John 4:4 Now he had to go through Samaria. 5 So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob's well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about the sixth hour. 7 When 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.) 9 The 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.) 10 Jesus 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."
Here in John 4 Christ seems gracious and stern at the same time. He offers her something spiritual but like Nicodemus in John 3 she thinks Christ is talking about something natural or physical. I think this is an excellent example of how a true witness should share the Gospel of Christ. He offers something she knows not and then diagnoses her with the sickness-her sin. He then makes her sin obvious and shows his sovereignty in knowing her past, present, and future. Lastly he offers the cure-HIM-The Living Water!!
Today I had the painful discussion with a long time friend. This person said, "I understand that Christ is all that matters but you talk about HIM too much." This is a mystery to me. I delight in the Lord and have been known for talking on the phone with many people such as my great friend Lionel for hours just about HIM. I could not imagine Lionel saying, C'mon man lets talk about something besides Jesus sometimes." I know how to have fun and talk about other things besides Christ but everything that I do revolves around HIM. He is the SUN and I would say I am the Earth. My everything is affected by HIM and what He thinks and what He has said through His Word. My questions is....
How much Jesus Christ is too much? Can you ever get tired of learning of HIM? Does His Word bore you at times? What about Wednesday and Sunday, is that your maximum time capacity for Jesus Christ?
I recall Pastor John Coleman when he came to Omaha to teach us about theology and he taught us for basically 6 hours straight. Pastor John got snowed in and had to leave the next day and we told him, "Let us go back to Miguel's house and we want you to teach us for 4 more hours." We stayed to about 1am just conversing about the Faith and enjoying the fellowship of one another; sort of like Heaven on Earth. Why? I think for one we alike, had never met a solid black pastor who can teach theology like PJ. I like Miguel and Nate have been hearing watered down messages in churches for decades and when we got exposed to the true Gospel we simply could not get enough. We thirsted for Christ and we could drink Him and will drink HIM forever!!!
Can we ever get enough of Jesus? I would say no!!
Who are the true believer's and how can they be described? I thought these terms fit well...
clamorous, crying, demanding, desiring, exigent, gluttonous, greedy, importunate, insatiate, insistent, intemperate, pressing, quenchless, rapacious, ravenous, unappeasable, unquenchable, unsatisfiable, unsatisfied, urgent, voracious, yearning.
Apostle Paul says this.... That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death; If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead.
This whole verse is just ridiculous. Let's do a brief look at the Greek text at some of words.
1) That I may know=ginosko-Jewish idiom for sexual intercourse between a man and a woman. This is a very intimate knowing that liken unto a wife and husband.
2) The fellowship=koinonia-intercourse, fellowship, intimacy. This is used 18 times in the New Testament and is the type of fellowship we should have with our fellow brethren and with of course the Messiah.
3) Sufferings=pathēma-also the afflictions which Christians must undergo in behalf of the same cause which Christ patiently endured, an enduring, undergoing, suffering.
WOW!! I just sort of scared myself. Could Christ require that we suffer-Certainly HE WOULDN'T!! This is the Gospel we rarely here in American Churches today.
What was Paul's motivation and why? Paul knew that he knew that he knew!! That everything his eyes could see was simply temporal and his affections were set on things heavenly. He like us understand by the sovereign grace of God electing us that we our life is simply a vapor and short lived.
2 Corinithians 4:18 While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen [are] temporal; but the things which are not seen [are] eternal.
Psalms 1:1 Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. 2 But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night. 3 And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.
4 The ungodly are not so: but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away. 5 Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. 6 For the LORD knoweth the way of the righteous: but the way of the ungodly shall perish.
I have to be honest here and say sometimes I feel is if I should be less zealous for the Lord but why......... I am not the fool here-I am simply doing what comes natural since I have become a new creature in Christ Jesus. When I was a slave to sin I did what my father wanted me to, but now I have become apart of the eternal family of God. We are Christ-followers and we simply DELIGHT IN HIM WITH NO APOLOGIES!!!
