Satan Sunday, Mormon Monday...

So this past Sunday (yesterday).. I woke up really late. I woke up really late because I got off work late Saturday night and ended up reading a bunch once I got to the dorm. I got into a bunch of Bible reading ...or at least that's what my plan was. I ended up being sidetracked (also known as distraction). Now, you're thinking I'm just a bad guy now.. I'm not supposed to get distracted when I sit down to read the Bible. However, I was distracted by love. Let me explain....

In the fourth chapter of John we see an instance in which Jesus is going from one ministry activity to another (this would be very much like us going from one job to another). He gets distracted in route. Here's what happened:

1) He got tired & sat down by a well.
2) A Samaritan woman came to draw water as she normally would have during that time of day.
3) Jesus asked her for a drink.

Now all of this happened in verses 1-8 and seems normal.. but what happens next is not limited to this one event only (I will explain later). In verse 9, the Samaritan woman expresses her surprise that a Jew would ask for anything from a Samaritan. During this time they were bitter enemies, in fact historical documents show that many of the leading Jews would wake up and pray thanks to God that they weren't a Samaritan. They would then ask for a curse upon the Samaritan people! (And we think racism is only bad today)...

**** side-note****
(WE can also see a similar depiction of this notion the Samaritan woman speaks of in Luke 10) 
--In Luke 10 the religious leaders are traveling to perform their priestly duties & ceremonious activities. They wouldn't stop to help the Samaritan. Jesus reveals to them that they should have loved God & their neighbor. He reveals to them that every man is their neighbor.. not just the ones that look like them or have culture in common with them or even the ones that have the same beliefs as them.)


Now keep reading through verse 42 & just seen the wealth of revolutionary things that jumps out!
¹⁰Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water."  ¹¹"Sir," the woman said, "you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? ¹²Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his flocks and herds?"
 ¹³Jesus answered, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, ¹⁴but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life."
 ¹⁵The woman said to him, "Sir, give me this water so that I won't get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water." 

So then, we see that Jesus doesn't stop at only implying to the woman that the previous system of non-just separation between the Samaritans & Jews wasn't right. He goes farther and instead of taking up the water he asked her for, he instead ends up offering her water... only of an even better & surpassing form as compared to the water that he had asked for!
 ****Side-note****
(Doesn't this sound similar to the wedding account in John 2? Jesus took water and turned it to wine there. He not only did this, but it in effect made the best wine the last wine.. the wine that would be tasted even after the guest had already had plenty. Now in regular life, we often use up the best first. WE have a notion that the best should be used first & picked first. However, in the Eyes of Jesus.. the best is often saved for last.)

So we see here, that Jesus is (not surprisingly) following his form previously set.. by taking something ordinary and making it extraordinary. He would continue to do this throughout the gospels as a sign of what he would send the Holy Spirit to work out in our heart through salvation... that we might display true love & exhibit the fruit of the spirit.
{love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,gentleness and self-control}

He came that we might have life to the full! Isn't this fitting that he would show us examples of ordinary things being turned into super-things?!? Water is now into wine, & water is also made into living water!!! So then, not only is water turned into this fine substance worthy of being at weddings & used as a toast to the love of the new bride & groom... but even beyond that... water is taken and turned from a dead thing and given life qualities! And so, we are just the same. We are made from ordinary into something extravagant.. but only by the presence of Jesus. WE are made from something that is seen as regular and abundant (like water) into a form of that same substance that is exceedingly rare and valuable (like coal as it is turned to diamonds by the heat of the earth).

This is what I think of when I hear Jesus words echo from the Cross saying, "I thirst!" No doubt, the Jewish people of this time would have thought even more profound things. They would have known (right away) most every instance that water or thirst was mentioned in the Old Testament (they were expected to). They also (at least many of them) would have orally heard the story of the woman at the well. So then, we Jesus cried out "I thirst!" it would have been a sermon of 2 words that trailed with a reverberation of many thoughts provoked in the spirit. They would have realized that Jesus was telling them to Love God & to love people and to do it in such a way that they even become distracted by love. They would have realized that Jesus was calling to them saying that even in their travels from home to work.. or from one job to another.. no matter how late.. no matter how rushed.. no matter how wealthy or poor ... to be distracted by love.. enough to help anyone that might bother or interrupt their daily plans. After all, Jesus was continually bothered in such a way and he never showed anger.. he simply put his other duties on hold long enough to be distracted by love.. and to satiate (satisfy) that love with actions. In fact, just look further on into this same chapter and you will see this even more....

³¹Meanwhile his disciples urged him, "Rabbi, eat something."  ³²But he said to them, "I have food to eat that you know nothing about."
 ³³Then his disciples said to each other, "Could someone have brought him food?"
 ³⁴"My food," said Jesus, "is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. ³⁵Do you not say, 'Four months more and then the harvest'? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest.

So why did Jesus allow himself to be distracted by love? He shows us here that it was his Father's work. Love was his Father's work... of course.. God is love!!! He desired to love and to be distracted by work in the way that normal men would have desired to satisfy their hunger for food. And yet, he would have hungered (as a man) but how much more did he hunger to satisfy his Father's work of loving?

What does this all mean?

Well we can backtrack a little to an earlier place in the chapter and clarify what this "loving" really is & why it is so important to God.
²¹Jesus declared, "Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. ²²You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. ²³Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. ²⁴God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth."  ²⁵The woman said, "I know that Messiah" (called Christ) "is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us."
 ²⁶Then Jesus declared, "I who speak to you am he."

Jesus was speaking of what could bridge the gap between the hostility of the Jews towards the Samaritans & what should be. We know that there is a difference between the way things are and the way things should be. We know that there is something wrong with society, even the coldest atheistic mind will concede this as truth. How do we get there? How do we bridge the gap? Jesus tells us here that the way is love. He also tells us that he is the way the truth & the life (in the scriptures) & so we know these things to be true.


So then, love is what worshiping in spirit & truth looks like. This is what the Father seeks. 




** phew... now that's over... but what about the whole Satan Sunday, Mormon Monday thing???**


If you've made it this far, I'm glad. YOU make me smile... with all your selfless sacrificing of eyesight and time and energy just to read this! :) YOU deserve a cookie.. and some coffee (or whatever your favorite beverage is... so go get some & tell a random person that you love them! 

I sincerely hope that you enjoyed or are currently enjoying your cookie and beverage. Really, from the bottom of my heart, I do.. lol. Now, think about that cookie &/or beverage in light of what I just said ... in light of what you just read about Jesus. Do you think that food could be more than food? Do you think that drink could be more than just a favorite liquid that slides across your taste buds and down your throat? I do.


I think it's a reminder. WE hunger & thirst & even enjoy food & drink when we aren't hungry or thirsty. What if we treated the scriptures the same way. Sure we will go to them when we are desperate or in need of some answer to a huge crisis of a friend or family member.. but will we go to them even before we are dying of thirst or hunger? Shouldn't we? Maybe this is how we keep from getting to that point of almost dying from hunger & thirst in the first place...??? Or maybe this will just increase our appetite for Godliness & in that process we will become more equipped & able to show love on a daily basis.... Big love.. God love.. not weak & feeble "American love". 


This relates to me in a way. I'm not just preaching to you. I was distracted from my reading the other night. I stumbled upon some Mormon information.... I had read some on them recently & some on Jehovah's witness. I know that they are two very differing cultures (as compared to Evangelical society). I say this because they aren't just "cults". They aren't just "heresy" as some would label them. They are a way of life. This is what we need to see. Just as the Samaritans and Jews wouldn't associate with each other.. we do not tend to even associate with those groups because of preconceived notions or labels. We tend to say that they are beyond re-birth and that our ways are right and that theirs are just flat wrong. What do you think? Do you think that a person could be a born again Mormon? Do you think a person could be a born again Jehovah's witness? Do you think they could genuinely come to know Jesus and actually stay around their group for a time (even believing differently) in order to try and produce change.. or just to share with a few souls in need?


See, this is big & we would often say.. oh no it can't be so. 


There is neither Jew nor Greek to those that are in Christ Jesus. This means that it is possible. You are the temple of God. He resides in you.. if indeed you are saved that is. And so, it doesn't matter if you are a baptist or Lutheran or Baptist or Catholic or even Mormon. One can realize that all of us have errant ways within our systems. Even hugely flawed systems as the Mormon system & Jehovah's witness systems... they can produce a few regenerated people by the power of Jesus. Do you think God is so weak that he cannot save a man from a man made system?


To say that there can be no such thing as a born again Mormon or a born again Jehovah's witness or a born again Catholic is to say in effect that some things are beyond the saving grace and atonement of Christ' shed blood! To say this would be to limit the glory & power of Christ...

I dare you to even try to say that Christ can't do something and then pray to him about that same thing and admit what you think to him.... and then step back and give him time and watch him do the very thing that you just told him was impossible.

{Mark 10:27}--
Jesus looked at them and said, “With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God.”

In my own life this applies. I was almost kept from going to a new church last night.. I went and God opened a door to talk with a pastor about church planting.. not only that... but to attend a conference with him and about 12 other church planters this Thursday (and to have lunch with them afterward and talk and share ideas)... Now this wouldn't have happened if not for the spirit of Galatians 6 and having friends that help me bear the burden of the calling of Christ. I encourage you.... Satan Sunday will happen to you... at least once in your life..God will have some key event planned to gift you and hand over to you a tool to help in your ministry for him.. and if you don't have people willing to help you bear the burden and make sure you show up.. then you will miss out! Showing up is half of the battle!!!!


I am just a man that knows he's called of God to call others to God. I do not yet know what this fully entails or how it will play out. Would I want to? It would probably scare me out of my mind. I'm glad I don't know what I'm facing.. it allows me to be bold above my normal capacity. It allows me to not have to sweat blood as Jesus did while he knew what was ahead of him. Jesus took that angst and worry for me so that I wouldn't have to worry about the unknown... I walk by faith in him. I trust in the unseen for if I trusted in the seen then that would be no faith at all. 

Now, go give your eyes a break & send me the doctor bill if I caused them too much pain ;)
jk, I'm in college... you don't want me getting any of your bills.. I will just mooch a shredder off someone and destroy them if I get them lol.

I love you all more than you know,
Rick Renfroe