Love when you look at something old and see something new.
(This was a VSP – very short post 🙂 )
Second looks
Thirsty
I wonder if Jesus ever got His drink of water from the woman at the well? It does tell us He was walking from Judea to Galilee and that He was tired and sat down there. Reasonable enough to be tired since it would have been at least a two day walk between the two places. A walk they undertook quite frequently.
I wondered if asking her for a drink was just a conversation starter… while it may have partly been, I recon He was genuinely thirsty too, but the story doesn’t fill in that detail as it flips over to the way the conversation went. Telling her to go get her husband was certainly a way of honing His point being that she didn’t have one – and He knew it.
So He communicates with someone from a region where the people typically ignore/hate/despise each other. Much is made of the fact Jews wouldn’t associate with Samaritans but the feeling was entirely mutual. It was just as big a deal in terms of race/history, that she spoke to Him as well.
He asks to drink from her vessel as he has nothing to drink from – this is just not done!
He then suspends His own need for drink and food to have this conversation. He engages with her, knowing her sin, knowing her story, and knowing her thirst. All three things concurrent. All three things making her who she was. All three things making her receptive… but not just receptive – READY.
While things were seriously messed up between the people groups, they did have shared ancestors and history. Both regarded the other as wrong.
But she knew her beans.
She knew there was a Messiah coming. Not just as rumour… but belief. Her readiness enabled her to not defend her sin or reject Him. She grabbed His message and told everyone she could to come hear what He had to say. And they did. And instead of being unwelcome, He stayed there for two days. And many came to believe in Him. And not because they had no sin, but because they did.
Context!
Moving through Genesis, thinking about marriage.
Events that are recorded in the Bible are sometimes exactly that.
A record of events. It’s a mistake to assume every event in the Bible is there as a stamp of approval, a recommendation, or a permission.
Continue reading “Context!”Marriage and mercury
Once when I was little I broke an old mercury thermometer.
Mum found me playing with this liquid metal in my hands – watching it pull apart and flow perfectly back into itself.
Continue reading “Marriage and mercury”Sorting it out
Reading Job with the four schoolies. Skipped a pretty massive section as a) I was getting weary of all the hot air and fine sounding words of Jobs buddies b) 2/4 kids felt the same and c) I want to have time to do Genesis before Mr Nearly 17 finishes school in a few months time.
Jobs buddies do waffle on. And they do say some worthwhile things in amongst the waffle, it’s the unscrambling that makes me impatient. Like this morning we read across a chapter where Eliphaz must tell Job half a dozen times to shut up and listen but also to speak up if he’s got anything to say. We did get a laugh out of that but basically I just want to cut to the chase. What does God say?
That’s the point that really matters – anywhere, anytime, but particularly when reading and trying to apply the book of Job!
From and to
Rebellion and freedom are not synonymous.
Though sometimes they might look it.
Frequently they feel it.
But it all depends on the from and the to.
(This was a VSP – very short post 🙂 )
Dirty drinking water
The devil is very good at muddying the water.
The processes of the first five verses of Genesis 3 are:
• Question with possible misquotation
• Successful engagement
• Adding to His words
• Contradiction
• Undermining
Angry Psalmist
David must’ve been reeeeeally cheesed off by someone when he wrote Psalm 140. If you are cheesed off tonight maybe look it up…
(This was a VSP – very short post 🙂 )
Other peoples kids
Have you ever noticed how different you are with other peoples children than your own? While we love our own with a deathly passion, we tend to be that bit more measured with other peoples kids… that bit politer… that bit more careful… I know I’m not the only one here…
I’m currently working through the ripple thoughts of what it might mean if I always carried the cognitive awareness that these kids are HIS before they’re ours… HIS on loan for a season… HIS on trust.
At the moment this new question hit me… it led me to a place of tears and repentance… this is NOT something I need comfort in… I have yielded it to HIM which means all is well and comforting someone when repentance is doing it’s work, gets in the way of it completing and cleaning out the core. I don’t think this work is quite finished in me yet… I want it to change me more completely…
And the ripples from this. The ripples go on and on. Each one of us is His in the sense of being His own loved creation… do I treat others with this full knowledge? Do I treat His earth with this full knowledge? Do I have a full and working knowledge of it for my very own self?
It’s a work in progress.
Progress is good. And this makes me smile.
Mums are AMAZING!
When you have your first baby, you are besotted-in-love, the going is wonderful but hard for a while and eventually you find your groove. Then comes baby no 2. Once again you are besotted-in-love, the going is wonderful but hard for a while and eventually you find your groove. Depending on a variety of factors this may be repeated as many times as required/desired but eventually the last one takes you through that process.
Continue reading “Mums are AMAZING!”