Psalm 84

Psalm 84:10 is a pretty familiar one, but I like it anyway:

For a day in your courts is better
than a thousand elsewhere.
I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God
than dwell in the tents of wickedness.

I think sometimes it is worth remembering that the tiniest fraction of what God has to offer is overwhelmingly better than the best the world can give.

Acts 6

I couldn't help but notice that the disciples are more than a little politically incorrect in this chapter. Verses 1-2:

Now in these days when the disciples were increasing in number, a complaint by the Hellenists [29] arose against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution. 2 And the twelve summoned the full number of the disciples and said, “It is not right that we should give up preaching the word of God to serve tables.

It would be very easy to misconstrue this as "I'm too holy to be bothered with earthly things". This isn't the first time that waiting on tables has been looked-down upon in the New Testament, either. Compare Luke 10:38-42:

³⁸As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. ³⁹She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet listening to what he said. ⁴⁰But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, "Lord, don't you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!"

⁴¹"Martha, Martha," the Lord answered, "you are worried and upset about many things, ⁴²but only one thing is needed.^f]">[f] Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her."

Does this imply that God really doesn't care about the fact that people need to eat? That preachers are the best and the people who wait tables are some sort of "spiritual losers"?

Absolutely not! Recall that Jesus also fed people (over 5000 of them in John 6). And Jesus set the bar as high (low?) as possible for servitude when he washed the disciples feet (John 13).

But I think the disciples do recognize an important principle here. No one can do everything. We each have our own role to play and spending our time on tasks that aren't part of that role can be just as damaging as doing nothing at all. Instead, recognizing that they can't do everything, the disciples gladly delegate this authority in verses 3-6:

...Therefore, brothers, [30] pick out from among you seven men of good repute, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we will appoint to this duty. 4 But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.” 5 And what they said pleased the whole gathering, and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, and Philip, and Prochorus, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicolaus, a proselyte of Antioch. 6 These they set before the apostles, and they prayed and laid their hands on them.

I pray that God will give me the wisdom to know what my role in the kingdom of God is. And what it isn't.

Isaiah 2- 4

I never realized there were domed cities in the Bible before. I had always assumed they were a concept you find in science-fiction or overly-optimistic architectural journals. But take a look at Isaiah 4:5-6:

Then the Lord will create over the whole site of Mount Zion and over her assemblies a cloud by day, and smoke and the shining of a flaming fire by night; for over all the glory there will be a canopy. 6 There will be a booth for shade by day from the heat, and for a refuge and a shelter from the storm and rain.

I'm imagining just how cool that would look at night. A massive wall of fire covering the entire nation of Israel.

More impressive than the outside, however, is what's going on inside this city of God. From the beginning of chapter 2:

2 It shall come to pass in the latter days
that the mountain of the house of the Lord
shall be established as the highest of the mountains,
and shall be lifted up above the hills;
and all the nations shall flow to it,
3 and many peoples shall come, and say:
“Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,
to the house of the God of Jacob,
that he may teach us his ways
and that we may walk in his paths.”
For out of Zion shall go the law, [1]
and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
4 He shall judge between the nations,
and shall decide disputes for many peoples;
and they shall beat their swords into plowshares,
and their spears into pruning hooks;
nation shall not lift up sword against nation,
neither shall they learn war anymore.

What we see is that at last God will be acknowledged in his rightful role as ruler over this world. And all of the earth will reap the benefits. Imagine a world without war. A world where any disputes can easily be settled by an honest and good judge.

I'm looking forward to it.

Acts 4

I was impressed by the reaction of the early Christians to the arrest of Peter and John. In verses 29-30, their prayer is

And now, Lord, look upon their threats and grant to your servants [15] to continue to speak your word with all boldness, 30 while you stretch out your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus.”

I think my natural reaction would have been to pray that my enemies be defeated. But instead they pray for boldness, in effect to make their enemies even more angry at them.

It seems like a good idea to imitate. Instead of praying "Lord take this problem away from me", pray "Lord give me the strength to follow your will even more closely in the light of this problem".

Acts 1

I can sympathize with the reaction of the disciples after Jesus' ascension into heaven in Acts 1:9-11

And when he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. 10 And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes, 11 and said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.”

I have a mental image of the disciple with their mouths hanging open staring up into the sky. Along with absolute stupefied awe, I can imagine the disciples had mixed feelings at this moment in time.

On the one hand, their leader has just literally ascended into heaven before their eyes. It's hard to think what a better affirmation of their faith than that could be. But on the other hand, he left them. Keep in mind that these are the same disciples who were fleeing naked and denying they ever knew him when Jesus was arrested.

I think the angels' declaration to the disciples here is absolutely perfect, though. The angels reminded the disciples not to just stand around in terrified awe, because Jesus is coming back. Although this would be encouraging to hear, I wonder if some of the disciples weren't also thinking about the many parables in which Jesus spoke of a master going away for a short period of time. For example in Matthew 24:45-51:

⁴⁵"Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom the master has put in charge of the servants in his household to give them their food at the proper time? ⁴⁶It will be good for that servant whose master finds him doing so when he returns. ⁴⁷I tell you the truth, he will put him in charge of all his possessions. ⁴⁸But suppose that servant is wicked and says to himself, 'My master is staying away a long time,' ⁴⁹and he then begins to beat his fellow servants and to eat and drink with drunkards. ⁵⁰The master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he is not aware of. ⁵¹He will cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

With that in mind, some of the disciples must have been thinking "this really is no time to be standing around". I hope the knowledge that Jesus is coming back will spur me on, just as it did for the disciples.

Ecclesiastes 7

A couple of verses in Ecclesiastes seem to go against "common sense". I was struck by the beginning of verse 8:

Better is the end of a thing than its beginning,

I think it's common in our culture to think of the "honeymoon" phase of something. At the beginning of something, we're always so excited and doing it seems really great. First days at school, in love, or even a first day at work can seem so amazing. And then... things seem to go downhill as we realize things are not going to be as easy or exciting as we hoped they would be.

Why, then does Solomon--the wisest man who ever lived-- go against common experience and say that the end is better? I wonder if it doesn't have something in common with Paul's remarks writing to Timothy in 2 Timothy 4:6-8:

For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time has come for my departure. ⁷I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. ⁸Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.

The story of Paul has what many of us would consider an awesome beginning and a not so great end. Paul's story starts with a blinding light and a miraculous conversion. It ends with him imprisoned and finally executed. And yet, he is able to look back and say "I did this right, I gave it my all". And I think that is what makes the end better than the beginning.

I hope I never get tired of running the race because it's not as exciting as it was in the beginning. Because the end is even better.

John 19

I couldn't help but noticed the irony in Pilates remarks at the beginning of John 19:

Then Pilate took Jesus and flogged him. 2 And the soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head and arrayed him in a purple robe. 3 They came up to him, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!” and struck him with their hands. 4 Pilate went out again and said to them, “See, I am bringing him out to you that you may know that I find no guilt in him.”

There seems to be a pretty large contrast between Pilate's actions and the claim "I find not guilt in him. Before I rush to judge, however, I need to keep in mind that I am in effect guilty of the same thing. Remember as Isaiah 53:5 says:

But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.

I say that I believe in Jesus and yet everytime I sin, I am effectively responsible for his suffering. Who is the bigger hypocrite, Pilate who merely finds Jesus "not guilty", or I who claim to believe Jesus is the Son of God?

However, in the same way that I need to remember that I am just as guilty as Pilate, I also need to be reminded that Jesus' love is enough to cover my shortfallings. Recall the words Jesus spoke on the cross (Luke 23:34):

Jesus said, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing."

Jesus loves enough to forgive Pilate, and he loves enough to forgive me. And it is only by his grace that I can ever be free from sin.

Proverbs 30

I have to admit, I can sympathize with the words of Agur quite often. In verses 1-2:

The man declares, I am weary, O God;
I am weary, O God, and worn out.
Surely I am too stupid to be a man.
I have not the understanding of a man.

Sometimes I feel like there's a certain minimum level of intelligence required to make it in this life, and I'm just not there. There are too many deadlines to meet, people to please and problems to solve. I can't possibly do it all, and I get worn out just trying to get by.

Fortunately, Agur alludes to the solution to this delimma a little while later in verse 5:

Every word of God proves true;
he is a shield to those who take refuge in him.

The reason I feel like I'm not smart enough to do everything and please everyone is because I'M NOT! Instead I need to trust in God's wisdom to carry me every single day. Because only God is smart enough to know exactly what I need each day.

This is why Isiah is able to say in Isiah 41:3:

but those who hope in the LORD
will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary,
they will walk and not be faint.

It's not our strength that we depend on, because that will always run out. It's Gods, which is good, because he is all-powerful.

John 14

At this point we can see that despite all the time they've spent with Jesus, the disciples still rather thoroughly do not "get it". In verse 8-11

Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.” Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else believe on account of the works themselves.

Despite all that they've seen and learned from being with Jesus, Phillip is still looking for something further, some definitive stamp of accomplishment. I don't think Phillip is just looking for proof... keep in mind that the disciples have seen Jesus walk on water, heal the sick, feed thousands and raise the dead. It's hard to ask for more proof than that.

Rather I think what Phillip is seeking is something so overwhelming that it will make future disbelief impossible. Phillip is trying to insure against his own free will, against the possibility that he might cease to believe at some point in the future. Jesus gently pushes him away from this, reminding Phillip and the other disciples that they have the choice to believe. Free will isn't an obstacle to true Christianity, it's the point. Paul puts this most succinctly in Galatians 5:1,

It is for freedom that Christ has set us free....

If God were to simply force people to believe, it would defeat the point. Instead, we have to have faith. The miracle of grace is that God has revealed his love to us through Jesus Christ so that we are able to believe. Asking for more than this, though, for something that would force us to believe wouldn't be Grace, it would just be a new kind of slavery.

Proverbs 21:13

One of my all-time favorite verses in the bible is Proverbs 21:13:

The sluggard says, “There is a lion outside!
I shall be killed in the streets!”

Sadly, more often than not, I play the role of the sluggard. While I haven't outright claimed there were lions in the street, I do have a bad habit of exaggerating the difficulty of something to get out of doing it. How many times have I put off reading the Bible or praying or speaking a word of encouragement to someone because "there's a lion out there". Or in reality "I don't have the time" or "they don't want to talk to me".

When something seems too hard, I need to remember that it's probably because I'm exaggerating the difficulty. The fact of the matter is, however, that with God on my side even real lions shouldn't terrify me. I should remember the story of David in I Samuel 17:34-35:

But David said to Saul, "Your servant has been keeping his father's sheep. When a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock, ³⁵ I went after it, struck it and rescued the sheep from its mouth. When it turned on me, I seized it by its hair, struck it and killed it.

Or Sampson in Judges 14: 5-6

Samson went down to Timnah together with his father and mother. As they approached the vineyards of Timnah, suddenly a young lion came roaring toward him. ⁶ The Spirit of the LORD came upon him in power so that he tore the lion apart with his bare hands as he might have torn a young goat.

Or Daniel in Daniel 6:19-22:

¹⁹ At the first light of dawn, the king got up and hurried to the lions' den. ²⁰ When he came near the den, he called to Daniel in an anguished voice, "Daniel, servant of the living God, has your God, whom you serve continually, been able to rescue you from the lions?"

²¹ Daniel answered, "O king, live forever! ²² My God sent his angel, and he shut the mouths of the lions. They have not hurt me, because I was found innocent in his sight. Nor have I ever done any wrong before you, O king."

Clearly our God is a god who can defeat lions, so even sluggards have no excuse.

John 12, Proverbs 20

Just wanted to follow up on yesterday's post with verses 9-10 from John 12:

Meanwhile a large crowd of Jews found out that Jesus was there and came, not only because of him but also to see Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. ¹⁰So the chief priests made plans to kill Lazarus as well, for on account of him many of the Jews were going over to Jesus and putting their faith in him.

Do these guys seriously not get it, or what?

Proverb that I noticed today was Proverbs 20:14

“Bad, bad,” says the buyer,
but when he goes away, then he boasts.

People will go to a lot of effort to save a little bit of money, putting on a big show about something. I don't think God wants us to haggle over ever little thing, but I'm reminded instead of the parable of the shrewd manager in Luke 16. At the end, in verses 8-9, Jesus concludes

⁸"The master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly. For the people of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own kind than are the people of the light. ⁹I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings.

Considering how much more eternity is worth compared to saving a few dollars at the store, we should be willing to go to every effort. This also reminds me of the pearl of great price in Matthew 13:45-46:

Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant man, seeking goodly pearls:

⁴⁶Who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it.

Let's be clever buyers, but of heavenly things, not earthly ones.

John 11

Reading the story of Lazarus today, I noticed an interesting irony that I had never realized before. After Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead, notice what happens in verse 45-46

Many of the Jews therefore, who had come with Mary and had seen what he did, believed in him, but some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done.

I find it surprising that only SOME would believe after Jesus raised someone from the dead. In the next verses, the Pharisees seem to have the same opinion:

So the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered the Council and said, “What are we to do? For this man performs many signs. If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.”

The Pharisees can see well enough that someone like Jesus will be able to attract many followers. But I think they're still missing the picture. What exactly is it they are worried the Romans will do, kill people? That doesn't seem so threatening when your leader can literally raise the dead. Also, their solution seems a bit questionable:

But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, “You know nothing at all. Nor do you understand that it is better for you that one man should die for the people, not that the whole nation should perish.”

That's right, the correct way to deal with someone who has power over life and death is to kill them. Because that will totally work.

The irony that I noticed, however, is this. As a result of raising Lazarus from the dead, the priests decided to kill Jesus. It's almost as if Jesus has taken Lazarus' place in the grave. Fortunately, this is a burden that Jesus is more than capable of bearing. Not even death can defeat him. That's why we shouldn't hesitate either to cast our burdens on Jesus. He loves us, and he is able.

Psalm 69:1

The first verse of Psalm 69 is:

Save me, O God!
For the waters have come up to my neck.

Psalms has lots of powerful imagery, but this verse really stuck out to me today. How often do we feel this way. We can still breath, but our problems have all but completely engulfed us. Even then, though, God is able.

Proverbs 11-12

A couple of proverbs that I liked

Proverbs 24-26:

²⁴ One man gives freely, yet gains even more;
another withholds unduly, but comes to poverty.

²⁵ A generous man will prosper;
he who refreshes others will himself be refreshed.

²⁶ People curse the man who hoards grain,
but blessing crowns him who is willing to sell.

Generosity is a principle that is advocated throughout scripture. It is just one of the many things about which the Bible's advice goes dead-against our common sense. You would think "If I give everything away, I won't have anything left." It's easy to recognize that I do this with money, but I realize that I am in the habit of being stingy not just with my money, but with my time, my friendship, who I will allow myself to care about. I think the principle of generosity applies just as much in these areas as it does when it comes to finance.

One paradoxical I'm reminded of is when it comes to spiritual hunger. The more God you get in your life, the more you want him. But if you don't feel like you need him at all, chances are its because you've drifted so far away that you've lost the ability to notice how empty you've become. It's almost as if once we get a taste of God, we can't get enough. But if we get used to eating the dry crumbs of this life, we learn to do without.

I'm also reminded of Jesus' teaching in Matthew 16:25

For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it.

When we try so hard to hold onto the things of this life, we completely lose our ability to notice that there's a whole eternity out there waiting for us. It's only when we stop fixating on the things of this world and utterly fixate ourselves on Jesus that we also have our eyes fixed on heaven where he is.

I hope that I can learn to be more generous and stop clinging onto what this life has to offer, but instead fix my eyes on Jesus and eternity.

John 7

When I read John 7, it has a feeling of suspense, almost like a mystery novel. There is so much speculation about who Jesus is and what he has come to do. We see in verse 1-5 that even Jesus' brothers aren't sure what to make of him:

After this Jesus went about in Galilee. He would not go about in Judea, because the Jews were seeking to kill him. Now the Jews' Feast of Booths was at hand. So his brothers said to him, “Leave here and go to Judea, that your disciples also may see the works you are doing. For no one works in secret if he seeks to be known openly. If you do these things, show yourself to the world.” For not even his brothers believed in him. Jesus said to them, “My time has not yet come, but your time is always here. The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify about it that its works are evil. You go up to the feast. I am not going up to this feast, for my time has not yet fully come.” After saying this, he remained in Galilee.

It's almost like they're saying to Jesus "Why are you hiding out, shouldn't you be going around acting important or something?" Now, Jesus' brothers weren't wrong to think that one of Jesus' roles was as a public leader. But they were wrong to think that was his ONLY role. They wanted to skip straight to the glorious stage of Jesus ministry without realizing that it wasn't time for that.

I know that I get disappointed too when God's sense of timing doesn't agree with my own. Like Jesus brothers, I start asking God "Shouldn't you be acting this way?". And sometimes, God's answer is "not yet".

I wonder if Jesus' brothers would have been so eager for him to reveal himself publicly if they had realized that Jesus had to go through the crucifixion before he could be glorified. Maybe instead of asking "Why are you hiding?", they would have said "can't you wait just a little while longer before you go out in public? People are trying to kill you after all!"

But that would have been the wrong reaction too. Notice what happens in verse 30:

So they were seeking to arrest him, but no one laid a hand on him, because his hour had not yet come.

Just as Jesus had no intention of declaring himself king before the time was right, he had was in no danger of dying early. Sometimes I say to God "why are we waiting" but sometimes I'm thinking "I'm not ready for this yet." But I should trust God, because his timing is always perfect and nothing can interrupt his plan.

John 6

John 6 provides an interesting contrast to the story of the Samaritan woman at the well. When Jesus talks to the woman at the well, he promises her that if she drinks the water he gives, she will never thirst anymore. In John 6, Jesus feeds 5000 people, but the next day they're hungry again. So naturally they come back looking for more. Jesus' response in verses 26-27 struck me:

When they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, “Rabbi, when did you come here?” Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves.

I'll be honest, a large portion of of why I am a Christian is because I "ate my fill of the loaves". What I mean is that I believe because of the different ways I've seen God care for my earthly needs. I don't think Jesus is condemning this, but he does want us to realize that there's more out there. If the Church was just a place for people to get their earthly needs met, it may as well just be a book club. What makes Christianity special is that it offers the only convincing hope in this world of eternal life. We have to work never to lose sight of that goal. As Jesus puts it in verse 28:

Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. On him God the Father has placed his seal of approval."

When we finally realize to stop focusing on the material benefits and focus on what is eternal, this can be hard. One criticism of the Church is that "I like that they help, but I wish they weren't so obsessed with converting people. What makes them think they're so holy when they're just like us?" Even Jesus (who is the SON OF GOD) faced the accusation that he shouldn't claim to be something special. In verse 41-42:

So the Jews grumbled about him, because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” They said, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does he now say, ‘I have come down from heaven’?”

I suspect that that people would have been a lot happier with Jesus if he had been content just to do miracles and not go around claiming to be something special. But at the same time, Jesus' mission on this earth wasn't just about feeding people, it was about saving them. And no number of loaves of bread was going to accomplish that.

Notice that even Jesus' disciples are put-off by the content of his message. In verse 60:

On hearing it, many of his disciples said, "This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?"

How often do we complain when something seems "too hard" to understand. I really like Peter's reaction, though, when Jesus asks if Peter wants to quit because of the hardness. In verses 67-69:

"You do not want to leave too, do you?" Jesus asked the Twelve.

Simon Peter answered him, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We believe and know that you are the Holy One of God."

A saying I've been hearing a lot recently is "I won't let what I don't understand keep me from doing what I do understand". I think this is something Peter really gets. The fact is he doesn't understand everything that Jesus says (remember this is the same Peter who tries to prevent Jesus from going to the cross). Nonetheless, Peter is "stuck" with Jesus, because he's seen enough of Jesus' message to know that he has no other options.

There is no better place to be stuck than to be stuck on God. He won't always make sense, but he will always be there for you. And only he has the ability to grant eternal life.

Psalm 65

The whole of Psalm 65 is pretty awesome, boldly declaring the greatness of God's works. I especially liked verse 5

You answer us with awesome deeds of righteousness,
O God our Savior,
the hope of all the ends of the earth
and of the farthest seas,

Sometimes I just need to remember how awesome God is. He made this entire world, so there's nothing in it that's too big for him to handle.

Bible Study for Tues, Sept 7: John 4

Today I was reading the story of Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well. I noticed the different ways that the Samaritan woman tries to deflect Jesus attention away from her.

First in verses 7-8, she tries to push Jesus away through false humility:

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.^a]">[a])

It seems to me that what she's really saying isn't "I'm not worthy" so much as "Who do you think you are, bothering me like this? Usually people like you know well enough to leave people like me alone". If that seems a little judgmental, it's probably because I'm projecting the way I often behave towards God onto this situation. I say "God I don't deserve you", but what I really mean more often than not is "God, I don't want to talk to you right now" or even "God, I don't think you're good enough to deal with my unholiness".

Maybe I'm stretching this interpretation a little. But notice in verses 10-11 she questions Jesus's

honesty and ability

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."

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?"

From this it seems that first of all, she doubts Jesus's ability to follow through on his claims. But more importantly, she's "calling Jesus bluff". That is to say, she thinks that Jesus is all talk and so she has no trouble calling him out on the boldness of his claim.

Of course, Jesus doesn't back down on his statement. Instead, he doubles-down, offering her even more than he did before. Not only is God always as good as his word, he's always better than it, willing to go above and beyond our expectations.

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."

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."

The woman's reaction is again one of skepticism. But at this point she's in too far to admit she was wrong, so still not believing, she tries to out-bluff Jesus by making demands of him. Of course, this is never a good idea, and Jesus responds by asking her to take a step of faith.

¹⁶He told her, "Go, call your husband and come back."

¹⁷"I have no husband," she replied.

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."

I imagine that getting one's husband to come talk to some crazy guy at a well isn't the most comfortable situation to be in. So she does what we do a lot of times to get out of a situation we don't like, she lies. But, of course, this is Jesus she's talking to... not someone to be easily fooled.

Jesus doesn't just call her a liar, however. Instead Jesus responds in love, congratulating her for her "honesty", while at the same time affirming that he is in control.

What the woman does next is what a lot of non-believers (and believers too) do when they're confronted by something they don't want to be. They immediately turn to their favorite controversy in hopes of avoiding the real subject. Current favorites are "the problem of evil" or "Why don't Christians love gays" or "I believe in God, just not religion", but the point is never to ask an honest question. No one who asks one of these questions is looking for an answer, they're just trying to deflect attention away from the real issue.

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."

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."

Of course, there's no question too hard for Jesus, so he has no trouble giving an answer for this one. More importantly, he redirects the conversation back to the heart of the matter--namely, the condition of the human heart.

The woman's final response is another common one among both believers and non-believers, namely to simply throw up our arms and say "Oh, it's all over my head!" Or, another way of putting it, maybe religion is okay if you're a scholar or a prophet, but normal people should be exempt from the requirement of thinking too hard about religious questions.

²⁵The woman said, "I know that Messiah" (called Christ) "is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us."

²⁶Then Jesus declared, "I who speak to you am he."

What the woman is interested in isn't really that the Messiah will explain everything. She's interested in the fact that she will do it LATER. In other words, she can keep going about her life the same way she always had and worry about religious questions at some vague point in the future.

Jesus responds to this the same way that he responds to her the same way he responds to all of us, be reminding us that the place is here, and the time is now. All of the excuses we use to put of being in a meaningful relationship with Jesus are just that, excuses.

When the woman at the well finally runs out of excuses, she immediately becomes a powerful witness for Christ, as we see in verses 39-42. I think this is the moral of the story. If we are just willing to stop arguing and trust in God, he will accomplish great things through us.

Bible Study for Monday, Sept 6

Today I was reading John 3, where Jesus speaks to Nicodemus. This passage stuck out to me:

Nicodemus said to him, “How can these things be?” Jesus answered him, “Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things? Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know, and bear witness to what we have seen, but you do not receive our testimony. If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.

In particular, when Jesus says “Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things?" I was reminded that God doesn't rely on people with special qualifications in order to preach his message. When it comes to the will of God, even the most educated people are comparatively in the dark.

I'm definitely not the first person to make this observation, but it's encouraging to remember that Jesus didn't recruit his followers from among the teachers or the priests. Instead he selected his followers from among fishermen and tax-collectors, exactly the opposite sort of people you'd expect to go looking for for "spiritualness".

I think one reason that Jesus chooses "ordinary" people to spread his message is so that God get's the credit, not humans. One example of this is in Acts when Peter and John are confronted by the priests and teachers of the law. Acts 4:13 says:

When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus.

In other words, because Peter and John weren't educated, the priests had no choice but to attribute their abilities to Christ. In 1 Corinthians 2, Paul puts it this way:

When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God.^a]"> For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling. My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power, so that your faith might not rest on men's wisdom, but on God's power.

Too often, I try and rely on my own intelligence to "prove" God. But the truth is that just like Nicodemus, when it comes to the things of Heaven I don't really have a clue. Instead I need to rely on God, who is the only one who can or should receive credit.

Bible Study for Sunday, Sept 5

I know the book of Job is not most people's favorite... too much suffering and long-winded arguments. But I really like this imagery in Job 41

“Can you draw out Leviathan with a fishhook
or press down his tongue with a cord?
Can you put a rope in his nose
or pierce his jaw with a hook?
Will he make many pleas to you?
Will he speak to you soft words?
Will he make a covenant with you
to take him for your servant forever?
Will you play with him as with a bird,
or will you put him on a leash for your girls?

I think sometimes we lose track of just how completely God's power surpasses ours. The things God can do aren't just really-really hard. I don't even think it gives him enough credit to say that "God can do the impossible" and leave it at that. God can do the utterly, absurdly, laughably impossible.

I have no problem imagining God defeating Leviathan, because I tend to imagine God as big and strong. But it's harder for me to imagine the Leviathan saying soft words or walking around on a leash. The imagine of a pet Leviathan reminds me of a part in CS Lewis's the great divorce. When one of the characters repents of his sin, not only does God take the sin away, but he turns it from something bad into something good. I wonder if I don't underestimate God when I limit myself to thinking that he can overcome the problems in my life. God doesn't just defeat the try to harm us. He completely and utterly humiliates them and makes them bow down and serve us.

As your reward for getting this far, a picture of a girl with a Leviathan on a leash:

Random Observation

So, I'm going to try starting to put the different things that I notice while reading the Bible here instead of just slip out of my mind and get lost forever. Can't claim this will be particularly deep theology, just little things that make me smile when I think about God. He created this world and all of us with our own idiosyncrasies, so he must have a sense of humor.

Anyways, today I started reading John. John 1 is the famous "In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God and the Word was God...." passage, which I guess I'm "familiar with" so it didn't really strike me. Instead I noticed this verse:

Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?”

The full context is John 43-50 when Jesus calls Nathanael (who is apparently called Bartholomew in the other gospels) along with his brother Phillip.

The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, “Follow me.” Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found him of whom Moses in the Law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.” Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.” Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him and said of him, “Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit!” Nathanael said to him, “How do you know me?” Jesus answered him, “Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.” Nathanael answered him, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!” Jesus answered him, “Because I said to you, ‘I saw you under the fig tree,’ do you believe? You will see greater things than these.” And he said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”

Nathanael (Bartholemew) doesn't get a whole lot of speech-time in the Bible. So far as I can tell, this is the only thing he is recorded as saying. I know people use the phrase "doubting Thomas", but I wonder why you never hear "prejudiced Nathanael". Thomas doubted that Jesus had come back from the dead, which seems pretty reasonable to me. On the other hand, Nathanael just flat out says “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?”

One thing I was reminded of only yesterday was how badly my own preconceptions can hinder my ability to receive God's love. I claim to be looking for Gods blessings, but only if them come from someone or something respectable. Imagine if that had been the end of the story, and Nathanael had missed out on being an Apostle just because he bought into this stereotype about Nazareth.

If you look up other parts of the bible, you see that Nazareth is not a great place. In fact, in Luke 4:29, the people there try to throw Jesus off of a cliff (which reminds me of one of my favorite verses, Psalm 141:6 "their rulers will be thrown down from the cliffs..." ). I guess my point is, maybe Nathanael was "right" to look down on Nazareth. Maybe he had a bad experience there. Maybe all the people there were jerks. And yet, Jesus came from Nazareth too.

Fortunately, this story has a happy ending. When Jesus reveals his (literally) God-like power, Nathanael immediately believes in him. It's nice to know that God is willing to work around our own shortfallings and preconceived notions about who he is (he does this all the time). Even still, I don't want to risk missing out God's grace because I'm expecting it to appear in a certain form. And that, I think, is the main point that struck me... that I should willing to accept God's grace in whatever way it chooses to appear.

So next time I look down on someone because of how they look or act or where they're from, feel free to tell me:

"Don't be a prejudiced Nathanael"

PS. Somehow I completely forgot to mention the part where Jesus says “Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.” I mean, how cool is that? I believe in God because of the little ways he reveals himself to me everyday, but I shouldn't forget that he has so much more in store for me. Without a doubt, the Kingdom of God is going to be awesome!