Thursday Devotional - Jesus is Truth – Attracting Truth Seekers (10/26/23)

How earnestly do you and I seek truth? When we hear an inspiring story, does it stop there? Or do you and I seek to put into practice the lessons learned?

Last week Jesus offered living water for eternal life to a Samaritan woman. She drank it up and ran to offer it to others in her town! Many responded to her inspiring story and dropped what they were doing to seek interactions with Jesus themselves.  

John 4:39-42       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."

At first glance, the phrase “they urged him to stay with them” may seem insignificant. However, it is a HUGE deal!  It showed the true desire of the Samaritans to know and understand who Jesus was. They didn’t just believe the Samaritan woman and then go on with their life. They stopped everything! Unlike many of the Jews who followed Jesus around because of the healing miracles He performed, these Samaritans weren’t responding to something Jesus did to make their life better. They were responding to words of truth! In fact, the Samaritan woman told them Jesus knew everything she ever did. So, they could have been afraid Jesus would publicly point out all their sins. Apparently, though, spending time getting to know Jesus was more important than their own schedule, pride, or reputation. 

How about you and me? Do we hear a great sermon or read an encouraging devotional and stop there? Or, do you and I desire to spend time in God’s Word alone each day so we can get to know Jesus personally? Are you and I, like the Samaritans, willing to drop everything to hear from Him? If we do, Jesus will stay and spend time with us in answer to our sincere desire to know, understand, and love Him!!! What a personal God!!!

Thursday Devotional - Jesus is Truth – Offering Living Water (10/19/23)

Have you ever gone in the grocery store for one item, but came home with dozens more? The outcast Samaritan woman went to the well to get water for the day, but Jesus offered her living, spiritual, and eternal water!

John 4:10-14   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."

Jesus’s offer of living water wasn’t a list of rules but a way of life that would bring true satisfaction, joy, peace, and life with Him for all eternity! Just knowing and accepting Jesus’s truths won’t bring full satisfaction. We must know, accept, and then daily choose to live His way. 

It is kind of like taking piano lessons. I learned the names of the notes and the note values when I was very young. I then took piano lessons starting in 2^nd grade. Knowing the notes and accepting what the teacher taught me wasn’t enough for me to enjoy playing the piano. Just going to lessons each week wouldn’t get me very far. I had to daily spend time on the piano for years. It wasn’t always easy or convenient and required sacrificing free time (often at the coaxing of my Mom!). However, I’ve never regretted it and thank my parents for their financial sacrifice and regular accountability to practice. 

Similarly, if we just know some of the Bible stories, accept Jesus as the Christ, and go to church for an hour each week we won’t experience the life Jesus intended us to enjoy. We won’t be living as fully satisfied. We need to continually spend time getting to know and love Jesus and allow His Spirit to transform our desires and priorities. We won’t regret it!      

Do you know the truth? Have you received and accepted the truth? Are you and I still chasing after temporal things? Or are you and I living as fully satisfied with the “living water” Jesus offers? Only Jesus can truly and fully satisfy!

Alice

Just Walk

Shortly before dawn Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake. When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. “It’s a ghost,” they said, and cried out in fear.

But Jesus immediately said to them: “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.”

“Lord, if it’s you,” Peter replied, “tell me to come to you on the water.”

“Come,” he said.

Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. ³⁰ But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord, save me!”

Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. “You of little faith,” he said, “why did you doubt?”  Matthew 14:28-31

When I am tired, where will I find strength?  When I am afraid, where will I find courage?  When I am lost, where will I go?  These are the questions of a person in crisis.  You know this because the questions are not complicated but very important.  They are questions of desperation.  They are the sounds of a person who has looked every which way possible without finding an answer.  All of us have been there before.

It was Freshman year of high school.  My mother and me were living in an apartment, and she had fallen sick during the semester.  Yes, we had other family nearby, but my mom never wanted to be a burden to anyone.  She endured whatever pain she needed to accomplish her goal.  In this case, it was to finish her MBA and ensure her and her son would make it through the year together.  I ended up going to school a good portion of the year on my own.  I would wake up, get my clothes ready, and walk to the subway stop a half mile away to ride to school.  My mother and father were not big on excuses.   So, I just did it.  No fanfare.  No drama.  No poor me.  Just walk.  There is a word for that.  Some might call it ‘grit.’  I call it ‘faith.’  It means that when you end up in the situation where all you have are those three questions, you answer simply, “Start walking.”  When you are tired, you get up, and start swinging.  When you are afraid, you realize you have nothing to lose, and you fight.  When you have no where to go, you make steps in a direction, and you keep walking.  My mother and father always had faith in God.  They instilled it in me.  That’s why I got up, got dressed, walked to the subway, went to school, and then rode back to the hospital where my mom laid in bed writing her thesis paper.

One might ask where was God in all of this?  He was teaching.  Planning.  Preparing.  He is all-knowing that my mother and me would face other storms.  But He was always there.  Carrying.  Protecting.  Guiding.  My mother and me did not make it because we were something special.  We made it because we served an awesome God who watched over us.  He kept us out of Harm’s way, and kept my mother fighting when the pain was too great for her to even sleep.

The storms in our lives (or winds as Peter saw) are the tests of faith where God either found or watched over us.  Think of the storms from your past.  Sometimes, you may not have come out of it like you wanted, and you may not have known what to make of it all.  However, when it was all said and done we looked to God, and said, “I don’t know how I made it through, but thank you!”  Thank you, Jesus, for watching over me.  Thank you, Jesus, for making a way when I could not see one.  Thank you for giving me the courage and strength.  I do not know what you might be facing today, and I am unsure what storm may come tomorrow.  But I want you to remember that God is always there.  Always encouraging you to keep walking.

So as Christ said to Peter, come.  Sure, Peter eventually started to sink, but how many of you have taken that first step only to sink?  Remember the first steps Peter took, he did not sink!  He literally walked on water!  It is interesting that it noted he began to sink only when he saw the wind.  Perhaps that was why Paul said, “For we live by believing and not by seeing.” (2 Corinthians 5:7).  Let us live by these words of faith by belief in what God can do.  Not seeing what seems impossible.  My prayer today is we take courage from the words of Jesus Christ and have the faith to just walk.  Amen.

Thurs Devo: Deadly Water

Most of you are well aware of the water crisis in Flint, MI. What if a third of all the rivers and springs were contaminated everywhere? That’s what will happen when the end to this earth is near.

Revelation 8:10-13    ¹⁰ The third angel sounded his trumpet, and a great star, blazing like a torch, fell from the sky on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water— ¹¹ the name of the star is Wormwood. A third of the waters turned bitter, and many people died from the waters that had become bitter. ¹² The fourth angel sounded his trumpet, and a third of the sun was struck, a third of the moon, and a third of the stars, so that a third of them turned dark. A third of the day was without light, and also a third of the night.

¹³ As I watched, I heard an eagle that was flying in midair call out in a loud voice: “Woe! Woe! Woe to the inhabitants of the earth, because of the trumpet blasts about to be sounded by the other three angels!”

The “plagues” from chapters 6-9 are warning signs to the inhabitants of the earth to wake up and realize who created them and everything around them. God won’t unleash all of His wrath impulsively at once. He will patiently and slowly release part of His wrath, giving opportunity for people to respond and repent.

When we see and experience the results of sin around us, like in the Flint water crisis, how do we respond? Do we question God? Do we try and find who to blame? Or, do we repent of our sin that contributes to the fallen state of the world around us? We can then turn to God for hope, remembering His eternal promises beyond the limitations of this life!

Because of Adam and Eve’s sin, we are all born sinful and live in a sin cursed world that will continue to decay and not improve. However, God has promised to destroy this sinful earth and create a new one where sin will be forever removed! In the New Heaven and New Earth there won’t be deadly water, but only streams of living water!       

Alice