|
Users viewing this topic:
none
|
|
Login  | |
|
RE: Thinking Out Loud about John - 11/16/2007 11:17:49 AM
|
|
|
selahgirl
Posts: 834
Joined: 5/20/2005
From: God is with you, never forget that <3
Status: offline
|
would he be right?
(John 2:12-17)
12After this he went down to Capernaum with his mother and brothers and his disciples. There they stayed for a few days.
How different this culture is from our own. It seems that we think that we must distance ourselves from our parents/our family to prove our independence and adulthood, our coming into our own. Much like the prodigal son that demanded his share of the inheritance and walked away from his father and family.
There is a line/boundary set by God that adult children are to cleave to their spouse. That means to put their spouse's well being and needs above that of their family. There is an unhealthy level of bringing your family into your marriage/the raising of your children that goes against that command of God. But when things are kept in order as the word of God and common sense dictate, then family should never be something that we have to be ashamed of (or that we need to shun) in order to prove anything to anyone.
Here, we see Jesus traveling with his mother and family and friends and students. He travels with anyone that is able and willing to go where he is going. It made him more human to be among family, because he was fully human. Could it be that when we distance ourselves from family thinking that they are an embarrassment to our agenda -- that we are NOT-human and inhumane?
13When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 14In the temple courts he found men selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money.
Okay, it would be easy to brush past the opening of this scene, but there is so much here to think on. Things that are key to what is about to happen. The Passover was at hand, rather the time of remembrance and honor of what God had done for their people. The Jews were looking back to Moses and the passing over of the people of Israel by the death angel. They thought of the dark night when God sent an angel to kill the first born of Egypt and to free His people from bondage.
Or did they.
Perhaps the Passover had become much like our Thanksgiving. The Jews were not looking ahead to what the Messiah would do as a sacrificial lamb. They had no clue what Christ was about to do for them and for all who would believe because of them.
Perhaps, it was like going to the mall and seeing all the glitter and glitz of advertising and buying and selling and celebration of the ritual rather than the God that caused death to pass them over -- the God that covered them/protected them with grace and mercy as he pardoned them from their many sins and guilt.
Perhaps, they had reached a place in their society where they had forgotten about the blood of that innocent lamb that was smeared upon their doorposts -- that bloody cross dripping from the top to the ground splattered on each side of the wooden frame -- that ridiculously extravagant price paid, that LIFE sacrificed, that precious one offered and who willingly died, that blood that marked them and freed them from bondage.
Perhaps all they saw was a lamb (turkey) for the feast and all the trimmings (cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie). Perhaps, with great distraction, they mumbled Thanks God as they hurried off to hang out with their friends downtown at the temple. or to show off their costumes for the Passover play, or to make that gorgeous centerpiece for the dinner banquet that night.
Perhaps Capernaum had become more commercial than we realize.
Perhaps they were more like us than we realize...
15So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple area, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. 16To those who sold doves he said, "Get these out of here! How dare you turn my Father's house into a market!"
17His disciples remembered that it is written: "Zeal for your house will consume me."
What if Jesus strolled thru the mall and saw all the Halloween leftovers and the tinsel hung to encourage people to spend more money on Christmas shopping... what if he began tearing thru the mall ripping it all down? What if he started going from church to church and Bible study home to Bible study home and began heaving tables over and tossing your Thanksgiving meal all around the room and into everyone's laps?
What if he made a small whip and began stinging your guests to run them out of the house and started chucking Aunt Martha's best pies out the window? What if he spoke all that was in his heart and said how hurt and angry he was that we have idolized the ritual and taken for granted the Life that was given? What if he warned us that we were too focused on spending money and gift-giving? That we had missed the mark? That we have forgotten him in the busyness? That he was disappointed in us that we would allow ourselves to be sucked into the commercialism and a worldly mindset (whether we realized it or not), so that honoring him and the relationships that he has blessed us with... carry less of a shine for us as we eat a big meal in November simply to mark the start of a month of shopping in December?
What if he rebuked us for spending the entire Thanksgiving meal discussing the biggest sales in the morning rather than his many blessings to us all and how much we appreciate one another? What if he said it was more important to us to leave Grandma's house early so we could get to bed and hit the early-bird Christmas sales at 4:00am, than to be sure that we have thanked and encouraged every person we can?
What if Christ stood in the mess of the turkey and mashed potatoes and tinsel now scattered on the floor and smeared over the doorposts of our heart, crying in his frustration at our unthankfulness, breathing with a restrained groan of pain as he gently stepped forward to embrace us... to stand forehead to forehead with us as he searches our eyes and speaks something so disturbing to us,
"... you have forgotten me."
would he be right?
_____________________________
|
|
|
|
|
RE: Thinking Out Loud about John - 11/19/2007 11:55:31 AM
|
|
|
selahgirl
Posts: 834
Joined: 5/20/2005
From: God is with you, never forget that <3
Status: offline
|
as opposed to false-humility
(John 2:18-25)
18Then the Jews demanded of him, "What miraculous sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all this?"
So here are the Jews, freaking out a little that some nobody would walk into the Temple and take charge in the name of God, and disrupt the flow of things that had come to be accepted. So basically they were yelling at Jesus, "Who do you think you are!" The Temple/church leaders had not approved of this outburst, they had not condemned the merchandising that was going on. And they were the voices of authority second to God. So the Jews were demanding, "you better whip out some miracle that proves that God has given you permission to do this, or we're gonna nail you to the wall!"
I don't think they were really expecting him to perform a miracle. I think it was a bit of sarcasm because they were so outraged by his barging into the Temple and acting like he was in charge. They were, however, expecting him to answer for himself. And so he did...
19Jesus answered them, "Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days."
That was the answer to their question on both counts (though they were unable to comprehend the Truth of what Christ was saying), "What miraculous sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all this?"
1) His resurrection after offering himself (allowing the destruction of his physical body thru death) as payment for their sins would be the miracle he would perform. But of coarse, there was no way to explain that to them in the moment so that they could understand or accept it. He would have to wait for the right time of fulfillment. So for now, he endured their scoffing and their assumptions that he was a blasphemous madman.
2) Offering himself as payment, the miracle of the incarnation/death/resurrection was the proof and fulfillment that declared and revealed his authority to do such things. He was and is God, not second to Him.
20The Jews replied, "It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?" 21But the temple he had spoken of was his body. 22After he was raised from the dead, his disciples recalled what he had said. Then they believed the Scripture and the words that Jesus had spoken.
Oh, don't you wish we had that patience, that ability to be content with stating the Truth whether people believed/understood us or not. Don't you wish that when we profess our faith in Jesus to heal or to save or to intervene or to participate in our joy... that we could remain unaffected by the blank stares and mocking laughter of the world and of religion?
But here is Christ. Here is God himself setting the example for us. We must do what the Spirit of God compels us to do, all that the heart of his word declares, and to remain standing when people (even other Christians sometimes, even family, even friends) try to shame us or silence us. The Word of our testimony must go forth. It is that word combined with the blood of Jesus that ensures that we will overcome all. Christ overcame it, so that we could follow his example... so that we could be with him forever and be blessed.
(Eph 6:13-15)
13Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. 14Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 15and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace.
(Rev 12:10-11)
10Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say:
"Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God,
and the authority of his Christ.
For the accuser of our brothers,
who accuses them before our God day and night,
has been hurled down.
11They overcame him
by the blood of the Lamb
and by the word of their testimony;
they did not love their lives so much
as to shrink from death.
(John 16:29-33, amplified)
29His disciples said, Ah, now You are speaking plainly to us and not in parables (veiled language and figures of speech)!
30Now we know that You are acquainted with everything and have no need to be asked questions. Because of this we believe that you [really] came from God.
31Jesus answered them, Do you now believe? [Do you believe it at last?]
32But take notice, the hour is coming, and it has arrived, when you will all be dispersed and scattered, every man to his own home, leaving Me alone. Yet I am not alone, because the Father is with Me.
33I have told you these things, so that in Me you may have [perfect] peace and confidence. In the world you have tribulation and trials and distress and frustration; but be of good cheer [take courage; be confident, certain, undaunted]! For I have overcome the world. [I have deprived it of power to harm you and have conquered it for you.]
The Jews could not understand what Christ was speaking of. His own disciples couldn't understand the depth of it all at the start of Christ's ministry. The revelation of the Truth would only come after they had walked thru many things with Jesus, but as stated in John 16 above, there came that ah-ha moment when they understood.
We feel so alone sometimes when we think that no one understands us. Jesus does. He stood in that place of knowing the Truth, knowing that his heart was following the will of God to the letter, but having to endure the ridicule -- the looking down their noses of everyone around him -- the labels put upon him because his words and actions seemed so removed from the norm and the ritual. Zeal and passion for Christ and for following hard after his example, will often times put you in that place. I can never say it enough...
you are not alone.
23Now while he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, many people saw the miraculous signs he was doing and believed in his name. 24But Jesus would not entrust himself to them, for he knew all men. 25He did not need man's testimony about man, for he knew what was in a man.
Not here, as they demanded a sign, but later when the heart and motive was right/pure, Christ performed many miracles and many believed in his authority because of them. But he was always careful that such things were performed to glorify God the Father, and God as a whole, never for a show to move himself to the top of the pack, to the forefront, to the pinnacle.
It was Satan and the spirit of the world that moved him to the pinnacle and tried to tempt him to prove himself, to demonstrate his power, to walk in arrogance elevating self for all to worship. That was what was in man. That was what Christ was careful not to do. And that is the example that he left for us in this passage.
humility.
He had the power, but he laid it down. He could have performed a miracle and showed them who was boss, but he endured their scoffing and ridicule instead. He could have called a legion of angels to stop the crucifixion at any given moment, but he committed to it all with zeal to the end. He had the power to have his own way, but he gave it all up in Gethsemane -- even before Gethsemane. He emptied his heart of his own desires as a man, and he yielded himself to the heart of God, his Father...
for the very ones that stood scoffing and that would later scream, "Crucify Him!"
for the very ones that would choose self and arrogance over love and mercy.
for the Jews in that moment, for the hypocrite, for the sinner, for you and for me.
He emptied himself,
and he asks us to do the same.
To bite our tongue when there is so much we could say to wound an enemy. To remember kindness when something brilliant pops into our head that would win an argument. To remain gentle, and always focused on building people up rather than tearing them down... in every situation. To be unafraid to walk with zeal and passion as we follow the heart of God, yet to commit the sting of the pain to him when people don't understand us or begin to make fun of us. To let anger and violence and vengeance belong to God, to empty ourselves, and to yield to the heart and will of God rather than our own wants.
Risking embarrassment when we are sometimes led by God to be loud or violent.
Sacrificing our words/feelings/need for justice when the motive is not purely God.
Can we walk away from the attention of performing a miracle (showing off our talent/gift),
and wait for the right moment to glorify God -- that moment that causes us to blend in as a member of the team rather than to manipulate the spotlight so that we can be idolized as the star player.
He emptied himself,
and he asks us to do the same.
_____________________________
|
|
|
|
|
RE: Thinking Out Loud about John - 11/21/2007 11:21:46 AM
|
|
|
selahgirl
Posts: 834
Joined: 5/20/2005
From: God is with you, never forget that <3
Status: offline
|
Thanksgiving Eve
(Psalm 91, Psalm 96)
Hi Everyone!
Tomorrow will likely be a busy day and I may not get the chance to chat online. So instead of posting after Thanksgiving, I decided to give a shout out on this here Eve. haha. so...
HAPPY THANKSGIVING!
bunches and bunches of love and appreciation for your friendship and encouragement and hilarious antics that make me laugh daily 8D
We serve a Good God, who paid a great price to be with us forever.
He is worthy of our Praise and our Love and our Thanks. Consider his promises and how he cares for us daily:
Psalm 91
1 He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High
will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.
2 I will say of the LORD, "He is my refuge and my fortress,
my God, in whom I trust."
3 Surely he will save you from the fowler's snare
and from the deadly pestilence.
4 He will cover you with his feathers,
and under his wings you will find refuge;
his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart.
5 You will not fear the terror of night,
nor the arrow that flies by day,
6 nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness,
nor the plague that destroys at midday.
7 A thousand may fall at your side,
ten thousand at your right hand,
but it will not come near you.
8 You will only observe with your eyes
and see the punishment of the wicked.
9 If you make the Most High your dwelling—
even the LORD, who is my refuge-
10 then no harm will befall you,
no disaster will come near your tent.
11 For he will command his angels concerning you
to guard you in all your ways;
12 they will lift you up in their hands,
so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.
13 You will tread upon the lion and the cobra;
you will trample the great lion and the serpent.
14 "Because he loves me," says the LORD, "I will rescue him;
I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name.
15 He will call upon me, and I will answer him;
I will be with him in trouble,
I will deliver him and honor him.
16 With long life will I satisfy him
and show him my salvation."
Psalm 96
1 Sing to the LORD a new song;
sing to the LORD, all the earth.
2 Sing to the LORD, praise his name;
proclaim his salvation day after day.
3 Declare his glory among the nations,
his marvelous deeds among all peoples.
4 For great is the LORD and most worthy of praise;
he is to be feared above all gods.
5 For all the gods of the nations are idols,
but the LORD made the heavens.
6 Splendor and majesty are before him;
strength and glory are in his sanctuary.
7 Ascribe to the LORD, O families of nations,
ascribe to the LORD glory and strength.
8 Ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name;
bring an offering and come into his courts.
9 Worship the LORD in the splendor of his holiness;
tremble before him, all the earth.
10 Say among the nations, "The LORD reigns."
The world is firmly established, it cannot be moved;
he will judge the peoples with equity.
11 Let the heavens rejoice, let the earth be glad;
let the sea resound, and all that is in it;
12 let the fields be jubilant, and everything in them.
Then all the trees of the forest will sing for joy;
13 they will sing before the LORD, for he comes,
he comes to judge the earth.
He will judge the world in righteousness
and the peoples in his truth.
_____________________________
|
|
|
|
|
RE: Thinking Out Loud about John - 11/24/2007 11:05:09 AM
|
|
|
selahgirl
Posts: 834
Joined: 5/20/2005
From: God is with you, never forget that <3
Status: offline
|
Fighting for Neverland
(John 3:1-3)
1Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a member of the Jewish ruling council. 2He came to Jesus at night and said, "Rabbi, we know you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the miraculous signs you are doing if God were not with him."
Nicodemus came to Jesus during the night, I have heard this preached as though he were afraid to be seen with Jesus because his teachings were so controversial. And that may have been the case. However, could it have been that he had been at Temple, or just come from a debate/meeting with the Jewish ruling council, and wanted to speak to Jesus about some things that were weighing on his heart.
Perhaps, he was coming to give Jesus the benefit of the doubt, and to ask him what was in his heart when he taught as he did. Perhaps when he approached him, the Spirit of God began to stir the heart of a man that was pure in his motives and in his love of God. In his attempt to understand this controversial Jesus, it would seem that the wooing of the Spirit made it into a personal encounter for Nicodemus.
Isn't it something wonderful, that here was a member of the Jewish elite, a Pharisee with great power and influence, someone who walked in a circle of crusty old arrogant leaders... isn't it beautiful to see his return to such a child-like faith as he speaks with Christ, as he learns and hungers to be born again.
I think, Nicodemus recognized the drift of the people of God, even their leaders, from the heart of God. I think the heart of the boy inside him longed for a return to the realness, the joy and innocence of a Faith motivated by Love and Trust rather than rules and arrogance, power and position. I think he was intrigued by Jesus, and the conviction of the Holy Spirit was drawing him to the Christ. Perhaps he came to Jesus by night, because he could not rest as the hunger for the will/plan of God robbed him of sleep and caused him to venture out into the night seeking answers.
We as believers have all been there at some point.
Yes, it is difficult for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven, unless he humble himself. But that is true of all of us. Here is a man of wealth and power and reputation hungering and humbled with an almost desperation to know this Jesus, this anointed One, that seems to speak the very heart of God. Nicodemus recognized this.
3In reply Jesus declared, "I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again."
BORN AGAIN.
so much imagery wrapped up into one simple phrase.
Dying to self -- Living for Christ.
Dying to who your were, a sinner -- and Living as a Child/Heir of the King.
Dying to the desire to please the world -- Living to please only Him.
From a dead, dying, crusted religion -- to a new beginning, Hope, Life, Freedom, Joy.
No wonder this passage has become the benchmark verse for the new believer.
Talk about Never Never Land and the Lost Boys and Never losing that child-like Faith in all that is good and free of darkness, where there are no more tears to be wiped away, no more burdens to carry, no more regret and dread and guilt and bondage. Every generation seeks that fountain of youth, that escape to an imaginary place where evil is shunned and defeated.
But there is a real place, a real existence, a real eternity in which you can remain that care-free child growing and always learning and advancing with a Father and Family that will remain forever with you. Innocent in your Joy and your Faith and your Love, Mature in your Ability and your Service and your Heritage. A place that fulfills you in every way, young and old, because Christ has finished/completed all to make it a reality for you...
1To the elders among you, I appeal as a fellow elder, a witness of Christ's sufferings and one who also will share in the glory to be revealed: 2Be shepherds of God's flock that is under your care, serving as overseers—not because you must, but because you are willing, as God wants you to be; not greedy for money, but eager to serve; 3not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock. 4And when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that will never fade away.
5Young men, in the same way be submissive to those who are older. All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because, "God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble." 6Humble yourselves, therefore, under God's mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. 7Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.
8Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. 9Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings.
10And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast. 11To him be the power for ever and ever. Amen. (I Peter 5:1-11)
There is no Neverland.
But there is a real Kingdom of God, and there is an enlistment of all who are willing to fight for it. The battle will be short-lived, but the victory is guaranteed and the spoils are everything you could imagine and more.
So many would fight for such a place as Neverland,
Why not do it for a Kingdom that is actually real and offered to you by a King that loves you and would die for you so that you could inherit the desires of your heart and His? A King so powerful that he could pick his life back up, so loving that nothing will ever remove you from his heart or his hand or his presence?
27My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. 28I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand. 29My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father's hand. (John 10:27-29)
37No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:37-39)
Be a child again.
The world laughs and scoffs at such a thing.
But God offers you the best of both worlds: Innocence and Maturity
... all wrapped up in one simple gift purchased specifically for you and for me.
He loves us as his children. You are loved. You are loved by God. He wants to ensure your Health and your Joy and your Future. He is the Creator and God of all things, and he says that you have his permission to be child-like...
Come and play.
.
< Message edited by selahgirl -- 11/24/2007 11:17:57 AM >
_____________________________
|
|
|
|
|
RE: Thinking Out Loud about John - 11/30/2007 12:31:34 PM
|
|
|
selahgirl
Posts: 834
Joined: 5/20/2005
From: God is with you, never forget that <3
Status: offline
|
that first real breath
(John 3:4-8)
4"How can a man be born when he is old?" Nicodemus asked. "Surely he cannot enter a second time into his mother's womb to be born!"
All too often we take things too literally in Scripture, so much so that we forget that there is almost always a spiritual or symbolic meaning to everything that God speaks. He is so multifaceted, addressing so many dimensions at once, that our little brains get easily fried. And so here is Nicodemus, not being that icon in scripture that we read about, but being a man, human, just like the rest of us. His thoughts became a little knotted at trying to follow the thoughts of God. And so Jesus, leads him along as a Good Shepherd, wise and gentle. Not coddling him or handing him all the answers in an instant, but challenging him to think it through and giving him direction in how to do it. There is truly no other god like our God <3
5Jesus answered, "I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. 6Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit.
There is a physical birth, and there is a spiritual birth. The physical birth is into a body on the earth, a cursed and fallen realm. But the spiritual birth is into a realm inclusive yet far beyond all that is seen with your physical eyes. It is another realm that cannot be seen or touched or tasted unless you are first born into it, you must enter into it. And Jesus is the only door.
It is His Spirit, the Spirit of God, that draws you and it is that connection to Christ that jolts your deadness and causes LIFE to wake the core of your being. He is the center, the source, the electric excitement that is true Life that causes us to live and move and have our being.
In the hospital room, the doctor and nurses and family scream with delight and joy at the new arrival. In the spiritual realm that engulfs the physical, all of heaven, God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and the very angels and creatures of his creation scream and shout with delight at the birth/arrival/new life that is suddenly aware of a God that loves them beyond their understanding.
7You should not be surprised at my saying, 'You must be born again.' 8The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit."
Being born of the Spirit, suddenly aware and alive and joined in relationship/family to God, you are made aware of so much. So many things that a person cannot sense as an unbeliever. Only after that step of faith thru that doorway, are your senses alive and awake and firmly convinced of the reality that is Christ. But God is still God, and still far beyond our understanding. Though he draws near to us and is with us, he will never lose his mystery or fascinating awe. He is so deep and so wide and so far from our ever being able to contain him in the small box that is our mind. And that is a good thing.
But being born again, and being able to actually experience the savor of the sweetness of his presence is LIFE to the fullest. There is no explanation or description of that. It is something that each person much choose to experience. It is a personal relationship that becomes a block in the building of community that is the Kingdom. It must be personal before it can be Kingdom.
Being dead, removes the right or ability to understand LIFE, to experience LOVE, to know TRUTH, to embrace GOD.
We can live a physical life, and walk around so very dead inside. We can laugh and live for self, or we can work and serve and live for the people we value. But either way, we remain dead inside. It amounts to nothing. We will physically die, and eternity will be an eternal second death with no chance of hope or life or love. It will be darkness without peace, without the presence of God, and without end. That is the second death according to Scripture. It is not your life on this earth that will remain, it will all return to dust. It is that second birth, that being born again, that entering into the life-giving-sustaining-abundantly-fulfilling LIFE through Christ Jesus.
Just as the water broke and spilled over all to mark your physical birth into this world...
the water of His Spirit spills out over you and your spirit enters into an existence that will remain forever, LIFE without end.
That scream,
that heart-cry,
that declaration,
that sudden and blinding light,
that leap of faith and fear that moves you,
propels you forward
and empties you
freeing you from the staleness that once filled your lungs
so that you can take that first real breath that is LIFE.
He becomes the very air that you breathe
and you become born again.
Here with Nicodemus,
just as we discussed at the opening of the book of John...
that is the beginning of all things.
And that is where Christ takes him here in John 3,
to the beginning
to the choice set before each of us
to believe God
to be born again.
_____________________________
|
|
|
|
|
RE: Thinking Out Loud about John - 11/30/2007 1:54:43 PM
|
|
|
selahgirl
Posts: 834
Joined: 5/20/2005
From: God is with you, never forget that <3
Status: offline
|
true to form, God always echoes the things he speaks thru worship/music.
I shared this in the music thread, but I wanted to post it with this topic of being born again as well.
that simple faith, that mustard seed, to believe God...
-----
oh my goodness, I just came across the most amazing inde artist
Blake Aaron Mundell
www.myspace.com/blakemundell
His lyric writing is so unique and beautiful, and his acoustic style is so refreshing. I ran across his site for the first time this morning and I have a window open repeating his song MUSTARD SEED. It is just such an intimate and beautiful moment at contemplating our frailty and our dependence on a God who is always present to help, a God who walks with us even in our weakness.
Hope everyone has their Christmas decor up, especially their tree ^_^
_____________________________
|
|
|
|
|
RE: Thinking Out Loud about John - 12/6/2007 1:54:34 PM
|
|
|
selahgirl
Posts: 834
Joined: 5/20/2005
From: God is with you, never forget that <3
Status: offline
|
stone and wood and breath
(John 3:9-21)
9"How can this be?" Nicodemus asked.
Nicodemus had heard Jesus speak. He was familiar with the parables and analogies that he used as he taught. I think Nicodemus was trying to get his mind around this concept of being born again, but just couldn't make sense of it in practical terms.
But that is the whole point of the passage. Christ wanted him to see how foolish it seemed, how strange and impossible, how miraculous. He wanted him to realize that the things of God were not written in stone on lifeless pages, but that it is written in the heart of God and the heart of man as they come together in relationship.
(Isaiah 1:17-19)
17 learn to do right!
Seek justice,
encourage the oppressed.
Defend the cause of the fatherless,
plead the case of the widow.
18 "Come now, let us reason together,"
says the LORD.
"Though your sins are like scarlet,
they shall be as white as snow;
though they are red as crimson,
they shall be like wool.
19 If you are willing and obedient,
you will eat the best from the land;
Jesus knew that the concept of entering the womb again to be born as a baby was not something anyone would or could do. He wanted to appeal to the hope of every person to have a second chance at life, to have their failures and their sins forgotten and erased as though they had never happened. He wanted Nicodemus to glimpse the possibility that everything that he had been taught about the law -- was about to come to life -- it was about to breathe and walk among them and it would look very different.
A wooden marionette suddenly begins to breathe and take on flesh and feel and talk and interact and love and laugh -- and it becomes so far removed from the stick figure that was once lifeless and piled on the carpenters table. It is alive. It is a boy. It is no longer just made, it is born, made a second time, made new all over again.
In an instant, in mid-sentence of a conversation, Nicodemus had everything he ever knew about God shaken and jolted in his hands as Life was breathed into it. Suddenly it lived in his thoughts and in his presence. Suddenly he glimpsed the new birth, the fulfillment, the beauty of the wholeness of the will and plan of God. And it was beautiful.
10"You are Israel's teacher," said Jesus, "and do you not understand these things? 11I tell you the truth, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but still you people do not accept our testimony. 12I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things? 13No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven—the Son of Man. 14Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, 15that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.
Jesus is not rebuking Nicodemus, he is challenging him to think -- to believe the impossible thoughts that were flashing thru his mind in that moment. To accept that being born again was a spiritual possibility and that Christ had come to make it happen, he had come to pay the price, to supply whatever was needed to make it a reality. Christ had come to perform the miracle, to erase the past, to offer a second chance, a fresh start, a new Life... even if it cost him his own.
16"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son. 19This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. 20Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. 21But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God."
Being born again is a choice.
God will not force you to choose to be forgiven, to have a second chance at a better life, a good and perfect life. He will not make you let him pay your bill and your debt, but he will do everything possible to convince you to let him. He loves you. He wants good things for you and everyone that wants to live in a world where there is peace and love and everything positive for all people.
No more tears, no more pain, no more hurt, no more sickness, no more hate...
That is the new life that he offers to anyone that chooses to be born into it.
.
< Message edited by selahgirl -- 12/6/2007 2:02:44 PM >
_____________________________
|
|
|
|
|
RE: Thinking Out Loud about John - 12/8/2007 7:57:25 PM
|
|
|
SD456
Posts: 362
Joined: 8/6/2007
Status: offline
|
quote:
So here we are, each of us, trying to understand this God that we have moved so far away from. Trying to understand how we could possibly take on such beauty to resemble him at all, trying to understand why in his brilliance he would come to us and embrace us in a loving relationship. Why would he call us his family, his children, his bride, his beloved?
Amazing what kind of love He showed us. 
_____________________________
MY BLOG
http://reflectionsdeep.blogspot.com
|
|
|
|
|
RE: Thinking Out Loud about John - 12/12/2007 10:03:29 AM
|
|
|
selahgirl
Posts: 834
Joined: 5/20/2005
From: God is with you, never forget that <3
Status: offline
|
yeh, it's pretty overwhelming 
I don't think I'll ever get tired of talking about it or dwelling on it.
^_^
_____________________________
|
|
|
|
|
RE: Thinking Out Loud about John - 12/12/2007 10:53:34 AM
|
|
|
selahgirl
Posts: 834
Joined: 5/20/2005
From: God is with you, never forget that <3
Status: offline
|
ONWARD CHRISTIAN SOLDIERS
(John 3:22-24)
22After this, Jesus and his disciples went out into the Judean countryside, where he spent some time with them, and baptized. 23Now John also was baptizing at Aenon near Salim, because there was plenty of water, and people were constantly coming to be baptized. 24(This was before John was put in prison.)
Here is the tension that continues even today. God moves among a group, he introduces a fresh move, the next wave, the next step in his plan... there are those that receive it and there are those that reject it. The interesting thing is that those that reject it are not always the ones that have rejected Christ.
Often times there are people who profess Christ among those that walk away. They are the people that get stuck. The ones that embraced the wave when it was new, but who can't seem to let the moment go. The moment that has become the past, that has served it's purpose and flatlined. The Life and Spirit of God moved thru it to perform some key forward motion, but the time has come and gone and the Spirit calls them forward as the will of God leads.
Stuck.
Too arrogant to give up their front row seat and settle for one in the back, unwilling to become the student for a time rather than leading the show, too afraid to let go of what seems solid and to step out on the uncertainty of that wave.
But that is our walk as believers. His voice and presence is the only constant in this world. It is the only rock that does not move. All else is a constant shift, a constant risk, a continual journey to keep moving forward and to take as many people with us as are willing to share the risk. You can't stand still. The world never stands still.
Yes, I know, our calling is not to follow the world, nor is it to stand paralyzed by fear. Our calling is to follow Christ thru this world -- to lead others in the Way as the world constantly marches and moves and shifts. It is to move forward with time, but always against the grain of the spirit of the age, independent of any other plan that contradicts the Plan of God. It is to search out every soul that is willing to hear and to believe the Good thing that we have been sent to tell them.
That was Christ's ministry on this earth. That is what we have been called to mirror.
There is always a time that must decrease, a ministry that must step aside, a baton that must be passed. Letting go is a scary thing. Your heart flutters, your hands shake, your step is less steady... but your confidence must be strong if you want to witness the end -- the victory of the race.
Will someone drop the baton?... not your concern.
Will someone pick it up if they do?... not your concern.
Will you be the one?... not your concern (well maybe a little on that one. haha)
You are to hear the word of the Lord and to obey the leading of His Spirit.
You are to commit to the calling... to walk out the plan of God step by step. Our walk is one of faith. It's not laid out so that we can look down the road and daydream or fear the things that lie ahead. Christ said it best...
25"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? 26Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?
28"And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' 32For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
(Matt 6:25-34)
Change will come. It will challenge us, there will be an element of fear, there will be a temptation to own that fear, but we must choose Faith over fear. In all things GOOD AND BAD, we must constantly be asking God about the timing. Has something run it's course, served it's purpose. Is it time for the birth of something new? Is there a John the Baptist with some important message that the people of God need to take to heart? Or is Christ hand delivering the next phase of the plan? Should we continue riding the current wave and not get ahead of God? Or has this wave flatlined without our even noticing as we have gotten caught up in the moment rather than the giver of that moment?
Is the swell rising before us, is the sky dark with a warning of change, is the thunder screeching and the lightning striking, is everything that we have understood shifting beneath our feet as we reach out for balance and our thoughts race with our adrenaline? Is something stirring in our hearts as the Spirit of God whispers, "Do not be afraid?"
Is a new wave upon us, Lord?
Are you calling us higher up and further in?
If so... then, just as those that have walked before us declared in Faith...
ONWARD CHRISTIAN SOLDIERS!
Let us echo a battle cry such as that, full of courage, full of resolve, full of Faith in you Lord.
Amen.
_____________________________
|
|
|
|
|
RE: Thinking Out Loud about John - 12/20/2007 12:16:32 PM
|
|
|
selahgirl
Posts: 834
Joined: 5/20/2005
From: God is with you, never forget that <3
Status: offline
|
Temptation on a Silver Platter
(John 3:25-36)
25An argument developed between some of John's disciples and a certain Jew over the matter of ceremonial washing. 26They came to John and said to him, "Rabbi, that man who was with you on the other side of the Jordan—the one you testified about—well, he is baptizing, and everyone is going to him."
I love how Scripture doesn't always fill in every detail. Sometimes there are things that aren't fully explained because God wants us to think it thru and relate it to our real life to understand it. That keeps his word real to us, fresh, not just a story written out line by line. Every passage of Scripture contains so much more than merely the words on the page. And it is the Holy Spirit that comes along side of us and helps us to find the answers to our many questions. That is why an unbeliever will never be able to understand the Scriptures in Truth, because he has no relationship with God... and therefore has no one to interpret and to converse with concerning Truth. How precious is the Spirit of Truth.
The argument among the disciples was about ceremonial washing, which is part of the ritual before eating or performing holy functions. It was handed down traditionally from the time of Moses. That is where the argument started...
But by the time the argument reached John it had become a taunt that pitted the ministry of John against the ministry of Jesus. It's as though you can see the enemy reaching into the hearts of men and manipulating them like a puppet on his hand. The smallest legalistic things is used to rouse peoples anger, disrupting their common sense and self-control, and then it escalates into the real intent of the enemy -- to tempt that key person to sin.
It doesn't even have to be the pastor, often times it is that right-hand man, or that little woman holding the world on her back. But the enemy knows that if he builds enough discontent among the group, he can maneuver them to thump that first domino over, or to drop that one straw.
It's fascinating, the tangled web, the poised precision of the strike, yet the quiet subtlety slithering from the garden so long ago into our own hearts and lives. A challenge to our greed, to our pride, our inability to say no to our arrogance... temptation.
Here is John hearing the usual grumbling that arises among any group of people. Thinking that it will subside and be resolved and peace restored, like the many times before. But suddenly from no where, it turns upon him and is suddenly thrust in his face -- arrogance/jealousy served up to him on a silver platter, "... the one you testified about—well, he is baptizing, and everyone is going to him."
This was the moment. The enemy slithered close listening with every scale on his body for the sound of John lifting his fork to take a bite. If snakes could sweat, he would have been. It was a crucial moment, many things hinged on the decision that John would make. He was not immune to the temptation, he was a man just like you or me. Human. Doubts flashed thru his mind. We'll read more about that after his arrest.
Do you think your commitment, your walk, your faithfulness, doesn't matter?...
well, think again. The power of many things was in John's hand at that moment. God would succeed in his plan, but how many souls would be won or lost based on the decision that John was about to make. How many wounds would be inflicted upon the people that watched him, that depended on his leadership to reflect Christ?
"Jealously, Envy, Arrogance, and Pride... just a little. What would it really matter? So what if I make an off the cuff comment that damages the reputation of some good person, or that makes me look a little better than them. I need affirmation too. I need people to like me just like anybody else. Isn't that merely being human? Is it truly so harsh a thing that you would label it a sin?..."
yes, it is a sin.
John knew that. But beyond that, he knew what God had called him to. He knew that he was to fulfill a purpose and that that purpose was complete. He knew that the passing of the baton was at hand, and he knew that that would be the most difficult of the entire task. Sacrificing what you know and love. He loved obeying God, he loved his calling, he loved everything about it and that he was good at it, anointed. But now that calling was asking him to give the glory of it all up, to invest it in the call of another. To hand it off to someone else, so that they could fulfill their calling and mission and ministry. He knew without doubt that that was the will of God, as contrary as it felt to every human desire and want of his flesh.
The temptation was there... but so was the faithfulness of this man of God.
19For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.
20The law was added so that the trespass might increase. But where sin increased, grace increased all the more, 21so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans 5)
and so...
27To this John replied, "A man can receive only what is given him from heaven. 28You yourselves can testify that I said, 'I am not the Christ but am sent ahead of him.' 29The bride belongs to the bridegroom. The friend who attends the bridegroom waits and listens for him, and is full of joy when he hears the bridegroom's voice. That joy is mine, and it is now complete. 30He must become greater; I must become less.
31"The one who comes from above is above all; the one who is from the earth belongs to the earth, and speaks as one from the earth. The one who comes from heaven is above all. 32He testifies to what he has seen and heard, but no one accepts his testimony. 33The man who has accepted it has certified that God is truthful. 34For the one whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for God gives the Spirit without limit. 35The Father loves the Son and has placed everything in his hands. 36Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God's wrath remains on him."
If only we would choose faithfulness over arrogance in the face of temptation.
We hold so much power in our hands with every choice we make. Good or Evil. Life or Death.
Father God, make us strong, help us to seek You continually to increase our faith and our faithfulness, so that we would always choose Life. For that is your heart, your love and your desire for each of us. You paid such a great price to share the power in your hands with us, to put it in our hands as your children, as your family, to keep us from Evil and from Death. Thank You Lord. Help us to be full of courage. To claim what we are instructed to claim, to declare your Truth and Love without fear or regret, and to sacrifice all for your glory even those things that we love most dearly. In the name of Jesus, our God and Friend. Amen.
_____________________________
|
|
|
|
|
RE: Thinking Out Loud about John - 1/3/2008 12:05:25 PM
|
|
|
selahgirl
Posts: 834
Joined: 5/20/2005
From: God is with you, never forget that <3
Status: offline
|
A brief detour from John...
2008: From my Prayer Journal
Good deeds will not be the mark of the coming year.
Perseverance will be what is required.
That will be the sign.
These things will never change...
The faithfulness of God
And His Love for us.
1 Does not wisdom call out?
Does not understanding raise her voice?
2 On the heights along the way,
where the paths meet, she takes her stand;
3 beside the gates leading into the city,
at the entrances, she cries aloud:
4 "To you, O men, I call out;
I raise my voice to all mankind.
(Proverbs 8:1-4)
It is a time to hear wisdom.
Wisdom will be required, it will be your guide and tool in this hour of the Church. You must be discerning. You must know the Word of God, his heart, his person. The blind will lead the blind. Do not follow them, they are men -- not God.
A new ritual has emerged, contemporary, eccentric dreamers.
Not a ritual from tradition or from the past, rather a new ritual.
There is a new form of godliness, that denies the power of True Godliness. They worship the ritual and have abandoned their God. Train a generation to know Him, not the rituals of trendy blind guides..
1 The word of the LORD came to Jonah son of Amittai: 2 "Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me."3 But Jonah ran away from the LORD and headed for Tarshish. He went down to Joppa, where he found a ship bound for that port. After paying the fare, he went aboard and sailed for Tarshish to flee from the LORD..... (Jonah 1)
9 But God said to Jonah, "Do you have a right to be angry about the vine?"
"I do," he said. "I am angry enough to die."
10 But the LORD said, "You have been concerned about this vine, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight. 11 But Nineveh has more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left, and many cattle as well. Should I not be concerned about that great city?" (Jonah 4)
Pity for those who do not know their right hand from their left.
"Take Courage"
The filth on the bottom of the shoes of corrupt leadership and worship track (spead, corrupt) thru the church from the pulpit. Even the fragrance in the air of their worship is no longer pleasant but unclean and unhealthy. The filth on the bottom of their shoes is the blood of the prophets (voices of Truth) that have been murdered by selfish ambition.
There is no discernment, only arrogance. You have become blind. You have become blind guides leading others into the pit.
Repent. Repent.
Turn and change your ways.
2008 will be a time of cleansing.
A scrubbing of old wounds. Things that have scabbed over and have trapped the corruption within. There will be a re-opening, it will sting and bleed and nothing will make the pain avoidable. The removal of the infection and the very root of it is a necessary thing. Lives are dependant upon it.
Fresh bandages.
Right and lasting healing. Preparation for a season that will come after.
The ritual will change or be interrupted, but the Word of God will remain solid and True and Faithful.
Worship will become a walk of Faith.
8 You found his heart faithful to you, and you made a covenant with him to give to his descendants the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Jebusites and Girgashites. You have kept your promise because you are righteous. 9 "You saw the suffering of our forefathers in Egypt; you heard their cry at the Red Sea. (Nehemiah 8:8-9)
People don't want to hear the Truth anymore. They want to hear what fits into the mold of what they want (especially leaders, those in positions of authority and power), or what they can easily twist and manipulate to fit. But then it is no longer Truth. It is a lie.
Much of what began as Truth has become a lie.
So when you speak Truth, do not expect to be rewarded or favored or esteemed -- rather EXPECT INJUSTICE. Not just from the ungodly, but from all who embrace the spirit of the world ( no matter what they call themselves, or how convincing the mask or title they wear may be). Good deeds and a calm disposition are not the mark of holiness. Beware of those who try to lead you as such.
2006 was marked by justice.
2007 was marked by mercy
2008 will be marked by faithfulness
"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cummin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former. (Matthew 23:23)
8 He has showed you, O man, what is good.
And what does the LORD require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
and to walk humbly with your God.
(Micah 6:8)
The end of 2008 will mark the closing of many things. 2009 will mark the breaking of the seal of something (a command perhaps) of something that has been reserved.
For now, at the start of 2008, the cry is that...
"It's about to get personal!"
7For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline. 8So do not be ashamed to testify about our Lord, or ashamed of me his prisoner. But join with me in suffering for the gospel, by the power of God,
(2 Tim 1:7-8)
"Do not be afraid," write this in your hand and on your forehead, because you will be tempted to forget.
In your hand so that you will always hold onto it.
On your forehead, so that you will remember that you are not alone when you look at your reflection. It's not about how big or small you are, full of beauty or lacking, rich or poor, skilled or not. It is about Christ and Him Crucified.
When it is embarrassing to be a Christian to many, will you remain faithful and unmoved?...
Come Lord Jesus!
Do not forget that you do not walk this dark road alone. He is in the world. He has come to be among us and to guarantee our victory.
Expect injustice in this world, but not forever.
The Spirit of God has come.
There is a whiteness, a holiness, a stirring in our midst. It has already begun.
Those who will persevere by Faith alone, will witness it. The eyes of their spirit will be opened.
The blood. The blood. The blood of Christ!
It is the beginning and the end.
The hill has been forgotten and abandoned.
But there is a remnant that will remember the cross (not as a ritual) but as something personal/painful/real. And it is thru that remnant that revival will come.
But remember...
Truth (revival) will not be met with joy by those that smell of the spirit of the world (in the church and outside of it). Expect injustice and persecution, shame and ridicule. That is the test. That is the mark of real revival, rather than ritual, ceremony, and form. It is birthed only thru tears and mourning that are genuine. It can not be mustered or bathed in false-humility. It must be authentic and will be.
Beware of walking in false-humility. It is the infection that has crippled many, even entire churches. It has become a stench before God. It has devoured and murdered. Those who walk in it will be violently slammed -- not by man, but by God. It too will be personal -- witnessed only by you and God. But remember that he disciplines those he loves, to save and restore you to be a blessing. That is what it means to be blessed, and that is his heart for you.
7All kinds of animals, birds, reptiles and creatures of the sea are being tamed and have been tamed by man, 8but no man can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. 9With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in God's likeness. 10Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers, this should not be. 11Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring? 12My brothers, can a fig tree bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water. (James 3:7-12)
Gossip, even by leaders, is sin.
It can not be justified based on popularity, power, or postion.
God will measure out justice and mercy for all. No member of the body is above another. No member is exempt from correction, because each is loved by God.
Heal us Lord.
Each soul, our nation, your people.
We are in need of you as we enter this year, 2008.
We are in need of you as never before.
Amen.
.
< Message edited by selahgirl -- 1/3/2008 12:23:55 PM >
_____________________________
|
|
|
|
|
RE: Thinking Out Loud about John - 1/3/2008 2:33:03 PM
|
|
|
selahgirl
Posts: 834
Joined: 5/20/2005
From: God is with you, never forget that <3
Status: offline
|
Like a Good Neighbor
(John 4:1-9)
1The Pharisees heard that Jesus was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John, 2although in fact it was not Jesus who baptized, but his disciples. 3When the Lord learned of this, he left Judea and went back once more to Galilee.
Jesus had gone to John the Baptist to be baptized, and he said it was right for every man to do the same. So people continued to come to be baptized by the disciples of both John and Jesus. I think it is interesting that Jesus didn't actually do the baptizing. I'm not sure why, but perhaps it comes down to free-will. Being baptized into Christ, dying to yourself, must be a choice. If Christ did the baptizing, then symbolically it would suggest that such spiritual death was less out of obedience and sacrifice.
Either way, it is stated that Jesus never actually baptized anyone.
I also love that when Jesus heard that the Pharisees were concerned about his ministry as they were John the Baptist, he left for Galilee. He had seen how the Pharisees hounded John and tried to engage him in lengthy debate to entrap him. Christ knew that he would also be challenged by them in verbal debate eventually.
But at the moment, there was an open door to occupy himself with more important ministry -- teaching those that were willing to hear about the love of God. So rather than debating with the Pharisee, he continued to be about his father's business whenever a door was opened to him. And on his way to Galilee, a great door was opened to him when he crossed paths with a Samaritan woman drawing water from a well.
4Now he had to go through Samaria. 5So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6Jacob's well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about the sixth hour.
I love that as Christ was led by the Spirit of God from moment to moment, he finds himself continually walking into ministry opportunities. He is on his way to Galilee, and here is a very key encounter along the way. We should learn from his example. Sometimes it's not necessary to prove a point, or to try to establish our identity or our calling or our authority. Sometimes, walking away from unnecessary tensions in order to put ministry first is where the Spirit of God is leading us to go. Like Christ, our hearts should be looking past the bickering among those in the church and searching out more important matters -- broken hearts, bruised lives, hurting people, lost and dying and not even aware that they are leprous. We must deal with the bickering eventually, but our heart should be drawn to ministry first whenever the door is opened to us.
7When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, "Will you give me a drink?" 8(His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)
9The Samaritan woman said to him, "You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?" (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.)
Jesus was tired and thirsty from his journey. We so often are tired or not feeling well or have some minor stress to deal with in life, and it causes us to be distracted from ministry. It is so easy to make excuse or to put ourself before some hurting soul that God has brought across our path. Yes, there are times when we need to guard our own health or keep one of our two coats for ourself. We cannot help others is we allow ourselves to be neglected or to become a doormat. But all too often, it's easier to throw out that excuse rather than to truly sacrifice and do what God had called us to do in that moment. Sometimes we are more able than we care to admit.
Samaritans and Jews were at odds with each other. There was much prejudice and animosity between the two groups of people. Samaritans were considered unclean, because they had not kept certain aspects of the law. But here was a Jewish holy man, not only acting as though this Samaritan was not unclean, but actually asking her for a drink of water. He was speaking to her as though he had no prejudice, as though he wasn't looking down his nose at her, as though he wasn't judging her. It was shocking.
This one point speaks to so many things, so many relationships among the people of God and concerning the people we encounter in the world. We all know that aire of judgment, that critical twinkle in someone's eye as they smile at us and greet us so cordially. All too often people in the church do it to one another. They do it to people that come to visit our sunday school classes. They go to lunch or the store after service and gaze upon the people they pass with that same condescending or uncaring glance.
People in the workplace, at school, on the sidewalk, during the bus ride. They measure your appearance, your mannerisms, your conversation, even your quietness. Each of us is sized up within the church, and as we wade thru the world day to day. Some people we know will treat us based on some insignificant aspect of our appearance. They may have only introduced themselves a time or two, discussed their children on some random occasion. But they have already decided that they know everything about us. No matter how wrong they may be.
Here was a Samaritan Woman... judged her entire life by Jews and their holy men because she lived on the wrong side of the tracks. He was addressing her as tho he was her neighbor, as tho there was any chance that they had anything in common or any connection that would give him the right to talk to her -- or even the desire to talk to her. Immediately, before responding at all, she must have thought, "who is this guy?"
She was about to find out, and it would not only affect her in that one distinct moment, but her entire future, her very being, and the lives of everyone that her life would touch.
What if we were Christ to such people? What if rather than being like everyone else and sizing people up and measuring everything about them with some random stick in our hand... we approached them as a neighbor?
Even tho we may be entirely different people with entirely different pasts from very opposite sides of town or even the universe... what if we just sat down in our busyness and said, "hey, what ya got there? mind if I have a little? got a minute to chat? what ya been up to? you matter in the world? do I matter to you?..."
Whatever comes to mind, whatever the Spirit of God leads you to say to break the ice and bring down that cold hardened wall that keeps people distant and separated from one another. For Christ and this Samaritan woman, the conversation was about a cup of water and a well. There are conversations that will be just as powerful for you and the people you encounter, and God will give you the words to start them every time you put ministry first.
Deal with the trouble of the day...
but when God opens a door and says ministry first, don't be afraid to obey his command and GO.
_____________________________
|
|
|
|
|
RE: Thinking Out Loud about John - 1/4/2008 2:01:32 PM
|
|
|
selahgirl
Posts: 834
Joined: 5/20/2005
From: God is with you, never forget that <3
Status: offline
|
NEWS FLASH:
I am so excited. I'm the featured blogger on myCCM this week! My blog is featured on their homepage starting today until next Friday, along with one of FF5's CCM magazine covers, the one featuring Soli.
If you get a chance, check it out at
www.myCCM.org
yay!!!!!!!!!!!!!
seLahGirl
_____________________________
|
|
|
|
|
RE: Thinking Out Loud about John - 1/5/2008 4:51:45 PM
|
|
|
selahgirl
Posts: 834
Joined: 5/20/2005
From: God is with you, never forget that <3
Status: offline
|
It's never too late
(John 4:10-18)
10Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water."
Talk about grace, about second chances...
It sounds like she missed her chance. If she had only known. But that is the wonderful and amazing thing about Christ, there is always hope for another chance if we will just ask.
In truth, in the past, under the law, under the prejudice of other holy men, she would have had no hope. She would have been locked into missed opportunity, been disqualified, rejected and turned away. But Christ wanted her to understand that this is now, this is today, this is the day of salvation, the day of another chance... the day for hope. It was that day for her, and it is that day for us. Right now, in the midst of our sin, in the midst of our imperfections, in the midst of being judged by everyone around us.
Christ sits down with us and offers us hope for change.
11"Sir," the woman said, "you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? 12Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his flocks and herds?"
Here is the mindset of the world. It cannot see into the deeper things, eternal things, the plan that God has laid before us to take us beyond just what we can see and touch. He takes us within this physical realm into the spiritual realm. He takes us to things that cannot be seen -- but that can be claimed and pulled into the here and now by Faith. We have more muscle to affect change than we realize. Christ wants to pull back the veil and open our eyes as to who we truly are. So much more than just our physical appearance.... so much more than the world would have us to believe.
Here she is, this Samaritan woman, measuring up Christ in the same manner that the world has measured her. But Christ is about to show her a new way to view people. He is about to help her to see those around her and even herself in a new light.
13Jesus answered, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life."
What is this water? It is the Holy Spirit. It is the Spirit of Truth. That is what brings change. And what is that Truth?... That God has sent his son into the world to bring change, to offer hope, to communicate his great love for us as his children, his heartache at being separated from us, his desire to have us with him again... what he is willing to do to make a way.
In this passage, this encounter with the Samaritan woman, Christ has poured out a taste of the Truth for her to sample. Would it be palatable to her? Would she ask for more? Was her nature and character one that would reject it with disdain and offense? Or would she ask him to explain more? How thirsty was she for hope, for change?
15The woman said to him, "Sir, give me this water so that I won't get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water."
Yes, she was thirsty for more.
She did not fully understand what he was talking about, but she was thirsty for Truth. She recognized and acknowledged that Christ was walking in it and could be trusted. She wanted to understand. She wanted to a better life in many ways. She wanted Truth.
Now was she willing to own it, to commit to it, to walk in Truth in all areas of her life and being.
Here was the test...
16He told her, "Go, call your husband and come back."
17"I have no husband," she replied.
Rather than presenting some bogus story, she takes that first step down that road of Truth. "I have no husband." And that is all that is needed. To be willing to move in the direction of what is right and true. If we would only do that, Christ will often stop us and declare that it is enough. Like Abraham offering Isaac, the test confirms so much to so many... often times, just in the first step or only a little ways into it.
The key is that we are willing to see it thru to the end if necessary.
The choice lies in deciding to take that first step in the direction of Truth. That is the path we must defend and fight to follow, whether against our own fleshly desires or against the spirit of the world. We must always be moving in the direction that Christ has walked as our example, Truth.
Jesus said to her, "You are right when you say you have no husband. 18The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true."
Before we ask, he has answered. Before we can realize the depth of anything that he asks of us, he has set increase in place and planned great things for us. The one thing we must do is to -- choose.
Christ knows us better than we know ourselves. He is the perfect father, unlike our earthly fathers (who try as they may, will never be perfect). He disciplines with love to guard our well-being, he devotes all to the good of the family as a whole as well as to each individual. He plans all things to be that perfect Father... not to fulfill a role, but to build that relationship with his children that he longs for as much as they do.
He knew the situation of this woman, yet he approached her so gently. He sat down beside her and wanted to let her know that he sees her, that he sincerely cares about what's going on in her life personally. He doesn't see her as that Samaritan woman, as that woman living with some guy on the corner... he sees her as Mary or Lakisha or Sam or Kyle.
He sees you.
There is nothing you have done, there is no sin that you are walking in, there is nothing that can shut the door on the hope that he died to offer you. He sincerely cares. And he will bring change for a better LIFE if you are willing to just taste Truth and see for yourself.
7 The angel of the LORD encamps around those who fear him,
and he delivers them.
8 Taste and see that the LORD is good;
blessed is the man who takes refuge in him.
9 Fear the LORD, you his saints,
for those who fear him lack nothing.
(Psalm 34:7-9)
Christ loves you.
It's never too late. Today is the day of salvation then and now, for her and for me and for you. There is hope even when it seems hopeless, a way out -- an escape is not a negative thing when it allows you to enter into freedom and a second chance at Life. All you gotta do to have it, is decide to accept the offer. Christ has already paid for it all, and he can make it happen for you. That's what he's offering. If you don't believe me, just ask him for yourself (right now, right where ur at).
< Message edited by selahgirl -- 1/5/2008 4:58:40 PM >
_____________________________
|
|
|
|
|
RE: Thinking Out Loud about John - 1/8/2008 1:15:25 PM
|
|
|
selahgirl
Posts: 834
Joined: 5/20/2005
From: God is with you, never forget that <3
Status: offline
|
Believe Me, Woman
(John 4:19-26)
19"Sir," the woman said, "I can see that you are a prophet. 20Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem."
Not only was the spiritual thirst of this woman apparent, but here we see her great hunger for acceptance by the people of God as well. In other words she is saying,
"Okay, I am convinced that you are a preacher that is really honest about trying to help people understand what God says is Truth. I trust you and your opinion. So let me ask you something. I was raised in a church where we worshiped God a little differently than that powerhouse church over there. What they claim seems to be more accepted, but I love God just as much. Is there any chance that God would accept my worship of him even tho I go about it a little differently than them?
I'm feeling kinda rejected by his people, is there anyway that he would accept me and my expression of worship?"
I would attempt to answer that, but Christ does it so much better.
21Jesus declared, "Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth."
Basically, Jesus is saying, how or where you worship him is less of an issue. What matters is that you worship the right God and accept who he is as he reveals himself to you -- that you worship the one True God, which is the God of the Jews (Israel). No matter how much animosity may exist between your peoples, no matter how imperfect they may be at times, they remain the people that God will fulfill his promises through.
We may not get that he was speaking about recognizing the Messiah... but she understood.
25The woman said, "I know that Messiah" (called Christ) "is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us."
And she acknowledged that she believed in Messiah, the Christ, and was watching for him. That she was passionate and committed about serving him and obeying him. But she had no idea who he was or when he would come or how he would reveal himself to her (or that he would be a Jew).
She felt very ignorant about the specifics, she felt very cut off from the people who seemed to have the answers about Messiah directly from God. How could she ask them about him when they considered her and her people too unclean to approach him or to know him? How could she know hope, if she was made to think that she was unworthy to know Christ?
That Samaritan woman was not so foreign to many who are hungry and thirsty, even today. There are those that feel rejected and unworthy, especially when they measure themselves to certain regulations laid out by the very people that are supposed to tell them about Christ.
Kinda breaks your heart, doesn't it.
Kinda grieves your spirit.
Kinda leaves you sick and nauseated.
Kinda makes you wanna go examine yourself and check for the slightest judgmental, legalistic imperfection that may have attached itself to those secret places, those covered places, those places of the heart that no one sees but you and God and the Samaritans that encounter you along the way...
How will they know him if we do not GO to them...
How will they know if we do not tell them.
6 Therefore my people will know my name;
therefore in that day they will know
that it is I who foretold it.
Yes, it is I."
7 How beautiful on the mountains
are the feet of those who bring good news,
who proclaim peace,
who bring good tidings,
who proclaim salvation,
who say to Zion,
"Your God reigns!"
8 Listen! Your watchmen lift up their voices;
together they shout for joy.
When the LORD returns to Zion,
they will see it with their own eyes.
(Isaiah 52:6-8)
There were solid, loving, voices of humility that shared the good news with Samaritans like you and me despite our quirkiness and our weirdness. Now it is our duty and our command to become those voices for others. Voices that are so grateful for the loving kindness that they have come to know in Christ that they remain humble in all that they do in his name. Loving God and Loving People.
But even if men fail, Christ does not.
Jesus speaks with this woman face to face, just as he will speak with anyone that calls upon him at any given moment in time. Those who pray and ask to encounter him, to learn of him, to know him... will not be disappointed. He will find a way to answer you, and you will hear him just as this precious woman did at the well that day. He WILL reveal himself to you... intimately.... boldly... by sitting down beside you from no where, by speaking about things you thought no one knew, by guiding you and correcting you ever so gently with kindness, by whispering assurance that you matter to him and that he loves you...
He will accept you though you think him a stranger --
until you realize just how present he has been all along.
He will accept the best you have to offer --
no matter how small or insignificant it may seem to you and others, and
he will cherish it so that it becomes glorious
because you are loved by him.
Your only part is to ask God to reveal himself to you,
and to believe the same truth that he spoke to this woman at the well...
26Then Jesus declared, "I who speak to you am he."
_____________________________
|
|
|
|
|
RE: Thinking Out Loud about John - 1/10/2008 5:21:10 PM
|
|
|
selahgirl
Posts: 834
Joined: 5/20/2005
From: God is with you, never forget that <3
Status: offline
|
Why Are You Talking with Her?
(John 4:27)
27Just then his disciples returned and were surprised to find him talking with a woman. But no one asked, "What do you want?" or "Why are you talking with her?"
Why would they be surprised at seeing Christ talking to this woman? And why would they not ask Christ about it if it surprised them so much?
There are a couple possibilities, none of which I'm positive really capture what was happening in that moment. Perhaps it was because she was a Samaritan woman, and was thought to be unclean culturally. Perhaps it was because it was somehow apparent that she had a reputation of living with men in adultery?
There is also the possibility that their surprise rested in the fact that women were expected to be more genteel and less acquainted with discussing such holy/political issues with men. Somehow thru time the place of a woman had become demeaned and lowered. She was created from Adam's rib to be his helper, to let him lead, but to have great influence in his decisions. If he is like the Son, she is like the Spirit. Both important, both equal, both with very different roles to perform. Yet both called to accomplish the will of God for the good of all.
It could be that it was part of the curse. When Christ said that she would look to her husband, perhaps it meant that she gave up a portion of her influence upon her husband (and men in general) in some sense. Maybe that curse due to her sin and her part in the temptation her husband to sin caused a gradual slide to that lower place of influence in some respect.
But here is Christ in his ministry, restoring the place of the woman, removing portions of the curse until all could be fulfilled and fully restored in the end. There are many instances where Christ elevates the role and the favor upon women. He often speaks with them before the men in an attempt to emphasize that their opinion and involvement in significant issues matters. During his ministry on earth he began to re-establish her seat at the table of decision-making. Not that she was to dominate, but that she had a voice once again, a voice that was to at least be considered.
By giving significant issues/messages/wisdom to women as much as to men, it requires men to reconsider the role of women. It makes GODLY men think twice about moving them to the background or solely to the kitchen/bedroom. The woman becomes the daughter that the Father cherishes, rather than mere cattle for men to breed and own.
Christianity reinstates and elevates women to a place beside men.
Still requiring her to submit and to let him have the final say in certain matters of proper authority, but not without a knowledge that he will be held accountable... It is God who will call him into account according to the measure of respect and love that he returns to her as the weaker/lesser vessel. By voicing her heart to her husband/authority and letting him weigh it and measure it out as he determines, she does not lose, she wins. She fulfills her role, and God makes sure that male and female alike are treated justly.
Although matters of abuse and sin change the measure and method of submission greatly.
But that's for another thread.
I have strayed from the topic.... oh yes, possibilities of why the disciples were surprised that Christ was speaking with the Samaritan woman....
His disciples wondered at all of this, but they did not ask him about it. Quite often Jesus was going against the traditions and the things that they were taught growing up. I'm sure there were many times when Christ did things that offended them or went against the grain of their nature.
But they had learned that there was a reason for everything Christ did that seemed to contradict the teachings of men and religion. They began to see that there was a greater Truth at work, a Truth that was more real and that was pulling back the veil -- bringing clarity to many things. Often times, there were things that Jesus did and said that made no sense to them at first. But then later down the road, after the fulfillment of each and every one, the disciples stood in wonder and often tears as divine understanding came to them.
At this time, they were confused about the attention that Christ gave to this woman. That he would discuss the things of God with her. That he would speak to her as openly and warmly as he spoke to them....
But later, after the many things they would walk thru together, male and female, throughout the ministry of Christ up to his resurrection, the teaching that Jesus imparted to ALL of them, the respect that he measured out equally despite sex or race or culture... the Twelve began to no longer think it strange that God would talk to women as freely as men. They were all his disciples now.
In the upper room, men and women alike prayed and called upon God. Each shared what the Lord had spoken to them and all that he had directed them to do and say. Each testified about the same Christ and glorified his name in all things. Each performed a distinct role, but they were one because Christ had taught them to be one -- just as Father, Son, and Spirit are very different yet they are One.
As the disciples looked around that room while praying and waiting on the arrival of the Promise, they saw one another as believers, no one above the other, each equally important, each significant, each with specific things to perform and to accomplish for God. There were no longer questions or surprise at what each was called to do based on race or social issues. They understood that ALL (anyone) who would believe in Him is called according to his purpose...
<3 <3 <3 <3 <3
27And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God's will.
28And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.
(Romans 8:27-28)
20"My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 21that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: 23I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.
(John 17:20-23)
<3 <3 <3 <3 <3
One last random thought:
I think that maybe women are commanded to submit, because one of the most difficult parts of their role/calling is to diligently seek out the will of God and then step aside -- fully trusting the man with the well-being of all that she holds dear. (Her role is symbolically the Spirit and the Bride, one who comes along side to help)
Men are commanded to love, because one of the most difficult parts of their role/calling is to cherish the sacrifice of the woman (her will to submit to him) more than the thrill of the hunt/victory/winning -- accepting the responsibility and pressures of not failing God or the people that he loves. (His role is symbolically Christ, the weight of saving the world is upon him and only him).
That's why women often fear broken trust and find it difficult to recover from.
While men often fear failure and struggle to regain their confidence and courage when they experience it.
Not that women don't have to love, or that men never find it necessary to submit. It just requires a different amount of effort according to gender (calling) for each of us.
_____________________________
|
|
|
|
|
RE: Thinking Out Loud about John - 1/17/2008 1:43:19 PM
|
|
|
selahgirl
Posts: 834
Joined: 5/20/2005
From: God is with you, never forget that <3
Status: offline
|
There is no other qualifying factor
(John 4:28-39)
28Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people,
I love this image of a choice being made. She didn't forget her water jar, she left it. She laid aside earthly things as being of lesser importance and she was consumed with the spiritual water that Christ had given her. The good news, Messiah is here, God is with us just like he promised, just like he was in the garden with Adam.
There was no need to worry with the water jar to carry water back to those she loved. Now she was the vessel and the water that Christ had promised would be poured out from her to the people she would share it with. As always, God keeps his promises. He does exactly what he says he will, all things happen just the way he declares... not always in ways that we can predict or wrap our minds around -- but always in ways that are glaringly clear after he performs whatever he has promised.
29"Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Christ?" 30They came out of the town and made their way toward him.
And here we see, that life-giving water, the good news that Christ has come, being poured out. Just a taste of Truth is sampled from a voice that they know and trust, and they begin to thirst for that water that was Christ Jesus. It was truly life-giving. It gave life and hope to this woman, multiplied itself from that life to the lives of others who walked in darkness, and a flood of rebirth and renewel had begun. Isn't it funny to think that a flood once took away life from the earth, and here we see a flood that restores it.
31Meanwhile his disciples urged him, "Rabbi, eat something."
32But he said to them, "I have food to eat that you know nothing about."
33Then his disciples said to each other, "Could someone have brought him food?"
We read about how clueless the disciples were at times, and we think we are all that because we see what was happening... but in truth, we would have been just as clueless if we were among them in that moment. What Christ was doing was so new, it was merely the beginning of the fulfillment, the disciples had no way of knowing the extent of what was happening. They were like newborn pups whose eyes didn't open in a day, it took a little time. But their sight and understanding came soon enough.
It's so easy to look at someone else and to think them a fool for not getting it. I don't mean that as harshly as it sounds in print, but there is a tendency sometimes for people to just want to yell, "Oh come on, enough already, can't you see it, don't you get what's happening, it's as plain as the nose on your face?!" But sometimes, as they say... being in the middle of the forest, allows you to see the trees, but not the forest itself.
Christ didn't rebuke them, nor did he belittle them. He merely dropped some clues that I'm sure they picked up on eventually. And I'm sure that like us, they had a good laugh at themselves as the light went on and they remembered Christ saying this. I think they enjoyed his sense of warm patience and clever humor as much as us.
34"My food," said Jesus, "is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. 35Do you not say, 'Four months more and then the harvest'? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest. 36Even now the reaper draws his wages, even now he harvests the crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together. 37Thus the saying 'One sows and another reaps' is true. 38I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labor."
39Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman's testimony, "He told me everything I ever did."
This passage contains so many things that are not written out for us to read. Again, I love that God asks us to sit and consider the Scriptures, knowing full well that there is so much (hidden, cunningly unspoken) in every passage.
The disciples are traveling with Christ, but at some point they part ways. Jesus ends up sitting by the well, and the disciples are off on an errand that Christ has sent them to do (probably to find some food). Maybe they were to find the food and Christ was to find the water. Who knows.
But the disciples return as he is talking with this woman and they are totally focussed on getting something arranged to feed their physical needs... food and water. They have missed the deeper thing that Christ is training them to understand, he wants them to see it in ways that make it real to them... He wants them to realize that going to get the physical food to share must always be accompanied by the giving of spiritual food to share.
They were supposed to be modeling the actions and heart of their teacher, Jesus. Just as he found water and gave water. They were supposed to be finding food and giving food. Is that a lesson for us or what?
Let's take it a step further. The water that Christ gave began to multiply life. And each person that received it, became like the giver of it and began to share it with others and to multiply it. Everyone and anyone that will do that will become his disciple. Whether Peter or John, this Samaritan woman or the President, a con or an abortionist, whether us or even our worst enemies. Anyone.
Jesus had trained and sent the disciples to walk in the truth and the mission that he had shared with them, but here was a seemingly insignificant woman doing what they should have been doing. She was living life and giving life. That's what he was trying to get the disciples to see and understand and do...
so, ok, maybe there is a little bit of a rebuke. But more in a teaching kind of way than a discipline kind of way ^_^
The point is that anyone who will remember to give life as they live the life that has been given them is qualified to be a disciple, to minister, to preach, to teach, to share the Gospel in whatever way God has skilled them. There is no other qualifying factor to share LIFE other than to receive the LIFE that Christ has come to offer to every single person on this earth.
If ever there was a selah-moment, this would be one...
.
< Message edited by selahgirl -- 1/17/2008 5:00:20 PM >
_____________________________
|
|
|
|
|
RE: Thinking Out Loud about John - 1/22/2008 12:29:49 PM
|
|
|
selahgirl
Posts: 834
Joined: 5/20/2005
From: God is with you, never forget that <3
Status: offline
|
It just got Personal
(John 4:39-54)
There is just so much that I could pull out of this passage of Scripture about the woman at the well, but I must move on. Maybe next time, I'll discuss another facet of her story. That's what I love about the Word of God, it speaks into every situation no matter what portion you are reading. It is not just another book, it's not even just another holy book, it is the breath and Life of God, it lives. Just like speaking face to face with someone would result in them addressing the conversation at hand... the word of God is no different. God speaks to you face to face every time you open it to any one passage. We have only to listen to the leading of his Spirit and trust him in order to hear him <3
39Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman's testimony, "He told me everything I ever did." 40So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days. 41And because of his words many more became believers.
Here once again we see... the power of His Words.
42They said to the woman, "We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world."
Ah see here is the trick. So many people want to tell someone about Christ and then insist that they believe them. But that's not our job, we were never called to beat anyone over the head until they accept Christ as Lord. That is not how Christ works and he gets pretty frustrated when people try to represent him like that.
The woman told her story. She shared what Christ did and said to her. She invited them to come and hear for themselves. That's our role. We testify, God convicts. When people try to do the convicting -- it comes across as condemnation every time. God doesn't guilt people into salvation, he woos them into relationship with him because he genuinely cares for them. That should be our heart.
When it becomes a strategy, a ritual, a machine, it steps out of his will and fails to look anything like Christ at all.
It amazes me how quickly people/pastors/leaders can base everything on the strategies of men, how quickly they can confuse their own face with the face of God, how convinced they can be that they are bringing men into the kingdom of God when they are actually bringing them into a kingdom that leads to death.
25"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. 26Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean.
27"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men's bones and everything unclean. 28In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness. (Matt 23:25-28)
A title of Pastor or Leader becomes a license to kill in such matters. Farfetched?...
Sadly not. I have seen more examples of such cases than I have of genuine men of God.
Though I HAVE seen genuine men of God, not perfect men, but definitely genuine in seeking to follow the heart of God -- and I treasure them as should you.
It has become a sad phenomena among contemporary cutting-edge pastors that they seek to be eccentric and they call it revival. It is not being eccentric that has caused the presence of God to manifest in a generation in revivals past -- it has been a bold and fearless return to the unapologetic mundane basics of the Christian faith.
Simplicity... not as a mandate to obey the pastor or "spiritual authority" (a nice phrase for manipulators to abuse). Rather, a return to our first love, to Christ rather than to legalism in any form (no matter how eccentric/trendy emerging church leaders want to dress it up).
So back to the passage. Christ remains with the Samaritans two days, answering their questions and sharing the heart and Truth of God with them. I wish I had been there. I wish I could have heard it straight from the lips of our Savior. I wish I could have heard him laughing as he spoke with such humor and joy, and I wish I could have heard the calmness as he switched to more serious matters. I wish I could have sat at his feet (or on the well beside him) and watched the excitement and passion in his expressions as he talked about the Truth of God. I wish... I wish so much...
some day.
43After the two days he left for Galilee. 44(Now Jesus himself had pointed out that a prophet has no honor in his own country.) 45When he arrived in Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him. They had seen all that he had done in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, for they also had been there.
Home. A blessing and a curse. A strength and a stumbling block. Family are often the ones that don't want your testimony out there. All too often the things God brought you thru as a child are the last things they want the whole town to know about. They are raising their kids there, they are working and living there, just because you are free from your shame doesn't mean that they are. Home is often not a place where people want to hear the Truth, whether your birth place or your church home. Dirty Laundry. Christ would love nothing more than to run it thru a wash/rinse cycle... but boy will you suffer the wrath of many if you pull that basket out of the closet.
Don't expect to be popular with anyone when you do what Christ asks of you.
He received no honor among his own country and townspeople for living according to the Truth.
18"If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. 19If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. 20Remember the words I spoke to you: 'No servant is greater than his master.' If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also. 21They will treat you this way because of my name, for they do not know the One who sent me. 22If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin. Now, however, they have no excuse for their sin. 23He who hates me hates my Father as well. 24If I had not done among them what no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin. But now they have seen these miracles, and yet they have hated both me and my Father. 25But this is to fulfill what is written in their Law: 'They hated me without reason.'
26"When the Counselor comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father, he will testify about me. 27And you also must testify, for you have been with me from the beginning.
(John 15:18-27)
Some people call themselves by his name but they are ruled by the spirit of this world (such selfish ambition). People in the church, even pastors are not infallible. We are to hold each other accountable, even our leaders. Title and position in the church do not justify living/leading according to the world's standards. It will never be the popular thing to appeal with family, friends, church leaders, or strangers to turn from their sin. They will not honor you, they will hate you all the more. Are you ready for that? Have you really thought about the cost? Can you continue to love them, to wash their feet, to heal the children of their officials (as in the next passage below)?
Why are we so shocked and blind-sided by something that Christ so clearly said would happen?
Why does it hurt so deeply when those you love are the biggest hindrance to your walk?
Why does it absolutely leave you bloody on the ground to know that they are willing to not only attack you but to kill you to get what they want?
idk...
But it happens.
How should we respond? Even when we can see the attack coming, we could run, we could strike first, we could back down... how did Christ handle it?
46Once more he visited Cana in Galilee, where he had turned the water into wine. And there was a certain royal official whose son lay sick at Capernaum. 47When this man heard that Jesus had arrived in Galilee from Judea, he went to him and begged him to come and heal his son, who was close to death.
48"Unless you people see miraculous signs and wonders," Jesus told him, "you will never believe."
49The royal official said, "Sir, come down before my child dies."
50Jesus replied, "You may go. Your son will live."
The man took Jesus at his word and departed. 51While he was still on the way, his servants met him with the news that his boy was living. 52When he inquired as to the time when his son got better, they said to him, "The fever left him yesterday at the seventh hour."
53Then the father realized that this was the exact time at which Jesus had said to him, "Your son will live." So he and all his household believed.
54This was the second miraculous sign that Jesus performed, having come from Judea to Galilee.
Jesus spoke the truth, he was always straight-forward and honest. He didn't sugar-coat it and tell them how wonderful they were, he didn't drip honey from his mouth to convince them how holy and self-righteous and Christian he was, and he didn't put on a show to impress all the bystanders to see him rather than God.
Jesus had a way of letting people know that he could see how ill-intentioned they were (especially here in his hometown). He seldom went there because of their unbelief and dishonorable attitude, not in the sense that he was arrogant and wanted them to sing his praises. He wanted them to acknowledge and honor the will and love of God -- to have a right heart, rather than one of judgment and selfish gain.
This guy didn't see Jesus at all. He had heard about the possibility of a cure, so he was going thru the ritual just like Christ was some kind of doctor or medicine man. He didn't get that Jesus was God who had come to bring Life and Love and Freedom to an unworthy creation. Not at this point anyway.
But despite all of this, Christ gave. Christ did what was right no matter how wrongly they treated him. He ministered to the need and to what would bring God glory --not with false humility and a typical patronizing aire. He turned his focus to the will of God and did not let the will of man and the spirit of the world hinder the will of God from being accomplished. That is our example. Not the lame hypocritical model that we all too often see in Christian circles these days. He wasn't fake, he was brutally honest -- at the same time that he was merciful.
The official in this story believed after the miracle because it was just so... miraculously accomplished. Unlike anything he had seen.
I like to think that he also believed because somehow he was convicted of the dishonor he showed the One so worthy of honor. I think after the fact, he stood their shocked and walking back thru the whole incident in his thoughts. I think he was dumb-founded at how dumb he had been. I think he was kicking himself that he didn't show greater honor to Christ in that moment. Here was the one person that had the power to heal his son, and that cared enough despite his bad attitude and lack of reverence.
I think this man suddenly saw alot of things about Christ and about himself after the fact...
But I also think he somehow knew in that instant that he was forgiven. I think the brutal honesty and sincerity of Christ showed thru and this man recognized and understood the character and person of Christ for the first time. I think it caused a commitment that would never be shaken. Something so deeply understood that it affected his entire household.
That is how we should react in such instances. Like Christ did.
And some people will accept it, and some will reject everything we have to say and everything about us. But if we remain focused on performing the will of God above our own will, they reject not only us but the God who sent us. We should pray for them, and we should continue moving forward to seek out others that God has called us to encounter. Leaving no one behind, but being unafraid to shift our focus as God leads us along.
Do not judge them as they judge you... but at the same time keep in mind that pearls are of no value to swine.
1"Do not judge, or you too will be judged. 2For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.
3"Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? 4How can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? 5You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye.
6"Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs. If you do, they may trample them under their feet, and then turn and tear you to pieces. (Matt 7:1-7)
We must not judge, We must be about the Father's business always, We must keep the door open and the invitation to approach Christ extended...
But there are times when we must move on and leave people to make some decisions for themselves. Some people love their sin more than God, and that becomes a matter between the two of them. We testify, God convicts, but once they know Him, they have some decisions to make. Things that we are limited in helping with.
It's important to remember that our walk is about family,
but it's also a personal one.
_____________________________
|
|
|
|
|
RE: Thinking Out Loud about John - 1/28/2008 2:15:08 PM
|
|
|
selahgirl
Posts: 834
Joined: 5/20/2005
From: God is with you, never forget that <3
Status: offline
|
So much more than just healing...
(John 5:1-9)
1Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for a feast of the Jews.
Just to keep things in perspective. Jesus just left his hometown where there was alot of unbelief. And this was "some time" after. Makes me wonder what things were like during that "some time." I wonder if it was a time of prayer and heartache after the rejection from those he called his earthly family/neighbors. I wonder if the Lord was as hurt by such a thing as we seem to be. Rejection by family/hometown can be the deepest. Athough the details don't really matter I guess. I'm sure that it was not a pleasant thing for him... and perhaps, we can find some measure of comfort in that he understands our hurt when we feel similar rejection.
2Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. 3Here a great number of disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. 5One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. 6When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, "Do you want to get well?"
Some times we look at such a question and we think, well, of coarse he wants to be well. What is the point of even asking such a thing? But it was actually a very valid question. It was not really a question of whether the sickness made his life more difficult and that it caused him certain pain and discomfort in life. All sickness does that.
What Christ was getting at was, "Do you want change?"
That's the real question we face any time we pray for ourselves or for any one. Do you really want things to change in your life? no matter the cost? no matter what may be required of you? no matter that it will bring increase of good things to your life, and that to whom much is given, much is required? Are you ready to be able to do more, and are you willing to do it?
For some people the answer seems glaringly yes! The question almost becomes insulting or ridiculous. But for others, such a question causes them to hesitate and to reconsider some things and to see some things about themselves they had never realized before. Perhaps this man had grown accustomed to a way of life as a cripple during those 38 years, and Christ was discerning something deeper than the superficial, seemingly obvious answer to such a question.
Perhaps, he recognized that this man needed not just a change in his physical body, but a change in his goals and ambitions about his life. Perhaps Jesus wanted not just complete physical health for this man but mental and emotional health as well. Perhaps Christ was concerned about wholeness and not just healing. That the whole man would be well: body, mind and spirit -- perspective and drive to accomplish all of the hopes and dreams that he had given up on so long ago. Prolonged sickness is a weight and it can smother way more than just physical ability. When you are robbed of health for such a long time, it can actually rob you of your will to live an ABUNDANT life. It steals your Hope and your Joy.
It was almost as if that question was Christ touching the psyche of this man first, and then his physical body. The result... well lets see....
7"Sir," the invalid replied, "I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me."
The initial response is one based on the minds of men, on doubt, on what is seen, rather than what is believed in Christ. For 38 years this man had hoped and sought a cure, and for 38 years everything failed. He had given up. He saw himself as unable, friendless, and destined to remain in that condition.
8Then Jesus said to him, "Get up! Pick up your mat and walk." 9At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked.
The question was like an unexpected slap in the face. "Do you want to get well?" Such a FOOLISH question that it could have easily ignited offense. But instead it ignited a flame in the mind and heart of this man to actually think thru so much that he had come to accept. That is all that is required for change... to question what you believe.
That change can be for good or for evil. This man had believed that there was no hope, but Christ challenged that belief and asked him if he really wanted change, did he really want his hope restored, was he willing to try, was he willing to believe that it was possible. Rather than to accept that it was impossible. Every choice we face, brings change for good or for evil.
15 But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD."
(Joshua 24:15)
I think something blazed up in the heart of this man at hearing the WORDS of Christ. I think he made a decision to believe that there was hope and that things could change after such a long time. And I think that was the mustard seed that Christ was looking for. I think that's all that he needed to work with, to bring life, to pull that tiny seed from the spirit of this man into the physical and to bring a miraculous increase. Change. Healing. Complete Restoration and Wholeness. Body, Mind, and Spirit. That is the goal. Christ doesn't want us to live a little... he wants us to have it all, ALL the good things that he has planned for us so that we can live ABUNDANTLY.
Oh if we could just see into the spiritual when God begins to manifest things in the physical. There is such a connection. Such a pulling from one realm into the other. We act in obedience, often not understanding many things, and suddenly Faith ignites in our spirit and we are able to move mountains. Other times, we believe with the tiniest fraction of faith in Christ, and suddenly the very ground moves under our feet and God shifts the entire earth on our behalf.
EVERYTHING Jesus does matters. There is no word that is insignificant or trivial or wasted. Everything, the tiniest drop, that permeates from him is like nitro, bearing powerful and explosively good events in every realm -- in every life that touches the situation.
Change is nothing to God. It is effortless, It is the stirring and moving and parting of the sea as he breathes ever so gently. I think sometimes we forget just how powerful and miraculous he really is. We allow the world and the enemy and our pain and sin to make him seem so small. But rather than blasting us for it, he simply asks us questions in the most gentle and still small voice imaginable. So loving and so kind is the voice of our God, that we can sometimes forget that the universe bows at his will and evil flees at his gaze and all things beautiful pale in his presence. He is remarkable to behold. And yet, he favors us and whispers to us and loves us.
He wants so much more than just healing for us.
He wants us to be whole.
Do you want to get well?
Do you want change?
Answering that question, allowing the possibilities to even enter your head, the slightest glimmer of hope, of faith... that's all he needs to pull a miracle from the spiritual into the physical for you. Believe him, trust him, hope in him... and he will make the unthinkable a reality that you can see and touch right where you're at, right where you're standing, before you can even get the word's out of your mouth...
He can change it.
_____________________________
|
|
|
|
|
RE: Thinking Out Loud about John - 1/31/2008 3:36:59 PM
|
|
|
selahgirl
Posts: 834
Joined: 5/20/2005
From: God is with you, never forget that <3
Status: offline
|
In response to the sifting....
(John 5:10)
10and so the Jews said to the man who had been healed, "It is the Sabbath; the law forbids you to carry your mat."
The Pharisees were the church leaders. They were to uphold the law and commands that God had given to Israel. But they had gotten so caught up with the legistics of it all that they were overlooking the heart of the law: Love God, Love People.
At first glance, it would seem that they were just doing their job, just doing what God told them was the the right thing to do, exactly like they were instructed to do. But that's not what they were doing.
They had begun to worship the law, rather than the giver of that law. The law is only to be followed to the letter until the law-giver tells you what to do next to bring it to completion. It doesn't change the law in terms of un-doing what it proclaims, it just makes it clearer and better and complete. It fulfills it. And that's what the coming of Christ had done to the law. The plan of God was a gradual unveiling. It was based on relationship with God, not the instruments he chose to use to bring it to pass... not a man... not rituals... not religion. They are all just empty cartons and hammers and tools. What God is building and doing and orchestrating is what matters. Every step along the way, every dispensation, every era and generation is important and builds upon the next. So that all are important. But they all still remain parts of the whole, and cannot be singled out as the most important.
All were and are building blocks in the plan, but Christ Crucified is the fulfillment of it all.
The Pharisees, like many modern day churches/pastors/leaders had gradually slid into the mindset that they were God and the law was an extension of all that they commanded. They defended the law tooth and nail, because they had begun to see themselves as the voice/authority behind it. It was a twisting of truth then, and it remains a twisted truth today. In the desire of the common man to obey the Word of God, leaders often manipulate their role as being obeyed above the Scriptures. Suddenly their interpretation and authority supercedes personal relationship and the very Word of God that they begin to contradict.
And in their lack of diligence to guard their intimacy with God, the congregation goes along with it. They hand over their freedoms in Christ so that they can coast along and become the robots that God never intended them to be. They begin to worship such men as though they are God, which feeds the lie and empowers the evil behind it. The children of God, whom he loves, sell out to the devourer because it's easier and popular and accepted. Whatever the leadership says, even when it is in blatant contradiction to the Word of God, must be obeyed or else it is sin.
For example:
Suddenly if a pastor doesn't think it's necessary to have a meeting and let all parties involved in the conflict share their concerns, Matthew 18 doesn't matter. The pastors word/decision becomes above the law. And anyone that questions that point is in sin and rebellion because they are going against God's authority. The will of a man becomes the ultimate authority, and the word of God becomes optional, and of much less importance than the words of the leadership.
hmmm.....
I've seen this play out time and time again. Instead of the pastor standing beside the Word to help interpret and guide and mediate among the congregation. the common people, he moves himself behind the Word as though he is the speaker/author of it... as though he should be obeyed as though he is God rather than being obeyed as a mediator.
but he is not God.
That was the error of the Pharisees. They had set themselves up as gods. They were ignoring the prophecies that one day God would come to us. That one day he would become one of us and free us from the bondage of sin. Oh. they referred to a holy Prophet and a Messiah... but they decided to write into doctrine what God would look like and how he was allowed to perform the Promise. They had stepped behind the Word and began speaking/leading as though they were God. But they were not God either.
They should have remained beside the word, as mediator and guide and servant. They should have been listening to what God was speaking. They should have not limited God or been so arrogant as to tell him how he would perform the Promise. It's God's Word. He stands by all that he has said. Not one dot of an "i" or the crossing of a "t" that he has stated will be changed. He guards everything he has said, because he is not a man that he would lie or break a promise.
But as he begins to finish his statement, to tell the rest of the story, to explain and fulfill all that he has said -- I pity the fool that dares to contradict him or to hinder people from hearing him tell it. ( I say that with all the bling and Mr's T attitude I can muster).
There is an epidemic in the church, yet there is a cleansing occurring at the same time. There is a great falling away and a great revival that is stirring. There is an aroma of arrogance permeating from the goats, and a sweet smell of brokenness rising from sheep slain on the altar of God.
Something has definitely gotta give.
The church is being sifted.
You and I are being sifted.
24Now an eager contention arose among them [as to] which of them was considered and reputed to be the greatest.
25But Jesus said to them, The kings of the Gentiles are deified by them and exercise lordship [ruling as emperor-gods] over them; and those in authority over them are called benefactors and well-doers.
26But this is not to be so with you; on the contrary, let him who is the greatest among you become like the youngest, and him who is the chief and leader like one who serves.
27For who is the greater, the one who reclines at table (the master), or the one who serves? Is it not the one who reclines at table? But I am in your midst as One Who serves.
28And you are those who have remained [throughout] and persevered with Me in My trials;
29And as My Father has appointed a kingdom and conferred it on Me, so do I confer on you [the privilege and decree],
30That you may eat and drink at My table in My kingdom and sit on thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.
31Simon, Simon (Peter), listen! Satan has asked excessively that [all of] you be given up to him [out of the power and keeping of God], that he might sift [all of] you like grain,
32But I have prayed especially for you [Peter], that your [own] faith may not fail; and when you yourself have turned again, strengthen and establish your brethren.(Luke 22)
It's time to pray.
It's time to make up our minds that our own faith will not fail, to be diligent in our faith.
It's time that we turn again to our first love and away from self.
It's time to strengthen one another, to challenge one another to take a STAND, to seek God's Truth.
It's time to establish one another, to build up those around us and to be built up by them.
Do we want revival?
Do we want change?
Do we want to please God?
Do we want God's will to be done on earth as it is in heaven?
Today?
In this generation?
It starts with prayer...
REAL, heart-felt, snot-slinging, gut-wrenchingly honest dialog with God.
_____________________________
|
|
|
|
|
RE: Thinking Out Loud about John - 2/4/2008 11:23:26 AM
|
|
|
selahgirl
Posts: 834
Joined: 5/20/2005
From: God is with you, never forget that <3
Status: offline
|
Buying Some Time
(John 5:11-12)
10and so the Jews said to the man who had been healed, "It is the Sabbath; the law forbids you to carry your mat."
11But he replied, "The man who made me well said to me, 'Pick up your mat and walk.' "
I love the clear contrast here. The law felt no compassion for this man in verse 10. But the GOD/MAN did in verse 11. The Pharisees did not feel the compassion of a Savior, they were too caught up in enforcing the cold legalism of the law. But Christ had come to perfect the law and to personalize it. He was the author of the law, and by being God with us, he is able to communicate it to us in ways that allow us to understand. He waves his mercy as Savior because it is more important to him that we understand what is being required of us, than to slam us under cold stone.
Oh he will judge sin and all that brings harm to his children, make no mistake, he has to.
But he is so patient and slow to anger. He gives every soul every possible chance to embrace Love rather than inflicting hurt on themselves and everyone around them.
There was a time when we answered to the law, but God became man so we could answer to the giver of that law, so we could understand the heart of it, the necessity, the beauty. He wanted us set free from being ruled by a list of laws. He wanted our hearts to taste and see the goodness of the law-giver, so we would be free to obey his laws rather than forced to. Choosing/wanting to do something makes us free. We would never understand the beauty of obeying him had we not first understood what it was to live without him, to be separated from him, to know him from a distance.
You cannot truly appreciate something or to walk in humbleness of heart until you see and understand what life is like without it. In the Old Testament, the world lived without Christ, without a Savior, without the fulfillment/explanation of the law. But then, Christ came. And the beauty of the law was revealed because the law-giver had come to explain all things. To make all that is good real and understandable and do-able. He changed us, and he extended mercy to us. He is the only one that could.
He made a safe place for us in his presence where there is mercy and mediation.
He withheld judgment of sin, until we had the chance to be free from it. He made a way to freedom and gave us the power to choose it. After making that choice, judgment must come, and all sin must be removed.
Refusing that freedom in Christ, Holding on to sin... we sentence ourselves to death.
Christ came to set us free. He suffered and died to do it. That pretty much explains the extent of his love for us. He was so far above us, yet he lowered himself willingly and passionately. He knew it was the only way to save our lives, so there was no question in his mind. What more can he do to prove himself? What more will it take to convince people that God loves them? God becoming one of us and dying on a cross in our place is already beyond anything reasonable... such a demonstration of love is lavish and waaaaay over-the-top.
The law says that all that is selfish and arrogant so that it doesn't refrain from hurting people (because causing harm to people goes against the heart of God)... must die.
Christ came to set us free from the law, by buying us some time, by buying us GRACE.
This life is that time of Grace, a time to choose a new life, a new destiny, a second chance.
He saved you and me from a life that leads to death,
And he offers us a new life...
a life with a totally new and clean start...
the best of LIFE that will literally last forever...
2because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. 3For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man, 4in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit. (Romans 8)
12So they asked him, "Who is this fellow who told you to pick it up and walk?"
yeah, that's my question...
who is this fellow, this Man, this God,
this Jesus?
I know who he is to me.
but who is he to you?...
_____________________________
|
|
|
|
|
RE: Thinking Out Loud about John - 2/13/2008 3:00:42 PM
|
|
|
selahgirl
Posts: 834
Joined: 5/20/2005
From: God is with you, never forget that <3
Status: offline
|
There is healing in the camp!
(John 5:13-18)
13The man who was healed had no idea who it was, for Jesus had slipped away into the crowd that was there.
I love this about Jesus, he was always so brilliant in understanding how people would react. If he had allowed the guy to unmistakably know who he was up front, it would have hindered Christ from being able to do what he was really wanting and needing to do -- to be about the Father's business of teaching and preaching.
Jesus knew that as soon as people realized that he was the one who had performed the miracle, the church leaders and curious onlookers would bog him down forever with jealous disputes and debates trying to disprove what had happened. He didn't have time for that at that particular moment. Scripture doesn't tell us exactly why. But there were probably divine encounters (that are not recorded btw) that he was to fulfill before the silliness of men's hearts attempted to hinder all that was really important.
Rather than walking away from this man, whose pain had truly moved Christ with compassion, he -- BAM -- healed him, and then disappeared into the crowded downtown to help some other people before attention-grabbers and gossip-mongers got in the way of him ministering to anyone else that morning/afternoon.
14Later Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, "See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you." 15The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well.
I think that after Jesus made sure that every divine encounter had happened that was possible, and all the others that were in his heart were taken care of and helped or discipled... he found the guy and finished ministering to him. Jesus wasn't just about the physical needs, he was so much more about the spiritual needs of people. This second encounter with this man, was far more important that the first. The first brought relief to his body so he could live this brief vapor with a little more joy. But it was the second encounter that would ensure eternal health and joy for this man.
I don't know why this guy went straight to the church leaders. Perhaps, he just didn't get it, or perhaps Christ never impressed him not to. It could have been that the guy feared the church leaders and was threatened with being put out of the synagogue if he didn't provide the whole of the story as soon as he figured it out. Maybe Jesus heard thru the grapevine that this guy had been threatened and the poor man was searching for him in distress. Perhaps that is why Christ came to him to reveal his identity and to remind him to refrain from sin. idk. Either way, Jesus knew that revealing himself to this guy would draw the fire of the the church leaders. But Christ was not afraid/hindered/intimidated from doing what he deemed was right and necessary.
16So, because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath, the Jews persecuted him. 17Jesus said to them, "My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I, too, am working." 18For this reason the Jews tried all the harder to kill him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.
The Jews had swallowed a camel and were swatting at gnats as Jesus states at one point. They were gobbling up huge things that were way more than necessary as spiritual nourishment, creating laws that were burdens to people rather than encouragement and direction in their relationship with God. They were concerned more with forcing people to blindly obey doctrines and the teachers of the doctrines, rather than teaching and encouraging them to obey a God who loves them, who cares for their physical and spiritual well being.
They swatted at gnats, disregarded any portion or item of the law that they in their arrogance deemed small and unimportant. They ignored the prompting of the Spirit and commands of God regarding things that convicted them of their own sin or that lessoned their influence and power of intimidation over the people. They twisted and manipulated the commands of God so that they could stand in positions as though they were God, as though they were to be obeyed/feared as God. It was a tyranny, it was not of God, it was arrogance and sin. It was the spirit of rebellion spawned by Satan from the beginning when he tried to exalt himself above God. What idiots we can become, what blind guides, when we walk in pride and arrogance. We will fall like lightening from the heavens just as Satan did no matter how adamantly we profess to be working for the Kingdom of God. Make no mistake about that.
Jesus said that his Father was always at his work, even to that specific day which was the Sabbath. That means that even God works in some sense on the Sabbath. Later Jesus explains further that the Sabbath was created to serve man, not the other way around. The Day of Rest is not to hinder or restrict men from doing good or obeying God thru service and compassion. It is something to be honored, a blessing to enjoy, to maintain health, but it is not a bondage meant to hinder us from performing the will of God.
Jesus states that he follows the Father's example, and that is why he also worked on the Sabbath by serving and helping this man. The need fell on a Sabbath. A need whose resolution was dependent upon that particular afternoon/moment... Christ could not walk away from helping this man just because his moment of need came on a Saturday afternoon. Jesus remembered the Sabbath, and he kept it Holy by performing the will of God without compromising his own health or the health of anyone else.
How ironic that the congregation tried to kill Jesus for making himself equal to God and calling God his Father. When this is exactly what the church leaders were doing. They were making themselves equal to God. So much so that the loyalties of the people and their congregation was willing to protect their church leaders and to take up offense at anyone that challenged their authority or their commands. They accused Jesus not based on the Scriptures, but based on the teachings of their church leaders. Otherwise they would have heard what Christ was saying and discerned in their spirits that Christ was Truth and that (unlike the church leaders) Jesus was in fact God.
But they were infected with the same blindness that seems to be attacking the church today. They could only see the vision and teachings of men. Scripture paled in the presence of the leaders that they worshiped as their gods. That's why the guilt is not just upon the church leaders in such situations. It remains the sin of the people/congregation just as much.
Their worship of leaders, is worship of other gods.
Their worship of leaders, empowers men to think more highly of themselves than they should (which opens the door for them to abuse the people that are beneath them).
Their worship of leaders, empowers Satan to use them all to wound and scatter the flock, to steal and to kill all who have believed/trusted in the safety of the fold.
Wolves in our midst... this is a picture of what it looks like.
But there is a good shepherd that watches over his sheep, and such wolves will pay a hefty price.
And there are servant shepherds that have heard the voice of the good shepherd. Such faithful shepherds are not only called to expose the wolves, but they are the ones who will rescue the sheep from the very mouths of those wolves. They are the beautiful ones who will minister to the sheep that are left bloody and wounded. They are the ones that the favor/anointing of God rests upon, and whose strength will not fail in the hour of need.
There is an army of such shepherds that God has prepared and he is calling them to rise up.
They are equipped and called to minister specifically in this hour of the church. They are empowered to apply healing balm in the name of Jesus, they are empowered to restore life and strength to those that have suffered attack -- been left for dead. Just as all seemed hopeless in Elijah's day as he lay under that Juniper tree... God has prepared servants/prophets/shepherds for this hour that no one was even aware of. God was not taken by surprise. He has heard our cry and he will not turn away from us. He will restore and has restored his people, his bride. The church will rise up whole and well -- and with great power and beauty.
The Good Shepherd wields his staff with great skill, and no enemy will stand in his presence.
There is healing in the camp.
In the name of Jesus.
Amen.
_____________________________
|
|
|
|
|
RE: Thinking Out Loud about John - 2/21/2008 3:59:46 PM
|
|
|
selahgirl
Posts: 834
Joined: 5/20/2005
From: God is with you, never forget that <3
Status: offline
|
He called us beautiful..
(John 5:19-23)
19Jesus gave them this answer: "I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does. 20For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does. Yes, to your amazement he (the Father) will show him (the Son) even greater things than these. 21For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son gives life to whom he is pleased to give it. 22Moreover, the Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son, 23that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father, who sent him.
The incarnation is an amazing thing, so far beyond our understanding. To be fully God yet fully man... who can understand such a thing with the limited finite mind that is our nature. But God can bring understanding, glimpses of truth, wisdom and knowledge thru the leading of his Spirit as we seek to know him more and more.
A body was prepared for Jesus (as mentioned in my thread DID I JUST THINK THAT OUT LOUD?). Jesus had always existed with the Father, the Trinity has always been and will always be, imo. They co-existed (what's the triple word for that anyway?) -- Father, Son and Spirit. Like an egg with shell and white and yolk. Like the shamrock with three leaves joined in one stem. Just as the Holy Spirit was sent after the resurrection to perform a specific role as comforter (one who walks beside us to help), Jesus came to earth as a man to perform a specific role to fulfill the will of God (even tho it cost him much).
When Jesus was on the earth he spoke of the Spirit of God being WITH MAN, but that he would soon be IN HIM (as happened at Pentecost in Acts). And then he says in another place that the Spirit of God will not always strive with man (in his sinful state). I believe that there is a distinct and definite timeline of grace, a door that will close, an offer for a second chance at life that will end, and the role of the Spirit of Comforter will perhaps change after all is fulfilled and restored. idk.
I also believe that just as the Spirit performs different roles at different times, so Jesus performs different roles, and the Father as well. It is not such a foreign concept in my mind. We often talk of wearing different hats in our own lives. With all that God performs, he must don a million or more new hats a day. Just consider his many names. He performs the role of healer and provider and savior and the list is endless.
I believe that Jesus came to earth as Christ laying aside much of his power and might as God. I believe he walked this earth as a man like the rest of us (but without sin). He did not sin willfully in anyway and he did not sin unknowingly in any way, and he did not sin by omission of any detail concerning the perfect will of God. He was sinless.
I believe his Spirit, his being, his soul, his spirit man... was God and unchanged. But I think he received the wisdom and insight of God only as much as he sought it as a man. I think the plan of God was revealed to him as he entered into times of prayer and study of the Scriptures. I think he showed himself approved by God, pleasing him in every way, because in his Spirit he sought hard after the will of the Father. I think as he pressed himself to enter into consistent communion and intimacy with the Father God, more and more wisdom and insight was imparted to him (see the underlined portion of the verse above). And I think we are granted the same right to approach the throne of God and receive the same measure of insight to perform the will of God right where we are today.
Before the cross, we did not have that right. But after the cross, by way of the bridge that Christ provided for us to get back to the throne of God... I believe we can approach the Father and he will give to us all that we ask. I believe that because I know that Christ is seated beside him and intercedes for us just like a lawyer on our behalf. And thru our requests and their discussion (Father Son and Spirit) of our right and authority purchased by Christ... we can have all that Jesus had when he walked on this earth.
We can do anything and more that Jesus did when he was a man with limited understanding (again, see the underlined portion above). I think just as he pressed in closer to the Father and was given the master plan, that we can press in and God will reveal much to us... always in the right timing. Even Christ does not know the hour or the day that he will go to claim his bride from the earth. Only the Father has that information according to Scripture. There are roles and purposes that are so far beyond our understanding, even among the God-head.
Jesus as a man understood the character of God thru prayer, studying and meditating on the Scriptures (Torah), and thru the leading of the Holy Spirit. That is how he saw what the Father was doing as he states above, that is how he knew how he was to walk thru this life, that is how he understood the calling and commission that he had been sent to perform. And that is the example that we must follow in order to understand what God is calling us to perform in the earth.
By following Christs example of communing with the Father, we can press in and receive all things from the Father in the name of Jesus. We are not divinity, but we are given the authority of divinity by Christ. Just as a bride, a queen, can command under the authority of her husband, the king -- we as the bride of Christ, can command under his authority according to his character as his representative, as a part of who he is.
Imagine that! It ties my brain in knots every time I get a glimpse of it.
Christ lowered himself to join himself to us. Not just for some random temporary act of kindness, but he entered into a marriage, a binding contract, an eternal bond with us... whores and murderers and liars and thieves and brats and selfish betrayers, arrogant and rebellious and ugly.
He lifted us up and called us beautiful.
He spoke our beauty into existence, and suddenly we began to change. Just as the fall in the garden sent an eerie creaking and groaning thru out the earth and death and decay immediately arrived in the chill of a strange gray wind... all was reversed. Jesus spoke our beauty forth as GOD forgave the sin of mankind on that cross and immediately something changed... we changed... a clean and refreshing wind began to blow... and restoration began to manifest and the Light of the presence of God upon the earth walking with man chased away the gray chill that had settled so thick upon us.
He declared that we are beautiful.. and everything changed.
That is the power of our God. He speaks and life springs forth from what was dead a moment ago, What was unseen because it did not exist, is suddenly seen and real and present. He looks at us and sees the good things he has planned for us and he declares that that is who we are. And the darkness releases us and flees from us. And we are changed. We live. Not because of our own righteousness, but because he has come to clothe us in his righteousness. He has put the ring on our finger and the robe upon our shoulders. He has sought us out, rescued us from all evil and from ourselves, and he has led us to this place that is so far above the low place where we had fallen.
Married to Christ.
Stop and think about that.
It can be mumbled in our busyness or theorized in our ignorance or said a million times out loud.
But when we truly stop and remain still before him...
as the words resonate from our thoughts
and begin to permeate thru the core of our very being
soaking deep into those intimate places of our heart...
our strength begins to leave us
our breathing becomes so still and
so completely dependent upon his voice.
we listen intently and yet
we hear almost unconciously
as he speaks to us
and guides our very breath.
breathe (he whispers)
and our thoughts race
as we are humbled
as we weep for joy
as we feel as though our heart will burst within us
as we laugh and dance
as we look deeply into his face and
we blush.
_____________________________
|
|
|
|
|
RE: Thinking Out Loud about John - 2/26/2008 2:05:59 PM
|
|
|
selahgirl
Posts: 834
Joined: 5/20/2005
From: God is with you, never forget that <3
Status: offline
|
Don't shoot/worship the messenger
(John 5:24-47)
24"I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life. 25I tell you the truth, a time is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live. 26For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son to have life in himself. 27And he has given him authority to judge because he is the Son of Man.
As I read this this morning, it brought to mind a picture of egg and sperm. The egg seems so complete, but it is the sperm that brings life to it. Without having that tiny living swimming energy, that life-giving element... the egg remains dead and still and lifeless. It is the spark, the catalyst, the key to being pregnant with all promise and potential and God-ordained power. The Father had that life-giving power, the Son received it as well, and we as man-kind (the children of God) have inherited it.
Perhaps that is the key to that word... mankind.... perhaps it means sperm-kind... life-giving-kind.
How cool it that for a thought?
^_^
The thought goes on to the make-up of the egg. It must receive that sperm. If the egg is defective or refuses the sperm, there is no pregnancy, there is no new life formed. What is life-less must receive that which brings life. For egg and sperm is a process of science overseen by God, but for the Gospel and the heart of a man, it is a matter of choice. The question that Christ asked of Nicodemus rings loudly...
"Will you be born again?"
Do you want to live?
Do you want to become pregnant?
Do you want to join in union and covenant and to bring forth life?
Do you want to return to the image of God?
Do you want to be his child and to be like him?
Do you?
28"Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice 29and come out—those who have done good will rise to live, and those who have done evil will rise to be condemned. 30By myself I can do nothing; I judge only as I hear, and my judgment is just, for I seek not to please myself but him who sent me.
31"If I testify about myself, my testimony is not valid. 32There is another who testifies in my favor, and I know that his testimony about me is valid.
The Spirit of God, the Spirit of Truth, testifies and declares who Christ is before the throne of God, now that Calvary is fulfilled.
33"You have sent to John and he has testified to the truth. 34Not that I accept human testimony; but I mention it that you may be saved. 35John was a lamp that burned and gave light, and you chose for a time to enjoy his light.
Our testimony of who Christ is is the testimony that the lost will hear in the earth, and the Holy Spirit confirms our testimony as he draws the heart of individuals to Christ.
36"I have testimony weightier than that of John. For the very work that the Father has given me to finish, and which I am doing, testifies that the Father has sent me. 37And the Father who sent me has himself testified concerning me. You have never heard his voice nor seen his form, 38nor does his word dwell in you, for you do not believe the one he sent. 39You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me, 40yet you refuse to come to me to have life.
We are told consistently and emphatically to study the Scriptures. This passage is not saying in any way that we should disregard the Word of God or to diminish our diligence in studying it. It is simply emphasizing to not lose sight that the speaker of that Word is the heart of our testimony and not the law (which was the womb that birthed our testimony into this physical world) nor the speakers of that testimony. Christ is the Word. Christ is our testimony, the One we testify about. The written word is only temporary until we are with the actual physical Word. It is like a photograph that is necessary so that we have a standard to keep us from forgetting what the likeness of his image looks like. We worship the One who spoke that physical word into existence, the One who became the Word made flesh. Recall John 1:1-14
1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2He was with God in the beginning.
3Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4In him was life, and that life was the light of men. 5The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.
6There came a man who was sent from God; his name was John. 7He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all men might believe. 8He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light. 9The true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world.
10He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. 11He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. 12Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— 13children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God.
14The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
41"I do not accept praise from men, 42but I know you. I know that you do not have the love of God in your hearts. 43I have come in my Father's name, and you do not accept me; but if someone else comes in his own name, you will accept him. 44How can you believe if you accept praise from one another, yet make no effort to obtain the praise that comes from the only God?
45"But do not think I will accuse you before the Father. Your accuser is Moses, on whom your hopes are set. 46If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me. 47But since you do not believe what he wrote, how are you going to believe what I say?"
For some reason, everything I read today in Scripture seems to carry such clarity. Christ is saying that many that heard him in that day were more willing to believe the speaker of the testimony rather than the fulfillment of the testimony (the Good News, Christ himself). They were willing to believe that John the Baptist was on divine commission and that Moses was as well... but they refused to believe that the very one who sent both Moses and John (and the Prophets) to testify of himself -- was in fact God.
He goes on to say that Moses, the one that they put their faith in, would actually be the one that would point out their error. John the Baptist, who walked among them, already emphasized that he was not the One, but was merely sent to testify of Him.
It has been a common and consistent method of the enemy to cause people to worship the messenger rather than the One that is actually the fulfillment of that Message. So often we hear how people shoot the messenger when he delivers bad news. But here we see the opposite manifested as the messenger becomes the object that is worshipped... but both are just as deadly.
It makes me remember the stern command of the Father at the Transfiguration in Matt 17, when the disciples were trying to put Christ on the same level as Moses and Elijah...
1After six days Jesus took with him Peter, James and John the brother of James, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. 2There he was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light. 3Just then there appeared before them Moses and Elijah, talking with Jesus.
4Peter said to Jesus, "Lord, it is good for us to be here. If you wish, I will put up three shelters—one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah."
5While he was still speaking, a bright cloud enveloped them, and a voice from the cloud said, "This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!"
6When the disciples heard this, they fell facedown to the ground, terrified. 7But Jesus came and touched them. "Get up," he said. "Don't be afraid." 8When they looked up, they saw no one except Jesus.
I like the way the NKJV says verse 5...
5 While he was still speaking, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them; and suddenly a voice came out of the cloud, saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear Him!”
I suggest we do exactly that... HEAR HIM.
Hear Jesus Christ, the Word of God, the Word made flesh, the Word in a physical form, but the Word alive and in us as well. We are physical and we are spiritual. God created us as such and came to us as such. And he has given himself to us in such a way that we can HEAR HIM physically and spiritually thru what he has spoken in the Scriptures and thru all that he speaks thru the presence of his Holy Spirit.
Don't shoot the messenger.
But don't worship him either.
Jesus only is the Word,
and we must hear him above all else.
_____________________________
|
|
|
|
 New Messages |
 No New Messages |
 Hot Topic w/ New Messages |
 Hot Topic w/o New Messages |
 Locked w/ New Messages |
 Locked w/o New Messages |
|
 Post New Thread
Reply to Message
Post New Poll
Submit Vote
Delete My Own Post
Delete My Own Thread
Rate Posts |
|
|
Forum Tools
Printable Version
