Do you Have a Place?

3/23/10 John 18

Do you Have a Place?

(Jn 18:2)²Now Judas also, who was betraying Him, knew the place, for Jesus had often met there with His disciples.

This scripture indicates that Judas knew exactly where He would find Jesus and the disciples after the Passover meal, because he “knew the place.”   In verse 1 it tells us the Jesus leads the disciples over the ravine or valley Kidron to a garden.  This would have been roughly a half an hour walk for Jesus and the disciples from the upper room to the garden of Gethsemane.  When Judas left the upper room he would have went to the chief priests residence, and from there to the garden would have been about a forty-five minute walk to the garden.   The garden was a special place for Jesus and His disciples. It was a place away from the hustle and bustle of the city, a quite place.

Do you have a quite place where you meet with the Lord?  Do you have a quite place where you and your family or loved ones are able to meet with the Lord together?   Spiritually it is necessary for you to have a place where you separate yourself from the busyness of the world and the day’s activities to hear from the Lord.  Your family will also greatly benefit if you are the head of the household and lead them in some family time of quietness through reading the scriptures, prayer, and maybe a song or a chorus.  If you do not have a place where you can separate yourself from everything try to find one this week.  It may be in a small room in your house, it may be in a comfortable chair in your living room or den.  You may be the type of person that enjoys a certain place outside.  Either way seek a place or two this week where you can be quite and reflective before the Lord.

I have a couple of places where I spend time with the Lord one is downstairs in our home office, the other is at my office in the church.  I do not have a place outside at the moment, but I am thinking after writing this that I may seek some time with my Lord surrounded by what He has created rather than what man has created.

Over time those who know you best will also “know the place” where you spend time with the Lord or when you mention to your children it is time to be quite together as I family their little feet eventually find their way to the living room or the kitchen table to hear the Word of God read.  All of this is not just to add another thing to our daily schedule but to heed Jesus’ final words in this chapter.  “Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice.”