Good Windysday morning! Other parts of the country have suffered some serious damage from the wind and storm; we have been blown about pretty good, but I think that we escaped the damage. Today is supposed to be another windy day; hang on to your britches! A what? From who? One of those e-mail notifications caught me off guard there. Must be something from one of those big companies trying to sell me more stuff. I think that I had better just hang on until next year. Is that a winning attitude? Hang on? How 'bout we just see what Christ has in store for me over the next couple of months? For today, let's stick with this one new verse in our study of John
"I don't have a husband," the woman replied.
Jesus said, "You're right! You don't have a husband - " John 4:17
Why would Jesus send the woman to get her husband when he well knew that she didn't have one? Yes, we know the story, but one verse at a time; no jumping ahead to the next verse! Many times in my days as a Marine, someone used this same tactic on me. The higher ranking fellow, an NCO or Staff NCO, would tell me to go fetch something knowing already that I had left it somewhere unsecured. As a fresh recruit - okay, sometimes it happened after that too - I would scurry about searching fruitlessly for the lost item while it slowly dawned on me that someone had already found it; that same someone who had sent me to fetch the item. There is something about that tactic that gets your mind focused on the fault in question. You can try to lie about it; probably you will feel the urge to do just that, but what would be the use. You know that the other person, Jesus in this woman's case, already knows that you are in the wrong. There is nothing to do but acknowledge your fault and accept the judgment.
Although I tried to keep a low profile in boot camp, I did have to face the judgment at times. This woman does well by not denying that she has no husband. A person might be able to hoodwink a drill instructor (unlikely) or some other human judge, but Jesus knows the truth. No sense trying to get anything over on Him! While it is better to obey God out of our love for Him, sometimes we obey His command to not lie by sizing up the situation and realizing that it would only compound the error and get us deeper into trouble. Not the best path to admit the truth, but I will admit that I have told the truth under those very conditions once or twice back in the day. Now that Jesus has the woman right where he wants her, admitting the truth and standing before Him, what will he do with her? As you and I both know from the story of the woman at the well, there is more sordid truth to come out yet. We may fall into a similar situation in our own lives.
You mean that once we admit the truth to Jesus there could be more to confess? At my salvation, I would very much have liked that moment to have been the end of my sin. It wasn't. For years now I have been coming back to the Lord to confess more sin. I don't want to sin anymore, but I do it at times. As with the woman, there is no sense trying to deny it, cover it up, lie about it, or avoid the truth in any other way. God already knows about it; I might as well admit it and seek His forgiveness yet again. Yes, it would be better to trust in the strength of the Holy Spirit, run from or resist temptation, and obey God out of love, but this is after I have already blown that part. We do at times obey God by repenting and seeking forgiveness after we have been caught disobeying him and falling into sin. Not the best way, but in case you might be thinking that you are the only one, I'll have to admit to being in that club too. Praise God for His mercy and grace!
Bucky
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