The Journey Club

Kryzoz said:

Iconic. Very well done

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Thanks Kryzoz, but Iconic? If anything I see myself as sorta an iconoclast.

Does someone want to do John 3? I know it's hard to find time to write out your thoughts I know.

arielette said:

Before we go on the John 3, I would like to throw a thought in here. I have often wondered about the turning of the water into wine - was it perhaps a sign that Christ was going to add to the water baptism by the eventual redemption by his blood? That was why he said "my hour is not yet come" - yet at the last supper he referred to wine as the blood of redemption?

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I've never thought about that. That's certainly something to consider.

I'm going to have a busy day at church today, but I will give you all fair warning. If no one else starts John 3 before I get back I will subject you all to my viewpoint once again.

How's that for fair.

I had an interesting thought while thinking about this passage. The followers of John are the ones who are upset by Jesus' ascendencey. It reminds me of the time where Jesus' followers come and tell the Savior that some other people are doing miracles in Christ name and they wanted the Savior to stop it.

I know that I have sometimes looked around and thought; "Why is that person doing such and such, he's so young." or "he just became a Christian." I think that it is the same thing that possessed John and the Savior's disciples. Jealousy. We should just find joy in serving where we are needed and trust that the Lord is in command and knows what he is doing.

John Wesley is one of my heros, though I don't know as much about him as I probably should. That is why I was strolling through Wesley's Parish in the Congregational Area. Anyway I have a specific question about baptism for the Methodist's that are participating.

3 Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be bornhttp://scriptures.lds.org/en/john/3/3a againhttp://scriptures.lds.org/en/john/3/3b, he cannot seehttp://scriptures.lds.org/en/john/3/3c the kingdom of God.
4 Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother’s womb, and be born?

5 Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be bornhttp://scriptures.lds.org/en/john/3/5a of waterhttp://scriptures.lds.org/en/john/3/5b and of the spirithttp://scriptures.lds.org/en/john/3/5c, he cannot enterhttp://scriptures.lds.org/en/john/3/5d into the kingdom of God.

In verse 3 the Lord says you must be born again to see the Kingdom of God.
In verse 5 he says that you must be born of water and the Spirit to enter the Kingdom of God.

Verse 5 is obviously alluding to water baptism. It was once pointed out to me by a man I respect that verse 3 and 5 are not talking about the same thing. Verse 3 says you can see the Kingdom, while verse 5 talks about entering the Kingdom. The Spirit can come to us and show us the Kingdom and we can learn that it is something that we want, but to enter the Kingdom we need to be baptized. It not enough to know that the Kingdom is a wonderful place, we need to be willing to follow the Saviors example by being baptized.

So I know there are different opinions on what it means to be Born Again, and if baptism is necessary. What do the Methodists think about this? Actually, anyone who wants to share what they think it would be appreciated.

Well...shall we move on to John 4?

OK. I'm sure Heavenly Father has his eye on them, though I haven't seen them around here.

In my experience these journeys can be lonely, but I'll stick with it as long as you do, I really love them, and learn from them.

OK this is a little late, but hey it's a journey right, and are we on a time table? I think not.

a. What is the main subject of this passage? There are two main passages here.
1) The Samaritan woman at the well 1-42.
2) The healing of the nobleman’s son 43-54.
Because the account of the Savior and the Samaritan woman is the main part of this section it is the one that I will deal with.


b. Who are the persons revealed in this passage: Who is speaking? About whom is he speaking? Who is acting? The main characters are the Savior and the Samaritan woman. The Savior is shown to be open to all who will come to him. The Samaritans were despised by the Jews but not by the Savior. This is shown by the surprise of the woman who asks “How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria?” (v. 9), and by his disciples who “marvelled that he talked with the woman:” (v. 27)

I think that this story also show that the Samaritans must have been very spiritual people. After the woman goes and testifies that the Savior has only told her she is living in sin, she is convinced that he is the Messiah that they've been waiting for and the men of the city believed her and they invited him to stay in their city, which invitation the Lord accepted.

Compare this to the Jews that Jesus lived with.


43 ¶ Now after two days he departed thence, and went into Galilee.
44 For Jesus himself testified, that a prophet hath no honour in his own country.

Jesus actually goes to a different part of the country because the people he lived amongst would not accept him. The Galileans accepted him because they had "seen all the things that he did at Jerusalem at the feast" (v. 45) Had the people he lived among not seen, or had they seen but were to hard hearted to really see him?



c. What is the key verse of this passage?
14 But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.


d. What does this passage teach me about the Lord Jesus Christ? I think this shows that the Savior loves everyone. Although he says that he was only sent to Israel, he interprets who that is in the widest possible way. Most Jews despised the Samaritans and would have nothing to do with them, and yet Jesus went and dwelled among them.

For me I always feel how sad it must have made the Savior feel to have to testify "that a prophet hath no honour in his own country." as he leads his disciples into Galilee.



e. Does this passage portray any sin for me to confess and forsake? I could probably be a lot more accepting of people than I am.


f. Does this passage contain any command for me to obey? In verse 14 is says that we must drink of the water that the Savior has for us. It is sad to think of all the people that never drink of that water though it is there for everyone.


g. Is there any promise for me to claim? I think the promise is to drink from the well of life. For me this is the scriptures, prayer, and consecrated service to others. When I think I have problems and I serve others my problems don’t seem as over whelming.

I need to make sure we stay on this journey or I'm going to have to change my sig.

Looks like our Journey is dead .

I'm actually reading the OT and I'm going to start a thread where I ruminate on the OT as I read through it. I'm going to change my sig to go to that thread if anyone want to go there.