said: Father, it's time. Display the bright splendor of your Son So the Son in turn may show your bright splendor. You put him in charge of everything human So he might give real and eternal life to all in his charge. And this is the real and eternal life: That they know you, The one and only true God, And Jesus Christ, whom you sent. I glorified you on earth By completing down to the last detail What you assigned me to do. And now, Father, glorify me with your very own splendor, The very splendor I had in your presence Before there was a world. I spelled out your character in detail To the men and women you gave me. They were yours in the first place; Then you gave them to me, And they have now done what you said. They know now, beyond the shadow of a doubt, That everything you gave me is firsthand from you, For the message you gave me, I gave them; And they took it, and were convinced That I came from you. They believed that you sent me. I pray for them. I'm not praying for the God-rejecting world But for those you gave me, For they are yours by right. Everything mine is yours, and yours mine, And my life is on display in them. John 17:1-10 (emphasis mine).

His Brethren

One aspect about this relationship is the fact, that although He is God and is to be reverenced as such, His work is all-embracing. What Jesus did for you and me is amazing. It far exceeds what religion teaches if it puts God "up there" somewhere as if out of reach and too holy to be touched. Have no doubts about His holiness, but He is closer to you than you realise.
Jesus is in fact God as much as He is man... Although he was in the form of God and equal with God, he did not take advantage of this equality. Instead, he emptied himself by taking on the form of a servant, by becoming like other humans, by having a human appearance. He humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, death on a cross. This is why God has given him an exceptional honor— the name honored above all other names— so that at the name of Jesus everyone in heaven, on earth, and in the world below will kneel and confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Philippians 2:6-11.

What I want you to see is that He desires your friendship as well as your worship. Abraham was known as the Friend Of God. 2 Chronicles 20:7; James 2:23. I have no falsehood in any way by saying that I, Robert Carter, am also a friend of God.
You can be His friend also if you want.

On the cross, Jesus cried in triumph teleō, or, It is Finished, which means He accomplished everything that needed to be done for you. There's nothing lacking; nothing left undone; all of your sin and the results of sin have been dealt with to bring you into Divine relationship with God.

Hebrews 2:1-18 is a lengthy passage, but too important to gloss over. Please look carefully.
For this reason we must pay closer attention to what we have heard. Then we won't drift away {from the truth}. After all, the message that the angels brought was reliable, and every violation and act of disobedience was properly punished. So how will we escape punishment if we reject the important message, the message that God saved us? First, the Lord told this saving message. Then those who heard him confirmed that message. God verified what they said through miraculous signs, amazing things, other powerful acts, and with other gifts from the Holy Spirit as he wanted. He didn't put the world that will come (about which we are talking) under the angels' control. Instead, someone has declared this somewhere in Scripture: “What is a mortal that you should remember him, or the Son of Man that you take care of him? You made him a little lower than the angels. You crowned him with glory and honor.

You put everything under his control.” When God put everything under his Son's control, nothing was left out. However, at the present time we still don't see everything under his Son's control. Jesus was made a little lower than the angels, but we see him crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death. Through God's kindness he died on behalf of everyone. God is the one for whom and through whom everything exists. Therefore, while God was bringing many sons and daughters to glory, it was the right time to bring Jesus, the source of their salvation, to the end of his work through suffering. Jesus, who makes people holy, and all those who are made holy have the same Father. That is why Jesus isn't ashamed to call them brothers and sisters. He says, “I will tell my people about your name. I will praise you within the congregation.” In addition, Jesus says, “I will trust him.” And Jesus says, “I am here with the sons and daughters God has given me.” Since all of these sons and daughters have flesh and blood, Jesus took on flesh and blood to be like them. He did this so that by dying he would destroy the one who had power over death (that is, the devil). In this way he would free those who were slaves all their lives because they were afraid of dying. So Jesus helps Abraham's descendants rather than helping angels. Therefore, he had to become like his brothers and sisters so that he could be merciful. He became like them so that he could serve as a faithful chief priest in God's presence and make peace with God for their sins. Because Jesus experienced temptation when he suffered, he is able to help others when they are tempted (emphasis mine).

God wants you to be included in this group of people. It is just like He is standing before you reaching out with his hand to introduce Himself and say, Hello, I'm God. Would you like to be my friend?

Do You Know My Friend?

Now that we have seen what is only a very small portion of what God has done and what He wants to continue doing for us, I want to ask you that most important question, Do You Know My Friend?
You now have two choices.

Decline the offer
Accept what He is offering you as a free gift.

If you want to, merely close this page and continue as you are in life. That is your right to choose and God will honour that.
On the other hand, if you want to find out more on what I have merely summarized, just tell Him where you are right now and ask Jesus into your life. It is that simple.

If we were standing beside each other, I'd say something like, Jesus, I am Robert. You know me. This is... (and I'd mention your name). I'd like you to meet him.

Your response is simply accepting His free gift to you and ask Him to save you! The scripture passage Romans 10:8-11 that will come up on your monitor will tell the story. Go ahead and see what happens. You will not be disappointed. If you do this, it would be my pleasure and honour to also call you my friend, so you can write me and tell me what happened. I'd like that.
Robert