John 4:1-42

N John4:1-42,Jesus talks w a Samaritan woman.She is surprised that Jesus,a Jew,would talk w her.Because of their differences,Jews usually would not talk w Samaritans bcuz of their differences.Yet,Jesus not only starts a conversation w this lady,Jesus looks beyond “WHAT” this lady is & where she is from...,and sees n2 WHO she is and what her deeper needs are.Their discussion begins about temporal things(“Will you give me a drink of water?”,John4;7),& segues into much more!Jesus desires to look past the temporal in our lives,and to the more significant issues of life!He is totally capable&willing to linger n temporal conversations as He probably did when he ate w a bunch of tax collectors at Matthew’s house,but He is also tuning Himself n2 deeper heart issues as He spends time w people.With this woman at the well,Jesus had obviously done just that(tuned n2 deeper issues of her life/concerns/hurts,etc.).And He ends up having a conversation w her that “introduces” her to The Savior Jesus Christ!N our lives we are constantly coming n2 contact w people,& 4 one reason or another we do not consider the possibility that our “passing by” w them may have a more significant purpose than just passing by,or talking about temporal things w/out wondering if there might b “more” to our chance “passing by” or “moment of engagement”.Jesus always has the heart of every person on His Heart&Thoughts” when He “passes by”...ALWAYS!Most of the times this will lead to “having a heart” for those we “pass by”!But sometimes it will also lead to our personal “conversations at the well” with people!Just as Jesus’ “conversation at the well” with this woman led to this lady,AND a bunch of people that this lady knew coming to know Christ as Savior,so may our “chance encounters” become opportunities for our lives to reflect and tell of GOD’s great Mercy&Grace through Christ...what Jesus has done n our lives!Only if we are constantly looking to see past the temporal...and n2 the heart of those we “pass by”.Dear Lord,I fail so many times to even wonder if a “chance encounter”,or a “conversation at the well” may b more than just that!Help me to b prayerfully wondering about this...always!And may I,with Your help,not miss any more “conversions at the well”,bcuz of my never looking past the “conversations at the well”,for deeper things.

John 3

N chapter 3 of John, an intelligent and influential member of the community comes to Jesus under the cover of dark.Nicodemus has seen the miracles that Jesus performed,& what he witnessed has convinced him that Jesus is from God(John3:2).Nicodemus has become a “believer” that Jesus is from God,but he hasn’t settled what this should mean for his life!Jesus knows the question(s) that have compelled Nicodemus to seek Him out this night,so Jesus goes right to the heart of why Nicodemus has come!N verse 3 Jesus “declared,’I tell you the truth,no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again’.”Nicodemus doesn’t understand what Jesus is talking about,with the “born again” statement! This is the intersection of faith that Satan creates traffic snares and misdirections that take us away from the realities of our being body AND spirit,and the realities of our being created to be ETERNAL!In Jesus declaration,He is reminding Nicodemus of what he should be aware of since he is a leader in the Jewish/religious community!As a Jewish Leader, Nicodemus knew what had been written by Moses,David,& the Old Testament Prophets!And he knew the evidences of our being body AND spirit spoken of/witnessed to throughout the Scriptures!Nicodemus knew Proverbs21:16 that says,”A man that strays from the path of understanding comes to rest in the company of the dead.”And he knew Proverbs2:1-5that says,”If you accept my words(God’s Word revealed through The Bible&through the Birth/Life/Ministry/Suffering/Death/Resurrection/Ascension of Christ),& store up my commands w/in you,turning your ear to wisdom & applying your heart to understanding...,then u will understand the fear of(reverence)of the Lord & find knowledge of God(God’s Grace&Mercy).He would also have known the ending verses of this Proverb that have God telling of the contrasting lives between those that do not “turn their ear to wisdom”, nor “apply their hearts to understanding”...& those that do!Verse 18 says that those who do not “turn & apply” will follow a life path that leads to spiritual death!Whereas verse 20-21 says that those that “walk n the ways of good men(the faithful examples n the Bible)& keep to the paths of the righteous(made righteous by their FAITHFULNESS n The Lord)...these will “live in the land...&remain in it”(Spiritually Alive forever!).Nicodemus should also have known what The Old Testament says about resurrection of our bodies to be united with our spirit(Isaiah26:19 “But your dead will live;their bodies will rise.You who dwell in the dust,wake up and shout for joy.Your dew is like the dew of the morning;the earth will give birth to her dead.”)The fact is that Nicodemus should have known what Jesus was taking about,if he had sought to know true history,& God’s Word revealed through the lives of the faithful that had lived before him!He would’ve known that we are made spiritually dead by sin,and the only way to spiritual life is through our trust n God’s revealed Mercy&Grace...prophesied through the Scriptures & fulfilled/revealed through Christ!When Jesus says,”unless he is born of the water & the Spirit”,Jesus is saying that all who are born(birth mother’s water breaks as we are born),must turn to Christ with their hearts/minds/lives n order to be counted as those who r Spiritually Alive...ultimate being reunited as Body&Spirit when Jesus  returns to set up The Kingdom of Heaven on the New Earth!Dear Lord,as n the life of Nicodemus,these TRUTHS do not effect/impact my heart/mind/life as they should! May Your Word & Spirit b “made alive” n my life...so I will have the Peace&Joy throughout all of life’s ups & downs...& remain one of “The Faithful”!

John 2:23-25

John says something about Jesus n chapter2:23-25 that is GINORMOUS! And,it conveys things that we gotta take to heart/to LIFE!John says,”Now when he(Jesus)was n Jerusalem at the Passover Feast,many people saw the miraculous signs he was doing & many believed n his name.But Jesus would not entrust Himself to them,For he knew all men.He did not need man’s testimony about man,For he knew what was n a man.”John is telling us that when we have truly/sincerely received God’s Mercy/Grace through our trusting Christ’s “finishing” work on The Cross,and Christ lives n our hearts/lives through His Holy Spirit...that Jesus has ENTRUSTED us with HIMSELF...HIS HOLY SPIRIT! God doesn’t need to trust anyone with or for anything! BUT,God being The Father that HE IS,n HIS awesome Mercy/Grace/Love for us...HE has decided those that become HIS children through Christ will b ENTRUSTED with HIS Spirit as revealed through Christ&through HIS Word!In my life,when I consider this,I do not see myself as trustworthy ENOUGH,nor having demonstrated this trustworthiness n my life since trusting n Christ when I was 7!I am sure that the apostle Peter would’ve said the same thing!After all,he went on from this point to deny even knowing Jesus 3 times! But Jesus sees deep into our hearts,as He saw into Peters’s heart.Jesus sees us not for “who&what” we r,but for “who&what” we will become as we walk with Jesus through the ups&downs of life...through all life experiences that will lead us to trusting HIM more&more,&grow us to become what HE sees us becoming...as we trust Him more&more->what we were created to become,as God knit us n the womb to become!(Psalm139:13-16,”For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.).We who have trusted n our hearts that Christ has saved us from sin & from what IT DESERVES,need to “marinate on/think on/meditate on/pray about/seek out...the significance n my life of Christ ENTRUSTING me with HIS SPIRIT!This has endless meaning for me!And it “devastatingly humbles” me as it did Peter after he denied Christ 3 times!But,as n Peter’s life the humbling led to not only deeper intimacy w Christ,it also led to Peter becoming more&more of what Jesus saw n Peter years before when Peter first decided to follow Christ!Dear Lord Jesus! This breaks my heart to look into my life and see the UNtrustworthiness n my heart/mind/life!Lord,let this not discourage me!Let it ENCOURAGE me that YOU see what I “can become”,& not what I am!LORD,turn my eyes/heart/life onto YOU more&more,so I can become more&more like what YOU see n me/what YOU knit me to become!

John 1:1-2

To believe that Jesus is The One that came to save us from the penalty of sin,& provide The Way for us to have a Right Relationship w God is admitting to what Satan himself is sorta ok w us admitting to!When the Apostle John wrote his Gospel,he knew this!Therefore,John begins his gospel with stating in no uncertain terms that Jesus is God!That Jesus was “in the beginning”,& that he “was with God”,&that he “was God”!(John1:1-2,”In the beginning was the Word,& the Word was w God,& the Word was God.He was w God n the beginning.”).John goes even further n the next verse when he says that “Through him all things were made;w/out him nothing was made.In him was life,& that life was the light of the men.”N verse 14 John leaves no doubt that Jesus IS THE WORD!SO-Jesus is infinitely MORE than our Savior!He is GOD,& that GOD HIMSELF came to our rescue!God did not send His most powerful angel to rescue us;He did not send the most wise&special prophet of all times to rescue us;He did not send a subordinate of any kind to rescue us!HE CAME HIMSELF!!!!!The powers of sin r so great,& the penalties of sin so overwhelming,that it took THE POWER OF CREATION to rescue us!Nothing else/No one else has what it takes to rescue us forever!And nothing else/no one else has what it takes to give us The Life that has Eternal meaning/purpose/joy/peace,etc.,the Life that we were created to have!Life w/out Eternal meaning/purpose/joy/peace,etc.,is the “darkness” that John mentions n vs4,”In him(Jesus)was life,& that life was the light of men.The light shines n the darkness,but the darkness has not understood it.”Without the Power of Creation being where we make the bedrock of our life,we will have lives similar to what Jesus describes n Matthew7:26-28(“And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand.And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall(darkness) of it”).BUT when we do build/trust our lives on the bedrock on the Power of Creation,our lives will be like what Jesus describes n Matthew7:24-25(“Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock.And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock”).Unless we acknowledge that Jesus is God,we will not give Jesus the REVERENCE/RESPECT that he should have n our life!Only when we reckon w The Truth about WHO Jesus is,will our lives begin to b “built on the bedROCK”,& not “the sand”.Only then will we open the door of our heart to let The Power of Creation come in & make a difference n our lives...only then do we allow “the true light give light/life” to us personally(John1:9,”The true light that gives light to every man...”)Dearest Jesus! May my life revere You as God,&may I always b n Awe of WHO You are,&what only You can do for me that will forever make me a child of God,as John states n chapter1:12(Yet to all who received him(Jesus),to those who believed in his name(GOD),he gave the right to become children of God.”).May I always praise You for WHO You are,& for what You have done for me!And for Your eternal  Mercy&Grace!May my heart/mind/life be shaped by Your Truths,& sustained by Your Mercy&Grace.

Luke 24:36

Jesus came to the world to confirm everything the Old Testament promises and describes and teaches about life;challenges;redemption;restoration;character;Righteousness;Glory;Mercy&Grace!AND to literally show us glimpses of Heaven!Jesus came;lived;suffered;died,& was raised from the dead to teach&show us TRUTHS that should give us a perspective on life that should not only give us never ending hope,but an Eternal Perspective of life that we r not “in the dark” about.And,so we will not have the despairing perspective of “is this all there is”!Additionally,whether we reckon with it or not,our PURPOSE in life is shaped by our PERSPECTIVE on life!AND, our HOPE&JOY&PEACE n this life r determined by our PERSPECTIVE on life!What kind of perspective do I have? Is it a “this is all there is PERSPECTIVE”?Or,do I have an “ETERNAL PERSPECTIVE” that is based on TRUTHS conveyed and confirmed through the life of Christ?One of the greatest challenges to an ETERNAL PERSPECTIVE,is “what will I be like in Heaven;what will my body be like in Heaven;will I eat;will I recognize those I love that are also n Heaven;will I get together w friends n Heaven;will I b able to travel,etc.?Jesus came to SHOW us the answers to these questions!After Jesus has been crucified;dead for 3 days;& then raises from the dead in His Glorified body,N Luke 24:36 Jesus appears n the midst of His disciples,instantaneously n His glorified body!The disciples r startled&frightened..thinking they r seeing a ghost!Jesus tells them to touch him...feel that He has flesh&bones...assuring them that ghosts do not have these things!AND THEN,Jesus asks if they have anything to eat!AND THEN Jesus eats a meal w them!(Luke24:36-43).Jesus is SHOWING us what our resurrected bodies will b like-> 1Cor15:42-43 says,”So it will b w the resurrection of the dead.The body that is sewn(the one we r born with)is perishable(becuz of sin),it is raised imperishable....it is sown a natural body,it is raised a spiritual body.”1Cor15:49 goes on to say,”And just as we have borne the likeness of the earthly man,so shall we bear the likeness of the man from heaven(Jesus after being raised from the dead).”The Bible says that we will have eternal bodies like that of Jesus!Jesus PROVES IT through His resurrection!AND Jesus SHOWS us what our bodies will b like! We will b able to move about like Jesus did!We will walk&talk like Jesus did!We will meet new friends as Jesus did on the road to Emmaus!We will recognize our friends&loved ones as Jesus did!We will b hungry as Jesus was!We will eat as Jesus did!& ETCETERA!These Truths r the very ones that cemented an ETERNAL PERSPECTIVE into the lives of the 1st century Christians!Many were either eye witnesses to Jesus’ glorified body,or had trusted family&friends that were!And their lives were turned inside out!They found a PURPOSE for living that gave them a MESSAGE and a HOPE & a JOY that shook the 1st century world...&continues impacting our lives today!They KNEW that ONLY Jesus shows us THE WAY to the life filled w the JOY&HOPE&PEACE that is PROMISED by GOD!Dear Lord!Help me to have my life changed by the Truths of Eternity that You came to teach me and to show me!May my perspective on life be so changed by Your Lessons & Your Examples that my PURPOSE for living is full of the Hope&Joy&Peace that You desire to be the driving forces of my life.