Five Minute Friday: Remedy

Today I am participating in Five Minute Friday, where a group of writers get together and free write about a one word prompt for 5 minutes. Today's word is "remedy." Usually I take the Five Minute Friday word prompt, and expound on a passage of Scripture. But today I decided to do something different and write a story. 

There was no remedy for what her heart felt. She was alone, although she was constantly at a man’s side. She never got a break. Since she was 15 years old, there had always been a man. Some were good, and some were not. The first one was the one she had chosen, but it was only short lived, because she wasn’t good enough for the family. How they talked him into the divorce, she didn’t know. After that, it just became one blur after another, being passed from man to man, like a coin, in exchange for whatever their need was. She wasn’t a prostitute, but the way the men had just married her, then dropped her. These were the thoughts that went over and over her mind each day on her walk to the well. Well, she was alone then. But still no remedy for the ache in her heart. As she approached the well that day, she saw a man sitting there. She could see the tzitzit, the blue tassel that alerted her he was not one of her people, but a Jewish man. “Great,” she thought. Another man to confront. Another man to deal with. Would there ever be a remedy for the aches of her heart?


“Please give me a drink,” Jesus said to her.

*This story is based on the account of Jesus' interaction with the Samaritan woman in John 4. I used the tzitzit as an identifier for Him because the Bible doesn't tell us how she knew He was a Jew and not a Samaritan. After some research, I found out that Samaritans also wear the tzitzit on their garments. I am not sure when they began doing that.

31 Days of Jesus: Jesus Gives Us The Gift

Today's word prompt for the 31 Days Five Minute Friday Writing Challenge is Gift.

Jesus answered and said to her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.”-John 4:10

John chapter 4:1-26 is the account of Jesus’ interaction with a woman at a well. He is talking to her in the middle of the day, in public. And he is explaining spiritual truths to her.

And in this passage he refers to a gift of God. What is that gift?

I think if we look at the process of the passage we can discern some of the meaning. He goes through what seems like a pattern. He is talking. He mentions the gift. Then He refers back to himself. Then back to the gift.

At first I wanted to say the gift was Jesus, but I don’t think he is the gift in this passage. I think he is referring to the living water. And if we investigate the word a little further, we will discover that the gift has a different meaning than him.

One way to further explore the meaning of the word is to look it up in the original language. When we do that, it makes clearer how the author intended to use the word.

According to my Greek Dictionary, the word “gift” in the passage of scripture above is the word “dorea.” It means a free gift and is always used in regards to a spiritual or supernatural gift.

In Jesus’ interaction with the Samaritan woman, He is talking about giving her a gift that only He can give her. Jesus is physically standing their with her, and he wants to give her something else. He wants to give her living water.

Earlier in the Gospel of John, the prophet John the Baptist explains about Jesus, that he will baptize with the Holy Spirit. That is the gift Jesus is sharing with the woman in John 4.

Later in Acts 2:38, Luke recounts Peter’s message after they have all been baptized in the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost.

Then Peter said to them, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Gift in that passage is also the word “dorea.”

Jesus is not the gift in the passage, but he is the means through which the gift comes.

Jesus is the one who baptizes us in the Holy Spirit, and that is the gift we receive. We cannot do anything to earn it, or buy it, or merit it in any way. It is a free gift that comes to us when we believe in Jesus.

Have you received the Gift?

 To read more in the series, please go to 31 Days of Jesus.

Jesus' Conversations with Women: The Water Jar

I have been thinking about the woman at the well that is found, in John 4. Mainly I have been thinking about her water jar. That water jar represented shame to her. The Bible says it was the sixth hour when Jesus sat down at the well. That would have been about noon. Then comes the woman to draw water.

Coming to the well at this time of the day would have been unusual. The job of drawing water was the job of a slave or women, and they would have done it earlier in the day when it was cooler, so this woman was coming to the well when she could avoid other people.

Her tone seemed a little sharp when she talked to Jesus, and we can tell that she was brave when speaking with Him. But she carried that shame because she avoided those who would shame her.

They have a conversation, she and Jesus, and discuss theological things. He offers her living water They discuss Jacob who built the well. His words tell her he knows her and what has happened to her in her life. And then they come to the most pivotal point.

Jesus tells her He is the Messiah. He reveals His true nature to her, and what He wants to do for her.

And she leaves her water jar.

She leaves the thing that is a representation of her shame. She lets it go, runs away, and tells other people about Him.

I believe, that when we all have a true encounter with the living Jesus, we will do the same. It will cause us to let go and leave our shame. We will leave all those things that have been holding us back, with Him, and we will run and tell others about Him.

He wanted her to come to know Him, That was His purpose in talking to her and still is His purpose with us.

The woman said to Him, “I know that Messiah is coming” (who is called Christ). “When He comes, He will tell us all things.”

Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am He.”

And at this point His disciples came, and they marveled that He talked with a woman; yet no one said, “What do You seek?” or, “Why are You talking with her?”

The woman then left her waterpot, went her way into the city, and said to the men, “Come, see a Man who told me all things that I ever did. Could this be the Christ?” Then they went out of the city and came to Him.-John 4:25-30 (NKJV) 

My prayer is that we would all continue to grow in the grace and knowledge of Him,

Beth

Called by God: The Samaritan Woman

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

Then Jesus declared, 'I, the one speaking to you—I am he.'"-John 4:25-26 (NIV)

The Lord wants to speak through women.  Women have gifts that Christ gave to contribute to the church.

For God's gifts and his call can never be withdrawn.-Romans 11:29 (NLT)

In John chapter 4, after Jesus speaks with the Samaritan woman at the well, she goes out and tells her whole town about him.  A woman preaches to the town that Jesus is the Messiah.

"Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, 'Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?'"-John 4:28-29 (NIV)

And what happens?

It opens the door for a lot of people to become Believers in that town.  And Jesus stays with them 2 more days.

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

They 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.'"

The Lord wants to speak through women.