Good Friday morning! Um, hmm, kinda looking like the Texas Rangers might as well have stayed home for the World Series. I remember not so long ago a year in which our Colorado Rockies went to that same series and came home after losing the first four games. I hate to see teams go to the series and not even win one game. In more important news, a volcano erupted in Indonesia AND they suffered a tsunami. Of course after the 2004 tsunami they had that early warning system put in to save lives... didn't work, the needed maintenance was allowed to lapse in the past few years. Several places in the Bible warn us to remain on our guard or to be watchful, but we often see examples of that failure to remain watchful in our world. More often than not, someone else dies or suffers when the watch is allowed to lapse. If we as Christians are to be watchful, guess we had better stay on it!
"Sir," the woman said, "you must be a prophet." John 4:19
Nicodemus called him a teacher, and now this woman has deduced that he is a prophet, but is that all we can say about Jesus? The Mohammedans say that Jesus is one of the prophets, and the Mormons say that Jesus is one of the sons of God. The problem is the 'one of the...' part. We wouldn't call Jesus one of the disciples because it would be nonsensical to follow himself. Jesus is more than a prophet, for he sent the prophets. Jesus is the Son of God, not one of the sons. Jesus is Messiah!
On the other hand, give the woman some credit, she is starting to catch on. The prophets were a kind of national treasure to the Israelites, even though they did at times treat their treasure like trash. The prophets had vanished from the land for about 400 years before John the Baptist and Jesus showed up in Judea. Jesus has exposed this woman's life; he must be a prophet... good news! However, Jesus is more than a prophet as we have read in John thus far. We like to label things, just like this woman is doing with Jesus. The problem with that lies in using the wrong label, one that doesn't tell the whole story in this case. We know from our Bible reading that Jesus is more than a prophet. Jesus would be treated like the prophets of old, but much worse. We can read the reason Jesus went to the cross...later in John! I'm trying to skip ahead again. Can I go back a bit? I think the reason Jesus died for us starts with, "For God so loved the world..."
Speaking of labels: You and I are more than our jobs. I'm glad of that since my last job tossed me out! Your job title is not your label. What might it be like if Christians answered "What do you do for a living?" with: "I follow Christ!" Last night we finished our final lesson in the Bible study series we have worked on for the past 8 weeks. Yes, I was glad to teach the series, but as often happens, including in writing the devotionals, I think that I learned much more than I taught. My first thought isn't, "I'm glad it's over!" but more like, "Let's do this again!" Anyway, part of last night's lesson was in putting our eyes on where our provision really comes from in this life. I'll admit that at one time my mouth answered, "God", but my actions and heart said, "my own effort." Who gave me the ability to put forth that effort for my employer? Where is my financial security coming from? Certainly not from me!
Have a wonderful Friday in Christ!
Bucky
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