Where is Your Wine for Water Need?

Well, we’ve made it through another week of Journaling through the Book of John: A Journey for Lent and Beyond . We are not sprinting through, but instead we are lingering long, digging deep and reflecting on scripture- at this pace if you are just jumping in now, it would be easy to modify and “catch up”. Isn’t that a beautiful thing?

This week we’ve seen Jesus’ first miracle, stuff that makes God REALLY angry, and a Temple confrontation that leads to a bit of foreshadowing.

I’m gonna be honest here…I ‘m sort of biased toward chapters three and four, so I think sometimes I’ve been guilty of not seeing the hugely significant bits in Chapter two. Maybe it’s that I have pondered them long and hard, or because both chapters were a significant part of my own conversion story. Maybe because that first miracle is taught in Sunday School  and it’s hard for children to see the many layered implications in this first miracle, performed at a wedding feast in Cana. A miracle that maybe we, even as adults, miss out on how God is not random. That weddings and wine are significant in the salvation story which God has woven throughout time and history in Christ.

For we are His Bride, His Beauty, His pride and joy!

But here we are, watered down in our daily living. We thirst for more, we thirst for joy, we thirst for truth. Do we go to the One who can supply all, or do we settle for our own stagnant water, instead of the water infused with His life, joy, and beautiful mercy?

As this week came to a close, I kept coming back to this question from Serendipity Bible,

“Where do you need to see the water turned into wine in your life right now?”

What a great question! I’m still answering that in my own personal quiet time.

What parts of Chapter Two stood out or spoke to you in your current season?

Was it when Jesus was clearing the temple? Maybe when Jesus was confronted (again) by the Jews in the Temple? Maybe something Jesus said hit you, or maybe you went off on a search and discovered something you hadn’t noticed before.

Praise God for allowing us these opportunities to grow and know Him better through His Holy Word and Spirit!

A couple of things I did differently this week:

1. I listened to  the ESV version of Chapter 1-2 on You Tube The Playlist for the Gospel of John is HERE.  Below I have linked Chapter 2’s video.

 

 

2. I enjoyed using my New Living Translation for a change, and also reading through in the “Reader Versions” which have no chapter divisions. So there are chapters BUT not the titled breakdowns and subdivisions within chapters, and titles. As a matter of fact I looked at a number of versions available and it seems their popularity is rising. These help when you just want to read scripture and feel the flow and intent of the author’s voice and message without interruption or explanation. Also nice for books in the Bible maybe you feel intimidated by…it helps to just see it as a story or book as opposed to maybe just a study endeavor. I love the collections available now that each book bound separately. Fabulous for further refection and study! I did order one a few weeks ago, but I am still waiting for it. I purchased the Book of John, naturally. I’ll be sure and share it here, when it comes in! anyway, I learned a few new things this week, and one of them was that the chapter subtitles and breaks were’t added until the 13th century. I had never really thought about it, but it was an interesting fact to learn.

 

3. I also added reading a book based on the suggestion of our friends at The Lent Project this year. It’s called Becoming Human – Meditations on Christian Anthropology in Word and Image by John Behr . I’ve only just started it so I’ll have to let you know what I think once I am further in or finished!

 

Be sure and share if you feel led, any new exciting or fresh winds of inspiration blowing through your season of Lent or in your quiet times in general. Or if you are feeling dry, let us know so we can pray!

 

Thanks for joining in on the journey. I’m trying to get these posts up earlier but I just have not been successful in that effort yet!