The Living Water: Lesson Nineteen

"Husbands love your wives,

just as Christ also loved the church

and gave Himself up for her,

that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water

by the word..."

Ephesians 5:25-26

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Let's pray...........

"Father, we have studied here about how You use Your word to cleanse us and purify us. I praise You for giving us a way to be in Your presence. Without You we are nothing. Thank You for showing us how to please You.

I seek forgiveness of sins today as I know that my thoughts and my words have not always pleased You this day. I know that it is against You that I have sinned. I pray, Lord, that You will wash me with Your water and cleanse me with Your word.

I pray for each lady reading this study that You will wash her with Your word and sanctify her for Your good works. Bless her with every spiritual blessing and renew a steadfast spirit within her.

in Jesus' name......amen."

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John 4:25

"The woman said to Him, 'I know Messiah is coming' (who is called the Christ). 'When He comes, He will tell us all things.'"

Messiah

In this encounter with the woman at the well, we read how the woman was stirred up by the Holy Spirit to speak about the coming of the Messiah...the Christ (in Greek).

In her pagan religion, she was told about the coming of the Messiah, the Annointed One, who would bring life to the believers.

In this conversation with the Lord, we see that she has been made to think about the Messiah to come. Something in this "visitor" before her has stirred up these beliefs. Jesus had confronted her sin, spoke to her about true worship of the One True God....and now she is thinking about the Christ she was told of in the past.

Please read:

Matt 16:13-17

In this conversation with His disciples, the Lord asks them who they say that He is....and Peter, stirred by the Holy Spirit, names Him "the Christ".

Contrast this conversation with the one Jesus had with the rich young ruler:

Luke 18:18-23

Here Jesus questions the rich young ruler about what is good...and only God is good. Jesus challenges the young man's sincerity and flattery by suggesting that he doesn't know what is good unless he knows Jesus as God.

Next, the Lord convicts the young man by listing the commandments. Instead of being stirred by the Holy Spirit, the young man is confident in himself and fails the Lord's test to sell all he has and give it to the poor. Then the Lord asks him to follow Him and be one of His disciples.

Did the rich young ruler recognize the voice of his Shepherd?

"But when he heard this, he became very sorrowful, for he was very rich."

When he heard the words of the Lord, he remained unchanged and uncalled. He did not know his shepherd's voice....he did not follow.

The Samaritan woman has the faith of a believer in the coming of the Messiah, but, as Jesus pointed out, she does not know who the Messiah truly is. Yet her faith has brought her to this point. Jesus is close to changing her life forever.

She hears the voice of her Shepherd....will she be changed? We'll soon see.........

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Life Application

"When He comes, He will tell us all things....."

How many of us are really praying for the Lord to come and come quickly?? How many of us can hardly wait to see His face?

I once heard a Christian woman exclaim that she did not want the Lord to come yet because her son was only 5 and she wanted to have grandchildren.

This was obviously spoken by a Christian woman who does not know all about the Lord, His word, and what it means to be in His presence.....As wonderful as the experience of having grandbabies is, I guarantee seeing the Lord will be a much more glorious experience.

I used to think like this woman did when I was younger. I did not want the Lord to come yet because I wanted to do so much living. But now that I see the world and all the evil in it....I pray for the Lord to return now!

What happens when we set our sights on things of the earth? Our eyes become dimmed and unfocused.

Please read:

Ps 49:6-9

Job 31:24-28

Ps 52:7

Here the poor Samaritan woman obviously hopes on the coming of her Messiah. She has lived and experienced pain in her life (imagine 5 husbands!) and now she just wants to see this Annointed One who will tell her all things. Is He real? Will He come? Her faith is contagious.

2 Tim 1:12

Our God is able and will keep His promise.

As Christians, it is our duty to serve our Lord. It is our duty to put the each thought captive to Christ. We are to pray for the coming of the Lord....desire it far more than riches of this temporary dwelling.

2 Cor 10:4-6

1 Tim 6:17-19

Like the woman at the well, we must deeply hope and desire the coming of the Messiah who will tell us all things. Desire it, pray for His coming....hope in the Lord.

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Until next time.........

"We are those to whom these things especially belong. We may hear Christ saying to us this day, 'I have given you an example that ye should do as I have done.' For the words of Christ in the text were not only spoken to the twelve, but are also spoken unto us. We have now had respresented to us, though in a very imperfect manner, the example that Christ has set, and what reasons there are that we above all others, should imitate it.

It is not only our great duty, but will be our greatest honor, to imitate Christ and do the work that He has done, and so act as co-workers with Him."

-Jonathan Edwards(1703-1758)

(Altogether Lovely, 1997, p. 196)

Blessings,

Ruth

Running the Good Race

Wednesday-

Had to sub today. 4th graders...they were terrible! Boy are they gonna get it by their teacher tomorrow!

Anyways, ran 2 miles on the treadmill and did some weights tonight. Have to sub tomorrow morning, so I will run on the treadmill that evening before Bible study.

So far, training has been good...............

The Living Water: Lesson Eighteen

"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

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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."

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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

Running the Good Race

Tuesday-

Ran 4 miles in 40 minutes this morning. It was only 87 degrees out and breezy. Felt much better. I was a bit sluggish at first I think because I had a heavy dinner the night before (burgers and hot dogs...) but still felt much better.

Have to sub tomorrow, so I will do the treadmill after work.

The Living Water: Lesson Seventeen

"And in that day it shall be

That living waters shall flow from Jerusalem,

Half of them toward the eastern sea

And half of them toward the western sea;

in both summer and winter it shall occur.

And the LORD shall be King over all the earth.

In that day it shall be-

'The LORD is one,'

And His name is one."

-Zechariah 14:8-9

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Good day! Let's begin our time with prayer....

"Father, thank You for the day to some where all will see You as You are. I come here today to praise You for beign King over all the earth. You alone are our savior and God.

I ask forgiveness of my sins. I know that I have not worshiped You properly at times this week. I know I put myself and other worldly things before You and I pray that You will forgive me of these sins against You.

I pray for each lady here reading this study. I pray that You will show her how to worship You in spirit and truth. I pray that You will listen to the concerns of her heart as she whispers her prayers to You. I pray that You will show her how to depend on You for all her cares.

In Jesus' name...........amen."

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One thing I learned when entering into the prison to do Bible study, was how much the women there truly wanted to learn how to study God's word and pray to Him. We teachers would bring a prayer request book for the inmates to write down their prayer requests so that we could keep a record of when the Lord answered those prayers.

It was wonderful to see how faithful the Lord was to these ladies as they lifted their cares up to Him. We teachers prayed so hard for these women. Sometimes, usually, when they left the prison we would never hear from them again. It was painful to us because we thought they were serious when they came to our Bible studies, serious about the Lord. But once they left, I guess they wanted no memories of the prison....and that included us. It would break our hearts.

I can only imagine how hard it must have been for the Lord to see them walk away from Him as well after He had done so much to help them get through the tough times behind bars.

It is humbling because I know I have poured my heart out to Him as well only to leave Him behind once I made it through the tough times.

That is why I am so glad we serve a faithful God.

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John 4:23

"But the hour is coming, and now is, when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him."

In our last lesson, we read about how Jesus was able to correct and rebuke the Samaritan woman about how she worships the God whom she does not know and how salvation comes through the Jews. We looked at what it is that we Christians worship: the gospel of God.

Here we will look at how Jesus is hinting to this Gentile woman that the time for the Jews and Gentiles to be divided is at an end because of what He will do: destroy the earthly temple so that God can dwell within us....and how He will leave so the Holy Spirit can come to believers and make us living temples of God.

Please read:

John 4: 24

1 John 3:24

1 John 5:6-8

True worship entails the believer entering the presence of the Father by faith to praise and worship Him from anywhere. Because of Jesus, we no longer have to enter into a physical place on earth.

Because of the giving of the Holy Spirit, we can draw near to God. Jesus tells the woman at the well that soon all will be able to worship the One True God in spirit and truth.

John 14: 17

John 15:26

John 16:13

1 Cor 3:16-17

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"For the Father is seeking such to worship Him...."

We have read here before that our Lord is the Good Shepherd. I would love to do a study here on "Jehovah-Raah- the Lord Our Shepherd" soon. That would be a good study.

Anyway, we have seen in scripture how man does not seek after God. On the contrary, it is He who seeks after those who worship in spirit and truth.

Please read:

John 10:3

John 20:16

John 10:4

John 10:11-15

The Lord was rebuking both the Jewish people and the Samaritans when He spoke to the woman at the well because He knew that the Jews weren't worshiping the Lord as they should and the Samaritans had made up their own religion.

Jesus was once again hinting to this woman that the time of Samaritan and Jewish worship was at an end....for He would usher in the new way of worshiping God once and for all. Jesus hints that perhaps she is one of those who the Lord seeks out to worship Him in spirit and truth.

Afterall, He sought her out.

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Life Application

"...worship in spirit and truth..."

Please read:

Ps 25:5

Ps 31:3-5

God of Truth. This is whom we worship. Praise God that we Christians know TRUTH.

It can be hard to worship our Lord. My son often asks if there is a loving God in the heavens, then why is there evil in the world?

Many people, even believers, have trouble with the concept of evil when we know there is a God.

The truth can be hard to take. We all know of people who have lost loved ones....by either accident, murder, war, or disease. How do you comfort a mother who lost her 2 yr. old daughter to brain cancer? Or a mother who lost her 20 yr. old daughter in a drive-by shooting? Or parents who recently lost 2 sons...yes TWO sons...to war.

Words cannot comfort at times like these, but if we truly believe God is who He says He is, then there is some comfort in knowing that He is sovereign and causes all things to happen for His good to those who love Him and have been called according to His purpose.

So, I tell my son, as I tell you here, there is a purpose to evil in this world: it either pushes us away from God or it brings us closer to Him.

As with Cain.....the evil he did set him apart from the Lord forever.

But with King David, who also committed murder to cover his sin....the evil he did brought him closer to the Lord because He was called according to God's purpose.

John 8:32

John 14:6

John 16:13

2 Tim 2:24-25

1 John 5:6

This is the truth. Apply this truth to your life. The One whom we serve has a divine purpose in all that He does.

Even when He stops at a well to ask for a drink of water...........

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Until next time.........

"'Why did this happen?' and 'Who is responsible?' causes us to look from our adversity backward into our lives and past events. Asking, 'How should I respond to adversity?' turns our focus forward. It is the most productive, helpful, and positive response we can make in a time of trouble.

The disciples of Jesus no doubt stood at Calvary wondering why such a horrible thing as the crucifixion of their Master had taken place. Humanly speaking, the crucifixion of Jesus made no sense at all to them. Their dreams were shattered. They had seen their beloved leader suffer and die before their very eyes.

The disciples might well have asked, 'Who was responsible for this?' Roman or Jewish leaders? The clamouring crowd that had been so easily assembled and whipped into a frenzy? Sin? Satan? God? The answer is yes to all!

Yet Christ's response to the heavenly Father was to allow God to use a terrible form of adversity to fulfill God's plan of salvation and to achieve an eternal and marvelous good.

And that's the response you are to have today."

-Charles Stanley (Advancing Through Adversity, 1996, p. 18)

Blessings,

Ruth

Running the Good Race

Monday-

Yesterday was my rest day....but I did do pilates for stretching.

Ran 3 miles on the treadmill with some hills this morning as well as weights. Hopefully, it will be cloudy and a little cooler tomorrow. The weather report says rain this week...we'll see!

Running the Good Race

Saturday-

Much better! Went running at 6:30 this morning and the clouds were hiding the hot sun. It was great! I ran 5 miles in 50 minutes and felt pretty good. I didn't sleep well last night (Nathan had a friend spend the night and I couldn't sleep until they went to sleep which was after 1am...)

But the shoes felt good and my achilles tendons weren't sore at all. I have some new blisters from the new shoes, but that happens.


Hope to run some hills on the treadmill and do some weights tomorrow.