Nicodemus and the Samaritan Woman

Two character are introduced in John 3&4.

Nicodemus was a Ruler of the Jews, a Pharisee and a Teacher of Israel. That means he was a student of God’s word and knew it forwards and backwards, inside and out. He came to Jesus with a simple statement… “Rabbi we know that you are a teacher sent from God because no one can do the signs you are doing unless God is with him”.

Jesus, never one to mince words or waste time, cuts to the chase…. “Except one be born again he cannot see the (coming) Kingdom of God.”

You see, Jesus knew who Nicodemus was and knew that Nicodemus knew what was in the Old Testament (from a human perspective). Nicodemus was obedient to the 10 commandments, kept the proper form of worship, kept the Sabbath and feast days properly, etc., etc., etc. Jesus just needed to correct some misconceptions that Nicodemus had about the coming Kingdom.

The second character introduced was different than Nicodemus. She was an un-named Samaritan woman. In contrast to Nicodemus she knew next to nothing about the Old Testament. As a Samaritan all she had been taught and all she knew were the first 5 books of the Bible. Samaritans had improper worship and they didn’t celebrate the Passover properly. The Jews despised them for their corruption of God’s commandments.

Jesus was sitting at a well when the woman approached and asked her for a drink of water. The woman, knowing that Jesus was a Jew, was surprised that he would even acknowledge her presence and was bold enough to state that to him.

Jesus replied, if you knew who I am you could have asked and I would have given you living water. The conversation evolves into the age old question between the Samaritans and the Jews… where is the proper place to worship? Jesus informs her that the Jews are worshipping correctly (and the Samaritans are not) but then proceeds to tell her that a time is coming… the coming of the Kingdom… when neither place will be the correct place to worship.

So we might ask the question… why didn’t Jesus answer the Samaritan woman like he did Nicodemus? Why didn’t he tell her… “except one be born again he cannot enter the Kingdom of God?” And the answer is because they were in different places in their understanding of God’s word

The reality is Jesus taught them both the same basic thing. Both audiences had to believe that in the new Kingdom, citizens would have to worship in Spirit and in Truth, he just took different approaches to accomplish that task.

Of course the same thing is true today. You cannot necessarily teach two individuals the exact same way but we do have to end up in the same place. If we have the idea that we can just quote some passage like Acts 2:38 with the idea of accept it or reject it and feel like we have done our job as a teacher then we are sadly mistaken.

The Gospel is for all including those who know their Bible (but misunderstand it) and for those who know next to nothing about the Bible. As a teacher prepare yourself for every kind of student.

Pray for the Holy Spirit Luke 11:13

Luke chapter 11 begins with Jesus teaching his disciples how to pray. He first gives them the initial form of prayer and then he teaches some concepts about prayer.

The first concept about our prayers is a comparison of asking our neighbors for something and asking God for something. Sometimes we almost have to beg our earthly friends to do something for us but God is not like that… he will willingly answer our prayer requests.

The second concept is the value of the thing requested in prayer. Parents will willingly give and address their children’s physical needs. God however will give the Holy Spirit to those who ask for him.

That raises several questions… We can ask for the Holy Spirit? Who would even think to ask for the Holy Spirit? And just what are we asking for?

Right on the heels of this teaching, Jesus casts out a demon, i.e. an evil spiritual being. This isn’t just some random story Jesus decides to tell. There is a connection.

In verse 24, Jesus describes a man who had an evil spirit in him and the evil spirit decides to leave and find another human to live in. He can’t find one so he decides to go back home to the human he used to live in and takes seven other evil or unclean spirits to go with him. Jesus concludes that the last state of the man is worse than the first state.

Who would ask God for the Holy Spirit? Perhaps some poor soul who had an evil spirit.

You see, the demon decided to leave the man on his own accord. He was looking for another place to live. The man had not done anything to get rid of the demon or made any change his life to prevent demon possession.

Including, having faith in God and manifesting that faith by praying for God’s protection in the form of the Holy Spirit. Without God's help the unfortunate man was at the mercy of demons.

This dovetail sweetly with Ephesians 1:13-14… “In whom, having also believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, which is an earnest of our inheritance, unto the redemption of God’s own possession, unto the praise of his glory.”

Once we believe, God seals us with the Holy Spirit. A seal is an identifying stamp. What is its purpose? It’s a no trespassing sign for Satan. It is also a down payment of our inheritance which when fully paid is life eternal with God.

Have faith in God. Pray to him because he will answer and he can give greater gifts than can be found on earth. Then… you won’t have to worry about Satan.

45th Wedding Anniversary

This is something I posted to Facebook on June 1st. Happy anniversary to my wife of 45 years. 45 years ago today, one week after graduating from High School, we eloped to Lake Charles, Louisiana. I tell people the reason we did that is because at the time... in Texas... they wouldn't let first cousins marry. But they would in Louisiana. Of course that's a joke. Julie Bedwell is the only girl I ever dated. A lot of people would say that we somehow found our soul mates as if failures in marriage are somehow due to bad luck. The truth is that we were committed to each other based on our faith in Jesus Christ and would not allow Satan to separate what God had put together. God has blessed me in many ways but my greatest blessing has been Julie Perkins.

At lunch the other day I drove out to Starry’s pawn shop just west of Robstown on highway 44. I like to go out there because Mr. Starry has a lot of stuff laying around that you can make good deals on. But i also like to go out there so I can visit with Mr. Starry. When you walk into his pawn shop he’s sitting in an easy chair pedaling some contraption to keep his legs in shape.

Mr Starry is 86 years old and I like talking to him because he’s an old South Texas farm boy and he knows a lot of things. And he’s colorful and I know how to talk to people like him.

He told me if he wanted to he didn’t have to work he could just stay home. I told him but Mr. Starry if you did that I couldn’t visit with you. He stopped and looked at me square in the eyes and pointed at me and said that’s it exactly. The old man likes to visit with people.

Then he told me a while back he was at Driscoll Children’s hospital and there was a really sick baby and he and his wife decided to adopt the boy. He was 3 months old weighed 5 pounds and had what I would call divergent strabismus but what Mr. Starry described as “looking at Georgia”. He had ear problems and he was born addicted to heroin. They fixed his eyes and ears and put him on Methadone. Mr. Starry said it took 7 months to cure him and that every time the doctors reduced the methadone dose the boy would cry for two days.

He told me the boy is in middle school now and doing fine. He told me they give the boy $5.00 for every “A” he makes and one time he made four “A’s” so Mr Starry gave him $20. The boy looked at it and said… Dad, don’t you think an 89 ought to be worth $5.00?

Anyway Mr. Starry says that boy has added years to their lives… he comes home from school and fills their lives with joy and love.

I guess that’s the way things are though…. the Lord told us not to think about ourselves but to think about others. God bless Mr. Starry and his wife for helping someone who needed so much help.

It might do you some good to go see the old man every once in a while. It sure has done me good. Take a look at the photo I attached. I got that water cooler and bike (for my grandkids) for $15.00

A Few Thoughts on Healing in Luke 8

Here’s a few thoughts on how Jesus heals in Luke 8.

The woman with a chronic bleed had been bleeding for 12 years so it was a regenerative anemia. Her bone marrow was producing enough new Red Blood cells to keep up at some level. I’m assuming that this was some sort of menstrual bleeding caused by a persistent estrogen producing ovarian follicle which would include other symptoms of menstruation like cramping.

So she had persistent vaginal bleeding, cramping and some level of anemia which would have resulted in poor oxygenation of the tissues and chronic fatigue. I feel sorry for the poor woman.

When Jesus healed her the blood flow was immediately stopped and as she herself reports she was immediately healed. That immediate healing could mean that all of her symptoms were gone… the blood flow, the cramping, the fatigue and the anemia.

The 12 year old girl was probably dealing with an acute problem, certainly not the chronicity of a 12 year condition. The list of conditions that young people suffer is a lot shorter than the list that old people suffer from. It was probably not organ failure, cardiovascular or cancer. She probably had an infectious problem. A lot of people then and now suffer from gastro-intestinal infections and respiratory infections. Rapid dehydration from vomiting and diarrhea or lungs that are filling up with pus.

Whatever the problem was she was at the “point of death”. Usually point of death looks like poor coloration to the tissues (purple not pink), coma or agonal breathing. When I get a patient like that there is usually not much that can be done. Whatever her final symptoms were her Daddy new he was about to lose her and in an act of desperation ran as fast as he could to find Jesus. His expectations were probably pretty low but when you are about to lose the most precious thing in the world to you, you’ll run after even the smallest chance.

When the family heard the news that she had died they fell apart. They probably had a lot of questions like… Jehovah we have devoted our whole life to you, how could you let this happen? Their friends were probably offering solace like… she’s in a better place. Those are true words but probably not enough to stop the flow of tears.

Jesus enters the room with just Peter, James, John and the parents and says don’t cry she’s just asleep. The text says they laughed at him. I imagine that their sad emotions turned to indignant emotions. Like… don’t play games with us Jesus we know what dead people look like.

Jesus takes their little princess and says “arise”. She gets up immediately and Jesus turns to her parents and says, “get her something to eat”. Like everything’s back to normal now. Go clean the house, mow the lawn, etc. Just another day for Jesus but certainly not just another day for that family.

Their problem was that they really didn’t understand who Jesus was, but that day they knew a little better.

A Miracle Interrupted

Luke 8 records a miracle interrupted by another miracle. Jesus is on his way to heal a 12 year old girl who was about to die when a woman with a 12 year illness interrupts him.

The Ruler of the Synagogue approached Jesus on his knees to beg Jesus to cure his daughter. The woman who was slowly bleeding to death had no one to intercede for her and had spent every dime she had hoping for a cure. Unlike the Synagogue Ruler she was “unclean” and stigmatized for her uncleanness.

For the Ruler it was like the journey was taking forever… crowds of people thronging Jesus slowing down the travel time. And then Jesus stops and asks, “who touched me?” Another delay… everyone was touching Jesus. His daughter could die at any minute, even seconds could make a difference. If only he could get Jesus to his house so he could lay his hands on her and cure her before it was too late.

Finally the woman comes forward and identifies herself. And then Jesus says something that was probably lost on the crowd but was not lost on the reader. He says, “daughter your faith has made you whole”. You see there were two daughters in this story, one who was 12 years old and one who had been sick for 12 years. They were both important to Jesus. And just as he says those words the father hears some other words… your daughter has died.

One daughter healed and one daughter dead. In the mind of the crowd Jesus is batting .500, but what the crowd doesn’t know is that the game isn’t over for Jairus and his little daughter and Jesus is still batting and when Jesus bats he hits a home run every time.

Sometimes someone dies and people think what a shame she was so young and beautiful almost like if you are plain or ugly it’s no great loss. The learning point for us is that Jesus cares for everyone whether she’s a 12 year old girl or someone who has a disease for 12 years that everyone including the doctors have given up on. Jesus doesn’t give up on people he values and loves every single soul and so should we. Don’t ever give up on anyone… just stay in the game and maybe, just maybe you’ll jack one out of the park with Jesus’ help.

Good vs. Poor Teaching

In Luke chapter 6 Jesus does some teaching. He pronounces blessings and woes upon people and offers instruction on how to live with your fellow man. Specifically he tells his audience to love their enemies and to do good to them even if you are mistreated poorly by them.

Then he uses a parable to contrast his teachings with the teachings of the Pharisees. He says that the Pharisees are blind teachers and because of their lack of spiritual vision are going to fall into a pit and their students will follow right after them.

He also says the Pharisees are blind or visually impaired when it comes to correcting others. They are so busy looking for fault in others that they fail to take a look at their own faults which are huge in comparison.

Teachers are also like orange trees. A good orange tree (Jesus) produces sweet tasty oranges. A sour orange tree (Pharisees) looks identical to a grafted orange tree and the oranges look exactly the same but they taste so bad that they’re worthless.

Pharisees are teachers that are blind, hypocritical and whose teachings will cause their students to be spit out by God.

Jesus on the other had is a good teacher, he can lead you the way he ought to go, his correction is non-hypocritical and will lead you to cause a very sweet taste in God’s mouth.

Preachers and teachers in Christ’s church should be the same type of teacher that Jesus was. One way to tell is to look and see kind of people a church is producing. Are they sweet and ripe? Are they bitter or are they just tasteless? Whatever they are… they are a reflection of their teachers.

James 3:1. Not many of you should become teachers, my fellow believers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly.