"This is and has been the Father's work from the beginning--to bring us into the home of His heart." -- George MacDonald.

Another group of the most frequently given but often overlooked Commands of Jesus might be summarized in many ways--bravery, stout heartedness, courage, valor, fearlessness, boldness. They are here gathered together as two, which we consider as Take heart, take courage, and simply Do not be afraid.

"This is and has been the Father's work from the beginning--to bring us into the home of His heart." -- George MacDonald.

The Command to watchfulness has deep but often overlooked consequences. Counterfeits creep in to distract us when we let our spiritual guards down. The moment attentiveness wanes, our eyes drift off the bulls eye of God's purpose. We observe this pattern with the twelve. Every time they became distracted by peripheral concerns, Jesus brought them back to foundational priorities with one or another variation of, "You lost your focus...now pay attention."

"This is and has been the Father's work from the beginning--to bring us into the home of His heart." -- George MacDonald.

A serious examination of the Gospels reveals three surprising combinations of injunctions emerging as the most frequently given commands of Jesus. One would assume, from their prevalence, that these three groups would form the bedrock of Christian teaching, that we would hear them from the pulpits of our churches week after week, that they would form the basis of most dialog and discussion between Christians. If Jesus emphasized them most, would it not be logical to assume that we would too?

"This is and has been the Father's work from the beginning--to bring us into the home of His heart." -- George MacDonald.

It may be that the injunction toward prayer is the single Command of Jesus we most readily witness throughout the earth. Christians pray, Jews pray, Muslims pray. Even many who profess no religion yet claim to pray. It is an astonishing fact to contemplate that more than half of mankind probably prays regularly in some fashion. It is surely no exaggeration to say that prayer is being lifted to the heavens every second round the clock. Mankind is a praying species. The earth is a praying world.

"This is and has been the Father's work from the beginning--to bring us into the home of His heart." -- George MacDonald.

Jesus makes two of the most shocking statements of his ministry on the night before his death. They are recounted only by the Gospelist John. Though Matthew was also there that evening, it clearly took not only an eyewitness, but one like John with particular insight into the Lord's heart, to capture the powerful essence of this pivotal message that Jesus wanted to leave with his disciples on his last night with them.