The voice of culture is telling women to find their purpose and worth in their own independence, accomplishments, and social status. The voice of the church is often telling women to diminish or dismiss their purpose and worth by remaining quiet, hidden in the shadows of men, and unused in their God-given gifts. We believe the scriptures present a different way. One removed from the entrapments of both progressive culture and church tradition, that rests and flourishes in the beauty and power of the gospel.

For many, marriage is little more than a social contract in which two people team up to get the most out of life. God, however, designed marriage to be so much more. Marriage is primarily a human picture of the mysterious union of Christ and His Church. As such, our marriages shouldn’t mimic the ever-changing societal norms but echo the eternal love story of Jesus and His Bride.

I know what you’re thinking: “Wait, is it even possible to stop sinning?” The religious will always tell you that it is as long as you “take sin seriously.” Our text this week, “The Woman Caught in Adultery” from John 8, tells the story of how the religious tried to accuse Jesus of going light on sin. What the readers discover is that there is far more power and freedom in the Gospel than there is in religion. In fact, Jesus provides so much freedom that you might just stop sinning altogether. 

Man's natural state is described as a parched and dry land absent of the water that would bring him life. Jesus declares himself to be the water we need so that life will spring up from within us. Yet, he doesn't just cause us to be made alive through his living water, he also calls us to be the source of life the people around us need as well. Jesus both is and makes us into a river of life.

There is a primary endeavor in the Gospel of John: that we would know the true Jesus and have eternal life in his name. Many people claim to know the true Jesus, yet the one they claim to know appears very different than the Jesus found in the Bible.

How effective is the will of God the Father and the finished work of Jesus the Son? Are they able to accomplish all that they have determined to? Is human sin or the work of Satan able to thwart the purpose of God in saving His people?

The crowd that followed after Jesus couldn't see or grasp the truth of who He was and what He was doing for them. From an outside perspective it would seem as if Jesus' work was frustrated and had no real guarantee of being fruitful. But Jesus' faith and assurance in His work wasn't ever going to come from the people in the crowd, but it would come from His Fathering Heaven who had sent Him.

When someone talks about the works of God that they should be doing, we tend to hear things like feed the poor, help the widow, shelter the orphan, and so on... However, these works are not the primary work of God we are called to, they flow from a greater work of God in our life. A work that obtains the right standing and eternal life that our lives are working for.