Sunday Sharing: A Personal God

I was reading John 2-6 this week and the thing that popped out at me was that God is a personal God. He cares about individuals and as individuals had a personal encounter with Jesus, that is when they believed He really is the Son of God.

I read about his first miracle (turning the water to wine at the wedding) in John 2. Many believed in Jesus because of this miracle that they personally witnessed.

In John 4, Jesus stopped to talk with a Samaritan woman at a well, asking her for a drink of water. This was very unusual because of their culture, for a man to stop to talk with a woman, and even more so for a Jew (Jesus) to talk with a Samaritan woman since the Jews and Samaritans were basically enemies. He knew all about this woman which convinced her that He was the Messiah and told her neighbors. Then, verses 41 and 42 say:

Many more Samaritans put their faith in Jesus because of what they heard Him say. They told the woman, "We no longer have faith in Jesus just because of what you told us. We have heard Him ourselves and we are certain that He is the Savior of the world."

[emphasis added] Here again, people believed because they had a personal encounter with Jesus.

His second miracle (do you know what it was?) again shows that he cares about our problems when he healed an official's son. (John 4:43-54) This time the man and everyone in his family put their faith in Jesus because Jesus touched their life in a personal way.

However, in John 5, not all people who heard Jesus speak believed in him. In fact, the Jewish religious leaders of the day not only didn't believe in Him, but also wanted to kill him! John 5: 18 says:

Now the leaders wanted to kill Jesus for two reasons. First, He had broken the law of the Sabbath (by healing a man on the Sabbath and telling him to "take up his mat and walk.) But even worse, He said that God was His Father which made Him equal with God.

In John 6, Jesus had compassion on the hungry crowd that contained 5,000 men and fed them all with a small boy's lunch of five loaves and two fish! Jesus loves people and cares about our needs.

Some people will say they believe in God, but they don't really acknowledge Jesus as God. Each person can accept or reject Jesus, but John 3:36 and John 5:22, 23 says:

Everyone who has faith in the son has eternal life. But no one who rejects Him will ever share in that life and God will be angry with them forever. The Father doesn't judge anyone, but He has made his son the judge of everyone. The Father wants all people to honor the son as much as they honor Him. When anyone refuses to honor the son, that is the same as refusing to honor the Father who sent him.

I couldn't just pick one verse as a highlight this week because the chapters seemed to all emphasize Jesus as God's son and that we need to have a personal relationship with Him. I hope you do!

Please share a highlight from scripture you read this week in a comment, or feel free to comment on this post.  Who do you say Jesus is?  God or just a man?

Tonight is the beginning of a mini-series, THE BIBLE, on the history channel.  It was produced by Mark Burnett, the same guy who produces "Survivor" and his wife, Roma Downey (from "Touched by an Angel"). Learn more about this at Epic Docudrama:  The Bible where you can view an interview with them and the Christian Post's Review:  "The Bible"--This Time Hollywood Got It Right.  I liked the advice their teens gave them saying, "Whatever you do, please don't make it lame."  I like that!

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