Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Week 7 - Drink

This week we look at how a person can drink from the water of life!

- Reject your old way of thinking and acting that was outside God's will. You see your old ways as wrong and decide to do things God's way as best you can. Nobody can do this perfectly, but the decision has come to try. Scripture speaks of this as repentance (Acts 3:19, 17:30, 26:20).

- Confession is simply saying aloud that you believe Jesus is Lord. (Matthew 10:32; Romans 10:9, 10; 1 Timothy 6:12-14).

- Baptism is when a person is dipped under water. It is a picture of dying to your old self, of burying your past, being totally cleansed of all your guilt, and being raised up to a new kind of life (Romans 6:3, 4; Galatians 3:26, 27; 1 Peter 3:20-22). In the New Testament we see a person was always baptized soon after he or she decided to trust Jesus (Acts 2:40, 41; 8:26-40; 16:16-30).

"Amazing grace! How sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me! I once was lost, but now I'm found; was blind but now I see." -John Newton, 1779

Thursday, May 21, 2009

8 - Drowning

"Even the Son of Man did not come to be served. Instead, he came to serve others. He came to give his life as the price for setting many people free." -Mark 10:45


"He suffered the things we should have suffered. He took on Himself the pain that should have been ours. But we thought God was punishing him. We thought God was wounding Him and making Him suffer.

But the servant was pierced because we had sinned. He was crushed because we had done what was evil. He was punished to make us whole again. His wounds have healed us.

All of us are like sheep. We have wandered away form God. All of us have turned to our own way. And the Lord has placed on His servant the sins of all of us." -Isaiah 53:4-6

This is sort of advance notification from God about what He was going to do in the future. This was written about 700 years before Jesus' time. But it describes what Jesus would do for us!!

Jesus gave His life to pay for our mess ups!

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Week 5 - Mirage

"My people have done two evils: They have turned away from me, the spring of living water. And they have dug their own wells, which are broken wells that cannot hold water."
-Jeremiah 2:13

"If I only had...


then I'd be happy!


What would fill in the center?

Here are some Scriptures for reflection. Write down anything that stands out to you!

"And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from his love. Death can't, and life can't. The angels can't, and the demons can't. Our fears for today, our worries about tomorrow, and even the powers of hell can't keep God's love away. Whether we are high above the sky or in the deepest ocean, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord." -Romans 8:35-39

"The Spirit and the bride say, 'Come!' And let him who hears say, 'Come!' Whoever is thirsty, let him come; and whoever wishes, let him take the free gift of the water of life." -Revelation 22:17

"The words of the Teacher, son David, king in Jerusalem: 'Meaningless! Meaningless!' says the Teacher. 'Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless.'

What does man gain from all his labor at which he toils under the sun? All things are wearisome, more than one can say. The eye never has enough of seeing, nor the ear its fill of hearing."
-Ecclesiastes 1:1-3,8

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Week 4 - Pure

In Luke 4 we see Jesus talk about the:

Poor - feeling destitute

Captive - boxed in or controlled

Blind - unable to see clearly

Oppressed - dominated or tormented

Read about Jesus and the woman of Samaria as told in John 4 - underline anything that stands out that shows how Jesus ministers to these needs as seen through the scars of this woman as she is healed by the "living Water"