Running the Good Race

Wednesday-

Decided just to do weights today. Need to rest up my legs. Will make tomorrow my rest day since I sub that day, teach at GCC that night, and have Bible study after.

So, Friday will be my long run day since Nathan has no school. Things are busier now that my course at GCC has started. It's harder to find time to run!

Running the Good Race

Tuesday-

I decided to run after my class at GCC. I ran 4 miles in about 45 minutes. I was slower today because it was still about 103 when I ran and I forgot to bring water. Ick!

The heat is really hard for me. I cannot wait for the cooler air to come.

Monday I just did pilates and stretched. Hopefully, tomorrow I will run my 5 miles if it isn't too hot out at night.

The Living Water-Lesson Twenty-Two

"Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance

of faith, having our hearts sprinkled

from an evil conscience and our

bodies washed with pure water."

Hebrews 10:22

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Let's seek the Lord in prayer...

"Father God, this day I come to You and seek Your name among many names. I know that Your name heals, comforts, and renews me. I praise You and thank You for the washing of pure water. You alone are worthy of our adoration and our worship.

I ask forgiveness of my sins today. I know that I have often put my trust in the practical and pragmatic ways of this world. I know that I have let anxiety and fear take over my emotions. I pray that You will forgive me and wash me clean this day.

I pray for the ladies reading this study. I pray that they will seek You earnestly today. I pray that they will set aside time to worship You and cast all their cares upon You.

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

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John 4:28

"The woman then left her waterpot, went her way into the city, and said to the men..."

Pragmatism

Using what works because we know it works: that's practicality.

The only problem is, how do we know "it" works at all?

The Samaritan woman came to the well to draw her own water as she must have done daily. She brought her own waterpot to use for the well was deep. As we have been studying here, we know that this way of life had worked for her so far: marrying men, coming to the well at an odd hour so as not to see the women, trusting in the religion of her people, hoping on the arrival of the Messiah.

Until now...for she had met someone new. A man who did not tell her some things, but He told her all the things of her life. A Jewish man who did not refuse her or reject her, this man spoke with her and asked her for a drink.

Her world was about to be turned upside down and what had worked for her in the past was no longer going to work for her in the present or the future.

Jesus was not pragmatic, nor should we be. The disciples were pragmatic and they missed out on so much.

"The woman left her waterpot...."

She dropped her vessel which she used to satisfy her physical needs. For John to write this bit of information here in this chapter, we are wise to stop and ponder what this meant.

Remember back to when you were first saved. Did you leave behind your original plans to begin the works of the Lord? Did you want to tell everyone you knew about what happened to you? What changes did you feel deep inside? How have those feelings changed? Are the stronger or weaker now?

Not only was this woman changed by her meeting with Jesus, but now she was willing to go into the city and tell the men what had happened. For this woman to go and speak to the men was telling.

Meeting Jesus changes everything:

Please read:

John 1:47-51

John 10: 35-39

John 11:38-44

Matt 8: 5-13

Matt 15: 21-28

Matt 15:29-31

Matt 20: 29-34

Yet, not everyone who came in contact with Jesus was changed. Jesus only revealed Himself to those chosen to follow or believe in Him. Others, He saved or spoke to for His own purposes:

Matt 9:32-34

Matt 12:22-24

Matt 12:38-42

Even a small village of Samaritans rejected Jesus:

Luke 9:51-56

These Samaritans would not receive Jesus so He went to another village.....and soon we will study how the people believed.

God chooses for Himself His own and He seeks them out and brings them to Himself.

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Life Application

"...went her way into the city, and said to the men...."

The Samaritan woman had a new found trust in the Lord. She was a new creature in Christ now because He revealed Himself to her. Let's review how He did this:

He sat at the well and waited for her.

He spoke to her.

He hinted that He had what she had been searching for all her life.

She asked about the living water.

He convicted her of her sins.

She confessed.

He revealed to her what she ought to worship.

She revealed her faith and hope in the coming Messiah.

Jesus revealed Himself as the Messiah.

It is truly a beautiful picture of how Christ works. No pragmatism here! He seeks us out, waits for us, speaks to us, woos us to Himself, hints that He is all we will ever need. He then convicts us of our sins, purges us of our sins. Finally, He puts in us that faith and hope in Him only to reveal Himself to us fully.

Please read:

Ps 37:3-5

Ps 71:1-3

Ps 16:8-9

Ps 119:147-148

We are so blessed...more so than the Samaritan woman...in that we have the Bible. The Special Revelation of God is right here in our hands. We can pick it up and revisit these verses over and over when times get hard. The Samaritan woman met face to face with Jesus, that cannot be denied, but we have the complete revelation of God:

John 20:26-29

Ps 119:11

Ps 119:50

Ps 119:105

Jer 20:7-9

1 Cor 12:7-8

Praise be to God that we were given the Word of Truth by the Spirit of God. We are blessed, for though we have never seen Him.....yet we believe.

The woman at the well was brave to go into the city to speak to the men. I am certain the men knew of her reputation. Five husbands! Imagine the rumours. Yet, she left behind her earthly purpose to begin the works of the Lord. The new believer is often more brave than older believers. I remember when my husband became a believer at age 18. He wanted to tell all his old friends about the Lord. He even invited some to church. I knew they wouldn't show, but I didn't say a word. He waited outside the church for his friends to show up, but they never did. But he was brave to tell them about how Jesus changed his life!

J. Hudson Taylor wrote:

"Some are jealous to be successors of the Apostles; I would rather be a successor of the Samaritan woman, who, while they went for food, forgot her waterpot in her zeal for souls"(Believer's Bible Commentary, 1995, p.1486).

Leave your "waterpot" of pragmatism behind.... and go be brave. Tell others all that the Lord has done for you!

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

"We should admire the love of Christ to men, that He has thus given Himself to be the remedy for all their evil, and a fountain of all good. Christ has given Himself to us, to be all things to us that we need. We want clothing, and Christ not only gives us clothing, but He gives Himself to be our clothing that we might put Him on. Galations 3:27: 'For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.'...When it was needed that He should be incarnate, He refused it not, but became a man, and appeared in the form of a servant. When it was needed that He should be slain, He refused it not, but gave Himself for us, and gave Himself to us upon the cross.

Here is love for us to admire, for us to praise, and for us to rejoice in, with joy that is full of gory forever."

-Jonathan Edwards(1703-1758)

(Altogether Lovely, 1997, pp.113-114)

Blessings,

Ruth

The Living Water: Lesson Twenty-One

"When He had said these things, He spat on the ground

and made clay with the saliva;

and He anointed the eyes of the

blind man with the clay.

And He said to him, 'Go, wash

in the pool of Siloam' (which is translated, Sent).

So he went and washed, and came back seeing."

John 9:6-7

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Hello again! Let's seek the Lord...........

"Father, thank You for this day that we may see. Thank You that You endured death and shame for us and our sins that we may have sight in this dark and wicked world. Thank You for being the Light of this world.

I seek forgiveness of my sins. Forgive me for sometimes preferring the dark. Forgive me of the sins I know and the hidden sins of my heart. I pray that You will wash me and give me sight.

I pray for each lady here today. I pray that she will seek Your face in scriptures. I pray that You will reveal to her some new insights into Your word and give her hope.

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

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John 4:27

"And at this point His disciples came, and they marveled that He talked with a woman; yet no one said, 'What do You seek?' or, 'Why are You talking with her?'"

Jesus had left behind His physical desires to sit by the well and wait for the Samaritan woman to come and draw water. Yet His disciples decided to leave and find food to satisfy their physical desires.

There is such a contrast between the two experiences. We, as mortal beings, can learn a lot from reading and studying Jesus' ways of evangelizing. How often do we put our physical needs ahead of the works of the Lord? It is humbling, isn't it??

The disciples return from gathering food to find Jesus talking to a woman. In the first century, it was unheard of for men to speak to women...especially Jewish men to Gentile women....yet here was Jesus talking to the Samaritan woman. The scripture claims that no one said anything of it. Wise choice!

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The disciples' response to Jesus' conversation with the woman shouldn't surprise us. It should convict us. How many times do we allow our prejudices to deter us from spreading the gospel message?

Please read:

Ps 25:8-11

It is easy for us to forget why Jesus came and what our condition was when He saved us.

Matt 9:1-8

Here we see such strong faith in men who brought their paralyzed friend to Jesus. How did Jesus respond to the act? How did the scribes respond?

Matt 9:8-13

Why would Jesus choose to eat with the most despised of all people? Why would He enter into this man's house? How did Jesus respond? How did the Pharisees, men of God, respond?

Hosea 6:6

Is 1:12-17

Micah 6:6-8

John 17:3

What was the mission of the Christ? Was it to speak only to the men of the Law or to heal the sinners and forgive them their sins?

Remember the Irresponsible Shepherds:

Ez 34:1-10

"Woe to the shepherds of Israel who feed themselves!"

Contrast that with the Good Shepherd:

Ez 34:11-24

"I will seek what was lost and bring back what was driven away, bind up the broken and strengthen what was sick; but I will destroy the fat and the strong, and feed them in judgment."

Is 10:16

Jer 10:24

The prejudices of the scribes and Pharisees was so cruel in contrast to the compassion of Jesus that it should convict us of our sins. We need to remember from where we came:

1 Tim 1:15

For Jesus to forgive sins was his claim to divine authority:

Is 43:25

Is 1:18

Jesus chose the poor Samaritan woman of ill repute to reveal Himself for the first time in His earthly ministry as Messiah. He chose to wash her and open her eyes. Perhaps the disciples did not spealk nor question Jesus because they sensed this authority or they may have overheard Jesus' "I AM" statement and were in awe.

One thing we can know, Jesus came to save sinners not to eat with the righteous. If He did, He would have been totally alone in the world. It was easy for the disciples to forget from where they had come and to were they were going.

But we have the Bible to remind us daily. We can have our eyes washed and come back seeing.

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Life Application

"Why are you talking with her?"

Heading into the prison was hard on me at first. I had worked in the courts for many years up to that point, so I wasn't afriad (although hearing those doors slam shut behind you makes you shudder...) of what I would face. I was a little proud of myself in the ol' "I am better than they are" mold even though I had no right to feel that way. I was letting my prejudices get the best of me.

That ego I had was soon put to rest after I spoke to each inmate and heard their stories. I will never forget listening to one young woman aged 21 yrs. tell me how she lost all 3 of her children to foster homes because of her drug habit and the dangers she put them in. With tears streaming down her face she wondered if the Lord could ever forgive her for losing her kids. She signed over her parental rights to the courts and knew she would probably never see her 3 young children again.

As I sat holding her hand, my mind went to my little boy who was about 6 yrs. old at the time. I wondered how I could handle losing him because of the foolish mistakes I had made. Could God forgive me?

Please read:

Matt 1:21

The name "Jesus" means "Savior".

John 1:29

Who did Jesus come to save? This young woman in prison. "Yes," I told her. "Jesus can forgive you your sins." He came to "bind up the broken and strengthen what was sick."

Together we cried and the Lord really spoke to my heart. I realized then and there I was no better nor worse than any of these inmates. It was by the grace of God that I wasn't in prison with them. God chose a different path for me to take.

1 Tim 1:9-11

Heb 7:26

We are ambassadors of Jesus now. We wear His cloak on our backs....His name on our hearts...His identity as much as we bear the names of our husbands and the wedding rings on our fingers. "I am my beloved's and my beloved is mine..."

2 Cor 5:20-21

Now we are the righteousness of God in Him.

So, go and take that Light, that knowledge, and give it to the world. There are so many who need to hear the words of Christ and the gospel of God. So many sinners need the washing and the healing of Christ. That is what we are here to do.

Ask them, "What do you seek?" and show them the way.

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

"Christ puts strength and a principle of new life into the weary soul that comes to Him. The sinner, before he comes to Christ, is a sick man who is weakened and brought low, and whose nature is consumed by some strong distemper: he is full of pain, and so weak that he cannot walk nor stand. Therefore, Christ is compared to a physician. 'But when Jesus heard that, He said unto them, 'They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick'' (Mark 2:17). When He comes and speaks the word, He puts a principle of spiritual life and the beginning of eternal life....So that the fainting, sinking spirits are now revived, and this principle of spiritual life is a continual spring of refreshment, like a well of living water."

-Jonathan Edwards (Altogether Lovely, 1997. p. 106)

Blessings,

Ruth

Running the Good Race

Sunday-

I ran a couple of miles on the treadmill yesterday as well as weight training.

Decided to run 5 miles tonight even though it was still 102 degrees when I started. I felt good at first, but got pretty heated on the way back. Glad I brought water this time! Made it in 50 minutes.

Will rest tomorrow then run again on Tuesday morning.

The Living Water: Lesson Twenty

"When the LORD has washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion,

and purged the blood of Jerusalem from her midst,

by the spirit of judgment and by the burning,

then the LORD will create above every

dwelling place of Mount Zion,

and above her assembles,

a cloud and smoke by day and the

shining of a flaming fire by night.

For over all the glory there will be a covering.

And there will be a tabernacle for shade in the daytime

from the heat, for a place of refuge,

and for a shelter from storm and rain."

Isaiah 4:4

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Hello again...let's begin with prayer:

"Father, thank You for being our covering....our tabernacle...our shelter from storm and rain. I praise You for remembering Your children and hearing our cries for help. I pray that You will hear our cries of worship and those cries are pleasing in Your ear.

I seek the forgiveness of my sins. Forgive me when I do not cry out to You for help and insist on doing things for myself. This is sin against You. I pray that You will wash me and purge me of these sins.

I pray for each lady reading this study. I pray that You will speak to her heart here in scriptures. I pray that when she reads about her Messiah, that she is filled with joy and a longing to see You and hear Your voice above all other voices in her midst.

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

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John 4:26

"Jesus said to her, 'I who speak to you am He."

In the last lesson, we looked at how the Holy Spirit stirs believers and makes them long for Jesus. We also looked at how we should long for our Messiah to come to "tell us all things" as the poor Samaritan woman did.

She was at a point in her life where she was tired. Her heart was broken and contrite. In her words, you can almost hear the sorrow in her heart for not having a husband. Yet, here she was drawing water at noon like any other day. Going through the motions. What else could she do?

Only, on this day she met a stranger, a Jewish traveler, weary from his journey asking her for water only to tell her that His water would quench her thirst forever.

Jesus chose her at this well to reveal Himself to her as Messiah.

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The longing for the Messiah was prevelant in Old Testament scriptures:

Please read:

Dan 7:13-14

Dan 9:25

Is 55:4-5

Is 57:15-19

Micah 4:1-5

He was seen as a strong political leader who would save the Lord's people from their enemies.

"I who speak to you am."

In the original Hebrew text, the word "He" did not appear. So, Jesus was saying that He is the "I am" of the Old Testament.

Ex 3:14

He was saying, "I AM speaks to you..."

And just imagine what those words must have done to her heart. Jehovah was speaking to her there at Jacob's well. Yes, Jesus is greater than Jacob indeed.

She was looking for the Messiah. She was searching and hoping. And now He speaks to her face-to-face. What an honor that God Himself chose a poor Gentile woman.

John 8:58

Rev 1:8

Mark 14:62

Matt 16:13-17

Acts 9:5

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But Jesus did not satisfy the Jewish people and their notion of who Messiah ought to be. In their minds, they thought he would be a political leader.

Zech 9:9-10

Luke 4:16-21

Here Jesus quotes Isaiah's prophecy of the Messiah and all that he would do:

Isaiah 61:1-2a

Notice that Jesus stops reading at verse 2a. Then He sat down and said, "Today the Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing."

Continue reading Isaiah 61:2a-11

What does it say Messiah will do?

When Jesus read the verses in Isaiah, He did not complete the entire book because His time had not come yet. All the rest of Isaiah will be fulfilled in His second coming.

The role of Messiah was misunderstood:

Is 42:1-4

Jesus preached peace, but He did not come the first time to bring peace:

Matt 10:34-38

Harsh words here. Jesus knew that His "sword" -or His words- would divide deeply. They would sever relationships as close as mother and daughter and father and son. This is not what the people wanted to hear. They wanted a Messiah to fight against the Romans and end persecution of their people.

John 14:27

His peace is not like the world's peace. I get tired of hearing movie stars like George Clooney constantly talk about bringing "peace to the world" knowing that he is speaking of temporary and imperfect peace, not the eternal and perfect peace of God:

Eph 2:14-18

This is the peace Jesus was trying to tell the people, but they would not listen. They still do not listen even to this day.

Matt 12:15-21

Jesus did not want His glory to be made known in His first coming. His glory will be revealed soon....

John 10:30-39

Jesus here explains that in past days, the Judges God put on earth were His servants....but Jesus was more than a servant or a "god" put here on earth. He claimed not to be a god, but the One True God:

Ps 82:6

Only God can judge the earth.

John 10:33

John 5:18

Jesus claimed to be The One True God. And soon He will judge the earth:

Is 4:4

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Life Application

"I who speak to you am..."

The mysteries of Christ have been revealed to us in the Bible:

Please read:

Deut 29:29

God has graciously revealed these things to us.

Eph 3:3-6

Jesus is God in the flesh. Our Messiah came once and is coming again to bring judgment on the earth and to create for us an eternal resting place in His presence.

Rev 21:22-27

We worship the same Jesus who walked this earth and will walk it again:

Heb 13:8

Rev22:12-13

Is 40:10

Is 62:11-12

2 Cor 1:19-21

He is our God...our Anointed One. We worship what we know.........

We are to live as though we long for the coming of our Christ Jesus. This world is our temporaty dwelling...like the Hebrews had their tabernacle....but now we have a eternal home a permanent home with God. It is easy to get caught up in the things of this earth: bills to pay, kids to feed, house to clean, car to fix, etc. The cares of this world can weigh us down. But just remember that in a little while we will see our Savior...our Messiah. He will give us that rest that we long for. That peace we crave will be satisfied once and for all! What a glorious thought.

Pray the the Lord comes quickly to tell us all things!

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

"Christ gives His Spirit that calms the mind, and is like a refreshing breeze of wind. He gives that strength whereby He lifts up the hands that hang down, and strengthens the feeble knees.

Christ gives to those who come to Him such comfort and pleasure as are enough to make them forget all their former labor and travail. A litte of true peace, a little of the joys of the manifested love of Christ, and a little of the true and holy hope of eternal life are enough to compensate for all that toil and weariness, and to erase the remembrance of it from the mind. That peace which results from true faith passes understanding, and that joy is joy unspeakable."

-Jonathan Edwards (Altogether Lovely, 1997, pp. 106-107)

Blessings,

Ruth

Running the Good Race

Friday-

Did not run on Thursday, but I did pilates for stretching.

Had to sub again today, so I am tired. But I ran 4 miles in 40 minutes tonight. It was much cooler outside tonight. Only 95 degrees with a breeze. That helps.

Felt good considering I was tired, but the new shoes are doing great. No knee pain.

Tomorrow I will run on the treadmill and do weights. Sunday will be my long run day: 5.5 miles.

I hope...........