Digging In - John 8:1-11

As I said in the last post, I am learning to dig deeper into the Bible. Here are a couple of things that I do to help me. There are more but this is a good place to start. 

 First, I pray. Honestly, I am not going to get anything out of this if the Holy Spirit isn’t helping me. 

 Next, I read the verses multiple times in different verses. I try to read it over a couple of days. I get more out of it if I spread it out and don’t try to cram it all in at once. As I’ve said in a previous post, I’m learning that the key to hearing what God is saying is to make time. 

 Then, I ask questions. What questions pop into my mind as I’m reading (I write these down)? What verses stand out? What verses keep drawing me back? What is it in those verses that are making me pause? Is there a detail that seems odd? Why is it there? If I were in the story, who would I be? Who is writing and to whom are they writing?

 Then, I keep coming back. I pray and I listen for what God is trying to tell me. Finally, what is the Holy Spirit saying to me about this text that is important to my life? What am I going to do about it? How am I going to apply this?  There is no point in reading the Bible if I am not going to do something with it. 

 Let’s try it. Read John 8:1-11 in a few different versions. What questions or thoughts did you come up with? What impressions did you get? How should you apply that to your life? Do the exercise and then look below to see what I walked away with. It’s good to share these thoughts with others…that way we can all grow into a deeper walk with Jesus. 

“Jesus returned to the Mount of Olives, but early the next morning he was back again at the Temple. A crowd soon gathered, and he sat down and taught them. As he was speaking, the teachers of religious law and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in the act of adultery. They put her in front of the crowd. “Teacher,” they said to Jesus, “this woman was caught in the act of adultery. The law of Moses says to stone her. What do you say?” They were trying to trap him into saying something they could use against him, but Jesus stooped down and wrote in the dust with his finger. They kept demanding an answer, so he stood up again and said, “All right, but let the one who has never sinned throw the first stone!” Then he stooped down again and wrote in the dust. When the accusers heard this, they slipped away one by one, beginning with the oldest, until only Jesus was left in the middle of the crowd with the woman. Then Jesus stood up again and said to the woman, “Where are your accusers? Didn’t even one of them condemn you?” “No, Lord,” she said. And Jesus said, “Neither do I. Go and sin no more.” 

John 8:1-11 NLT

Here are some of the questions/thoughts the Holy Spirit popped into my head.

How exactly did they “catch” her in adultery? Wouldn’t that be behind closed doors? Where was the man? You can’t get caught in adultery by yourself. 

As this woman was standing(?) in front of the crowd, I wonder how she felt. Was she waiting to feel the first pelt of a rock? Was she resigned to the fact that she was going to die? Did she care? How humiliating this must have been for her. Why was she an adulterer? What led her there?

Why did he stoop down to write in the dust? Was he writing a message to the woman? Was he writing to the men demanding an answer? To the crowd? 

When Jesus said “let the one who has never sinned throw the first stone”, why was it the oldest who left first? Were they more aware of their own sins? Did the younger guys just not get it? Did they leave only because they didn’t have the crowd to back them up?

In all of the distractions and chaos, Jesus never lost focus of the most important thing, the woman. If it were me, I would have been looking at the circumstances trying to figure out how to make it stop. Jesus wasn’t worried about himself. His heart was with the woman. 

Notice at the end what he said to her? I am not condemning you but stop doing this thing that is hurting you. I know he says the same thing to me. “I’ve covered you but I love you. Stop doing this thing that is hurting you/stopping you/making you less than.” Am I listening?

Question for myself: Do I ever get so caught up in a cultural norm or in what is happening around me that I forget to see the person God has put in my path? Yes, I do. What am I going to do about it? At this point, I as God for help because I know I cannot do this on my own.

How’d you do? What was your Holy Spirit take-away? 

Praying for your journey Friend! 

A Minute In It - The Door

A minute in God’s Word will change your life. Take a moment to read the texts below and then ponder the questions at the bottom of the post.

23 Someone asked him, “Lord, will only a few be saved?”

He replied, 24 “Work hard to enter the narrow door to God’s Kingdom, for many will try to enter but will fail. 25 When the master of the house has locked the door, it will be too late. You will stand outside knocking and pleading, ‘Lord, open the door for us!’ But he will reply, ‘I don’t know you or where you come from.’ 26 Then you will say, ‘But we ate and drank with you, and you taught in our streets.’ 27 And he will reply, ‘I tell you, I don’t know you or where you come from. Get away from me, all you who do evil.’

28 “There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, for you will see Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and all the prophets in the Kingdom of God, but you will be thrown out. 29 And people will come from all over the world—from east and west, north and south—to take their places in the Kingdom of God. 30 And note this: Some who seem least important now will be the greatest then, and some who are the greatest now will be least important then. Luke 13

If we know that we can receive salvation only through Jesus, what does he mean when he says “Work hard to enter the narrow door?”
What do you have to do to be able to walk through the door?

Now read this same passage (below) in the Message.

23-25 A bystander said, “Master, will only a few be saved?”

He said, “Whether few or many is none of your business. Put your mind on your life with God. The way to life—to God!—is vigorous and requires your total attention. A lot of you are going to assume that you’ll sit down to God’s salvation banquet just because you’ve been hanging around the neighborhood all your lives. Well, one day you’re going to be banging on the door, wanting to get in, but you’ll find the door locked and the Master saying, ‘Sorry, you’re not on my guest list.’

26-27 “You’ll protest, ‘But we’ve known you all our lives!’ only to be interrupted with his abrupt, ‘Your kind of knowing can hardly be called knowing. You don’t know the first thing about me.’

28-30 “That’s when you’ll find yourselves out in the cold, strangers to grace. You’ll watch Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and all the prophets march into God’s kingdom. You’ll watch outsiders stream in from east, west, north, and south and sit down at the table of God’s kingdom. And all the time you’ll be outside looking in—and wondering what happened. This is the Great Reversal: the last in line put at the head of the line, and the so-called first ending up last.”

And again the question, what do you have to do to walk through the narrow door?

A Minute In It - Relax!

A minute in God’s Word will change your life. Take a moment to read the texts below and then ponder the questions at the bottom of the post.

22-24 He continued this subject with his disciples. “Don’t fuss about what’s on the table at mealtimes or if the clothes in your closet are in fashion. There is far more to your inner life than the food you put in your stomach, more to your outer appearance than the clothes you hang on your body. Look at the ravens, free and unfettered, not tied down to a job description, carefree in the care of God. And you count far more.

25-28 “Has anyone by fussing before the mirror ever gotten taller by so much as an inch? If fussing can’t even do that, why fuss at all? Walk into the fields and look at the wildflowers. They don’t fuss with their appearance—but have you ever seen color and design quite like it? The ten best-dressed men and women in the country look shabby alongside them. If God gives such attention to the wildflowers, most of them never even seen, don’t you think he’ll attend to you, take pride in you, do his best for you?

29-32 “What I’m trying to do here is get you to relax, not be so preoccupied with getting so you can respond to God’s giving. People who don’t know God and the way he works fuss over these things, but you know both God and how he works. Steep yourself in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. You’ll find all your everyday human concerns will be met. Don’t be afraid of missing out. You’re my dearest friends! The Father wants to give you the very kingdom itself.

33-34 “Be generous. Give to the poor. Get yourselves a bank that can’t go bankrupt, a bank in heaven far from bankrobbers, safe from embezzlers, a bank you can bank on. It’s obvious, isn’t it? The place where your treasure is, is the place you will most want to be, and end up being. Luke 12:22-34 (MSG)

What are you preoccupied with?
What do you want to get?
Do you spend as much time thinking about giving?
What draws you away from God’s plan into the weeds of your own?
What would happen if we trusted that God had the perfect plan?

A Minute In It - Light Me Up!

A minute in God’s Word will change your life. Take a moment to read the texts below (there are three versions) and then ponder the questions at the bottom of the post.

34 “Your eye is like a lamp that provides light for your body. When your eye is healthy, your whole body is filled with light. But when it is unhealthy, your body is filled with darkness. 35 Make sure that the light you think you have is not actually darkness. 36 If you are filled with light, with no dark corners, then your whole life will be radiant, as though a floodlight were filling you with light.” Luke 11:34-36 (NLT)

34-36 “No one lights a lamp, then hides it in a drawer. It’s put on a lamp stand so those entering the room have light to see where they’re going. Your eye is a lamp, lighting up your whole body. If you live wide-eyed in wonder and belief, your body fills up with light. If you live squinty-eyed in greed and distrust, your body is a dank cellar. Keep your eyes open, your lamp burning, so you don’t get musty and murky. Keep your life as well-lighted as your best-lighted room.” (MSG)

34 Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eye is healthy, your whole body is full of light, but when it is bad, your body is full of darkness. 35 Therefore be careful lest the light in you be darkness. 36 If then your whole body is full of light, having no part dark, it will be wholly bright, as when a lamp with its rays gives you light.” (ESV)

As you read each of the versions, what was the Holy Spirit saying to you?
What stood out in your mind?
How did these texts apply to your life?
What would you take away from these and possibly change in your walk with God?
Is there something you feel you need to do going forward?