I am combining 2 weeks of reading here.
During Week 44, we read through the book of John. I have always liked the way John presents Jesus
right from the beginning of his book: As
Eternal. As God. As the Creator of everything.
I noticed that in the first chapter, in verse 39, when Jesus
first started meeting and gathering the people who would be his inner circle, a
couple of the guys went to where Jesus was staying and “spent the day with him”. Just
think of that. What would it be like to
spend the day with Jesus? Getting to
know him, eating a meal with him, talking to him, becoming his friend. Wow. And in Chapter 4, in verse 40 and 43, Jesus
spent 2 days in Samaria. Imagine Jesus staying with you for 2 days.
He would be a house guest that you never wanted to say good-bye to. And what makes that story even more
compelling is that he reached out to a group of people in Samaria that were not
accepted at the time. He was getting ready to change everything forever…
When Jesus met with Nicodemus in Chapter 3, I saw again the repeating
theme that God knows our heart. (see
verse 21)
I noticed in Chapter 5, in chapter 24, Jesus said that if we
believe him, we have already “crossed over from death to life”. That gives me courage and hope. No matter what happens to us in this life, we
have already crossed over. We already
have eternal life.
I love Chapter 10, verse 16.
Jesus was talking about US! Wow.
Chapter 11: The relationship Jesus had with Lazarus, Mary,
and Martha, has always intrigued me.
What would it be like to be Jesus’ special friend? To keep a guest room ready for him to stop by
and spend a day or 2? And I had never
noticed before, but in verse 10, we learn that there were plans to kill Lazarus
also, because of the unexplainable miracle that had happened to him.
John and Jesus had a special relationship. I think John “got” Jesus. Several times, as John retells the stories of
Jesus, he said that Jesus already knew what people were thinking or going to
say. That’s because John had the insight
to recognize that Jesus was God. There
is an old legend that when John reclined next to Jesus at the last supper the
night before he died, (Chapter 13, verse 23) John heard Jesus’ heartbeat, and he
recognized that it was the heartbeat of God.
It changed John forever and that’s why he wrote with a slant on the
eternal. True? We don’t know, but I like to think about
knowing Jesus that well. And actually, when
you think about it, we really do.
One more observation about the book of John: in chapter 19, verse 25 – 27, we read that Jesus’
mother Mary went to live with John after Jesus died. We could write an entire book about
that. What an honor to be chosen to be
Mary’s “adopted son”. I think Mary must
have had many things to tell John after Jesus died. She must have filled in a lot of the blanks
in the story for John. Wouldn’t you love to be able to listen to those
conversations!
And we read through the entire book of Acts during the week of Nov 1 –
11. This book, written by Luke, is one
of the most fascinating books I have read so far this year. Again, I noticed the little medical
observations that Dr. Luke mentioned throughout. It is so interesting to read about how the
early church quickly formed and became a movement. And how they struggled through all the details
and debates and decisions as they reconciled all the rules and rituals with the
new life of freedom available to EVERYONE who accepted it. The scripture is beginning to seem more contemporary.
One final note about Acts:
did you notice how Luke mentioned
that he was traveling with Paul several times?
(he switched to“we”) Luke is giving a first person account of what
happened. If you have traveled in that
part of the world it is easy to visualize their travels.
So now, we are beginning to read Paul’s letters to the
various new “churches” as the movement grew.
The final weeks of the year will go quickly!
Keep reading with imagination and watch for new insights!
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