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Jump Start # 764

Posted on January 3, 2013 by Jump Starts Daily in Jump Starts Daily | Tagged | Leave a comment

 

Jump Start # 764

John 4:21 Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe Me, an hour is coming when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father.

Change is an interesting concept. Some embrace it well. They change their hairstyle, the paint color on their walls, even their residence many times. They like the adventure of change. Others fight change. It seems the older a person becomes the more comfortable they become with the way things are and they do not want change. When the changers meet the non-changers often turbulent results follow. This is true especially involving worship. Those that like change, want change. Newer and faster songs. Different order of worship. Different style of preaching. Sometimes the desire for change crosses the out of bounds line and becomes things unauthorized. Now those who fight change are content with the old songs, the familiar way of preaching and order of worship. For them, change is unnecessary and invites trouble.

Our passage today is taken from Samaria. It involves several layers of new concepts or changes. First of all, the very fact that Jesus went through Samaria was different for these disciples. Jews avoided Samaria at all cost. They would go out of their way to not even touch Samaritan soil. Not only is Jesus in Samaria, but now He is going to drink Samaritan water and is engaged in a conversation with a Samaritan and on top of that she is a she—a woman. If there was a gauge indicating things a proper Jew would not do, the needle would be pointing to the red with what Jesus has done. The Lord did things like that on a regular basis. He allowed an immoral woman to anoint His feet. He went to the home of a tax collector. He chose a radical to be among His apostles.

Here in Samaria, Jesus enters a conversation with a woman who has a string of broken relationships. Jesus revealed that He knew she has gone through five marriages and currently was with someone that she was not married to. Jesus reveals to this woman that worship was soon to change. The Samaritans worshipped in the mountain. The Jews in Jerusalem. A time was coming when neither place would be the “official” place of worship. The true worshipper would worship in spirit and in truth—from the heart. God would not be located in one place. The book of Acts shows the establishment of churches throughout the world. God would be worshipped in those places.

A change in location. A change in worship. That thought was radical for Samaritans and Jews. Both had worshipped in their own designated places for hundreds of years. Now that was changing.

That thought is similar to a person today who has grown up worshipping God one way and then upon reading and believing the New Testament way finds out that they were worshipping God in ways not described in the Bible. They want to please God so they find a congregation that is bent on worshipping the Bible way. A change takes place. That’s hard. Sometimes family members do not understand nor agree with that change. Tensions and hardships can follow.

Worshipping God the way He has defined it and described it is essential to pleasing God. Cain and Abel remind us of that. Two brothers worshipped God differently. One was by faith, one was not. One did what God said, the other did not. One made a blood sacrifice, the other offered vegetables. One way was hard, the other was easy. One pleased God, the other did not. Worship is not about us, it’s about God. It’s not about what I want, but what He has declared. It’s not about what is easy or convenient, but what is described in the New Testament.

 

Change—it’s not always easy. The easy way requires little effort. It’s easy to be broke, just spend money like Congress. It’s easy to be overweight and out of shape. It’s easy to fail a class, never show up. Effort is what is hard. It’s hard to make honor roll. It’s hard to stay in shape. It’s hard to stay with the budget and save money. It’s hard to fight self and worship God the way He wants to be worshipped.

When Jesus declared that an hour was coming and that change was taking place, those words were very radical. That hour involved the cross. That hour included the tearing of the temple curtain at His resurrection. That hour included remembering His death and resurrection on Sunday. That hour included salvation that came with all those changes. For the Jew in the first century, the change of worship was huge. The day of worship changed. What they did changed. No longer was the temple needed. No longer was animal sacrifices needed. No longer was a priest needed. No longer was the Sabbath restrictions needed. Change. Some resisted it. Others embraced it when they came to understand and believe in Christ.

There is an old hymn, “Just as I am,” that’s how you come to Christ. Just as you are. But that’s not the way you stay. You change. You grow. You become. You accept the ways of the New Testament. Those that want to remain and stay just as I am, fail. It doesn’t work for them. They refuse to become like Christ. But for those that do, it is a wonderful, wonderful life.

A new year begins with a new you!

Roger

 

02

Jump Start # 763

Posted on January 2, 2013 by Jump Starts Daily in Jump Starts Daily | Tagged | Leave a comment

 

Jump Start # 763

John 9:6-7 “When He had said this, He spat on the ground, and made clay of the spittle, and applied the clay to his eyes, and said to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which is translated, Sent). So he went away and washed, and came back seeing.”

Happy New Year, to all our Jump Start readers. A new year begins with hopes and dreams and opportunities. If the Lord allows, this year will bring weddings and births to those around us. The start of a new year is a time that many take an audit of how things are going and they make course corrections. It often takes a person being dissatisfied to motivate them to change. A person who is tired of what they see in the mirror will be motivated to work out. A person who is tired of being broke will be motivated to make a budget and stick to it. A person who is tired of just existing will be motivated to draw closer to the Lord. There are a number of ways that can happen such as: beginning the day with prayer, or reading our Jump Starts every day, or reading a chapter of the Bible every day, or making an effort to attend worship services on a regular basis. Those are starters. Other things may include, making a list of books you want to read this year, people you want to share the gospel with, topics you want to learn. Change and opportunity are some of the greatest blessings we have. You do not have to accept the way things are. You are the drive and the motivation in your life for change.

Our passage illustrates one person whose life was changed in a dramatic fashion. A man was blind from birth. His world was dark and closed. His future would involve begging. A blind man in the first century had little hope of change. There were no schools for the blind. There were no government help for the blind. Braille was not invented. He sat in a dark world with a cup hoping someone, anyone would drop a few coins in it. I’d expect with blindness came misery and desperation.

John nine begins by telling us that Jesus saw this man as they passed by. The disciples wanted to know why God punished him. Was it for his sins or his parents? They didn’t’ think about helping him. They didn’t ask Jesus to make his life better. Simply a curious question. Some are like that. They want to know why someone is in the mess that they are in. They are curious. They do not intend to help, they just want to know. Not only does Jesus answer their question by revealing his blindness was not connected to sin at all, but He offers a changed world for the blind man.

This miracle is fascinating. Jesus spits in the dirt, makes mud and puts it on the blind eyes. Does this man know of Jesus? Is a stranger doing this to him? He is then told to go and wash his eyes in the pool Siloam. He obeys. Interesting the way this miracle unfolds. On other occasions Jesus would heal people immediately. Here, there was mud, a command, a trip to a pool and then the healing. We wonder why all this happened this way. Was trust and faith in something that the blind man could not see important? Was Jesus trying to show the disciples that a man who could not see believed?

I’d expect that this blind man went straight to the pool Siloam when Jesus told him. I would not think that he paused to chit-chat with buddies, or went to the market, or anything else. This was a priority and he was on a mission. He was told to wash and he did. He came back seeing. He came back…much like the thankful leper, this blind man returned to Jesus. He wasn’t through with Jesus. His eyes were opened and now his heart was opened. Jesus changed his life and he wanted to be near the Lord.

Do you see yourself in that story? We were blind as well. Living in a dark world of sin, selfishness and stubbornness, we did what we wanted to do, and we did it the way we wanted to do. Life was not working out because we were on a dead end street going no where. Blind. Lost. Hopeless. His world was physical blindness, our world was spiritual blindness.

Then we met Jesus. Everything changed. Forgiveness, grace, hope, life were offered to us. Go and wash. Go and be baptized. We went. We obeyed. We trusted. And our world was changed. Guilt, shame and hurt was lifted. A new page. A new life. A new way was before us. Like the blind man, we returned to Jesus. We learned. We grew. We became.

Change is hard for some. We become creatures of habit. Ordering the same food in a restaurant. Driving the same roads. Sitting in the same pew. Doing the same thing. It takes some drive to change, but what a difference it makes.

A new year begins with a new you. Will this year be any different? Will you change things? Had this blind man not gone to the pool, he would have remained blind. You have your pool that you must go to if you want a better world. It may be breaking old habits that are holding you down. It may be starting some new ones. The opportunity for a new year and a new year is before you. Being stuck is a terrible feeling and a terrible way to live.

A new you begins with the hope of a better life.

Roger