Devotion - Wednesday, August 13

John 4 contains the encounter of Jesus with the Samaritan woman at the well. Jesus asks her for a drink of water. She asks him why he, a Jew, would even speak to her, a Samaritan, and there ensues the conversation in which Jesus speaks of himself as the living water. There are a few additional exchanges in the conversation, but eventually Jesus says to the woman something he seldom says plainly to anyone - he tells her that he is Messiah.

This woman's life is changed by what Jesus says to her. She goes to the village and tells others and they go out to the well so that they might encounter Jesus.

This change comes as she is going about her daily activity. She is not on a spiritual quest when she encounters Jesus. She is not searching or seeking or looking to fill the void in her life. She is doing her chores and there she meets Christ.

I highly encourage attendance at Sunday worship. I have even been known to suggest that persons get involved in a Bible Study Group. And you don't have to be around me long before I start pushing you to attend a retreat or mission trip. It is a good think to make attempts to be in the places where God's Word and God's will are being set before us. But we must avoid the temptation to think that God will only be found on the mountain top. Christ is most likely to make his way into our lives during the day to day activity of our lives.

We can read about love and sing songs extolling the virtue of loving one another. But it is in loving the hard to love person down the hall that experience Christ. We can discuss what it means to make Christ first in our lives, but it is when we speak Christ's word to an abusive or demeaning situation that we appreciate the God who makes His home among us.

When we allow ourselves to be changed as a result of our living in the world we are more likely to understand and appreciate the Messiah who did not consider equality with God a thing to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking on the form of a servant.

Pastor Chris