Text: John 17:11-19. In the gospel reading we hear Jesus' prayer to our heavenly Father: "I have given them your word, and the world has hated them, because they do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. I'm not asking you to take them out of the world, but that you keep them safe from the evil one" (John 17:14-15).

Today we come to the final two petitions in the Lord's Prayer, "lead us . . . deliver us..." St. Peter remind us that the devil is constantly prowling around like a roaring lion, looking for those whom he may devour. And, St. Paul reminds us that "our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavens" (Eph. 6:12). The devil knows our weaknesses. He knows what buttons to push in our lives; and actually, he knows us better than we know ourselves. His goal is to cause us to become discouraged and lose heart; hopefully, to get us to walk away from the faith.

This may sound bleak, but the good news is that God has access to the devil's game plan; He knows this opponent's weaknesses, and He has told us what those weaknesses are in His Word. God has given us a step-by-step summary, all found within Scripture. In it we discover everything we need to know in order to experience victory in this spiritual battle. So, Jesus knew what He was praying for when He asked the Father to keep us safe from the evil one, and when He taught us: "Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil."

Part 7 in Series, "Our Identity as God's Children"

Jeremiah 31:31-34, Mark 10:45 . . . God shall keep coming toward us. God continues to make promises to us, even wwhen we break our promises to Him. There will be a New Covenant that will not be written on stone, but will be written upon the hearts of people. That is God's promise to us.

Who does not know John 3:16? "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son..." Yet in speaking of God's love, we must speak of the cross. For it is on the cross that we bear witness to exactly what God's love looks like. "Christ was killed so that He might kill that which was killing us" goes an old Lenten phrase. Far from being a symbol of shame or defeat, the cross is our glory. It is here where God reclaims the lost from the darkness of sin and bestows upon them the life that death cannot overcome.

Part 3 in a series for the season of Lent entitles: "Two Roads: One Leading to New Beginnings." Today's message, "The Road of Boundaries," we encounter the gap between our ways and God's ways. We are forever in danger os substituting the world's wisdom for gospel foolishness. The wisdom of the cross, that wisdom that gathers us this Sunday, and judges us too (for God truly knows what is in each of us), is foolishness according to the "wisdom" of the world. And yet, in that divine foolishness is our salvation.

Mark 1:9-15, Lent is about a journey, and as with any journey we have choices about which road we will take, especially when we come to a crossroads. The easiest choice is to take the oft-used road, the well-worn path, it's worth proven by those who have traveled by that way. But during this season of Lent we will look at the road less traveled. Taking that road will make all the difference in our lives.

Mark 9:2-9, Transfiguration Sunday

2 Kings 5:1-14, God works in amazing ways: First, the leper is confident in Jesus' power to heal, and then Naaman, is comically hard to convince that he can be healed, especially by a foreigner as Elisha, who directs Naaman to wash in the filthy water of the river Jordan, knowing full well that the water back home is cleaner. Sometimes our healing and help come to us from unexpected sources. God sends us help, but not always from where we expected to receive help. Jesus Christ came to us; God in a form we did not expect. And God's healing power is among us today.

Mark 1:29-39 . . . The appointed Old Testament lesson for today God is the one who sits above the earth and numbers the stars. It is God who strengthens the powerless, causing them to "mount up with wings like eagles," and further enabling them to "run and not be weary" (Is. 40:31). So in today's Gospel lesson we see in Jesus' healing work the very hand of the same God who enables us to run and not be weary. Jesus lifts up Peter's sick mother-in-law to health and service, and we, too, are lifted up to health and service. Peter gets it and brings others who are sick to see Jesus. Therefore, as followers of Christ whom Jesus mounted with wings like eagles, restoring us to spiritual health, we are now sent to strengthen the powerless.

The Gospel of Mark is all about Jesus going places. In the lesson for today Jesus is in Capernaum teaching in the synagogue and casting out an unclean spirit right in the middle of the church service. As Jesus moves from place to place He continually demonstrates authority in all hat He does, unlike anything the people had ever seen before. It's an authority that heals, an authority that changes, and an authority that makes new as it gathers people to follow to the same unexpected, but much-needed destination: the cross