Whole Spirits

July 5, 2020

Jesus can be our source of real rest. Self-care, vacation days, yoga class, naps – these things are all good. But they aren’t enough for the level of peace, wholeness, and restoration we seek. We need something deeper – rest for our souls! And that is only found in a personal, transformational encounter with Jesus. 

SCRIPTURE

Click her to read from John 4:4-26

Study the passage using this Bible Study method.

View the sermon for today, after 1 p.m. go here.  Use the sermon notes below for your family and/or small group discussions.

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REFLECTION

A Brief Encounter With Eternity
By Elaine Pierce

Last spring, I memorized this passage and recited it at two worship services. To say that it was a daunting undertaking is an understatement – it was hard work!  I thought that I would never forget it, and yet, as I paged through my Bible to find the passage I was assigned to write about for this week, I realized I had completely forgotten that John 4 was what I had memorized. How can that be? I have been a faithful Christian for many years. Surely I know my Bible inside and out.

As I reread the passage (thankfully, once I got started, I found I remembered a lot of it), I was drawn to how Jesus treated the outcast Samaritan woman. He knew that she was at the well by herself because the other women shunned her.  He had compassion on her even though he knew her sin. He didn’t excuse it (“You are right when you say you have no husband. The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband.”) But he offered her “the water that will become a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” 

The woman thought that she was merely giving a stranger a drink. But her life was transformed by this brief encounter. She tells him that she knows that the Messiah will explain everything to her when he comes. Jesus looks at her, and quietly, calmly, with great authority says, “I who speak to you am he.” 

Put yourself in her shoes for a moment. You are an outcast. It is noon, and you creep to the well to draw water for the day. A stranger – a Jew, not a Samaritan (remember, Jews despise Samaritans) – asks you, an outcast AND a woman (two strikes against you) to get him a drink. And then he tells you that he will give you living water that will never run dry. And, most incredible of all, you realize that you are speaking to the Messiah himself.

The next few verses tell the rest of the story: she tells everyone who will listen that she has come face to face with ‘a man who told me everything I ever did.  Could this be the Christ?’ And many Samaritans became believes because she shared her testimony of meeting the living Christ.

My friends, he is waiting at the well for you and for me. Come, draw from the water that will well up to eternal life. He knows your sin, and he forgives you still.  Blessed be the Lord.  

UALC’s CAMPAIGN OF PRAYER

SUNDAY Pray the scriptures. Some examples are Psalm 91:1-5 / Psalm 121:5-8 / John 14:27 / Philippians 4:6-7 / 2 Timothy 1:7