Here's the link for today's reading:
http://www.youversion.com/reading-plans/project-345/5
This chapter has probably one of the most well known verses in the Bible - John 3:16 but verse 17 is equally as exciting:
God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him.
Even though the day will come when we'll stand before God and be judged for the way we lived our lives, that was not Jesus' primary mission. He came to save the world.
This chapter is also great as you look at the story of Nicodemus.
What jumps out at you about John chapter 3?
BTW I've been contacted by Bible 360 they have an app (for free) that looks very interesting. I'll be checking it out soon and will hopefully have the author on one of my other blogs. If any of you download it please share what you think.
I love seeing the humbleness of John the Baptist in the later part of the chapter.
ReplyDeleteBut the part I love most ever since studying it a couple years ago is that the famous 16th verse is actually part of an analogy that is just so beautiful. When the Israelites were in the wilderness and the serpents sent among them, many of them were bitten and dying--and the Lord sent salvation. All they had to do was LOOK at the rod Moses had raised up, and they would be saved.
But some of them didn't. Some of them chose not to believe--and they died.
The same is true of us now. We're already bitten. We're already dying. We're already condemned, by our own sin, our own decisions. But God sent Jesus to be that rod of salvation. All we have to do is look and believe.
But some don't. Is it God refusing them entrance into heaven? No--it's them refusing the salvation freely offered.
Amazing stuff.
"The wind blows wherever it wants. Just as you can hear the wind but can’t tell where it comes from or where it is going, so you can’t explain how people are born of the Spirit.”
ReplyDeleteI love this sentence. I'm not a big apologetics fans because I don't believe I can explain in worldly and scientific terms that the Holy Spirit exists. It just turns into a big argument that goes nowhere.
But, Jesus puts it so simply here. It is the only apologetics I need.
Agreed Roseanna, just so much in here from Jesus and Nicodemus to John and his explantions of Jesus the Christ to his followers. How many humans today would willingly give up the "prestige" and "power" that comes with having people who follow them in order to build up another to give them said prestige and power ? Also I have to wonder just how long John knew Jesus was the Christ. After all his mother knew that Mary, Jesus' mother carried the Christ Child .. did she in turn teach this to John. Hmmm... Just thinking.
ReplyDelete29 “The groom is the person to whom the bride belongs. The best man, who stands and listens to him, is overjoyed when the groom speaks. This is the joy that I feel. God's Word Translation
ReplyDeleteWe belong to Him. I like how this is spoken in words we can see with our hearts.
lanehillhouse[at]centurylink[dot]net
29 “The groom is the person to whom the bride belongs. The best man, who stands and listens to him, is overjoyed when the groom speaks. This is the joy that I feel. God's Word Translation
ReplyDeleteWe belong to Him. I like how this is spoken in words we can see with our hearts.
lanehillhouse[at]centurylink[dot]net (I posted this on January 5 ~*~ I must have only pressed preview and closed it.)