Together we Worship

John 4:19-24

                                      “I who speak to you am he.”

Can you imagine floundering through life, (as we do) experiencing one failed relationship after another, and being outcast by your community yet still having the ultimate privilege of meeting Jesus in person?

We have heard the story of the woman at the well, how Jesus acknowledged her lifestyle, and likely blew her away with his tender compassion and supernatural insight. He shared with this nameless woman what he wants us all to understand.

John 4:23-24 “Yet the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the father seeks. God is spirit and his worshipers must worship in spirit and truth.”

What is worshiping in spirit and truth? View this website for an explanation:

In Spirit and Truth

We are called by God to gather and worship him, for there is strength in numbers, and the relational God he is, knows that being in community is what bonds our hearts to his and to each other.

As the song taken from Matthew 18 goes: "For wherever two or more of you are gathered in his name, there is love."  God is the spirit of love and truth.

Matthew 18:20 (NIV)  “For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them.”

John 7:37-39

The act of believing in God begins a ripple effect.  Once we believe our lives change.  Once we come to follow Jesus the scenery around us changes.  We become softer, gentler and stronger.  Our acceptance of Jesus as our redeemer changes the course of things forever.  Our struggles have purpose, our pain has reason and our future is hope-filled.

John 7:37-39 (NIV) 
On the last and greatest day of the Feast, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, "If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him." By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified.      

We hear the reference to thirst and slaking that thirsty feeling in many places in scripture.  I am remembering now the woman at the well.  That is such a beautiful story of a chance encounter with the One who changes everything.  A sinful women meets the one who would soon take on that sin.  His Words to her change her forevermore.  His Words to us will do the same.

When I am thirsty I know how to take care of that problem. I can go to the stream of living water and be filled. For me, morning is the time to do this.  How about you?  When do you drink from the well that never runs dry.

Read or listen to John 7:37-39