John 9:1-7,24,35-41; Ephesians 5:8-14   Our John passage tells about a man who was blind from birth who Jesus heals. The sad part of the story is the reluctance of the Pharisees to believe that Jesus who healed him is truly the Messiah. Before he heals the man, Jesus says I am the light of the world. This passage has a double message of Jesus bringing light out of darkness to the physically blind man, while the Pharisees remain spiritually in darkness since they don’t believe. They call Christ a sinner, but I love the blind man’s response, “I don’t know if he is a sinner, but what I do know is once I was blind but now I see.” At the end of the account the blind man believes in Christ, but the Pharisees are spiritually blind to him. In Ephesians, Paul talks about how before salvation we were in darkness but due to the Lord we now live in the light. We can be children of the light if we produce the good fruits of what is good, right, and true. We are to find out what is ...

  Exodus 17: 1-7; John 4:5-30,39-42   In Exodus we find the weary Israelites on their way to the promised land thirsty. They can’t find any water, but instead of asking God or Moses politely, they complain. It says they quarreled and tested the Lord. God comes to the rescue by having Moses strike the rock. This water lasted them a while and took care of their thirst but soon they would thirst again. Remember this is a desert land so water was sometimes hard to come by and people would go miles to get it. In John 4, Jesus and the disciples are stopping at a town in Samaria and Jesus approaches a woman at the well there and asks for a drink of water. The woman is shocked since Jews didn’t like the Samaritans much less talk to them and the Jewish religious would never speak to an unclean woman. When she states this Jesus responds to her saying something that blows her mind. “If you knew who you were talking to you would be asking me for living water.” She eagerly responds ask...

Genesis 12: 1-4a; Romans 4:1-5, 13-17   In Genesis 12 God gives a command to Abram to go to the land the Lord would show him. Verse 4 shows Abram’s obedience to God since “he went as the Lord told him.” Not only his obedience should be emphasized here but what went behind his obedience. Abram had faith that God would deliver what the Lord had promised. So, he left his country and kindred by faith to go to the land God would show him. This faith of Abram – not his work in the traveling and following the law is what Paul says in Romans was reckoned to him as righteousness. Paul stresses that the promise Abram – name changed later to Abraham – didn’t come through keeping the law. Verse 16 tells how it depends on faith in order that the promise may rest on grace. It’s nothing Abraham has done but through his faith in the unmerited gift of God. This promise is guaranteed to all Abraham’s descendants, not only those who follow the Mosaic and Levitical law – the Jewish people, but t...

  Psalms 32, Romans 5:12-19   Our Psalm starts out with our theme stating that happy are those whose transgressions – sins are forgiven. The psalmist tells about how his body wasted away until he acknowledged his sin to God. Instead of hiding his sin from God – he confesses and God forgave the guilt of his sin and God ends up being his hiding place from trouble. He talks about how steadfast love surrounds – encircled those who trust in the Lord. The psalmist closes the psalm with more happiness due to being forgiven. Be glad in the Lord and rejoice and shout for joy those who are righteous and upright in heart. The term Paul uses in Romans 5 for forgiveness is justification. He talks about how sin was brought into the world by Adam’s disobedience in contrast to Jesus, considered the new Adam, who obeyed God and through his death on the cross brought justification. One man brought sin into the world – Adam while one man – Christ brought the solution to sin. It is through Christ...