Jesus

Going to the well… again

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7A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” 8(For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.) 9The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) 10Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” 11The woman said to him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? 12Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.” 13Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 14but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again.The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” 15The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.”  John 4:7-15

 

It is a great privilege to write for you of Jesus and the Word of God.  When I think of all the people who take up time to meet Jesus with me through His Word I am overwhelmed with gratitude and awe for you. As I look down the list on the email and on the blog I am giving thanks to God for you and praying that God will increase your conviction and experience of His love and grace through Christ. I am praying that you will walk with Him in the power of His Spirit and that welling up in you rife will be streams of living water.

 

May your admiration of Jesus grow with every day that you walk with Him. Jesus came from the communion of God to meet with the Samaritan woman and her village. Years before He had blessed Jacob with the well. And now the True Well of Life had come to be refreshed at it. The woman was astonished that Jesus had crossed the boundaries of race, culture, and gender to speak with her. If she only knew. He had crossed the boundaries of space and time meet her!

 

He does so for us as well. Its time to go to The Well again. On your own. Come to Jesus the well, the spring of eternal life, and ask for strength, grace, mercy, comfort, supply, help, joy, peace, courage, hope, patience, wisdom, and love. He has done more than “cross the room” to meet you.

All that you study.

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All that you study

16For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. 17And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. 19For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, 20and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.
Colossians 1:16-20

All that we study has its roots in the creative work of God. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit all engaged in Creation. All that we study, macro and micro, has had the creative imprint of Jesus in it. Much of what we study has been infected with the ripples of the Great Catastrophe. However, the redemption of all things and our relationships for the glory of God, is the work of Jesus and His church. So our study, so our work, must be saturated with this awareness: all that we study has its origin in Christ.

“All things were create through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church.”

The Source of All that We Admire in Christ Jesus

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When Jesus entered into our relationships, taking on flesh, He continued to live int he communion of the Father and the Holy Spirit. Living in the midst of our brokenness Jesus was subjected to the same temptations we are. Yet He did not sin. Why not? He lived loved. He lived fully in the reality of His Father’s love for Him. Check out what happened at Jesus’ baptism:

21Now when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heavens were opened, 22and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form, like a dove; and a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.” Luke 3:21-22

Jesus spoke of His communion with the Father and the Spirit. In John 5 Jesus connects even the authority of what He did to the reality of being loved by the Father.

19So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise. 20For the Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing. And greater works than these will he show him, so that you may marvel.
John 5:19-20

Live loved.

Passion Week – Monday

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Standing on the edge of what looks like disaster,

we wonder if we will lose our freedom.

Jesus entered Jerusalem.

And when he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred up,

saying, “Who is this?”

He’s the One who called them to step into the water; the One

who brought them through the waters; the One who stirred

the waters.

I’ve got a song on my mind: Wade in the waters.

Freedom is costly.

We see God’s hand most often when we move forward in obedience.

For the slaves who fled their oppressors in America, the streams hid

them from the dogs, but they always had to step out… hoping.

“Now I know that the LORD saves his anointed;

he will answer him from his holy heaven

with the saving might of his right hand.

Some trust in chariots and some in horses,

but we trust in the name of the LORD our God.”

Psalm 20:6-7

The impulse to know God

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Signal – Response.

The impulse to know God.

I wonder if its a reflexive action?

But I know the impulse to know God can be denied.  It can be ignored.  It can be covered up.

Just like the impulse to pick my nose in public.

Signal – Response.

Is God signaling to us?

He’s called the “Great I AM,” the same “yesterday, today, and tomorrow,”

The Alpha and Omega — the beginning and the end.

When I read the Scripture’s story I hear Him signalling.

The signals to know God are coming from Him and they are all around us.

And every once in a while we may say honestly with Philip, a man who spent several years with Jesus,

“Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.”

Are you satisfied with Jesus’ answer?

9Jesus replied, “Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and yet you still don’t know who I am? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father! So why are you asking me to show him to you? 10Don’t you believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words I speak are not my own, but my Father who lives in me does his work through me. 11Just believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me. Or at least believe because of the work you have seen me do.  John 14:9-11