Good day dear friends. We praise God for His faithfulness in our lives and we continue to study on how to best honor and serve Him.
Here is today's study guide:
Thursday: Read John 4:1-39. We find someone, who after a life of not honoring and serving God, repents of her lifestyle, finds “living water” and commits her life to following Jesus. As a result of her testimony, many came to faith in Christ because of her. This story shows that no one can ever say they cannot lead a good life after having been away (separated) from God. How does this story speak to You?
Here is that passage in NRSV: John 4:1 Now when Jesus learned that the Phar'isees had heard, "Jesus is making and baptizing more disciples than John" 2 --although it was not Jesus himself but his disciples who baptized-- 3 he left Judea and started back to Galilee. 4 But he had to go through Samaria. 5 So he came to a Samaritan city called Sy'char, near the plot of ground that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob's well was there, and Jesus, tired out by his journey, was sitting by the well. It was about noon. 7 A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, "Give me a drink." 8 (His disciples had gone to the city to buy food.) 9 The Samaritan woman said to him, "How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?" (Jews do not share things in common with Samaritans.) 10 Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, "Give me a drink,' you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water." 11 The woman said to him, "Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? 12 Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us the well, and with his sons and his flocks drank from it?" 13 Jesus said to her, "Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 14 but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life." 15 The woman said to him, "Sir, give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water." 16 Jesus said to her, "Go, call your husband, and come back." 17 The woman answered him, "I have no husband." Jesus said to her, "You are right in saying, "I have no husband'; 18 for you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband. What you have said is true!" 19 The woman said to him, "Sir, I see that you are a prophet. 20 Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you {The Greek word for [you] here and in verses 21 and 22 is plural} say that the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem." 21 Jesus said to her, "Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22 You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him. 24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth." 25 The woman said to him, "I know that Messiah is coming" (who is called Christ). "When he comes, he will proclaim all things to us." 26 Jesus said to her, "I am he, the one who is speaking to you." 27 Just then his disciples came. They were astonished that he was speaking with a woman, but no one said, "What do you want?" or, "Why are you speaking with her?" 28 Then the woman left her water jar and went back to the city. She said to the people, 29 "Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done! He cannot be the Messiah, can he?" 30 They left the city and were on their way to him. 31 Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, "Rabbi, eat something." 32 But he said to them, "I have food to eat that you do not know about." 33 So the disciples said to one another, "Surely no one has brought him something to eat?" 34 Jesus said to them, "My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to complete his work. 35 Do you not say, "Four months more, then comes the harvest'? But I tell you, look around you, and see how the fields are ripe for harvesting. 36 The reaper is already receiving wages and is gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. 37 For here the saying holds true, "One sows and another reaps.' 38 I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor." 39 Many Samaritans from that city believed in him because of the woman's testimony, "He told me everything I have ever done."
This is an awesome story. In it, Jesus speaks to a woman, beginning with His asking for a drink of water from the woman (Sunday night classmembers, remember we studied this as a passage where the humanity of Jesus comes through in his being thirsty, fully human, fully God). The woman, of Samaritan descent, is surprised that Jesus, a Jew is asking water of her. As the passage notes, "Jews do not share things in common with Samaritans." That was a nice way of saying there was hard feelings between the two cultural groups. But the woman enters into a discussion about water and "living water" with Jesus. Jesus reveals to her that He is the living water from which we can drink and be satisfied. Jesus is revealing an eternal spiritual truth. She desires that water and Jesus calls her to repentance in asking for her to go and get her husband. The woman replies that she has no husband, then Jesus confronts her with the truth about her life and then she understands that Jesus is a prophet, meaning she realizes that Jesus is a spiritual authority. It's at that moment that she honors the Lord though she does try to change the subject and the Lord continues to lovingly minister to her. As a result of her faith and testimony many of the Samaritans in her village came to faith in Jesus.
Is there a sin in your life that keeps you from honoring the Lord? Could you not confess it right now to Him and receive from Him that which sets you free to honor and serve Him? It's as simple as saying, "Lord free me from my sin and deliver me to obedience and service to You."
PRAYER: Lord, free me from my sin, and deliver me to that place where I can faithfully serve you and be faithful and obedient to You. I pray in Jesus' name. Amen.
Have a great and blessed day!
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