I feel compelled to open up a thread of a devotional nature on John. Lately I have been captivated by this gospel. I invite anybody to share any gems they are getting out of John. Let me ask. Has anybody been blessed reading the Gosoel of John?
Blaine
"Lately I have been captivated by this gospel"
Lets start with you brother, what gems have you gotten and lets see what sparks from there.
:->
Glad to brother. Right now at work. Will share this eve. Watch board.
Blaine
In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. He was with God on the beginning.
The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.
God desires relationship. He is a relational Being. One of the greatest, profound, beautiful mysteries is the infinite God disires relationship with us sinful creatures. From the opening chapters of Genesis to the closing chapters of Revelation we see God in relationship to his people.
God dwelling with his people is not about religion, but relationship. This is reflected all throighout John but beautifully depicted in the opening verses of John 15. He speaks of the living, organic relationship of the vine and branches to the believer abiding in Christ and Christ being in him. This is organic relationship not organizational religion. Such thoights should motivate us to heartfelt devotion to Jesus who lives in us.
Paul prays that Christ may dwell in the hearts of the Ephesian bievers through faith. This is the true church. God living in the hearts of his children. This is why I write that we are not bound to a book but to him who is the living Word in our hearts. Certainly such thoughts should not anger but cause us to fall to our knees in love of Jesus.
The marvelous thing is one day we will truly dwell with him in heaven and he with us. Truly then faith and hope will be realized. Then only his pure love will remain and our hearts will truly rejoice. Dear Jesus, may that day come soon.
For your edification.
Blaine Scogin
I remember a friend sharing with me that our walk with Christ is not regulaional, but relational. Love it.
Bkaine
Quote: "This is why I write that we are not bound to a book but to him who is the living Word in our hearts."
And this is what you've gotten out of those first verses from the Gospel of John?
How many of the Brethren here have tried to appeal to you that we are to be extremely grateful for that "book" as you call it and that our walks with GOD are both "experiential AND based upon that Book".
Those that don't have the Scriptures would argue against your repeated putting down of His Word as well.
How many more of the Brethren, world-wide, will it take to convict you of what you have already been corrected on?
We've posted two threads already, showing you that He lifts His Word above His Name - and what those in countries that don't have the Word will go through to get it - and what that "book" has cost men and women through-out history to get it to us.
Again - GOD forgive you for belittling His Gift of His Word to us.
WHY are you reading it?
Is 'this' ALL that you've gotten out of the first verses of John?
Our Greek Professor who was a 'retired' missionary to India but still went there to teach during our summer 'breaks', took an entire semester to teach Just the first 18 verses of John and though he was a serious man and despite how many times he had taught this same class over and over during his life - he'd still break into tears over the Beauty of what is written in just those few verses.
He died in India, in his 70's of malaria - FOR THE WORD - just as millions of others have, since the first Gospel or Epistle was written.
[eta]I felt to add that this was a Pentecostal AoG Bible College, 33 years ago, where the gifts were free to operate in Chapel - and we had Chapel every morning before classes. So please don't come back with, I'm loosing your meaning about the "Experiential side" of His abiding in us that believe His Word.
When I was baptised in the HOLY Spirit, other than getting a joy unspeakable and the prayer language and gifts - the greatest gift that came with it, was an insatiable hunger for His Word.
The HOLY Spirit is called by Jesus, in the Gospel of John, "The Spirit of Truth that will lead us into all truth".
That's the side that we see lacking in these days of "falling away from truth" - the Apostasy.
You will never get what I quoted of you above by reading John, because if what you believe is true - WHY did GOD commission John to Write his Gospel and his Epistles and The Revelation - and Why has GOD preserved His writings for almost 2000 yrs against all attempts to stomp it out and burn these books of the Apostles and to kill those who passed it down to us and those who risk their lives to smuggle it into countries that are crying out for it?
John 12:48 "He that rejecteth Me, AND receiveth not My words, hath one that judgeth him:
the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day."
How would we know 'what' HE had spoken if HE hadn't commissioned and Divinely Inspired His Apostles to give us this eye witness account in written form?
John was the closest disciple to Jesus and I know from all that he wrote down for us, that he would recoil at your persistance in belittling The WORD - most especially on a thread about WHAT John was annointed by GOD to write to us.
WHY and HOW did John's Gospel make it to us intact after almost 2000 yrs?
Joh 14:23 Jesus answered and said unto him, *If* a man love me,
he will keep My words: and My Father will love him,
and We will come unto him, and make Our abode with him.
I recently shared this in my Church,
John 13-23:-There was reclining on Jesus’ bosom one of His disciples, whom Jesus loved.
John always referred to himself as the disciple whom Jesus loved the most in his book. We need to get the same revelation that Jesus loves us the most. If we get it, we will always recline on Jesus instead of our strength. Once the Sheep finds out that the shepherd loves it the most and will take the sheep though best pasture then it will stop searching for pastures and start following the Shepherd.
It is not pride to think that Jesus loves me the most.
Jesus loved John most because John loved HIM Most and defended "The Word of GOD" right through his entire life!
John 14:23 Jesus answered and said unto him, **IF** a man love Me, he will keep My words: and My Father will love him, and We will come unto him, and make Our abode with him.
Notice how many times John writes on "Love" and "The Word" in his Gospel - Epistles and The Revelation that has been handed down to us at such a Great price.
In Jewish custom, it was Very important 'who' you would give the care of your mother over to, in the event of your death.
Speaking of Jewish people - do you have any idea how they would take it if you tried to take their Old Testament away or belittle "The Word" that they hold, that has 456 prophecies about the Messiah in it?
Do you have ANY idea - what this world would have been like, if we never had the Old Testament First and then the New?
What was the United States founding fathers basing their foundations for this new nation on?
Why did the Puritans come here in the Mayflower?
Where did we get our code of moral behavior from - in the past?
How are we to witness to the Jewish people if not from the Book?
Where do we get the knowledge about The Word of GOD in the Old Testament?
HE Spoke the Old Testament into existance through His servants, because He is the Very Word of GOD!
HE IS the One speaking and acting through-out the entire Old Testament and didn't suddenly pop onto the scene only 2000 years ago.
All of the first disciples were Jews and that's The Word that they had and understood that Jesus was fulfilling!
John is a wonderful Gospel, martyr. Should be a great study.
Some thoughts that I have:
We either abide in Christ or we abide in Satan. There is not a third choice. You cannot abide in yourself, since self is associated with the nature of Satan. Anything apart from Jesus Christ can only be associated with Satan. Jesus said, that we are either for Him or against Him. There is not a third choice. Never has been. Blessing or Curse, Life or Death, Good or Evil. Only two choices.
And we abide by relationaly (with the heart) believing and trusting and relying on God's Word spoken to our hearts. Or we believe relationally, the lie of the Devil. Adam and Eve struck up a relationship with the Devil the moment they decided to believe his word over God's word. And that is why our Father is either God or the Devil. Again, only two choices. Jesus even told the Pharisees "you are of your father the Devil". The word "Father" connotates "relationship" and Jesus was actually saying that they had a relationship with the Devil and not God and that really incensed them. Remember, it was the Pharisees that said, "He has a demon", speaking of Jesus.
The Serpent spoke to Eve and she decided to believe his lie, thus abiding in the counterfeit truth of the Serpent. She and Adam then took on the character of Satan merely by believing his lie. Who you believe is who you abide in and who you abide in is whose nature and character you take on. We are either conformed to the image of Jesus Christ or the image and likeness of Satan. That is why the truth is so important and it will set us free from abiding in the "spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience".
This verse highlights that the unbeliever is abiding in the prince of the power of the air.
Eph 2:2 Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:
Eph 2:3 Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.
This is why it is so important to abide in Christ. To abide in Christ is to refuse every lie that masquerades as the truth and to cling to truth as it is progressively revealed throughout our Christian walk to us by God's Spirit.
Something interesting about the Gospel of John is that he has far more references to the Holy Spirit than the other Gospels and talks about more spiritual realities such as the new birth, the water of life, the bread of life, the light of the world, the good shepherd, and the vine and the branches. Ninety-two percent of the material in John's gospel-record is not found in any of the other three synoptic gospels.
In addition, martyr, I like this from James Fowler.
The Confrontation of the Gospel and Religion
In the harmonization of the gospel-records we can perhaps most clearly perceive that in the course of His ministry and the revelation of Himself, Jesus is found to be in constant conflict and confrontation with the prevailing religion of the Palestinian region. Swiss theologian, Karl Barth, has noted most explicitly that "the revelation of God is the abolition of religion."1 Is it any wonder, then, that the presentation of God in man in Jesus Christ should contrast with the message and methods of the Jewish religion in the first century?
Christianity is not religion! The most accepted etymological derivation of the English word "religion" recognizes the root of the word in the Latin word religare, which means "to bind again" or "to tie back." Jesus did not come to bind, fasten, tie, or attach us to anything or anyone. He came to set us free to be functional humanity in the fullest sense, saying, "you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free" (John 8:32), for "if the Son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed" (John 8:36). Paul likewise indicates that "it was for freedom that Christ set us free" (Gal. 5:1), for "where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty" (II Cor. 3:17).
Jesus Christ did not come to found another religion. He came that we might have His life, and experience such in abundant human expression (John 10:10). The Christian gospel is the presence and dynamic of the life of the risen Lord Jesus being manifested in the behavior of receptive believers to the glory of God.
Such freedom of life and worship was alien and foreign to the strictures and structures of Jewish religion that existed in the first century. It can be reasonably argued that Judaism in the first century was representative of religious perversion at its worst. Every form of legalism, exclusivism, moralism, etc. was rampant in their religion. This provided, though, a perfect environment to exhibit the radical antithesis and ultimate contrast to what Jesus came to reveal in Himself, the "good news" of Christianity.
Here is the rest of it, if you would like to read it.
Jesus Confronts Religion
http://www.christinyou.net/pages/confrel.html
Pilgrim
Beautiful thoughts, my brother. John was so secure in his loving relationship with Jesus that he could lean back into the breast, the bosum of Jesus and ask him any question. Such was his relationship with the Savior and such is our relationship with him. For our God is a God of relationship.
I think Greg posted a thread which spoke of the psalmist not involving him self in great matters but trusting in that deepest, of loving iintimacies with God. The psalmist is likening that relationship to a weamed child to his mother. Indeed John beautifully exemplified that relationship by reclining on the breast of Jesus.
Thank you for your beautiful thoughts, Sree May we all walk securely in that loving relationship with Jesus.
Blaine
John 15:7 If ye abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.
Brother, rich thoights from your post that I will have to read several times to absorb. I will, indeed, look.at the link you sent for the article is profound. It is said that all other religions are man reaching up to their gods. But the beautiful thing about Christianity is God reaching down to us in loving relationship. He did this in his beloved Son, Jesus. This is why aJohn 3:16 is so precious to believers.
Indeed their are too choices. The lie of the devil or the truth of Jrsus. Dear God may our choice be the choice of your beloved Son, who is truth.
Blaine
- who successfully twisted and successfully removed The Word of GOD from Eve then Adam ...
Are we any better than Jesus?
"Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward an hungred. And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread.
But He answered and said, IT IS WRITTEN, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.
Then the devil taketh him up into the holy city, and setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple, and saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone.
Jesus said unto him, IT IS WRITTEN AGAIN, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.
Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them; andth unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me.
Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: FOR IT IS WRITTEN, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. Then the devil leaveth Him, and, behold, angels came and ministered unto Him."
Absolutely, JIG. Thank you for your contribution. We do battle against the Enemy just like Jesus did. By believing and declaring WHAT IS WRITTEN. Satan will modify God's Word, oh so little, but enough to add to it's meaning or change it's meaning.
He told Eve, "You surely shall not die", but this was in contradiction to what God spoke. There was no written word then, but it does not matter. God spoke it and Adam knew right well that He spoke those words.
Amen!
Thank you,
Pilgrim
Brother went back and looked at your post again. I did not realize that more spiritual realities are conveyed in this wonderful gospel then in the synoptics. For sure truths like Holy Spirit, new birth, living, water. Wow. Glorious truths. Waiting to see what God will show us in our discussions.
Blaine
Indeed brother even we get that revelation that Jesus loves us we will stop searching for Jesus and follow the Lamb. Love it.
Blaine
Brother Blaine, I know that you haven't been able to hear 'the tone' of my voice in my posts to you of late and for that I am very-very sorry -- I wish you could. You don't have my phone number neither.
I believe you have a very good heart and the Only thing that I would beseech of you is that you allow The Holy Spirit to be your Only Mentor.
With His Love, in truth.
"Howbeit when He, the Spirit of Truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth: for He shall not speak of Himself; but whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He speak: and He will shew you things to come.
He shall glorify Me: for He shall receive of Mine, and shall shew it unto 'you'."
Thank you, my sister. Be blessed in his love and blessing.
Blaine
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