"The voice of the LORD is over the waters;
The God of glory thunders;
The LORD is over many waters.
The voice of the LORD is powerful;
The voice of the LORD is full of majesty.
Psalm 29:3-4
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Good day! Let's begin with prayer....
"Holy Father, I want to thank You for this day and for Your glory. You alone are the God Most High. You alone gave us the gift of the Living Water and washed me pure.
I seek forgiveness of my sins because I know I have put myself ahead of You lately. I pray that You will forgive me of my selfishness and cleanse me with Your word this day. I pray that You will give me wisdom liberally.
I also pray for each lady reading this study today. I pray that You will go to her and speak to her new things. I pray that You will encourage her and give her a heart that is willing to obey Your words.
In Jesus' name............amen."
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John 4: 41
"And many more believed because of His own word."
The word of God is powerful. It cuts deeply and changes the hearts of men. Here in this verse we see that now the people of Sychar, having seen Jesus and having heard His words, believed because of Him.
The Samaritan woman's witness was effective in getting the people to Jesus. They believed her and came to see "a man" who could be the Christ. As Jesus spoke to them for two days, we are told that many believed.
Please read:
Luke 4:31-32
From the beginning, Jesus was able to persuage men with just His words. For His word had authority.
John 6:63
His very words are LIFE to us. As we have read before, Peter understood this:
John 6:68
The words of Jesus are eternal life.
John 17:17
They are TRUTH.
Col 3:16
And they should dwell in us deeply.
Heb 1:1-4
And that is how God spoke to His people and to us know: Through Jesus.
Rom 10: 16-17
It is God who opens ears to hear the words of Christ. Just as He opened the ears of the Samaritan people around Jesus, He opened our ears as well and now we can read the Word and hear it and be changed.
Jesus' words changed the Samaritan woman. They gave her new life....a new purpose. She left her waterpot: her old ways, her old purpose in life...and began a new journey. The Lord promised her He would give her that Living Water that would finally quench her thirst forever.
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How did God's voice (His word) change others in scripture?
Please read:
Gen 1:3
Gen 3:9-10
Gen 3:13
Gen 4:6-7
Gen 6:7-13
Gen 7:1
Gen 9:8
God's words convicted men of sin, spoke to them of His covenant, encouraged man to worship Him. God's words are important. We were created in His image, so it makes sense that our words are important as well.
Gen 11:1-9
The word "Babel" means confusion. It is also translated as Babylon. Man took language for granted, so how did God punish His people? By taking away their one language and confusing them. Words are very important to the Lord. They should be important to us.
Gal 3:8
God rewarded Abraham for believing God's words.
Deut 17:18
His words should instill fear on His people.
Deut 18:17
God's words were put into Jesus' mouth.
Deut 18:20-22 False prophets shall be judged for the words they say in God's name.
I think it is safe to say that God's words are LIFE and TRUTH to us. We would be wise to take them seriously. We would be wise to read them daily and have fear of God because of His words. He keeps His promises.....He keeps His word.
Praise God today for His word. Praise Him that He did not leave us here alone without any knowledge of Him. He is merciful and His voice is indeed full of majesty.
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Life Application
"...because of His own word."
Some believed because of the Samaritan woman, and now we read that many more believed because of Jesus' own word.
Please read:
Jer 23:9-10
Here we read how the holy words of God given to the prophet were not heeded and the whole of creation suffered. Do we heed those words today? Does creation still suffer because of our sin of disobedience?
Jesus' own word is what saves us. He died to save us from His wrath and that is why He is exalted by His death. His life and death were perfect. And now He is exalted. Because of His perfect words, we have life. We have been saved from that curse.
2 Tim 3:16
All scripture...every word....is profitable and it equips us for every good work of the Lord. That is why we must stay near the Lord. Like the people of Sychar, we must "urge" Him to stay with us so we can hear His words....His own word and be healed, cleansed, saved, transformed.
Stay in the Word! I know life gets hectic and time gets away from us. Before you know it, the day is half over. Find time to be alone with the Lord each day. Use these studies to be in the Word. I have given you much scripture to read in this study. Stay in the near God's Word, learn it, memorize it and tell others what you have learned.
That way we can abide in Jesus and He will abide in us.
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Until next time......
"It troubles alot of people that Christ died to exalt Christ. Boiled down to its essence, 2 Corinthians 5:15 says Christ died for us that we might live for him. In other words, he died for us so that we make much of him. Bluntly, Christ died for Christ. Now that is true. It's not a word trick. The very essence of sin is that we have failed to glorify God- which included failing to glorify his Son (Romans 3:23). But Christ died to bear that sin and to free us from it. So he died to bear the dishonor that we had heaped on him by our sin. He died to turn this around. Christ died for the glory of Christ."
-John Piper (The Passion of the Christ, 2004, p. 82)
Blessings,
Ruth
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