Be With Me: 7 Minutes of Biblical Wonder

If you have ever heard something about God and felt RAGE or WRATH well up within you, you are in good company.  You are not the first in the company of most of humanity.  There is all kinds of stuff about God where our first reaction is that I don't like it.  But too, you are also likely in the company of God Himself.  It probably means that God is near.

God was near to the Nazarenes literally and opportunistically.  They responded in WRATH and tried to throw Jesus off a cliff.  They were "triggered" by a story of RAGE and also of GRACE from 2 Kings 5.  It is about NAAMEN.  He is an enemy of Israel.  In fact, he personally led the army against Israel.  He has a captive girl from Israel IN HIS HOUSE!  Talk about a person non-grata!

Yet, the Lord is good to him.  The Lord is near to him.  The Lord uses this slave girl to meet him, heal him and show favor to him.  If that makes you angry, you are in good company!

The Hometown folks of Jesus are filled with WRATH and want to throw Him off of a cliff because of...wait for it...a story about a WIDOW.

Unfortunately, she is not one of us.  She demonstrates God's activity and favor to a people group that is not US.  This widow is outside the borders of Israel geographically, racially, and religiously.  But she is not outside the purview of God.  She is not outside the FAVOR of God.  She is not outside the activity of God. So this makes me want to...KILL JESUS.

They went a long way quickly as Jesus visits Nazareth.  They were probably having a parade for welcoming Him home when it went so very bad.  Jesus is expanding His kingdom to non-jews, Samaritans, women and now people outside the borders of Israel.

If you are far away from the borders of the kingdom of God, this is worth a listen.  

By the end of this encounter with Jesus, His hometown crowd wanted to throw Him off of a cliff to kill Him.  It starts all sunny, but this goes bad in a hurry. Really bad.

Jesus has been elsewhere in the region doing healings.  Certainly when He gets to His hometown, He'll give us as least as much as them.  It's Joseph's kid.  He OWES it to us.

Reading the Old Testament in Synagogue.  All Good so far.
Picking Isaiah to read from.  All Good.
Proclaiming healings, forgiveness, un-blinding, freedom and un-oppression. All Good
Saying the Old Testament is about ME.  Still Good.

But what about that Capernaum place? We have heard You did good things there. Surely now that you are home, You'll give us the goods. Right?  You'll Do what we want.  You'll do what we want or we will reject you.  Or kill you in a horrible, prolonged way if necessary.

I think Nazareth would like a do-over.  I think it would start like they did with marveling.  But then it would call for humility and worship and repentance for the way they finished with Him the first time. Perhaps we can do it right the first time.

There are PAIN POINTS of this life that cause us to give Jesus a try.  For the man with a child near death it was his hardest thing.

Jesus challenges him by asking for BELIEF before the rainbow; Faith before the miracle.  And he DOES believe BEFORE seeing.  I think everybody will believe AFTER seeing someday.  Every knee is going to bow eventually.

So why bow now?  Relationship with God.  Being at home with Him all these years until THAT DAY when everybody is believing not by faith but by sight. 

Believe today BEFORE seeing the rainbow.  If you'd like, ASK Him.  He has promised to HELP.  Please share this message and subscribe.  

Jesus tells the disciples to wake up and uses food as a marker for it.  He wants them to open their eyes to what is happening on an evangelical plane.  People are ready to be brought in the kingdom.  People are ready to start being prepared to be brought into the kingdom.  Some can be harvested.  Some can be planted.

This should be such a frequent process, that between now and their next meal, they should be doing something in this field.  ie: constantly, fervently, with regularity.

Sometimes we will be planting trees from whose fruit other's will harvest.
Sometimes we will be harvesting from trees we did not plant.

Between now and lunch, be ready.  Be active.  Be in the field.

There is a Cracker Jack SURPRISE in every verse today. 

• That Jesus reveals the big secret to the Samaritan Woman
• The disciples are surprised Jesus would talk to a woman
• That she leaves her water jar (her key to water for the "living water" trade)
• That her testimony of, "He told me everyone I ever slept with" actually WORKS
• That MANY Samaritans believe based on her testimony
• That they want this enemy of Samaria, a Jew, to stay and share for two days
• That many more believe then because of JESUS' testimony
• That Jesus wins the Guiness Book of World Records chapter of "World Savior"

Clearly then, your crazy testimony + whatever the Holy Spirit does = is ENOUGH. Hope you enjoy all the Surprises with your snack of scripture today.  

The fact that Jesus reveals Himself to the Samaritan Woman should give everyone of us some comfort.  She wasn't even seeking God.  Even worse, she thought she already possessed Him; already knew Him.  The bad news was she was wrong in many categories.  And further, she was boldly confident in her knucklehood.  

So here is the whammy:  Jesus picks her, specifically, to reveal Himself to.  Of all people in history up to that point, she gets the prize of: "Most direct witness by the almighty God come to earth to save His knuckleheads."

Everybody is a theologian.  She just happened to be a particularly poor one.  Everybody is a moralist.  She just happened to be a particularly poor one.  Everyone decides what to do with their zipper.  She just happened to have made a series of particularly poor decisions. Etc. Etc.

AND YET, this is the person that Jesus DIRECTLY tells that He is the Messiah.

If God can seek a knucklehead like that, perhaps He might even be seeking a knucklehead like me!  Consider that with me for 7 minutes and then share this with the biggest knucklehead you know.  They probably are NEAR TO THE KINGDOM.

We think maybe that 'we'll never find God.'  He's like a needle in a haystack.  He's unfindable.  He's unknowable.  I can never triangulate with the unknowable.

That is not the God of the Bible.  Surprisingly we find out that the God of the Bible has all along been seeking US.  He's showed up.  He has been pursuing all along.  That is, the "Needle-in-the-Haystack" has been seeking us.  Stop right here and picture that for a moment. The needle has been moving toward us all along.  He is doing everything possible for us to find him

There is a moment in the story of the Samaritan Woman that He REVEALS Himself to her.  Just at that moment, maybe before?!, the disciples come back and they realize they have interrupted a divine appointment.  That is, they walk in upon the NEEDLE finding the Haystack-seeker.  I hope you are pricked today.  

In the context of offering a relationship with Himself (living water and right worship) Jesus interrupts the flow of the conversation and basically says, "Let's talk about your sex life!" He uses the sexual history of our spunky Samaritan Woman to expose her need for this living water. Of all the encounters with people, I cannot think of another similar event where Jesus went right at someones zipper.

He says that sex is for marriage.  He says that "having another" is reserved for the garden of marriage.  He says that He is Lord of marriage.  He says that this is under his purview.  He says specifically to her that He sees, He knows, and yes, He has kept count.  The question is, HAS SHE?  And of course, HAVE I? Homework: Make a complete list of every person you have taken sexual pleasure from outside the beautiful boundaries of marriage.  Don't forget to include the physical, the visual, and the mental.  Like her, WHO CAN STAND?  Do I agree with God on this?  Do I agree with the perceiving?

The exposing of her zipper history gives her the opportunity to agree with God (repentance) and then expose it to the living water that Jesus is offering. She needs a savior here.  So do we.  Share this podcast with someone who has done a poor job with their zipper history.  

God has a pool of people that He seeks to worship Him.  They are either a little wrong, medium wrong, or severely wrong.  Just to emphasize the point, we meet the Samaritan Woman.  Two big points:  She is very very very wrong in her religious practice and thinking.  The second is that God is basically saying, "You are EXACTLY the kind of worshiper that I want for my kingdom."

What a kind God that we serve.  His people group is the group that starts so very wrong:
Wrong nation, wrong "holy" book, wrong temple, wrong location, wrong morals, wrong history, wrong practices, even wrong gender.  Does this sound a little like you?

If so, then you are EXACTLY the kind of worshipper that the Lord is seeking.  Just consider, like this mega-wrong woman, that maybe the Lord wants ME?!?!?!?  Listen 7 minutes and wonder.  Then share this podcast with your nearest relative.