Book of John Study #3

John 4 Is a packed full passage with several different things weaved in it. Jesus was a master story teller - (called parables). In the interaction with the woman at well Jesus takes physical things and communicates spiritual truths. Jesus teaches us how to have spiritual conversations in every day language with everyday people. The thing that is challenging me in this passage with the woman at the well is how do I communicate the story of what God is doing and what he has done without using Christianese (christian sub culture terms that only church people know and use). Are you engaging people in spiritual converations? When was the last time we shared what God was teaching us with someone else?

+ The story - [backgroung] Samaritans were people that were half Jew and have Assyrian? When the Assyrians conquered the jews some of the Jews intermarried and created the Samaritans. Jews were not supposed to talk to the Samaritans because they were looked down on. So Jesus by religious standards was not supposed to talk to a samaritan, let alone a women. Who are the Samaritans that you are "not suppossed" to talk to because they are looked as unclean people? Be honest about this - are there people that you wouldn't be caught talking to because of what others might think, or what others think about them. Why wouldn't you talk to those people? What's going on there? How do you talk about others that dress different, look different, live a different way? How can we learn from Jesus here?

Jesus does something beautiful here talking about water but really talking about life. He is offering this woman a different way to live. Not living in a way that will only continue to leave her empty. You see this woman had been through 5 marriages and was living with someone else. Jesus, instead of condemning her offers her hope in the midst of a life that is filled with pain and plenty of emptiness.

Jesus is offering this women a different way to live. A way that won't leave her broken, empty, continuing the cycle that she is in. Jesus offers life. He always does - as a teenager i always thought that God's ways were limiting me. I thought if i follow God i am going to miss out. Do you ever feel that way?

At the core of who you are do you believe God wants what is best for you?
When we answer this question we start trusting that God's ways don't hinder or limit us but actually free us. God wants us to be free. It was for freedom that Jesus came.

John 4:39-42 - Many samaritans heard the message of Jesus through the woman and believed. God did something amazing in this woman's life and she told everyone - I think she didn't have to use many words because her life spoke a lot of the change to people. The news of who God is and What he has done spread through this woman.

Reread John 4 - What is God communicating to you in this passage? Just be still with the passage - think about it - ask God to teach you - to change you. Are you living in the life that Jesus offers.

VERTIGO FALL RETREAT
NOV 17 -18
"LIFE ON THE VINE"

You can still register for the retreat. I want everyone to be there. Retreats are the best way to grow our group together. For the low price of $35. If you need to come late we can arrange that. You can download retreat registration forms off the website www.churchattuscaloosa.com/vertigo it is under the upcoming events. Turn the registration and money into Eric to reserve your spot. This will be a weekend you will never forget. If you had other plans cancel them. See you there.

Heart Check Week #2 - From the inside out

Matthew 23:25-26 You clean the outside of the cup and the dish but inside they are full of greed and self - indulgence. Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish and then the outside also will be clean.

--- They had these rituals in which they would clean the dishes they ate with and wash their hands - Jesus was saying - you are more concerned with the outside appearance the part that doesn’t matter but the inside is filthy. If your hearts are right then your life’s actions will become right.

Mark 7:1-8

We work so hard to make sure the outside looks good. In our culture think about that - Surgeries to change our physical appearance, the clothes we wear, the car we drive, the house we live in.

Even the things we do we want others to be impressed by how we play a game, how many friends we have. We want others to take notice of us. We want to be famous we want others to be about us.

Celebrities have all of this don’t they. But what do we know about celebrities? They are just as screwed up as the people that don’t have the looks, the cars, the houses, the fame. The outside stuff didn’t change the inside did it? They still feel alone, broken, self concious, The inside is all messed up but the outside sure does look good doesn’t it.

Our desire must shift - our hearts must shift. If we live for those things the inside of us won’t change.

If our inside changes than the outside will change. If we are content with what we have then we won’t need to buy more. If we are comfortable in our own skin we won’t need to starve ourselves. If we realize that fame comes and goes we will be more about pointing people to God who never fades.

Are you content? Do you always find yourself wanting more?

I wonder if we got real honest and took a look on the inside of our lives how many of us would say - it’s really messy in there. I am more concerned about the outside of my life and the inside - i hate myself, i have bitterness towards others, i don’t think i am valuable, i am about fame/popularity at any expense.

The thing is on our own we can’t clean the inside of the cup by ourselves. Only God can do that. Because there are layers and layers of crud in here. For us i think God is asking each one of us.

Are you going to surrender your life to me and let me help you clean the inside of your life?

Are you going to continue living as if it is all alright on the outside when the inside is dying?

Book Of John Study #2

Many of us would read John 2 and see that Jesus turned water into wine and be clueless of what was really going on here.
+ In that time Wedding celebrations would usually last a week and many guests would be invited. There had to be careful planning about food, drink etc. If the party ran out of food/drink it was a huge embarrassment to the couple and family. Jesus was responding to a heartfelt need here.

+ In this story I started thinking about what it looks like for a lot of people to wait to life hits empty to look to God. God still delivers the best but why wait to the end or when it gets bad. Following Jesus is the best possible life. But we tend only to come to God when things are at whits end or the end of life on Earth. What does it look like for us to come close to God throughout our lives and trust him in every part?

+ The temple clearing - here we see Jesus' and what righteous anger looks like. He isn't angry for selfish reasons, or for no purpose but rather he sees injustice happening and he is furious at that.
---The story behind the story---
The temple is packed - and people have come from all over to make their sacrifices. Jesus isn't upset that people are buying and selling but what they were doing. See the vendors and money exchangers were charging incredibly high rates to make a huge profit because they knew the people would have to do it. They would turn away their animals and make them buy their higher priced animals.

v19 Jesus says tear down this temple and I will restore it in 3 days. What Jesus is referring to is himself. He references himself as the temple. This is really a huge deal. The pharisees thought he was talking about the physical building. Jesus was making reference to himself being crucified and resurrected 3 days later.
+ Jesus as the new temple system. This passage also refers to the fact that Jesus was saying the temple system as they know it was broken. Jesus is going to be the way to God not sacrificing at the temple. Jesus was attacking head on their system and obviously these men who made a good living off of the temple didn't want to see it go. They wanted to kill him for things like that.

+ Later in Matthew 21:12-22 (read it) Jesus clears the temple again. After he does this they walk by a fig tree. The fig tree had leaves on it meaning that it was supposed to have fruit but it didn't. I think this is direct reference to the temple and the pharisees. It is supposed to offer life but only has crumbs. The outside looked good but the inside there was nothing.

What are your thoughts?

Online Study Week # 1 - John Chapter 1

JOHN CHAPTER 1
John chapter 1 is packed full - this chapter sets up who Jesus is, his role, and the beginning of his investment in his disciples along with the background on John the Baptist.

The first couple verses are so powerful - vs1 "In the beginning...(before anything, where there was nothing, God created everything from nothing. Everything we see God spoke into existence - his words are powerful. He spoke into nothing and everything was created. The oceans, the sun, the stars, everything. Our God is powerful, huge, creative, and that God came to Earth in human form - Jesus).

Vs 1-5 are talking about Jesus - he was with God, and he is God. He was there in the very beginning when all was created.

Vs 5 "light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not overcome it."
Let's look at light for a second - What does light do? If there is a glimpse of light in the darkest of rooms it shows through. Light exposes things, it brings things into visibility. The light of the world (Jesus) came down into a broken world to show, expose, and bring into visibility the best way to live. Jesus shows us how to respond, how to live, how to be.

Vs 6 Welcome John the Baptist to the story. John's role was to prepare people for Jesus. He testifies to the light (Jesus). His whole life purpose is to point people to God. This is to be our whole life purpose as well. He is a witness to the light v8 - In court what does a witness do?

V14 This verse points out that God became flesh. God in the flesh. No one up to this point had ever seen God but now God came to the Earth in flesh. Now if we want to know what God is like, what he is passionate about, what he cares about, how he reacts- we look to Jesus. Jesus is God in the flesh showing us what God is like. He is the visible image of the invisible God.

v14 Grace and Truth - a little phrase that has a lot in it - full of forgiveness, second chances, redemption, healing but does that in the context of telling the truth about things, not backing down from conflict, and revealing what is really going on. How do we live full of grace and yet still have truth there with it.

v15 -29 talk a lot of baptism. I have come to see baptism a lot like a wedding ceremony. Where you publicly announce that you are committing to the person. You are saying to everyone I belong to them. Baptism also has a lot of symbolism in the fact that you go under the water signifying dying with christ and when you come out of the water signifying new life in Christ. Baptism is a beautiful thing and if you are ready to make that commitment publicly to Christ we have a baptism ceremony coming up in Nov.

v39 The disciples start there journey with Jesus. It's interesting how it all begins - Jesus just says "come and see." No matter who you are or your background - Jesus says - come - be a part of what I'm doing. Start living with me.

v43 Jesus changes Simon's name. We tend to just read over things like that - but let's take a deeper look. Names were a big deal back then - they had meaning they carried symbolism. Jesus changes his name - it would be like me saying your name is now _______ and then rolling with it. He gave Simon a new identity.

v44 to the end of the chapter has this story with Jesus and this guy named Nathanael. When we read it we notice that Jesus was seeing to the heart of Nathanael. Pointing out that he is the real deal through and through not just on the outside. Jesus can look to the core of who we are and where are and speak into the center of us.

WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON THE PASSAGE?

ONLINE STUDY

Welcome to our online study of the book of John. Over the next couple of weeks I want you to take part in a community experience. On Tues and Thursday of every week leading up to the Fall Retreat (where we will be interacting with John 15 "the vine"). I will post my thoughts, ideas, and reflections on the chapter. I want you to be reading, thinking, reflecting, and sharing with us. To leave your comments click the post and then click add comment. To make this a great success we have to commit to this, to read, to reflect, and to post. This will be a great way to encounter the text and learn with each other and from each other.
Week # 1 = Thursday John 1 Week # 2 = Tuesday John 3 - Thursday John 4
Week # 3 = Tuesday John 6 - Thursday John 9 Week # 4 = Tuesday John 10 - Thursday 12
Week # 5 = Tuesday John 13 - Thursday John 14
FALL RETREAT NOV 17 - 18

Last night at Vertigo we kicked off a new series "the heart of life." I used the visual of a fake plant to bring home the message that we can look like the real deal on the outside but on the inside we can be far from it. I desire to be a Christian in my heart as well as on the outside. Here are some notes from last night:

+We physically live from our hearts. If your heart stops you stop. The heart is central to our physical life.
The heart (the center of us) is also the core of spiritual living.

+PROVERBS 4:23 - heart is the wellspring of life

+Life decisions and actions flow from the heart.

FAKE PLANTS
no matter how much you water it it won’t come to life it isn’t the real deal

Have you ever seen something that is a knockoff? A copy? Fake rolex, polo shirt, designer purse etc.

Looks like the real deal but isn’t

We can try to be a christian on the outside but what about the condition of your heart?

I want to be a christian not just in actions but in my heart as well

Have you ever tried to do the right thing to love, be patient etc. but you just can’t do it for very long?

Jesus said serve with your right hand so that your left doesn’t know what the other hand is doing. How is that possible? Tell me how?

You don't think about breathing ( i hope ) it comes naturally - to serve without knowing it our heart, our being must be that of a servant then we naturally do it.

psalm 119:9-10
How can a young man keep his way pure?
By living according to your word.
I seek you with all my heart;
do not let me stray from your commands.

Are you keeping the word close to you? Putting it to practice?

BELLA THE MOVIE