Reading: Luke 18.31-34 (NLT)

Taking the twelve disciples aside, Jesus said, “Listen, we’re going up to Jerusalem, where all the predictions of the prophets concerning the Son of Man will come true. He will be handed over to the Romans, and he will be mocked, treated shamefully, and spit upon. They will flog him with a whip and kill him, but on the third day he will rise again.”

But they didn’t understand any of this. The significance of his words was hidden from them, and they failed to grasp what he was talking about.

Prayer: Lord Jesus – Give me the willingness to follow you… to obey you… even though I don’t understand where we are going, or what will happen when we get there. You alone are the Way, the Truth, and the Life. You alone hold the key to eternal life. Truly Lord, I have no where else to go. Amen.

Hymn: “Beneath the Cross of Jesus” – Elizabeth C. Clephane (1868)

Beneath the cross of Jesus / I fain would take my stand,
The shadow of a mighty rock / Within a weary land;
A home within the wilderness, A rest upon the way
From the burning of the noontide heat / And the burden of the day.

Upon that cross of Jesus / Mine eye at times can see
The very dying form of One / Who suffered there for me;
And from my smitten heart, with tears, Two wonders I confess:
The wonders of His glorious love / And my unworthiness.

I take, O Cross, thy shadow / For my abiding place;
I ask no other sunshine than / The sunshine of His face;
Content to let the world go by, To know no gain or loss,
My sinful self– my only shame, My glory– all the cross.