May 25
2 Kings 12:9-14:29; John 7:25-53
It’s nice to be back Bible blogging! God bless you on this Memorial Day.
If you’ve been reading the Gospels all along, have you noticed how different John is from the others? The first three are called the Synoptic Gospels, and they share a lot of similar stories about Jesus – many people believe that Matthew and Luke based their Gospels on Mark’s and then added different stories and sayings of Jesus. John, however, is very different. It has many more extended discourses, where Jesus talks about himself and God. John also has many stories of Jesus not found in the other Gospels, like the story of Nicodemus (ch. 3) and the Samaritan woman at the well (ch. 4).
Here is a passage from today’s reading:
John 7:37-39 37
On the last day of the festival, the great day, while Jesus was standing there, he cried out, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me, 38and let the one who believes in me drink. As the scripture has said, ‘Out of the believer’s heart shall flow rivers of living water.’” 39Now he said this about the Spirit, which believers in him were to receive; for as yet there was no Spirit, because Jesus was not yet glorified.
When John says “as yet there was no Spirit,” he means that the gift of the Holy Spirit was not yet given to the disciples, not that the Holy Spirit did not yet exist. Of course, you see the Holy Spirit active in the Bible long before Jesus was glorified after his Resurrection. In John 1, for example, we read of the Spirit descending on Jesus at his baptism. The deeper question for us is, Are we thirsty? Do we come to Jesus for refreshment? Do rivers of living water flow from our hearts to refresh others?
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Monday, May 25, 2009
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