Good Tuesday morning... and windy and cold Tuesday morning too! Welcome to our first three days that show a promise that, yes Virginia, there will be a winter this year. The turn has come and I am back to writing. Each day I am still learning just what this new life in Christ will bring. I reckon that learning will continue for a while. Praise God for that learning, because I surely need it!
Today, our woman at the well near Sychar has not quite grasped what Jesus means by the living water. I can imagine Jesus growing a little impatient, rubbing his brow a bit and saying with a touch of exasperation:
"Go and get your husband," Jesus told her. John 4:16
What I imagine would be wrong though. Jesus wasn't impatient with this woman; that is me putting my own weakness on to what I think Jesus would have done. I would have been impatient with this woman, but we know that Jesus wasn't impatient with those who didn't know and had some trouble grasping His new message. We have all been there. Jesus did come down on those who should have known better, the Pharisees and scribes who studied the scriptures daily. Jesus even teased Nicodemus a bit with his, "You are a respected Jewish teacher, and yet you don't understand these things?" Jesus must have another reason for sending this woman to get her husband.
Husbands and wives go together. This might seem obvious to those who have been married for some time, or worse, it might seem wrong to those who have been married for some years. I need to remind myself of it from time to time. I read yesterday about a political candidate from Florida who spoke at a men's meeting about bearing in mind the verses about honoring and respecting your wife; loving her as Christ loved the church. As men, we want to grab onto the verse about wives submitting to their husbands. Even as a single fellow I can see where men might try to use that verse to win arguments. "The Bible says that you are to submit to me," the man states. "So I win the argument..." goes left hanging in the air. We know (at least we should know) that it doesn't work that way. The Apostle Paul was not trying to force wives into slavery; they were pretty much there already in Paul's time. Jesus did much to set women free from the view of women as a man's property and Paul continued this by reminding us to love as Jesus loved. Meaning that you, me, and this woman's husband were to love a wife (that leaves me out at the moment) with the sacrificial kind of love that Jesus had for his bride: the church.
A man will not hurt or abuse his wife when he loves her as Jesus loved us. Many of the problems we face in this world would be fixed on the spot if all husbands loved and respected their wife as Jesus loved the church. Many more problems would be fixed if single men, and this does include me now, would respect women as Christ loved his church. By that I mean that as Christ loved his church, he did not force anything on us. I refer to "us" as the church, the body and bride of Christ. After we choose to believe in Christ and submit everything to him, we are not forced to tithe, to attend church, to spread the Good News, or any other thing that Christ commanded us to do. Commanded is not the same as forced. Jesus doesn't stand over anyone with a whip. You and I can refuse to obey Christ's commands even though we are saved. And you and I both know that we do at times. However, with the Holy Spirit within our hearts and minds, we do want to obey every command of Christ.
Jesus commanded this woman to get her husband. She can refuse; the choice is available to her and her obedience is not in any way forced upon her by Jesus. Like us, she has the choice to obey or to refuse. Which way will she go? Which way will you and I go at our next opportunity to obey Christ?
To God be the glory!
Bucky
2 comments:
“Have you been born again?” the Fundamentalist at the door asks the unsuspecting Catholic.
Yes, they believe in Jesus. And yes, they try to live Christian lives. They probably have some vague awareness that Fundamentalists think being “born again” involves a religious experience or “accepting Jesus as your personal Lord and Savoir.”
The Catholic Church has always held, being “born of water and the Spirit” refers to baptism, and then it follows that being “born again” or “born from above” means being baptized.
Clearly, the context implies that born of “water and the Spirit” refers to baptism. The Evangelist tells us that immediately after talking with Nicodemus, Jesus took his disciples into the wilderness where they baptized people (John 3:22).
DO YOU PLAY RUSSIAN ROULETTE WITH YOUR SALVATION?
ABIDE IN ME, AND I IN YOU...
Jesus said:
"I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch of mine that bears no fruit, he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit.
You are already made clean by the word which I have spoken to you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me.
I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me, and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.
If a man does not abide in me, he is cast forth as a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire and burned. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you will, and it shall be done for you." (John 15:1-7)
Wow! In those seven verses, the word ABIDE is mentioned seven times. The context of those verses provides us with a lot of light as to what is required of us by GOD for our eternal salvation.
Jesus said:
"Enter by the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is easy, that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard, that leads to life, and those who find it are few." (Matthew 7:13-14)
So we must not only ABIDE in Him but we must also strive to enter by the narrow gate. If we do not ABIDE in Him, then it is obvious that we are not on the path to the narrow gate of salvation, but on the path to the wide gate and to eternal destruction.
So Jesus said that if we do not ABIDE in Him (the Vine) then we will be taken away from the Vine by the Father, and will be cast off only to wither, to be gathered, and then to be thrown into the fire and burned.
Now that I have your attention, shouldn't we now find the meaning of the word ABIDE?
The theological meaning of ABIDE is to dwell within. Jesus would come and dwell in us and we likewise in Him. So as long as we do what Jesus requests of us then we are on the path to the narrow gate to salvation.
So to assure that we are on right path, Jesus has commanded that we must ABIDE in Him.
What is required in order to have Jesus ABIDE in us and we in Him?
Can we do it:
1. By accepting Him as our our own personal Lord and Savior ?
No. Where does the Bible say that?
2. By the grace of GOD only? Sola Gracias?
No. Where does the Bible say that?
3. By faith in GOD alone? Sola Fides?
No. Where does the Bible say that?
It is simple common sense that since He commanded that we must do something, then doesn't it stand to reason that He would also tell us how to do it?
Jesus was very clear in what we must do in order to have Him ABIDE in us and we in Him.
Jesus left this command for us in John 6:53-57:
53 "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you (the taken away branch);
54 he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. 55 For my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed.
56 HE WHO EATS MY FLESH AND DRINKS MY BLOOD ABIDES IN ME, AND I IN HIM.
57 As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats me will live because of me."
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