part four
The Call to a New Life
  
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Christ's Prayer for His Disciples       

Father, the hour is come. Glorify your Son, that he can bring glory to you in return. You have given him authority over every man and woman on earth, that he might impart eternal life to those you have given him.

This is life eternal: that all might know the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. I have glorified you on earth by completing the work that you entrusted to me. Now, Father, reveal my glory as I stand in your presence, the glory I have known with you since before the world began. I have revealed you to those that you gave me out of the world. They were yours, and you gave them to me, and they have accepted your eternal words. Now they too know that everything you have given me comes from you. I have faithfully delivered to them the words that you gave me; they have believed them, and know in their hearts that I have come from God, sent by you on their behalf.

I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me; for they truly are yours. All who have believed in me are yours; and they do honour me. I am returning to you in heaven; but those that believe in me remain behind. Father, keep them by the power of your name; that they all may be one, as we are one.

While I was with them in the world, I kept them by the power that you gave me, watching over them, so that not one was lost, except for the son of perdition, that the scriptures might be fulfilled. Soon I will be returning to you; so I am requesting these things while I am still in the world, that they might experience and receive the full revelation of what is theirs.

I have given them your word, and the world has hated them, because they are no longer children of this dark and dying place, even as I am not. I do not ask that you remove them out of this world, but that you keep them safe from the evil one; for they are no more the children of darkness than I am. Make them holy by your truth, for your word is truth.

As you have sent me into the world, so I send them. And for their sakes I consecrate myself, that they may be made holy, and grow in truth. I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will come to believe in me because of the testimony that they give. Let them all be of one heart and mind, just as you and I are one: that as you are in me, and I in you, they will be together in us; and the world will know that you have sent me.

I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one, even as we are one: I in them, and you in me, being perfected into one. Because of this, the world will fully understand that you have sent me, and have loved them as much as you have loved me. May they one day be with me where I am, beholding my glory, which you have lovingly given me since the foundation of the world.

Father of goodness and truth, the world has not known you; but I have known you, and these who believe in me know that it is you who sent me. I have revealed you to them, and will continue to reveal you to them, so that I, and the love you have given me, may fully dwell in their hearts.

So be it.

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