Relationship

It is religion that makes a relationship with God possible through Jesus Christ - and only through Him.

God not as an abstract force, but as a personal being.

personal relationship with God is developed through prayer, scripture reading, and other spiritual practices.

a relationship with God leads to a transformation of their lives and a desire to live according to God’s will.

Psalms 73

²⁵Whom have I in heaven but you?
    And earth has nothing I desire besides you.
²⁶My flesh and my heart may fail,
    but God is the strength of my heart
    and my portion forever.

Psalm 25:14

The LORDconfidesin those who fear Him,and revealsHis covenant to them.

Psalms 42

1 As the deer pants for streams of water,
    so my soul pants for you, my God.
2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.
    When can I go and meet with God?
3 My tears have been my food
    day and night,
while people say to me all day long,
    “Where is your God?”

Psalms 88

¹³But I cry to you for help, Lord;
    in the morning my prayer comes before you.
¹⁴Why, Lord, do you reject me
    and hide your face from me?

¹⁸You have taken from me friend and neighbor—
    darkness is my closest friend.

For Poetry too is a Little Incarnation

The quote “For poetry too is a little incarnation, giving body to what had been before invisible and inaudible” originates from C.S. Lewis. It suggests that poetry, like the Incarnation of Jesus Christ, gives tangible form to something previously unseen or unheard. It makes the invisible visible and the inaudible audible through the medium of words.

Worship

It is in the process of being worshipped that God communicates His presence to men

I want to stress what I think that we (or at least I) need more; the joy and delight in God

A Word About Praise

But the most obvious fact about praise—whether of God or anything—strangely escaped me. I thought of it in terms of compliment, approval, or the giving of honor. I had never noticed that all enjoyment spontaneously overflows into praise

The world rings with praise—lovers praising their mistresses, readers their favorite poet, walkers praising the countryside, etc

praise almost seems to be inner health made audible

I had not noticed either that just as men spontaneously praise whatever they value, so they spontaneously urge us to join them in praising it: “Isn’t she lovely? Wasn’t it glorious? Don’t you think that magnificent?” The Psalmists in telling everyone to praise God are doing what all men do when they speak of what they care about.

I think we delight to praise what we enjoy because the praise not merely expresses but completes the enjoyment. It is not out of compliment that lovers keep on telling one another how beautiful they are; the delight is incomplete till it is expressed. It is frustrating to have discovered a new author and not to be able to tell anyone how good he is; to come upon some mountain valley of unexpected grandeur and then to have to keep silent because the people with you care for it no more than for a tin can in the ditch; to hear a good joke and find no one to share it with. This is so even when our expressions are inadequate, as of course they usually are.

The worthier the object, the more intense this delight would be. If it were possible for a created soul fully to “appreciate”, that is to love and delight in, the worthiest object of all, and simultaneously at every moment to give this delight perfect expression, then that soul would be in supreme beatitude. It is along these lines that I find it easiest to understand the Christian doctrine that “Heaven” is a state in which angels now, and men hereafter, are perpetually employed in praising God.

Lord’s Prayer Teaching Luke 11

Jesus teaches:

• What to pray (The Lord’s Prayer) - (Luke 11:1–4)
• How to pray (with persistence and trust) - (Luke 11:5–8) & (Luke 11:9–10)
• Who we pray to (a good and generous Father) - (Luke 11:11–13)

Ultimately, Luke 11 reminds us that prayer is both relational and transformative—a way of aligning our hearts with God’s will while trusting in His care and timing.

Lord’s Will

In a garden we fell. In a garden He prayed, “not My will, but Yours be done.”

Psalms

So shall we:

• submit/abide
• uphold
• desire
• depend/rely
• know

Your:

• command - to order, from Vulgar Latin *commandare “entrust to” influenced by Latin mandare “to commit, entrust” mandate
• demands:
  • de “down to the bottom, totally” hence “completely”, “love you from the bottom of my heart”
  • mandate
• decree - de-cernere “to separate”
• guideline - guide from PIE root *weid- “to see” + line from linen “cable, rope, etc)
• law - legh, to lie down, lay (that which is set or established)
• mandate - mandare “to order, commit to one’s charge” literally “to give into one’s hand”. manus “hand” (from PIE root *man-) + dare “to give” (from PIE root *do-)
• precept - prae “before” + capere “to take” from PIE root *kap- “to grasp”
• principle - primus “first” + root of capere “to take” “to grasp”
• order - PIE root *ar- “to fit together”
• regulations -
• rules -
• scriptures -
• statute - statuere, to stand, make or be firm
• stipulations -
• tenets - from PIE root *ten- “to stretch” “to hold in mind, take in, understand”, “a thing held (to be true)”

For all these were spoken out of Your word to reveal:

• Your character & Your ways

You have created us, so:

• you designed how we should live in right relationship with You and with others
• you know how we should live in right relationship with You and with others
• you have authority in how we should live in right relationship with You and with others
• you have ownership in how we should live in right relationship with You and with others

LORD vs Rabbi

When Jesus told His disciples that one will betray Him, each one of them said, “Is it I LORD?” except for Judas. Judas asked, “Is it I Rabbi?”.

• The title Rabbi is an honorary title
  • but, there were many rabbis walking around Israel during the time of Jesus.
• The title LORD is one that denotes full authority and ownership.

You can have many teachers in your life, but you can only have one “Lord.”

The question is who do you identify Jesus as?

But just saying Jesus is LORD is not enough. Matthew 7:22, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven”.

John 6:25-29

• ²⁵When they found him on the other side of the lake, they asked him, “Rabbi, when did you get here?”
• ²⁶Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw the signs I performed but because you ate the loaves and had your fill. ²⁷Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For on him God the Father has placed his seal of approval.”
• ²⁸Then they asked him, “What must we do to do the works God requires?”
• ²⁹Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.”

John 4 - Samaritan Women

passage

Jesus Talks With a Samaritan Woman

4 Now Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that he was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John— ²although in fact it was not Jesus who baptized, but his disciples. ³So he left Judea and went back once more to Galilee.

⁴Now he had to go through Samaria. ⁵So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. ⁶Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon.

⁷When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” ⁸(His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)

⁹The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.^[a])

¹⁰Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”

¹¹“Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? ¹²Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?”

¹³Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, ¹⁴but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

¹⁵The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.”

¹⁶He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.”

¹⁷“I have no husband,” she replied.

Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. ¹⁸The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.”

¹⁹“Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. ²⁰Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”

²¹“Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. ²²You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. ²³Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. ²⁴God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”

²⁵The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”

²⁶Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.”

The Disciples Rejoin Jesus

²⁷Just then his disciples returned and were surprised to find him talking with a woman. But no one asked, “What do you want?” or “Why are you talking with her?”

²⁸Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, ²⁹“Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?” ³⁰They came out of the town and made their way toward him.

³¹Meanwhile his disciples urged him, “Rabbi, eat something.”

³²But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you know nothing about.”

³³Then his disciples said to each other, “Could someone have brought him food?”

³⁴“My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. ³⁵Don’t you have a saying, ‘It’s still four months until harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest. ³⁶Even now the one who reaps draws a wage and harvests a crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together. ³⁷Thus the saying ‘One sows and another reaps’ is true. ³⁸I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labor.”

Many Samaritans Believe

³⁹Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I ever did.” ⁴⁰So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days. ⁴¹And because of his words many more became believers.

⁴²They said to the woman, “We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world.”

Jesus asked the Samaritan woman for a drink. But in result, it is Him who offered her a drink from a spring that would well up to eternal life (with Him). He then spent two days giving waters to others in her town as well

Luke 10 - The Parable of the Good Samaritan

passage

²⁵On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

²⁶“What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?”

²⁷He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’^[c]; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’^[d]”

²⁸“You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.”

²⁹But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”

³⁰In reply Jesus said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. ³¹A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. ³²So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. ³³But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. ³⁴He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him. ³⁵The next day he took out two denarii^[e] and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’

³⁶“Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?”

³⁷The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.”

Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”

Jesus was asked, “Who is my neighbor?” but answered, “Go and be that neighbor”.