John 4
Jesus Talks With a Samaritan Woman
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.
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.
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])
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?"
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."
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."
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."
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."
The Disciples Rejoin Jesus
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?"
28Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, 29"Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Christ[b]?" 30They came out of the town and made their way toward him.
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?"
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."
Many Samaritans Believe
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.
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."
Jesus Heals the Official's Son
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.
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.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
1 Corinthians 6:12-20
Sexual Immorality
12"Everything is permissible for me"—but not everything is beneficial. "Everything is permissible for me"—but I will not be mastered by anything. 13"Food for the stomach and the stomach for food"—but God will destroy them both. The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. 14By his power God raised the Lord from the dead, and he will raise us also. 15Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ himself? Shall I then take the members of Christ and unite them with a prostitute? Never! 16Do you not know that he who unites himself with a prostitute is one with her in body? For it is said, "The two will become one flesh."[a] 17But he who unites himself with the Lord is one with him in spirit.
18Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a man commits are outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body. 19Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; 20you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.
April 21, 2008
Return On Investment
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READ: 1 Corinthians 6:12-20
You were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit. —1 Corinthians 6:20
Long before the US professional baseball season begins each spring, team owners and managers are busy negotiating trades and contracts. They'll pay large sums of money to get the athlete who will help them win the championship. When the season starts, all eyes are on the newly acquired talent to see if he was worth the cost. The ultimate measure of the player's success is whether his contribution to the team is a good return on the investment.
In 1 Corinthians 6:20, Paul reminds us that we too have been "bought at a price." The context paints a compelling picture of Christ's great sacrifice. He liberated us from the cruel slavemaster of sin by buying us with the high price of His own life.
Getting a grip on God's great and loving investment in us should motivate us to gladly consider making His sacrifice rich in dividends. How is that return on His investment measured? By living to bring glory to Him! Our eyes, hands, feet, thoughts, dreams, and desires have been purchased to reflect the wondrous glory of God's will and wisdom. In other words, we are no longer our own.
Paul concluded, "Therefore glorify God in your body" (v.20). Living to reflect His glory is the return on investment that makes the Owner of our lives look good! — Joe Stowell
Redemption's price our Savior paid
When all our sins on Him were laid;
He took our guilt, He bore our shame
That we may glorify His name. —D. De Haan
Our choice to bring glory to God yields a great return on Christ's investment.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers:
April 21, 2008
Don’t Hurt the Lord
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READ:
Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? —John 14:9
Our Lord must be repeatedly astounded at us-astounded at how "un-simple" we are. It is our own opinions that make us dense and slow to understand, but when we are simple we are never dense; we have discernment all the time. Philip expected the future revelation of a tremendous mystery, but not in Jesus, the Person he thought he already knew. The mystery of God is not in what is going to be-it is now, though we look for it to be revealed in the future in some overwhelming, momentous event. We have no reluctance to obey Jesus, but it is highly probable that we are hurting Him by what we ask-"Lord, show us the Father . . ." (John 14:8 ). His response immediately comes back to us as He says, "Can’t you see Him? He is always right here or He is nowhere to be found." We look for God to exhibit Himself to His children, but God only exhibits Himself in His children. And while others see the evidence, the child of God does not. We want to be fully aware of what God is doing in us, but we cannot have complete awareness and expect to remain reasonable or balanced in our expectations of Him. If all we are asking God to give us is experiences, and the awareness of those experiences is blocking our way, we hurt the Lord. The very questions we ask hurt Jesus, because they are not the questions of a child.
"Let not your heart be troubled . . ." ( 14:1, 27 ). Am I then hurting Jesus by allowing my heart to be troubled? . If I believe in Jesus and His attributes, am I living up to my belief? Am I allowing anything to disturb my heart, or am I allowing any questions to come in which are unsound or unbalanced? I have to get to the point of the absolute and unquestionable relationship that takes everything exactly as it comes from Him. God never guides us at some time in the future, but always here and now. Realize that the Lord is here now, and the freedom you receive is immediate.
"A Word With You" by Ron Hutchcraft
Hollow On the Inside
Monday, April 21, 2008
There is this unforgettable drive above the Hudson River; in fact, the highway just kind of hangs out on Storm King Mountain. It's a few miles north of New York City and as you look down on the Hudson you get this incredible view. Now every time I've been able to catch a glance down there at this view of the Hudson, I have been fascinated with this castle. It sits right in the middle of the river on an island. It's kind of like a Robin Hood type of castle, if you can imagine that. Well, not too long ago my wife and I got to take a cruise along the Hudson River and I could take an extended look at that castle. We went right past it, and our tour guide said, "That's Bannerman Castle." Mr. Bannerman, apparently, was an arms dealer for many, many years, and over many decades there are a lot of very interesting stories about people coming and going for weapons all through the wars and all kinds of things. Then in the 1960s there was a large explosion there on the island. What about the castle? Well, I was surprised to learn the truth about that castle.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft, and I want to have A Word With You today about "Hollow on the Inside."
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Matthew chapter 23, beginning at verse 25. But first, I have to tell you that Bannerman Castle according to the tour guide, though it's very impressive on the outside, is hollow now on the inside. Listen to what Jesus says about human Bannerman Castles. "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. Blind Pharisee! First, clean the inside of the cup and dish, then the outside also will be clean. 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. In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous, but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness."
Look at this. Jesus says there are people that look great on the outside, religious on the outside, but they have big problems on the inside. This could be you. I mean it could be true of a marriage, it could be true of a church, an organization, a leader, you and me. You know we live in a world where image and appearance are everything. You know we work on our fitness, and our hair, and our wardrobe, making good comments, making good impressions, looking like we have it all together, but then maybe there's another you. When you're alone, when you're thinking honestly, you can feel that emptiness inside…that hollowness. You can't explain it - you can't deny it! And beneath the image you know the darkness, you know the sin. You know the struggle that's in there. Like one young woman said, "There's a darkness inside me that scares me." Eventually it's going to collapse.
Mickey Mantle said not long before his death, "I filled my emptiness with alcohol." Listen to what Jesus said in John 8:12, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness." Jesus is saying, "Invite me into that inner darkness; invite me into that emptiness. I can fill it." He said later in this chapter in Matthew 23, "How often I have longed to gather your children together, but you were not willing."
Jesus says he's been knocking on the door of your life. Why don't you give the emptiness and the darkness to the One who already knows all about you, who sees past the image, who can forgive that sin, who can clean that darkness, who can let you go free from it? Let it bring you not to depression, but to the cross of Jesus where he died knowing the sin inside of you and wanting to forgive you and set you free. You need to clean it up, not cover it up. Say, Lord, I need a Savior, no more trusting in me. It's all in your hands now.
If this is what you want, if you're ready to fill that hole on the inside with the One who gave you your life and gave His life for you, I'd invite you to come to our website because it's helped a lot of people cross over into Jesus' arms. You can go to yoursforlife.net.
Jesus builds people from the inside out. So, open the door of that empty castle and let Jesus in. He will make you strong inside and you can finally be done with that hollow spot in your heart.