December 9: Friend
♫ Music:
Day 10 - Tuesday, December 09
Title: Friend
Scripture #1: Proverbs 18:24 (NKJV)
A man who has friends must himself be friendly, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.
Scripture #2: John 15:12-15 (NKJV)
This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends. You are My friends if you do whatever I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you.]
Scripture #3: Revelation 3:20 (NKJV)
Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me.
Poetry & Poet:
“I Stand and Knock”
by Daniel Priest
All night he was wind leaning on a door
you wanted to open. The whole world
spilled through the hole he’d torn
in his side. He had nothing to say
that wasn’t your name. In his teeth
his own blood turned brown. You had to
see him naked, name those animal scars
in their torchlight contortions. Only then.
Someone saw him through the window
slumped on the porch the prints of his hands
all over everything. They said how much
he must care so you rested then
against the other side, pressed your palms
where his might be, swore you heard your name
under that rough wind. Love is open hands
you kept saying. Love is a door.
A Friend
Jesus liked to hang out with his friends. He often visited his friends Mary, Martha, and Lazarus. He would come to their home to eat with them and enjoy conversation (as he appears to have just done in the home of the poor family of fishermen in the painting by Granell—did they serve him fish or eels?) Jesus took time from his great mission to be with his friends. Actually, it would be more accurate to say the point of his mission was to be with friends.
This appears to be John’s perspective in his telling of the Advent story: The son of God, who created the world and gave life to humans came into the world as a human in order to dwell with us (John 1:1-18). At the beginning of his ministry, Jesus, the Son, chose a group of disciples to live with him. At the end of his ministry, he calls them friends. The Son wanted to dwell with humans as a friend.
When Jesus calls his disciples––friends––he explains that he calls them friends not servants because while servants don’t know what their master is doing, he has just revealed to them what he and his Father are doing: they are coming to make their home with anyone who loves the Son and keeps his word (14:23). Their plan for humanity is to do for all those who come to them what Jesus has done for his twelve disciples: dwell with them as friends.
The contrast Jesus draws between friends and servants makes the way he calls his disciples friends somewhat puzzling: he says, “You are my friends if you do what I command you.” People don’t usually give friends commands or make obedience the condition for their relationship. That’s how they relate to servants.
Three considerations help to resolve this puzzle. First, the aim of Jesus in asking for obedience is not for his benefit, but the benefit of his friends. He wants them to experience the joy that comes from dwelling in his Father’s love, and he knows this is only possible by keeping the Father’s commands which he has passed on to them (15:10-11).
Second, the disciples’ motivation for obedience: in contrast to servants, who obey commands for wages, out of obligation or duty, or because they have no choice, Jesus expects his followers to obey him because they love him. They love him because he first loved them—even laying down his life for them as a friend.
Third, what Jesus commands: “This is my commandment: that you love one another as I have loved you.” Jesus is not commanding that the disciples do a job for him like servants; he is commanding that they form a community of friends who love each other with the kind of self-giving love that he has for them.
Jesus is about to leave his friends, and he knows they will no longer enjoy his physical presence and the time they have spent hanging out together as friends. He wants them, and all who come to love him, to continue to experience his personal presence. He will accomplish this through the Spirit he will send them (14:16-17)—and also through each other when they obey his command to love each other as he did. In the words of the philosopher, John Macmurray: “The friendship of Christ is realized in our friendships with one another.” Christians experience Jesus dwelling with them as a friend when they hang out with each other.
Jesus is knocking at your door, he wants to come in and eat with you as your friend, to dwell with you, to hang out. The way to open the door and be his friend is to obey his command to love his other friends the way he loves you. He wants you to knock on the door of one of his friends (or open when they knock) so that you can hang out together as friends.
Prayer
Jesus, thank you for being my friend. Thank you for laying down your life so that you could dwell with me. It’s hard to believe that you enjoy my company, but you do. Empower me by your Spirit to do what you ask and be a friend to your friends. Help me make friendship with you—and your friends—the aim of all I do.
Amen
Dr. Joe Henderson
Associate Professor of the Old Testament
Torrey Honors College
Biola University
About the Artwork #1:
Los Amigos de Jesus (Friends of Jesus)
Antonio Fillol Granell
1900
Oil on canvas
199 x 278.5 cm
Museo Del Prado
Madrid, Spain
Public Domain
This work by Spanish painter Antonio Fillol Granell depicts the interior of a barraca—a traditional rural dwelling—whose modest simplicity reveals the poverty of its inhabitants. Inside, a woman is seen mending fishing nets, accompanied by a naked child, while a second child, seated on the ground, attempts to catch an eel. The latter is watched by an elderly man, seated and wrapped in a blanket. On the left, a fisherman burdened with his tools heads toward the door, while another figure in the background empties the meager catch of the day. The apparent ordinariness of this everyday scene is disrupted by the presence of the spectral figure of Christ at the entrance of the humble home—an apparition seemingly unnoticed by the fisherman who faces away from it. The light emanating from the doorway organizes the composition and ultimately becomes its protagonist, even though its dramatic effects and stark contrasts drew criticism from some contemporary viewers.
https://www.museodelprado.es/en/the-collection/art-work/friends-of-jesus/fc15194e-66fa-4b79-b2dc-b27f6f91221b
About the Artist #1:
Antonio Fillol Granell (1870–1930) was a Spanish painter in the social realist style who was known for his depictions of the people and customs of Valencia. He had his first art showing at the 1888 Barcelona Universal Exposition and won a prize of five hundred pesetas, which seems to have reconciled his family to his chosen career. In 1903, a grant from the Provincial Council enabled him to study in France and Italy. He later served as an art professor in San Carlos, where he promoted numerous educational reforms, and as President of the "Círculo de Bellas Artes de Valencia," a group which included Spanish artists Joaquin Sorolla and Julio Peris Brell.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonio_Fillol_Granell
About the Artwork #2:
The Redemption
Roger Wagner
2009
Oil on board
Used with permission from the artist
Roger Wagner’s painting demonstrates how our great Redeemer meets us where we are—no matter what state we are in physically, emotionally, or spiritually. He is always there with love and forgiveness to redeem us from sin and reconcile us with God.
About the Artist #2:
Roger Wagner (b. 1957) is a British artist and poet. Wagner studied English at Oxford University before studying at the Royal Academy School of Art. He has been represented in London since 1985 by Anthony Mould Ltd., exhibiting in the city many times. Other one-man shows include retrospectives at the Ashmolean Museum in 1994 and 2010. He has produced several books of illustrated poems and translations, including Fire Sonnets (1984), In a Strange Land (1988), A Silent Voice (1997), Out of the Whirlwind (1997), and The Book of Praises—a translation of the Psalms produced as Book One (1994), Book Two (2008), and Book Three (2013). In 2019, Canterbury Press published a collection of Wagner’s poems and images entitled The Nearer You Stand. In Wagner’s work, several themes emerge: the Renaissance, the English landscape, poetry, and Christian meditation. Wagner’s paintings possess a sense of stillness at the center of the storm and a confirmation that there is hope in the face of despair. Wagner is not afraid to grapple with issues of judgment and suffering in his work, but his theology is always rooted in the all-sufficient love of God.
http://www.rogerwagner.co.uk/profile
https://imagejournal.org/artist/roger-wagner/
About the Music #1: “No One Ever Cared for Me Like Jesus” from the album Forever Amen
Lyrics #1:
If my heart could tell a story.
If my life would sing a song.
If I have a testimony.
If I have anything at all.
No one ever cared for me like Jesus.
His faithful hand has held me all this way.
And when I'm old and grey,
And all my days are numbered on the earth.
Let it be known in You alone,
My joy was found.
Oh my joy, my joy.
Let my children tell their children.
Let this be their memory.
That all my treasure was in heaven,
And You were everything to me.
No one ever cared for me like Jesus.
His faithful hand has held me all this way.
And when I'm old and grey,
And all my days are numbered on the earth.
Let it be known in You alone,
My joy was found.
I've found my joy.
I'm still in love.
You’re still enough for me.
Still all I want,
You’re still my everything.
I'm still in love,
You’re still enough for me.
Still all I want
You’re still my everything.
No one ever cared for me like Jesus.
His faithful hand has held me all this way.
And when I'm old and grey,
And all my days are numbered on the earth
Let it be known in You alone,
My joy was found.
Composers #1: Jason Ingram, Dante Bowe, Steffany Gretzinger, and Chandler Moore
Jason David Ingram is an American Christian music producer and songwriter. Around the end of 2001, he was the first artist to be signed to Resonate Records, an INO Records partnership with Sonicflood's lead vocalist Rick Heil. He subsequently released his first album, Jason Ingram, in 2002. Since 2003, Ingram has been the lead vocalist of the Christian pop rock band The Longing. Ingram is currently the lead vocalist for the band One Sonic Society, which he co-founded in 2009. Ingram has written songs for many contemporary Christian music artists, including Bebo Norman's "I Will Lift My Eyes." At the annual SESAC Awards, held in Nashville in 2007, Ingram received the Christian Songwriter of the Year award.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jason_Ingram
Dante Bowe (b. 1993) is an American contemporary music singer and songwriter. He is known as a former member of the Bethel Music Collective and Maverick City Music. In 2017, Bowe released his debut single "Potter and Friend" featuring Jesse Cline, which was shortly followed with the independent release of his debut studio album, Son of a Father. He has made his debut appearance with Bethel with the single "Champion." Bowe also featured on several collaborations, most notably the song "Wait on You" alongside Elevation Worship, Maverick City Music, and Chandler Moore. Bowe received five nominations at the 2022 Grammy Awards, ultimately winning the Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Christian Music Album for his work on Old Church Basement (2021) by Elevation Worship and Maverick City Music.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dante_Bowe
Chandler David Moore (b. 1995) is an American singer, songwriter, pianist, guitarist, and worship leader. Moore is also a member of Maverick City Music, a collective of worshippers working in the contemporary Christian and gospel worlds. Moore's collaborations include "Man of Your Word" with KJ Scriven and "Voice of God" with Dante Bowe and Steffany Gretzinger. On the collaborative album Old Church Basement with Elevation Worship, Moore sang "Jireh" alongside Naomi Raine and "Wait on You" with Bowe. Moore continues to collaborate with several pop artists, including Justin Bieber and Tori Kelly.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chandler_Moore
About the Composer/Performer #1:
Steffany Gretzinger is a part of the Bethel Music family as a worship leader and a singer-songwriter. She has authored songs such as “Pieces,” “You Know Me,” “Letting Go,” “Be Still,” “Steady Heart,” “We Dance,” and many more. Gretzinger grew up in a musical home and has been involved in worship ministry since she was a child. She is featured on many albums, including Have it All, You Make Me Brave, Tides, For the Sake of the World, The Loft Sessions, and Be Lifted High. Steffany lives in Redding, California, with her husband, Stephen, and daughter, Wonder Grace, and ministers in the United States and internationally.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steffany_Gretzinger
About the Music #2: “How Sweet the Name of Jesus Sounds”
Lyrics #2:
How sweet the Name of Jesus sounds,
In a believer’s ear!
It soothes his sorrows, heals his wounds,
And drives away his fear.
It makes the wounded spirit whole,
And calms the troubled breast;
’Tis manna to the hungry soul,
And to the weary, rest,
And to the weary, rest.
Dear Name, the rock on which I build,
My shield and hiding-place,
My never-failing treasury, filled,
With boundless stores of grace!
Jesus! My Shepherd, Savior, Friend,
My Prophet, Priest, and King,
My Lord, my Life, my Way, my End,
Accept the praise I bring,
Accept the praise I bring.
Weak is the effort of my heart,
And cold my warmest thought;
But when I see you as you are,
I’ll praise You as I ought.
I would your boundless love proclaim
With every fleeting breath;
So, may the music of Your Name
Refresh my soul again,
Refresh my soul again!
How sweet the Name of Jesus sounds
In a believer’s ear!
It soothes his sorrows, heals his wounds,
And drives away his fear.
And drives away his fear.
And wipes away a million tears.
Composers #2: Lyrics by John Newton, music by Chris Bowater
John Newton (1725–1807) was an English evangelical Anglican cleric and slavery abolitionist. He had previously been a captain of slave ships and an investor in the slave trade. Newton went to sea at a young age and worked on ships in the slave trade for several years. In 1745, he himself became a slave of Princess Peye, a woman of the Sherbro people in what is now Sierra Leone in West Africa. He was rescued, and returned to sea and the trade, becoming a captain of several slave ships. However, he experienced a conversion to Christianity, and some years later, Newton renounced the slave trade and became a prominent supporter of abolitionism. Now an evangelical, he was ordained as a Church of England cleric and served as parish priest at Olney, Buckinghamshire, for two decades, where he wrote hymns. He is noted for being the author of the hymns “Amazing Grace” and “Glorious Things of Thee are Spoken.” Newton lived to see the British empire's abolition of the African slave trade in 1807, just months before his death.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Newton
About the Composer/Performer #2:
Many consider British-born Christian songwriter and worship leader Chris Bowater (b. 1947) to be a father of the modern worship movement. Coming to prominence in the charismatic renewal of the late 1970s and early 1980s, his songs include “Reign in Me,” “Here I am Wholly Available,” “Jesus Shall Take The Highest Honour,” “Holy Spirit We Welcome You,” “Lamb of God,” and “Faithful God.” He has trained and mentored generations of worship leaders.
https://www.louderthanthemusic.com/artist.php?id=3165
About the Poetry & Poet:
Daniel Priest works as an arborist in Austin, Texas. His poems have appeared in Image, Borderlands, Star*Line, and the Atlanta Review.
About the Devotion Author:
Dr. Joe Henderson
Associate Professor of the Old Testament
Torrey Honors College
Biola University
Joe Henderson is a scholar of English literature and the Old Testament, uniting his love of reading well with his love of reading the Bible. He studied the Old Testament at Asbury Seminary and Fuller Seminary, and he writes about the book of Jeremiah. His other interests include Robert Louis Stevenson's novels, Paul's theology, Milton's prose, theologian Brevard Childs' hermeneutics, Flannery O'Connor's stories, and Charles Wesley's hymns.