Old Jerry

I think that the “gift of God” and the “living water” is referring to the Spirit. So receiving the gift results in us cleaning up our lives and living go God. I don’t think that the gift is any different than the “baptism with the Spirit”. I think they are talking about the same thing.

I know that sometimes I have been spiritually thirsty because of what I have done. The woman does seem spiritually thirsty because of her life style. This teaches us that we are witnessing to another person we need to be sure that we are witnessing Jesus Christ and not our own power.

I think that it was a divine appointment and that was one of the way that He used to get the word out that he was the Messiah. We hesitate to go against social norms to share the good news because we are concerned that the person will think that we are different and we don’t like that. There are way for us to balance our need to obey God and to live peaceably in our culture and that is a casual conversion that can be turned around and we can start talking about the gospel.

It is not impossible to believe in God’s love and God’s wrath at the same time. We are built in the same way. There are things and people that we love and then there are things and people that aren’t pleasant to be around. God’s justice allows for salvation when we believe that Jesus Christ died for our sins. Without that we would be punished because God can’t stand to be around evil.

The sense that I must decrease and Christ must increase is that I should stop doing things for myself and doing more for those around me. By following Jesus direction we can be successful at this. I can facilitate this shift by doing what I have been asked to do. Do things in the background so that others don’t know what you are doing. But I have to stay connected to Jesus in order to do these things.

John knew that he was just the forerunner to our Savior therefore to see that Jesus is successful would give him great joy. I do find joy in the success of others who are ministering to others. I don’t see it as competing with my ministry I just see it as accompanying my ministry. God has put us on the earth for a purpose and as long as I am fulfilling my purpose I feel great. I guess that some pastors seem to complete with each other is because they don’t understand their mission on earth.

I don’t think that I resent them I just wish that they would go out and attract people that aren’t going to church. But I know that the church that I go to doesn’t fit everybody so they must find a church that is best for them so that they can truly worship the Lord.

The importance of the disciples spending time with Jesus is that they were able to become more acquainted with Him. They would know His every move and how to handle certain situations. The way that Jesus makes disciples today is that we are sent out to do that. So in order to be a good disciple we have spent time in the bible to learn about Jesus. It is very important to spend time with those who have been put in your path and just hang-out with them.

I think that this verse is so famous because shows us how much God really does love us. God did everything to let us come into the Kingdom of Heaven. All we have to do is have faith in Him. This verse also teaches us that if we love God that He will provide a way for our salvation. Our destiny is the Kingdom of God because He loved us to provide a way to enter the Kingdom.

To be “born of water and Spirit” to me means that we have got to surrender myself to Jesus. We are to repent of our sins and turn to God. I don’t know what water is referring to. I know that when I give my life to Jesus I am saved at that moment. To be baptized is just telling everybody that you have become one of Jesus’. You must be born from anew.

You have to be born anew in order to enter the kingdom. The kingdom is spiritual and we have to be born of the spirit. I think that “born anew” is the best translation. Because we have to be born of the spirit to enter the kingdom and in order to do that we have to be born anew.

I think that Jesus is teaching us that the nature of the Kingdom of God is spirit. We cannot go up to the kingdom in these body we must be born again in the Spirit. I don’t think that Nicodemus understood him because of the question he asked Jesus about returning to the womb and being born physically again.

I think that faith that rests solely on miracles is a faith that only believes in what they see and not in what they hope. The true faith must develop in the truth and hope that we have in the Lord Jesus Christ. But Jesus didn’t see these problems as a reason not to perform miracles because He performed many miracles while He was here on earth. The miracles might have brought many to the true faith that we have in the Lord.

Jesus was angry and it was justified. People were abusing the temple and that was His house. Anger can be good as long as it kept under control. Sometimes we get angry about something that does get us into trouble. Jesus anger got him into trouble, but this is something that we will have to live with.

The things that was going on at the temple was that merchants were selling animals so that they could be sacrificed. They people were changing the money they had for the money to pay the temple tax. This offended Jesus because they had turned the temple into a market place where the priests were making a profit. So Jesus decided to drive out all those that were selling animals and exchanging money.

I think that Jesus performed this miracle behind-the-scenes because he wasn’t ready to perform in the public. If he would had performed this in public then the people would have had started to gather around him and prevented him from what he came on earth to do. By waiting on Jesus we will always have the best quality of what we he wants us to do. So Jesus making the best quality of wine at the ceremony tells us that we will also have the best when we move away from this earth.

I think that alcoholics are quick to point out this miracle because it seems to them to justify why they are drunk all the time. Jesus turned the water into wine therefore it must by ok to drunk. There is nothing wrong with drinking wine as long as it is done in moderation. But to be drunk is against the biblical principles especially Proverbs. We know how much we can drink without getting drunk therefore we can avoid excesses and still enjoy God’s good gift.

I think that Mary already had a sense that Jesus could do what she was asking of Him. For some reason it was important to her that the wedding feast continue and if they ran out of wine they would have to stop the feast. Her words to Jesus must have been appropriate because He did what she asked him to. I wouldn’t have categorized Jesus’ reply as a rebuke because I had seen this passage many times and not thought about that reply.

I think the reason that we are sometimes “too busy” to spend time with friends and relatives is because of needing to work in order to sustain our life style. I think that Jesus’ attendance at the wedding tells us that he is a caring person and that if you call on Him He is there. We can apply this learning to our personal lives by caring for others and being there for them when something big is happening in their lives.

The aspect of Daniel’s prophecy that Jesus applies to his title Son of Man is the part about coming with clouds of heaven. The Son of Man will complete his ministry when he returns from Heaven in a cloud.

Jesus dealt with Nathanael’s skepticism by telling him about what he had done. I think that the nature of this miracle is that Nathanael started following Jesus. Once Nathanael came to the faith he bestowed the titles of “Son of God” and “the King of Israel.”

Andrew was the one that introduced Peter to Jesus. Today when Christians substitute bringing a person to Jesus with bringing them to church is because Jesus is not here in the flesh, only in the Spirit. The similarities is that Peter was introduced to Jesus and the thing that we do is to introduce the new person to the church because we are the body of Christ. The difference is that Peter was able to physically see Jesus when in the church we have to spiritually meet Jesus.

I don’t think that Jesus was telling the inquirers where he was staying because he wasn’t staying in one place. It was important for the inquirers to “be with” Jesus because they needed to learn what Jesus was teaching. “Being with” Jesus today means that you are studying his word and trying to imitate Him.

John is the one that recommended that Andrew and another person to follow Jesus. In this case this recommendation cost John two of the disciples that were following him.

John the Baptist’s baptism is different that Jesus because Jesus’ baptism is one of the Holy Spirit where John’s baptism was with water. The “baptism of the Holy Spirit” implies that we will be immersed in the Holy Spirit. Or we can say that the Holy Spirit is in us.