I Missed This HOW?

I was checking the context of the verse I blogged about the other day - Good Friday, no less. So, I found myself in the Gospel of John.

For those of you who don't know me - or my history - I grew up in a church that HAD bibles, and I HAD a bible, but there wasn't too much getting into it. I started participating in some bible studies about 5 years ago. So, bits and pieces I've delved into. Reading it cover to cover (by "the plan" at the back of my bible) is my goal for this year.

But, I digress... There I was in John, reading about the Gift of Peace. Somehow, I got a few pages ahead, and just started reading in Chapter 17. As I started, I was thinking "how perfect... "the hour has come..."

Further and further I read, my head nodding the whole time. by the time I'm in the 9th verse, I said out loud. "HOW did I miss this? WHY have I NEVER read or heard this before?" Here it is, the time for Jesus to die on the cross, and He's praying for me....a fact that was reinforced later in verse 20 - "I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word"

The other verse that really hit me was "I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one" (v.15)

I needed to read that then... I needed to (re) read that today.

For those who wish, most of it is included below....

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John 17:1 When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you...

9 I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours. 10 All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them. 11 And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one. 12 While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. 13 But now I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves. 14 I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 15 I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. 16 They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 17 Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. 18 As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. 19 And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth. 20 “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word,21 that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, 23 I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me. 24 Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. 25 O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me. 26 I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.”