2020 for JESUS - Day 83: JESUS is THE MAN... loving GOD... loving others...

Yesterday, as most church groups met together online instead of at "church buildings",  I thought a lot about being

•  "rules driven" versus "relationship driven" 
• "law driven" versus "love driven".

 How beautiful it was to have JESUS followers meet online, around the globe, because 

• we did not want to forsake meeting together
• we did not want to risk spreading this deadly disease further

Bottom line for JESUS was loving GOD, loving others, and making sure we don't sin, since sin separates us from GOD.  That's why JESUS led a sin free life!

In life we encounter people driven by different goals.  We see it here in John 5:

John 5:1-15

1-  Some time later, JESUS went up to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish festivals. 

2- Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. 

3- Here a great number of disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed-and they waited for the moving of the waters.  

4- From time to time an angel of the LORD would come down and stir the waters.  The first one into the pool after each such disturbance would be cured of whatever disease they had.     

5- One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. 

6- When JESUS saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, HE asked him, “Do you want to get well?”

7- “SIR,” the invalid replied, “I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.”

8- Then JESUS said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” 

9- At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked.

The day on which this took place was a Sabbath, 

10- and so the Jewish leaders said to the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath; the law forbids you to carry your mat.”

11- But he replied, “THE MAN who made me well said to me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’ ”

12- So they asked him, “Who is this FELLOW who told you to pick it up and walk?”

13- The man who was healed had no idea WHO it was, for JESUS had slipped away into the crowd that was there.

14- Later JESUS found him at the temple and said to him, “See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.” 

15-The man went away and told the Jewish leaders that it was JESUS who had made him well.

2020 for JESUS - Day 82: JESUS is LOVING HEALER, even at a distance...

In John 4, we've read about JESUS passing through Samaria, on HIS way north to Galilee from Judea.  Although the people of the north and south countries snubbed Samaritans (in many ways), JESUS modeled what "loving others" looks like. The news about JESUS was spreading, in his home country.  Here's what happened when HE arrived in Galilee...

John 4:43-54 

43- "After the two days HE left for Galilee. 

44 (Now JESUS HIMSELF had pointed out that a PROPHET has no honor in HIS own country.) 

45 When HE arrived in Galilee, the Galileans welcomed HIM. They had seen all that HE had done in Jerusalem at the Passover Festival, for they also had been there.

46 Once more HE visited Cana in Galilee, where HE had turned the water into wine. And there was a certain royal official whose son lay sick at Capernaum. 

47 When this man heard that JESUS had arrived in Galilee from Judea, he went to HIM and begged HIM to come and heal his son, who was close to death.

48 “Unless you people see signs and wonders,” JESUS told him, “you will never believe.”

49 The royal official said, “SIR, come down before my child dies.”

50 “Go,” JESUS replied, “your son will live.”  The man took JESUS at HIS word and departed. 

51 While he was still on the way, his servants met him with the news that his boy was living. 

52 When he inquired as to the time when his son got better, they said to him, “Yesterday, at one in the afternoon, the fever left him.”

53 Then the father realized that this was the exact time at which JESUS had said to him, “Your son will live.” So he and his whole household believed.  

54 This was the second sign JESUS performed after coming from Judea to Galilee."


Today, how are you loving GOD and loving others??!!??!?!?!?!?

2020 for JESUS - Day 81: JESUS is THIS MAN... SAVIOR OF THE WORLD...

John 4:39-42

39- "Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in HIM because of the woman’s testimony, “HE told me everything I ever did.” 

40- So when the Samaritans came to HIM, they urged HIM to stay with them, and HE stayed two days. 

41- And because of HIS words many more became believers.

42 They said to the woman, “We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that THIS MAN really is the SAVIOR OF THE WORLD.”

2020 for JESUS - Day 80: JESUS is MESSIAH... RABBI... ETERNAL LIFE...

I love that the Samaritan woman was aware that there was something really amazing about JESUS!  Yet, more so, during this "pandemic crisis" I am so encouraged to keep my eyes on JESUS and really internalize HIS words in 
John 4:34...  

What is the will and the work of the FATHER for us to accomplish during this time of quarantining and crisis?





John 4:27-38

27- "Just then HIS disciples returned and were surprised to find HIM talking with a woman. But no one asked, “What do YOU want?” or “Why are YOU talking with her?”

28- Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, 

29- “Come, see A MAN WHO told me everything I ever did. Could this be the MESSIAH?” 

30- They came out of the town and made their way toward HIM.

31- Meanwhile HIS disciples urged HIM, “RABBI, eat something.”

32- But HE said to them, “I have food to eat that you know nothing about.”

33- Then HIS disciples said to each other, “Could someone have brought HIM food?”

34- “My food,” said JESUS, “is to do the will of HIM WHO sent ME and to finish HIS work. 

35- Don’t you have a saying, ‘It’s still four months until harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest. 

36- Even now the one who reaps draws a wage and harvests a crop for ETERNAL LIFE, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together. 

37- Thus the saying ‘One sows and another reaps’ is true. 

38- I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labor.”-

2020 for JESUS - Day 79: JESUS is A JEW... GIFT OF GOD... LIVING WATER... SALVATION... TRUTH...

John 4:3-26


3-  So HE left Judea and went back once more to Galilee.

4- Now HE had to go through Samaria. 

5- So HE came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 

6- Jacob’s well was there, and JESUS, tired as HE was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon.

7- When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, JESUS said to her, “Will you give ME a drink?” 

8- (HIS disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)

9- The Samaritan woman said to HIM, “YOU are A JEW and I am a Samaritan woman. How can YOU ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.)

10-  JESUS answered her, “If you knew the GIFT OF GOD and WHO it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked HIM and HE would have given you LIVING WATER.”

11- “SIR,” the woman said, “YOU have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can YOU get this LIVING WATER? 

12- Are YOU greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?”

13- JESUS answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 

14- but whoever drinks THE WATER I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a SPRING OF WATER WELLING UP TO ETERNAL LIFE.”

15-  The woman said to HIM, “SIR, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.”

16- HE told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.”

17- “I have no husband,” she replied.  JESUS said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. 

18- The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.”

19- “SIR,” the woman said, “I can see that YOU are A PROPHET. 

20- Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”

21- “Woman,” JESUS replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the FATHER neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 

22- You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for SALVATION is from the Jews. 

23- Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the FATHER in the SPIRIT and in TRUTH, for they are the kind of worshipers the FATHER seeks. 

24- GOD is SPIRIT, and HIS worshipers must worship in the SPIRIT and in TRUTH."

25- The woman said, “I know that MESSIAH” (called CHRIST) is coming. When HE comes, HE will explain everything to us.”

26- Then JESUS declared, “I, THE ONE speaking to you—I am HE.”

2020 for JESUS - Day 78: JESUS is the WAY to being saved - SALVATION...

As we have read through John 3 and head into John 4, please note here that one is baptized to become a disciple of JESUS!  

John 4:1-3

1-  Now JESUS learned that the Pharisees had heard that HE was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John— 

2- although in fact it was not JESUS who baptized, but HIS disciples. 

3- So HE left Judea and went back once more to Galilee.

Later on, Peter, one of JESUS' disciples, had specific things to say about baptism:

2020 for JESUS - Day 77: JESUS is THE ONE... ABOVE ALL...

As we finish reading John 3, I am struck by the power and strength of these words...

31- "THE ONE who comes from above is ABOVE ALL; the one who is from the earth belongs to the earth, and speaks as one from the earth. THE ONE WHO COMES FROM HEAVEN is ABOVE ALL. 

32- HE testifies to what HE has seen and heard, but no one accepts HIS testimony.

33- Whoever has accepted it has certified that GOD is TRUTHFUL. 

34- For THE ONE WHOM GOD HAS SENT speaks the words of GOD, for GOD gives the SPIRIT without limit.

35- The FATHER loves THE SON and has placed EVERYTHING IN HIS HANDS.

36- Whoever believes in THE SON has ETERNAL LIFE, but whoever rejects THE SON will not see LIFE, for GOD'S wrath remains on them."