What's In Your Water?

In John 4:10, Jesus tells the Samaritan woman that he can give her “living” water. “Living water” was not a new concept to anyone living in Israel.

It's important to note that Jesus speaks about "living" water at the Feast of Tabernacles in John 7. The Feast of Tabernacles is a seven day celebration of God’s provisions at the end of the harvest season. At the climax of the festival, which is held on the seventh day of the seven-day festival, there is an intense ceremony and prayer for rain. And it is at this heightened, climactic point of the festival that Jesus says to all those in the Temple,

“If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him” (John 7:37-38). Earlier in the same chapter of John, Jesus said, “My teaching is not my own. It comes from him who sent me. If anyone chooses to do God’s will, he will find out whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own. He who speaks on his own does so to gain honor for himself, but he who works for the honor of the one who sent him is a man of truth; there is nothing false about him.”(16-18).

In Jesus’ day, the teaching of a rabbi was known as “water” to his disciples. It was taught that if a rabbi’s waters or teachings were good, then his disciples would be drinking from the waters of God. If a rabbi’s water was bad, the rabbi is to be exiled to a place of evil waters and his disciples will drink and die.

"Living" water is constantly flowing water that is clean and life sustaining, such as rain or spring water. "Living" water is unlike the “dead” waters found in cisterns (manmade pits that were plastered and filled by water that ran off of roofs and streets), which were widely available in Israel. "Dead" waters were often stagnant and contaminated, but to a person who was desperate for a drink, "dead" water appears promising.

When Jesus approached the Samaritan woman who had trouble developing healthy relationships, he was offering to get rid of the “dead” water that she has been drinking (poor teaching that she has been practicing). Jesus was giving this woman the opportunity to stop sipping from the cisterns, and live her life drinking the rain of good teaching. He was inviting her to be his disciple.

We are all teachers. It has been estimated that every person will influence 10,000 people in his or her lifetime. Therefore, it’s important to know whether we are serving "living" or "dead" water. When those who learn from me do as I have taught them, will they experience a better life or will they experience failure and a continued thirst for how to live?

Living in accordance with the teachings of Jesus does not lead to thirst, but to a quenched thirst that brings vibrant, abundant life to the one who lives it. As imitators of Christ, we should all be serving "living" water.

Forever learning,
Johnny

Risky Reading! You have been warned.

If you were to find a letter written to your great-great-grandfather by your great-great-grandmother, wouldn’t you cherish every single word? What an amazing discovery that would be. I know that I would look at every word with a sense of awe and mystery, trying to see those two people and develop some kind of connection as I read the pages.

And what if you learned that the last few original lines were missing (maybe torn, stained, or lost), so, your grandmother wrote in words that she made up, in order for the letter to have an ending that would make sense?

I have a letter a lot like that, but much older. It’s a letter that was written a long time ago by a man named Mark. In Mark’s letter, the last 9 verses were added much later. Why? Because, as all textual scholars will tell you, including “believing, Christian” scholars, the last 9 verses are missing in the oldest and best manuscripts. Without adding them, the letter would end with no one being told that Jesus had risen. More than likely, according to those same scholars, the ending that was added is not a completely fictional account. However, what is very interesting in this addition, are the words of Jesus in verses 17-18 of the last chapter in Mark.

“And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well.”

Without the later addition, the Scriptures which are used as a foundation for the Pentecostal Church would not exist.

Today there are more than 5700 Greek manuscripts of the New Testament Scriptures including very small fragments, single books, and complete New Testament writings that are catalogued and used by scholars to translate the Bible. Some are cheap copies, and others are very expensive manuscripts written in gold. The oldest copies were written from the 4th to the 9th centuries, which are copies of copies of copies.............

All of these have what are called “textual variances” or differences among the texts. There are 200,000 to 400,000 variations among these texts. As Bart Ehrman says, “There are more variances in the manuscripts used by scholars to translate the Bible into the common language than there are words in the New Testament." These variances make it very difficult to translate the Bible in full, without a translator making educated decisions as to which parts of which manuscript he or she will write into the Bible from which Christians will read and teach.

The translators of the NIV have pointed out some of these variances, such as the last 9 verses in Mark. These and other more recent scholars have decided to make us aware that the oldest copies do not have some of the verses that have been added to our Bibles.

This information comes from the work of Bart Ehrman in his book, Misquoting Jesus.

Forever learning,
Johnny

A Child's Perspective On the Word

Seeing God through the eyes of a child is powerful.

Somehow most of Christendom has caused the word of God to become something to yawn about. For a great number of people, especially Christians, hearing God’s Word is like having to sit and listen to someone’s dream. You know that in the end it will take you nowhere and benefit you nothing, but you have to listen because it’s the respectful thing to do.

Yesterday, one of my teens was doing his teen Bible study lesson (nothing like reading the Bible to fire up a teen) and he said under his breath, “I hate this!”

To try and take away some of the boredom, I picked up the Bible and began paraphrasing the passage that he was reading from Luke 9:10-17. As I began to read my teenage son showed no greater interest, but something miraculous happened with my two-and-a-half-year-old daughter.

She was standing on the floor at the end of the dining room table playing with some of her toys and as soon as I began to read she stood still, folded her hands, bowed her head, and closed her eyes. Her mother and I watched in amazement. And as soon as I read the last word of the passage, she said, “Amen,” and went back to playing with her toys.

No matter what we may believe about the Bible, one thing is for sure, there is power in the teachings of Jesus.

“I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it” (Luke 18:17 NIV).

Forever learning,
Johnny

Read At Your Own Risk!

I’ve been doing a lot of reading lately. Most of the reading I’m doing is from authors who are quite controversial and not the most popular characters to reach the Christian audience. But the subjects are wonderfully intriguing and lead the reader to search deeper.

One book I’ve been reading was a recent gift from a friend in Texas. The book’s title is “The Gift of the Jews.” Another great book that was given to me in the same week by another friend is titled “Misquoting Jesus.” These are not books that I would recommend to the average fundamentalist or anyone of a less than completely stable faith. Frankly, the two books together are a recipe for creating an atheist at worst and an agnostic at best. At the very least, they will create confusion and frustration for the average Christian.

“The Gift of the Jews” was written in the late 1990’s by Thomas Cahill and it is the history of Abraham’s ancestors who were called the Sumerians. The Sumerians were fantastic story tellers who developed their stories over literal centuries until they would reach perfection. The story of Gilgamesh is a story that began even before the Sumerians and was told over millennia.

The story of Gilgamesh included a “Tree of Life” that was protected by a serpent, a man created from a ball of clay, and a great ritual ladder that, if someone were to climb it and reach the heavens, they would become a god. There was also the belief that each individual had an angel that tended to his or her needs after a difficult time in life. The prehistoric ancestors of Abraham would pass these stories verbally long before writing was ever invented, perfecting them with each generation. And the stories are preserved in stone, the first form of writing, which archeologists and scholars use today to piece the stories together.

These are all very fascinating findings and quite faith shaking. As I said before, these are not books for anyone who wants his or her beliefs to remain unchallenged. Yet, somehow, my faith is only strengthened by the study. And I don’t mean in a rebellious way, but in a healthy kind of peaceful way that gives me the ability to say, "So what? Does it matter if the stories belong strictly to Israel or if Israel, the descendants of these great story tellers, held on to these fantastic tales and used them to build and sustain a faith in God throughout the centuries?

For me, it doesn’t give me cause to give up faith, but a hunger for more of how we have come to believe what we believe.

Forever learning, wherever it takes me,
Johnny

Grace Is A Gift From God, Not From the New Testament

Many Christians believe that God’s grace was instituted by the coming of the Messiah. It’s often understood that the old Covenant was a covenant of law, while the new Covenant is a covenant of grace.

Jews in Jesus day are thought to have been “saved-by-works” hypocrites who believe even today that they have to earn their way into God’s grace, while the Christian has the knowledge that grace is a free gift from God. We’ve heard sermon after sermon where we are taught that the Jews have missed the boat because they believe that they are saved by the “Law.” This is not the case at all.

Orthodox Jews do not believe that they are saved by the Torah. They believe that they are privileged to be the people who have received a special covenant that they are honored to practice.

When God gave the 613 instructions to Moses at Mt. Sinai, He gave them to Israel for their benefit. His intent was to allow them, through their obedience, to experience His grace as the commandments gave them the ability to experience fulfilling lives. Just as we practice certain habits like exercising, saving money, or changing the oil in our car to experience the benefits of such habits, the instructions of God for Israel were considered the wisdom of God that provided a better life for the individual and the community.

The word “grace” comes from the Hebrew word hesed and it means "beauty" or "favor." Unfortunately, most English translations translated hesed as "mercy," which causes the Hebrew Bible to appear as if there is much less grace in the old Covenant than in the new Covenant. Hesed, for the Jew, could not be bought or earned, but was the result of godly living.

How many people waste their money and still experience the blessings of wise investing? How many wives allow their husband to do nothing but watch T.V. and eat ice-cream and have a wonderful productive marriage? What kind of company allows their employees to come to work whenever they want and still benefits from a well-run organization? Have you ever known of a car that never has an oil change or a tune-up yet even after 200,000 miles, still runs like new?

Grace isn’t a ticket out of hell; it can’t be bought or earned. Grace is the benefit that is experienced by the obedient follower who lives according to the ways of God.

Forever learning,
Johnny

Honor Your Parents

My wife and I spent four days away from home this week. While we were gone, my wife’s parents watched our four children. When we returned, we received the wonderful privilege of having been honored by our children. Their grandparents told us that they were incredibly respectful and polite, and they did all that they were supposed to do while we were gone.

God tells us in the fifth commandment to honor our parents. This is a command that we could all do well to revisit as we have become a society where mothers and fathers are more apt to honor their children than then other way around.

In our world today, Mothers and fathers live to make their children smile. This is not a biblical model, but one that causes parents to be treated like bank accounts, sources of entertainment funding, and free trips to wherever rather than the wisdom granters and life teachers that they are created to be.

The Western world has done much to turn the ideals of parenting upside down and this is to the detriment of our own futures. Parents are not called to make their children happy; they are called to train their children to honor the will of God.

It’s also important to remember that “children” does not only mean “little kids.” Children are to honor their parents with their behavior and choices even as they become parents themselves.

Much of what gets us into trouble in life could be prevented if we would focus more on the command to honor our parents. Think of every sin and every crime and within them you will see that obeying the command to honor one's parents would have prevented it. How many prisoners would never have spent one day in jail had they chosen to honor their parents? With that said, I should clarify that honoring parents does not mean doing everything they say or making them happy even if it requires an immoral act. Parents are also to live according to the will and instructions of God as parents.

There is no greater way to honor God than to honor our parents. By honoring our parents, we do honor God.

I would add, after John's comments, that Mother and Father refers to the aged who should be honored rather than treated like they no longer have value. Mother and father can also be a reference to "wisdom" and "God."

In His dust,
Johnny