Pouring out living water

The day was probably hot and dry by midday. The woman was thirsty, coming to the well to fetch water.

We know some things about her: she was a foreigner, confused about her religious beliefs even as she clung to the tradition in them, feeling shame and the disapproval of her community. Why else would she have been drawing water at noon when all the women drew water in the morning? She came to avoid the disapproving tongues.

Jesus chose to enter her domain. Most people shunned this woman. While most Jews made a special point of avoiding Samaria – going out of their way to stay out of the hated land – Jesus went out of his way to talk to this woman.

He offered her water that never ran out – the answer to her problems. But while her mind probably flew to the condemnation of her village, Jesus talked about forgiveness and restoration.

Yesterday I raised the topic of Muslim prayer in our town. Should the school board allow Muslims to leave class for regular prayer? How should the Christians respond?

Jesus didn’t boycott the Samaritan religion or condemn it. He jumped right in with both feet, meeting this woman on her turf and talking about life in terms she understood. By the time he was done, this woman and her village had found the Messiah. Revival broke out in a Samaritan town that had been infiltrated by a Jewish rabbi.

I’m still putting the pieces together but I’m looking at Jesus’ life. How would he respond to Muslims praying in a school setting? How did he respond to a Samaritan woman with a skewed religion? He loved her, talked her language, and directed her to the truth.

I think there’s something in that I need to learn.

Whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life."

John 4:14

Which stand?

A small group of refugees have moved into our little farm town, bringing their Islamic beliefs with them. I heard just this week that they are hoping to build a mosque south of the tracks and have petitioned the school board to allow their youth to take moments out of class during the day for their regular pray times.

It’s a stretching sort of challenge and it made me think of Thomas Helwys. Thomas was a 17^th century Englishman at the forefront of the resistance that later birthed the Pilgrims and Puritans.

Thomas wrote a treatise for King James (yes, the one who commissioned the famous Bible translation) entitled A Short Declaration of the Mystery of Iniquity, which detailed his stand on religious freedom, the right of the individual (as opposed to the state) to interpret the Bible for himself, and the separation of church and state. In those days, the king saw himself as the head of the church and freely made laws affecting individual piety. Tithing and even the version of prayer book were dictated by the state.

You could go to prison for withholding from the offering plate or using the wrong hymnal.

Thomas died for religious freedom. King James offered to set him free the moment he recanted, but Thomas refused. He died in Newcastle Prison, passionate to the end for the right to worship without state control.

As I think about this Muslim group who wishes to take their religion into our school system, I am torn. Many in our community are angry – not a bad thing. In some cases, they are being forced to make a religious stand.

I know that, if the Muslims are allowed to disrupt class time for prayer time, that the Christians in our community will queue behind with requests for noontime Bible studies and permission to prayer walk the halls.

It’s an interesting can of worms. As followers of Jesus, we need to know something of our own history. Helwys and others died for religious freedom – for all religions. Helwys was wise enough to know that when we give the state permission to deny one, we have opened the floodgates for the state to regulate all.

What say you? Is our stand to deny other religions? Or to use the freedoms they demand for our own gain?

From my heart

Ever ran a long race and, as you turned a corner, met a vibrant sideline that knew your name and cheered you on? New energy may have surged into your legs and the air in your lungs was just a little sweeter. Encouragement is like that.

Thank you for your support as I write. I am overwhelmed with your enthusiasm and appreciate your help. Some of you have even invited others to Dive In and I think we’ll have a fun time together getting into God’s Word.

I have begun praying for you. I believe God is using the Internet technology to stir work in his kingdom and blogging is a little bit of that. (If you’d like more on that, e-mail me and I’ll send you research I did a couple of years ago on Internet evangelism.)

If you have given me a comment or contacted me in some way, you’re on my prayer list. If you’d like to be added, let me know.

I’d also like to thank my sister, Ann, who is a talented photographer and artist. She did the major work in getting the Dive In logo developed. Please excuse us as we keep tinkering with it. We’re still trying to find the right size to use and also how to attach a link to the log. (And how to make that html code available to you as well. We’re bumbling techies, figuring out just enough to get along but knowing that we don’t know much! If you know more, let me know.)

God bless you for your support and friendship! I appreciate you more than I can write.

Dive In: Joyful Reading

It took me two hours to make my selection at the bookstore because I searched every shelf and every aisle. I was newly stirred in my faith and hunted in this Christian bookstore for the magic key to the Bible.

I knew there was a book that would pry the meaning out and give me the wisdom I longed for. I bought a book that day but I could have saved my money. I had what I needed at home – in quadruplicate.

It was my Bible, in several translations.

The first secret to diving deeper into God’s word is to read it. I wanted to ferret out all the deep truths but I didn’t want to do the work of digging. I thought if I found a trusty guide, I didn’t need to read the Bible much.

I wanted to do a little verse pulling, assuming that would make me wise and knowing. The chapter-verse breakdown of the Bible is not inspired but was established a few hundred years ago to make things easier as we studied. Chapter and verse markings are handy but they can also cripple us.

We sometimes pull a verse out and assume it is a complete unit because it is a complete verse. No. A verse always has to be read in context of the verses – and often the chapters – around it. That means that verse pulling – reading a single verse as my daily devotion – largely misses the meaning of the text. We have to read larger units and read carefully.

I want to challenge you this week to establish a daily reading plan. Think of it as Joyful Reading, rather than bland busywork. Reading God’s love letters is joyful and life-bearing work.

You choose your plan. If you want to read the Bible in a year, there are many plans available (and I will be happy to point you to some if that’s what you want to do.) Maybe your idea is to read a chapter a day. Maybe simply read for 30 minutes (or 20 or 10 or 60!). Maybe you want to alternate between the Old Testament and New Testament. I once used a Bible that incorporated an Old Testament and New Testament text for each daily reading. It was amazing to see parallels!

You may use different tactics for different seasons in your life. It can be changed as you go, but you need to start a daily strategy.

Please pray this week and select a plan.

Also select a time. I used to complain that I couldn’t get up any earlier in the morning or I was exhausted all day. But God clipped my wings. At a teen conference as a sponsor, I heard the speaker address the topic of daily devotions. He challenged the teens to get up at 5 am to meet with the Lord there at the conference.

In a moment of conference giddiness, I told God that I’d do the same if he got me up. (God, not the speaker.) I don’t wake up at 5 am on my own and I didn’t set an alarm clock so I thought I was pretty safe.

You guessed right. The next morning, I was awake at 5 am. After arguing with myself and trying to craft an excuse, I crawled out of bed and had the most amazing time with the Lord I’ve had in years.

Ask God to help you select a time. Get out a Bible and a notebook, read and write. As God reveals insights or questions, write them down. Date this journal and keep it. I do my devotions on my computer and write prayer requests, spiritual insights, questions in a Word document. Some love the feel of fine paper and a nice pen to do their journaling. Ask God to show you what will work for you. And you will probably adjust as you go along.

The important thing is to start.

This is the first step in diving into God’s word. You have to read it to recognize the patterns and the parallels in texts. Today could be the first day in a rest-of-your-life joyful reading of God’s love letters.

If you’d like some accountability on your Joyful Reading Plan, I’ve included a form below where you can log on your own blog what your strategy is. If you’d like, enter your blog url and others can visit your blog.

Dive In with a reading plan.

Next time, we’ll start the discussion on observing the design of a text.

Five Things I Dig About Jesus

I was tagged by Angela at Refresh my Soul and so I’m plunging into the refreshing text of the gospels. What do I respect about Jesus? Here’s my list:

His prayers. I love how he prioritized prayer.

Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed. Mark 1:35

I love how he prayed for his own disciples and for future believers.

My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message. John 17:20

I love how he’s interceding for me right now.

Because he always lives to intercede for them... Heb 7:25

His touch. He touched little children, the unclean (dead, sick, handicapped), and his followers. He encouraged touch. He understood our incredible need for connection and he touched.

The people all tried to touch him, because power was coming from him and healing them all. Luke 6:19

Touch me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have." Luke 24:39

His humility. He came to serve. He gave up the grandeur of heaven, the intimacy of the Father, the purity of paradise to wash feet!

But I am among you as one who serves. Luke 22:27

For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor. (2 Cor 8:9)

But made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant…(Phil 2:7)

His death. It’s a cliché, but Jesus came to die. He willingly endured the suffering and the death to pay my debt. He fulfilled the Father’s plan and bought my freedom.

The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life…John 10:17

And became obedient to death-- even death on a cross! Phil 2:8

His resurrection. But death could not hold him! I love the power of the resurrection. Evil is no longer king but there is hope and life.

He has risen! He is not here. Mark 16:6

Three days later he will rise. Mark 10:34

Now is your time of grief, but I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy. John 16:22

Thanks, Angela! This was a fun morning exercise. Now I’ll tag Ann, Millie Jo and Maxine (but only if you have time!)

Sing to God, O kingdoms of the earth,
sing praise to the Lord, Selah
to him who rides the ancient skies above,
who thunders with mighty voice.

Psalms 68:32-33

The always of joy

Her eyes sparked with anger and we were all too young and wide-eyed to have a response. “God can’t expect us to be joyful all the time. That’s not possible. Do you think a girl who has been raped and beaten is joyful? NO! This can’t be true.”

We were studying Philippians, and had zeroed in on the fourth verse of chapter 4: Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Having no answer for her, we slunk home and wondered just what Paul meant, anyway.

Today, I might point her to James. He talked about joy, too, and he coupled it to difficulties: Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds. (James 1:2)

Why? To develop perseverance. To develop character. To become mature and complete. (See James 1:3-4)

God tests us but he never tempts us. James assures us of that a few verses later (1:13). On the front side, an event can look like either a test or temptation. But God always uses tests to make us better. Temptation comes to tear us down, to pull us into destruction. Our response will either draw us closer to God, or we will push him away.

My goal in following Jesus is to look more and more like him, to become more molded to his character. Any test that helps me grow closer to him and toward maturity is a good thing.

God births maturity in us, often through tests. The pain of childbirth evaporates with that first newborn cry. I can welcome a test, knowing what will emerge at the end: maturity.

Joy is not a happy-happy lack of difficulty. Joy is the awareness of God’s grace maturing me in the midst of difficulties. It is the resting in his presence, knowing his hand is molding me and sculpting me like soft clay. I am always changed by tests. Rejoice always that God intends it for my good.

Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Heb 12:2