Archive
God and the Coronavirus
Here is a controversial question for you: Did God send the Coronavirus? The short answer is yes. I will give you two reasons why.
First, God is sovereign. He is in control of every molecule in this universe. If it was not His will that the virus come, it would not have come. So, whether He sent it or allowed it (to me, it’s semantics), He is the reason it is here. (See my blog: God Is Ultimately Responsible for All Suffering.)
Second, God did send plagues in the Old Testament. Exodus 8-12 records nine plagues the Lord sent through the land of Egypt when Pharaoh would not let the Israelites go. Exodus 32 records God sending a plague among the Israelites after they worshiped the Golden Calf. In Numbers 16, the Lord sent a plague among the people in response to their rebellion against Moses and Aaron. It only stopped after Aaron put incense from the altar into a censer and went and stood in the midst of the congregation. Even then, over 14,000 people had died.
One particular plague I want to draw your attention to is Numbers 21. It is arguable if this could be called a plague, but the effects are the same. Because the people spoke against God and against Moses, God sent fiery serpents among them to bite them. Every, or nearly every, person who was bit, died. When the people repented, the Lord told Moses how to stop the plague. He was to create a bronze serpent and place it on a pole. Whenever a person was bitten, if they looked at the bronze serpent, they would be healed and live.
Jesus referred to this incident in John 3. “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15 that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. 16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” Why did He refer to this incident in speaking of Himself?
Just as there were likely some in the Wilderness who were bitten and who did not look to the bronze serpent to be healed, there are many now who are under sins judgment and who will not look to Jesus Christ to be saved. Looking at the Bronze Serpent was the only remedy God provided as a cure for the bite of the fiery serpents. By looking at the Bronze Serpent, they would live and not die. There was no salve, no magic incantation that would help them. Only looking at the Bronze Serpent would save them.
Similarly, looking to Jesus Christ is the only Remedy God provided as a cure for the sting of sin. By looking to Jesus Christ, we would live eternally and not perish. There are no good works nor good nature that will help us. Only looking to Jesus Christ will save us.
Did God send (or allow) the Plague? Yes. Why? It is hard to say. No one here knows fully the mind of God. But He may have done it for the same reasons He did it to the Egyptians and the Israelites—disobedience and rebellion. He may have sent it as punishment and as a warning. Our world is becoming so full of people rebelling against the command and the Person of God. Therefore, He sent a plague among us to call us to repentance before it is too late. Leviticus 26:21 says, “Then, if you walk contrary to Me, and are not willing to obey Me, I will bring on you seven time more plagues, according to your sins.”
One thing the Coronavirus has done is to cause people to reach out to God. Jeremiah 29:13 says, “And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.” Could a worldwide revival be on the way? Possibly. Or sadly, we may miss the warning God has sent us and do as we did after 9/11, go back to our sinful ways once the crisis passes.
Reach out to God while it is not too late. Recognize we are facing eternal death because of sin and only Jesus Christ is the cure. Trust that when He died 2000+ years ago on the cross, He paid the penalty for our sins. All we have to do is believe that He was Who He said He was and that He did what He said He came to do—to give His life as a ransom for many.
Look to Jesus and receive the only Remedy God has provided us to escape eternal death and receive eternal life.
Five Reasons the Rapture and the Second Coming Are Two Different Events- Part 5
5. The Jewish Feasts Point to It.
There are those that believe the Old Testament no longer has any relevance to modern times. That would be incorrect. Just as the temple worship ceremonies pointed to the life and ministry of Christ. The Jewish Feasts give us some hint the God’s timetable. Just as the sacrificial lambs and scapegoats pointed to the ministry of the Messiah, these feast point to the order that God intends to bring about the end of the world.
| Feast Name | Old Testament Observance | New Testament Reality |
| Passover | Exodus 13, Leviticus 23:1-8.The Hebrews were to roast a lamb (or goat) and eat it fully dress; they were to take the blood from the lamb and paint the doorposts and lintel so when the Angel of Death came through the land of Egypt, He would see the blood and pass over the house. Where there was no blood, He would kill the firstborn of every person and animal. | Luke 22:14-22. Jesus was the Passover Lamb who shed His blood for the sin of the world. God placed upon Him our sin and treated Him as though He had committed every one of them. When we come to faith in Christ, we are credited with the sinless life He lived. After we come to faith in Christ, when God sees us, He sees the perfect life of His Son and His wrath passes over us. |
| Unleavened Bread | Exodus 13, Leviticus 23:1-8. Celebrated with the Passover. The Hebrews were to make bread without leaven to eat with the Passover Lamb. (It was because they would not have time to let the leaven rise but the spiritual meaning was to put away sin.) | Luke 22:14-22. Jesus Christ took away our sin on the cross. In fact, on the night He celebrated His last Passover meal, He took unleavened bread and broke it and gave it to the disciples and told them that it represented his body that was broken and His blood was shed for the removal of our sin. |
| First Fruits | Leviticus 23:9-14. The Jews were to present to God the sheaf of the first fruits of their harvest to be raised in worship to the Lord for the harvest He provided. | Luke 24:1-12. When Jesus was raised from the grave, He became the First Fruit of those who will also be raised from the dead. |
| Pentecost | Leviticus 23:15-22. This is celebrated 50 days after the Sabbath of the First Fruits when the Jews would make an offering of new grain unto the Lord. They were to hold a holy convocation. | Acts 2:1-4. Fifty days after Jesus’ resurrection (a day following a Sabbath), the Holy Spirit came and indwelt the believers leading to the birth of the church—the new grains of the harvest of souls that would come through their ministry and the ministry of those who follow after them, through the end of the age. |
| Trumpets | Leviticus 23:23-25. The Jews were to celebrate a holy convocation commemorated with trumpet blasts. | 1 Corinthians 15:52, 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18. These passages speak of the return of Christ accompanied by a trumpet blast (or the voice of a trumpet sound) in which the dead in Christ will rise first then everyone else will be caught up, all being changed in the twinkling of an eye. |
| Atonement | Leviticus 23:26-32. There is to be a holy convocation, a Sabbath Day of rest; no work is to be performed by anyone lest they be cut off from the land by God. The high priest would enter into the Holy of Holies to offer sacrifice on behalf of the nation. | Revelation 20:11-15. Jesus Christ, the High Priest, will judge the work of every man. Each person will be judge out of the Book of Works. Their final appeal will be the Book of Life. If their name is not found there, they will be thrown into the Lake of Fire. |
| Tabernacle (or Booths) | Leviticus 23:33-44. The Jews were to live in booths (or tents) for seven days. The first and eighth day were to be holy convocations to the Lord. This was to be a reminder of how they dwelt in tents with the Lord as He led them out of Egypt. | John 14:1-3, Revelation 21-22. This refers to our eternal rest in heaven. Jesus said in His Father’s house there are many rooms and He has gone to prepare a place for us. Revelation 21 speaks of how the tabernacle (or dwelling place) of God is with mankind. |
The Feasts of Passover/Unleavened Bread, First Fruits, and Pentecost have passed. We are now waiting to celebrate the Feast of Trumpets. I don’t know how true it is but I once heard a speaker say this about the Trumpet: When a Jew heard the sound of the trumpet blast, he knew it was a call to convocation. He would stop whatever he was doing and head to the Temple/synagogue. If this is true, this is a true parallel to the Rapture. For when we hear the trumpet blast, we will immediately stop doing whatever we are doing and go to meet Him in the air. What a day that will be.
Five Reasons the Rapture and the Second Coming Are Two Different Events–Part 3
3. He will come as a “thief in the night”.
Then two men will be in the field: one will be taken and the other left. 41 Two women will be grinding at the mill: one will be taken and the other left. 42 Watch therefore, for you do not know what hour[a] your Lord is coming. 43 But know this, that if the master of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched and not allowed his house to be broken into. 44 Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.—Matthew 24:40-44
Have you ever heard a strange noise in the middle of the night and wondered what it was? Did you imagination start to run wild wondering if it was a burglar only to find out it was just the wind? Perhaps, you have been home when someone tried (or succeeded) in breaking into your home. Were you prepared? Did you know they were coming? Rarely, if ever, do thieve announce their intent to break in. They do not send a postcard saying, “Tonight, I will break in at three o’clock in the morning. Be sure to leave your valuables out where I can find them.” No, thieves usually take their victims by surprise. It’s what gives them an upper hand.
Jesus said when He comes to get us, it will be like a ‘thief in the night’. In verses 40-41, Jesus spoke of how two men would be working in the field: one will be taken and the other left or how two women would be working at the mill, one would be taken and the other left. This speaks of the suddenness of the Rapture. In fact, the term Paul uses for caught up or snatched away gives the connotation of sudden speed and force. The word, rape, comes from the Greed word used because of the amount of force often associated with it. Why like a thief in the night? Jesus is not going to announce when He is coming so people can play and ignore Him until the last minute when a time of worldwide prayer vigils start right before He returns. Using terminology from the news, why would God ‘telegraph’ what He is going to do to the devil and his team (not that they can be any resistance)?
The preceding verses speak of life going on as usual when suddenly everything changes. The verses say one will be taken and one left. Just like in the Rapture. Not everyone will go. There will be those who rejected Christ who will be left behind. There will be those who are religious who will be left behind. There will be those who thought they were saved but were not that will be left behind. This is why Peter exhorted the Believers to “make [their] calling and election sure’ (2 Peter 1:10). Those who are going to go are those who have placed their trust in Jesus Christ, and Him alone, for their salvation (John 3:16, Ephesians 2:8-9).
Some have thought these verses referred to the culling that happens in Matthew 25. However, this seems to point to a different event because Matthew 25 speaks of everyone being taken and separated into sheep and goats in Christ’s presence. He speaks of how the angels will gather all people from under heaven and bring them to Him. He then will separate the wheat from the tares (Matthew 13:30), the true believers from the pretenders. The Matthew 24:40-41 passage, however, gives the impression that one is taken (caught up) while the other is left behind.
It happened suddenly and without warning. Like the five foolish virgins, the ones left behind who were not prepared. They thought they had enough time to get ready. This is why Jesus said ‘watch (pay attention, be alert) because we do not know the time of His return. People often put off turning to Jesus until tomorrow. Tomorrow may never come. Tomorrow may be too late. Look at the tragedies on the news. Tomorrow did not come for them. Today is the day of salvation (2 Corinthians 6:2). Repent of your evil ways, put your faith in the work of Jesus Christ, and ask Him to forgive you of your sins—knowing that He will do it because the debt has already been paid on behalf of those who will believe.
Who is God? Part III
One of the oldest questions ever asked since the creation of the universe must have been, “Who is God?” From the dawn of civilization, people have posited the fact that this creation must have a Creator. They understood that all this did not come from nothing. According to the Bible, this Creator made Himself known to His creation in the Garden of Eden. But because of man rebellion in the Garden, he has been separated, cut off even, from his Creator. Yet, God did not leave Himself without a testimony. Through over 40 writers on three continents over thirty-five hundred years, God gave His people a personal testimony of Who He is. Over the last two posts, we have discovered some of God’s self-witness: some of who God says He is. In this post, we will look at four more attributes of God—Creator, Judge, Love, and Triune.
Creator. He is the Maker, the Creator of all things, both the heavens and the earth, things seen and unseen. Genesis 1:1 tell us that “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” Its companion passage, John 1:1-3 says of Jesus, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made.” Colossians 1:16-17 adds, “For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. 17 And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.” Psalm 24:1-2 reminds us that “The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein, 2 for he has founded it upon the seas and established it upon the rivers.” When Job questioned God as why he was suffering, God asked him:
“Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?
Tell me, if you have understanding.
5 Who determined its measurements—surely you know!
Or who stretched the line upon it?
6 On what were its bases sunk,
or who laid its cornerstone,
7 when the morning stars sang together
and all the sons of God shouted for joy? (Job 38:4-7)
Romans 1 accuses mankind in that we know God is the Creator but we (evil mankind) suppress that truth and come up with lies to explain creation so that they do not have to acknowledge Someone to whom they will one day give an account. Men would rather believe a lie and exchange the glory of God for foolishness. Believing and professing themselves to be wise they become foolish and futile in their thinking. They attempt to explain away God and creation with nonsense and even compel others to believe it.
Judge. As the creation, we must give an account to the Creator for what we have done with the resources (life, talent, treasure) He has given us. God will judge us based on those works. The Bible teaches that only that which is done for Christ will last. All the righteousness and works of the wicked are as filthy rags before a holy God (Isaiah 64:6). God must punish sin or His justice is perverted. A Stalin or a Hitler or a Bin Laden should not inherit the same heaven as a Paul or a Timothy or a Billy Graham. If ‘good’ people went to heaven, the heaven would become polluted like earth. God will judge the wicked. They will suffer eternally because eternally is how long they’ll live.
The question has been asked, why would a loving God send people to Hell? The reason there is a hell in the first place is to punish the devil and his angels because of their rebellion against God (Isaiah 14:12-15). The reason people will go to hell is because, since they share in the devil’s rebellion—rejection of God’s authority, they will share in his punishment.
God will judge us, His Saints, as righteous, not based on any work that we have done, but based on the work Christ did on the cross. Isaiah 1 says, “Though our sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow.” 1 Corinthians 5:21 says, “God made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us that we may become the righteousness of God in Him.”
Love. Many know the phrase, God is love. Love is just one attribute of God. Yes, He loves us. It does not mean that He has some warm, fuzzy feeling for us but that He chose to act in our best interest whether we deserved it or not. His loves us unconditionally and He demonstrated it for us sacrificially. Unconditional love does not mean that God loves us just the way we are and we do not have to change. On the contrary, God loves us the way we are and because of His love for us, we will change for we are called to be confirmed into the image of His Son (Romans 8:29). Conformation means change. He loves us just the way we are but loves us too much to leave us the way we are. He knows the plans He has for us. He knows what He made us to be. We are a love gift to His Son and God does not give junk gifts. Yes, He loves us. He saved us from ourselves and from a fate we rightly deserve. But love does not mean that God overlooks sin. It is not his will that any should perish but that all would come to the knowledge of the truth. He made it possible for people to do that through His greatest demonstration of love—His Son, whom He sent to be punished for our sins so we can be rewarded with His righteousness.
Trinity. Of all of God’s attributes or characteristics, that of being three Persons in one is the most difficult to understand or explain. Three persons in one? Do Christians worship three Gods? No. Christianity is a monotheistic faith. We worship one God. “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one.” God is one in essence but manifests Himself in three different persons—the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Each of them were present at creation (Genesis1:1-2, John 1:1-2). Each were present at Jesus’ baptism (Matthew 3:13-17). We are to baptize in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit (not names). One God—three individual manifestations.
How can God be one in three? I believe the grandest illustration is man. In Psalm 8:5, the Psalmist writes, “You have made them a little lower than the angels and crowned them with glory and honor.” The term angels, is Elohim, God. So the verse could also be interpreted, “You have made them a little lower than God and crowned them with glory and honor.” In Genesis 1:26, God said, Let Us make man in Our image and after Our likeness…” There are many ways we are made like God. We have the power of choice. We have emotions. We can think. We are self-aware. We know the difference between good and evil. But another way we are made like God, I believe, is our makeup. We are made triune beings—not to the extent of God, but we are soul and spirit that live in flesh. Paul alluded to this in Romans 7:
21 So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. 22 For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being (spirit), 23 but I see in my members (flesh) another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. 24 Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? 25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.
We believe in the Trinity even if we do not understand it. We pray to the Father through the Spirit (or in the Spirit) in the name of Jesus. We recognize that salvation is being reconciled to the Father through the Son and later indwelt by the Spirit. Jesus said in John 15, my Father and I will make our home in you. How will they do this? They will do it through the Holy Spirit.
This is just a short study on who God is. As someone pointed out, even throughout eternity, we will never fully understand God—mainly because we are the creation and He is the Creator—our minds will only understand so much and yet our God is so great!
Apologetics 101
The word, apologetics, sounds a lot like apologize. Though they both have the root word “defense” in common, they mean two entirely different things. Apologetics is the act of defending ones doctrine or beliefs. It comes from 1 Peter 3:15, “But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear…” The word, defense, is translated from the Greek words, pros apologia, which means an answer for or a defense of.
Let’s look in depth.
Answer for. There are times when someone may inquire as to what you believe and why you believe it. Why are you a Christian? Why do you believe that Jesus is God? How do you know Jesus was raised from the dead? What do you think your religion is the right one when there are so many? If God is so loving, why did He create Hell? People who want to know more about our faith may ask these questions or questions like them. We need to be prepared always to have answers for their questions. Jesus was asked many times about religion and His doctrine (John 4:1-26, John 14:5, Matthew 19:1-10, 16-26), yet He never shied away from honest questions and neither should His disciples.
Defense of. Jesus had said earlier that the devil was the ruler of this world (system). C. S. Lewis once said that Christians live in enemy-occupied territory. Because the world system is ruled by the devil and occupied by sinful humans, Christians will face persecution (John 16:33). Part of this persecution is the need to defend our faith against skeptics and mockers. Instead of dealing with inquirers, we are dealing with inquisitors. How do you know Jesus is the only way? What makes your religion the correct religion and makes everyone else’s religion false? How do you know there is a God? Why should I believe the Bible when it was written by a bunch of shepherds thousands of years ago? What difference can Jesus who lived two thousand years ago make in my life today? These are all questions that unbelievers and deniers of the faith will ask, not for information but in an attempt to expose us as frauds. Whether standing before mockers or kings, Christians should be able to give a coherent defense of what they believe and why they believe it. The Psalmist writes in Psalm 119:41-42, “Let Your mercies come also to me, O Lord— Your salvation according to Your word. So shall I have an answer for him who reproaches me, For I trust in Your word.” Later he writes, in verse 46, “I will speak of Your testimonies also before kings, And will not be ashamed.”
Argue with. Some in the faith believe that the word, apologia, not only means to defend or give answer to, but also to argue with. It does not. At least, not in the colloquial sense of “to argue” meaning to contend, combat, or strive against, as in a verbal tug-of-war. Christians are not called to argue with anyone to prove a point. You can present an argument, a logical statement of position, without arguing. The idea of defending the faith is so people can enter into the Kingdom because they can see that our faith is not an illogical, blind faith, but one of reason and evidence. You will never argue anyone into the Kingdom. At best, you will turn them off. At worst, you will fortify an enemy of the Cross.
The importance of studying.
God has called and commissioned us to be His witnesses. Part of being a witness is to be able to give an answer to questions that people have about a faith we claim to be so dear to us. In some regards, giving an answer or a defense is giving a testimony. People may be able to argue with facts but they cannot argue with a testimony (unless it is a false one). If you know Christ personally, if you have been transformed by the Holy Spirit, no one can argue with that—unless your life does not reflect it—then it is a false testimony. But if the testimony is real, what argument can a person give against it?
How do we present a cohesive answer or defense of our faith? Any lawyer will tell you that the key to a good defense (or prosecution) is preparation—knowing the ins and outs of the case and the law pertaining to the case. Similarly, a Christian is able to adequately defend him- or herself or to give an answer only by knowing the Word of God and knowing the God of the Word. We should prepare ourselves to give an answer or to defend what we believe, lest we either put Christ to shame or prove ourselves to be false witnesses of Christ.
This type of studying is often called, self-feeding, as compared to being fed. Being fed by others is easier, but studying God’s Word for yourself not only allows you to study what you want at your own pace, but it also allows you to get from the Word the interpretation and application the Spirit gives and not someone else’s. Then you truly own what you’ve learned because you got it directly from the Source (John 16:13-14, 1 Corinthians 2:11-16).
In conclusion, I believe the Apostle Paul said it best: “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth (2 Timothy 2:15, ESV).”
Is There Unfairness in God?
I was listening to a radio broadcast some time ago and I heard a person ask the host a question: Is God unfair in making people spend an eternity paying for sins committed in a finite existence? As I thought about this, I thought about the folly of the question (not the questioner). [He was actually asking a question that was posed to him.] My answer to that question would be this:
First, let’s set aside the fact that eternity has no timetable or measurement as we know it. Suppose you live 100 years and you sinned all of those 100 years then you die? Should you just spend 100 in torment? 200 years? 100 years for each sin? Then when you were released, where would you go? Since outside of Hell (or the Lake of Fire) is the Kingdom of God, that sinful person would then be released into a real hell. He or she would be forced to live an existence they resisted their whole life: living in an eternal worship service!
Secondly, the person who was released from torment would be released with the same spiritual deadness and rebellious nature that they entered Hell with. So when they come out, they would not be more God-honoring but likely more God-hating because of the eons of torment they had to endure. Setting aside the fact that God cannot be in the presence of sin, and that a sinful person cannot abide in His presence, would they then have a desire to worship God? They would more likely decide to go hang by the Crystal Sea than to abide in the presence of God.
Third, the original questioners premise was wrong. Hell was not created for man. Hell was created for the devil and his angels who rebelled against God. When we joined in their rebellion, we earned the right to join in their punishment. Since both angels and people are eternal in nature, the rebellious ones will spend eternity apart from the God who loved and created them.
Romans 9 asks the question, “Is their unrighteousness with God?” Paul answers, “Certainly not!” God will have mercy on whom He will have mercy and compassion on whom He will have compassion. What that says to us is that God is not unfair in causing us to pay eternally for sins committed in this life but that God is gracious in giving us any way out of the punishment for the sins we have committed in this life. Instead of trying to find injustice in God toward us, we should be thankful to the justice He meted out to His Son on our behalf so that we would not have to spend an eternity separated from Him, which is the real torment.
The Bible – God’s Living Word
This past Sunday, I asked my students in “Sunday School” if they have heard the analogy that the Bible is like an onion. A few of them raised their hands while one of them blurted out, “Like it has different layers.”
“Exactly,” I said. I went on to explain how each time you read the Word it can say different things to you. Later that day, I was thinking of an example I could give them of this. My mind went back to a time when the Lord took me deeper into His Word. During one of my Quiet Times, the Lord took me to John 4. God used this passage to teach me several things. I thought it was a good illustration of how one can dig deep (and even deeper) into God’s Word.
John 4 recounts Jesus’ encounter with the Samaritan woman at a well. In this passage Jesus sends the Disciples into town to buy food while He spent some time alone with the woman (a social taboo in many ways). A look at this passage will show three different levels of digging into God’s Word.
Level one, which I call “the surface,” is what one can glean simply from reading the passage. On the surface, the passage is simply a conversion story. It recounts how Jesus meets a woman and through conversation leads her into the realization that He was the promised Messiah she’d been looking for. He does this by overcoming her objections and revealing Himself to her by recounting for her his life story—something only God can do.
Level two goes a little deeper. A level two reading reveals this telling to be more than just a conversion story but a lesson on how Christians are to treat non-believers if they intend to win them to Christ. First, Jesus went to where she was. If the saints are to win the lost, they have to go where the lost are. They can’t just sit in a holy huddle waiting for the lost to come to them. That just is not going to happen. Second, Jesus knew of her past and he let her know that he knew of her past, but He did not demean her for it. Jesus understood that sinners will act like sinners. It stuns me when saints are shocked when sinners act like they do. It’s their nature. It’s all they know. How ironic that saints expect sinners to act like saints while saints think it ok to act like sinners.
A level three study of the text reveals to us the heart of God. Jesus, being God, had to go through Samaria the Bible tells us. The Jews normally would go out of their way to avoid this area but Jesus made a beeline through it to meet a woman at a well during the hottest part of the day. This woman would go to that well during this time because no one else was there. At that time, there would be no leering eyes and muttered talk. This woman was looked down on even by the Samaritans. She was, in effect, the lowest of women among the lowest of society among the lowest of people groups, at least according to Jewish thinking. But God went directly to her and met her personally. Likewise, God calls us to go to the unlovely and the unlovable to demonstrate His love and concern. Who around us is considered the unlovely? Who is considered the unlovable? Who would we consider to be not worth our time or not worthy of heaven? What person or people group has God placed on our heart? Jesus went to this woman and this woman, the least of her people, became His first evangelist, introducing her people to Him while the Disciples stood idly by. God said He would take the foolishness of this world to confound the wise and the weakness to confound the strong. He did that with this woman. Like Moses, Gideon, Jeremiah, the Disciples, Paul—just to name a few—He used this woman to lead an entire city to the Lord. What Billy Graham or Mother Teresa is in our midst waiting to know of the love of God and of the salvation available through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ?
These are by far not the only applications of this passage. I’m certain that as I study it again, God will lead me to other truths. He may have led you to other trusts while you were reading this post. If so, please share so we can all grow from your insights.
Why does the reading of the Word of God produce so many applications? It does so because it is God’s Word. God is living and dynamic and so is anything He creates, including His Word, which, according to Hebrews 4:12, “is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart, NASB.”
Cyber-Discipleship 