"On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood
and cried out, saying, 'If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who
believes in Me, as the Scripture has said,
out of his heart shall flow
rivers of living water.'"
John 7:37-38
*************
Let's pray.......
"Father, today we will look at the trinity and how You are Spirit, the Son, and God all in one. I thank You that You have shown us in Your word how the Holy Spirit was given to us to flow through us as it did the apostles.
I ask forgiveness of my sins. I know that at times I have not asked for the Holy Spirit to be in me. I pray that You will search me out for the hidden sins of my heart and cleanse me this day.
I pray for the ladies reading this study today. I pray that You will speak to them heart and teach them more about the Spirit of the Living God. I pray that You will fill each lady here with Your Spirit to overflowing.
in Jesus' name.......amen."
********************
John 4:24
"God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth."
Last time we looked again at how we are to worship: in spirit and truth. Before that, we looked at what we worship: the gospel of God.
Here Jesus is telling the Samaritan woman a little more about the God of the Hebrews: He is spirit.
In her day, many gods were statues or carved images of wood; namely they were tangible things that could be seen and touched. But Jesus wants this Gentile woman to understand who God is and that He is not like other Gods.
Please read:
Acys 17:22-31
"Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent...."
Paul understood what Jesus was saying and He wanted to tell the men of Greece that their gods were not alive....but the God of the Hebrews is alive. He overlooked their ignorance of this fact before, but no longer. They are without excuse.
Rom 1:18-20
Now that the Samaritan woman is being shown who God is, she will be without excuse as well.
*****************
Our God is not a mere man with limitations due to a finite state like we humans. He is infinite. Eternal. Without need or limitations.
So many times were hear arguments among believers about whether or not we have free will. But in the Bible we read so many times that Satan, the angels, even Jesus did not have a free will to do as they pleased. Jesus did the will of the Father. Satan thinks he is free to roam and do as he pleases, but we know that he cannot do anything without the permission from God.
Angels serve God and do not have the free will to do what they want. Man is no different.
To think that we have a free will set apart from God's is idolatry...it is sin:
1 Cor 10:14-17- flee idolatry!
Our will is that of the Father's if we are believers....if we are not believers, our will is that of Satan's. Those are the options. There is not a third option:
Please read:
Rom 6:16-23
Either we are slaves to God or slaves to sin leading to death.
We tend to look at God in light of ourselves instead of looking at ourselves in light of God.
God is spirit:
Eph 2:22
Eph 3:14-19- Here we see the trinity mentioned: God the Father of our Lord Jesus..through His Spirit.
God, the Father of Jesus will strengthen through His Spirit that Christ may dwell in our hearts and we may be filled with the fullness of God.
God is an invisible person. He is not confined to any one place. He is all-knowing, all-powerful and perfection in all His ways.
If we worship Him from a worldly perspective, then we have become as the Samaritans are: worshiping a false gospel:
2 Cor 6:16
Therefore, how we worship Him must be in spirit and truth because He is Spirit and Truth:
1 Cor 2:10-14
1 Cor 6: 11
1 Cor 6:20
We are to examine ourselves before we worship the Lord:
1 Cor 11:28
Especially when taking the communion.
Because we are Christians, we have the Spirit of God in us:
Rom 8:1-4- here we see the trinity again: Christ Jesus, the Spirit, and God.
Rom 8:9-11- the Spirit of whom? The Spirit of Christ....
Rom 8: 14-the Spirit of whom? The Spirit of God....
These verses clearly show the diety of Christ...He is equal to God. That is why we worship Him in Spirit and Truth.
***************
Life Application
The Samaritans, like the Jews, thought they had found salvation through religion and religious practices. They believed in the rituals and sacrifices more than the obedience. Even if God, Himself, ordained those rituals, to rely on them instead of His commandments is sin.
As we read earlier in 1 Sam 15:22-23, God is not interested in our sacrifices and offerings if we are being disobedient.
It would be hypocritical and sinful to approach God to worship Him with sin in our lives. Man is to appraoch God with a broken and contrite heart:
Ps 51:17
Ps 34:18
We "must worship in spirit and truth" if we are to approach a holy God. We nust mourn our sins as David did in Psalm 51. We must approach God broken and contrite heart:
Is 57:15
We must not only confess our sins, but repent of them and mourn them as well. When we sin, we go against a holy God who died for us that we might live. Each sin places Jesus on that cross once again. To see it this way should cause us to mourn.
Our God is Spirit:
2 Cor 3:17
But where there is the Spirit of the Lord....there is liberty. There is liberty in the rivers of living water.....cleansing, purifying, refreshing, waters of life.
Take time today to thank the Lord for that liberty....and those rivers of living water. Praise Him today that you have those waters so that you do not have to draw nor thirst any longer.
****************
Until next time............
"The indigent members of a church are, in a special manner, committed to the love and prayers of Christian families who, while they have enough time to spare, will perhaps cause their prayers and their alms together to 'come up for a memorial before God' (Acts 10:4). There are other trials of the fellow-heirs which are to be borne in mind. Such is the unity of the catholic body that we ought, at some reasons, to remember before God every brother and sister in Christ Jesus throughout all the earth."
-James W. Alexander (1804-1859)
(Thoughts on Family Worship, 1847, p. 84)
Blessings,
Ruth
No comments:
Post a Comment