Wow - I love the Gospel of John! It is like a treasure chest filled with all kinds of amazing things. What verse(s) or thoughts stand out to you from chapters 9-16? Share them with us.
I want to share John 10:30 and John 11:35. Together they show us the complete picture of who Jesus is.
John10:30 - I and the Father are one.
John11:35 - Jesus wept.
You have one nature; you are human. Jesus has two natures; He is both human and God.
Jesus says that if you point at the father you say he is God. Jesus said if you point at me, I am also God. Then we see Jesus in his human nature being moved to tears and weeping over the death of Lazarus. In our relationship with Jesus, we must always hold in balance these two natures of Jesus or we lose some of the impact that Jesus can have in our daily lives. How can Jesus, who is God, truly understand what I am going through and how I feel? How can he understand my struggles, temptations and weaknesses? He can because he is fully human but he is also God, thus he can also help me when I face those things. I like to say it this way - Jesus is low enough to understand and high enough to help. Maybe right now in your life you are facing some of those struggles, temptations and weaknesses. Talk to Jesus about them and don’t forget, He is low enough to understand but he is high enough to help you.
Prayer for the week: Jesus we reach out to you and ask for your help. Jesus we feel so weak at times - give us strength for what we are facing today.
-Pastor Keith
Very well said!
John 10 speaks of us being the Lords sheep and knowing His voice. We know not to follow anything but His voice. I believe we are bombarded on a daily basis by worldly distractions. The enemy trys to work overtime getting us to listen to junk. This is why it important as followers of Christ to spend time with the Lord daily. Just like a friend we are trying to get to know better. He greatly desires this time with us. He has so many great plans for our lives. Ultimately it makes it harder to fall for tricks that are not His voice. I found this week's study was a refresher to me. Realizing Lazarus and Martha were brother/sister.…
Help us Lord to be more loving
Pastor Keith
What strikes me is John 13:14:“If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet.”
John 13:14 ESV
My daughter hates even looking at feet! When we think of the disciples’ feet, they were probably dirty, smelly, and gross. Yet here is a picture of the Savior washing them.
Being a follower of Christ means loving people where they are, serving people even when it’s hard. It’s not about putting ourselves on a pedestal for our own glory. It’s about humbling ourselves to serve, and love, and give Him glory. Help us, Lord, to have a servant’s heart.
I think I'd pull from John 13:34-35 on how we need to love one another - for me the most moving part being how that love is how everyone knows we are His. It is hard to love sometimes and for me, hard to be the kind of person that makes it easy for others to love back. That commandment is important not only for our own lives but for the church and Christianity in general. How can those looking at the church (in general) from the outside ever want to be a part of it if what we show them is fussing with each other over silly (or even big) things, trying to one up each other and j…