Random Things

Today was a difficult day, full of a lot of different things. I was scheduled for an interview with Resource Staffing at 3:30 in Dallas, but we discovered a leak in our pipes on Saturday night. I had scheduled a plumber to come look at the leak in the morning, but until then we had the water turned off. Fortunately, the plumber was able to find and repair the leak pretty quickly, and relatively inexpensively. However, that made my trip to Dallas a pretty tight time frame. I made it in time and the interview went well, but I don't know of anything open just yet.

The other thing that made today difficult was the giant dose of reality that hit. For the past couple of months we've known that we would be heading this direction, we just didn't know what all of the details would be. Well, now we're here and we still don't know all of the details. The Lord is graciously providing for us in wonderful ways through the body of Christ, but it is still a bit nerve-wracking. We know that the Lord is working things out, but the waiting is a challenge. Cheryl and I had a quick cry together while I was quickly trying to get ready to go to Dallas. I love her very much, and I am blessed to have a wife that is full of faith and willing to exercise that faith in following God.

The dose of reality also hit the kids a bit today. Daniel came into my room this morning and expressed some anxiety over me coming to Dallas without them. That was hard. At the same time, I told him how important that was to me that he would come to me and say that he was going to miss me. And I was able to reassure him that we are trusting God through this time. I think that helped him. I know that it helped me. I know that this time will produce a great fruit in Daniel and Graca as well when they look back on it when they're older.

I made a brief overview read of John 1-7 today, and I'll share just a few brief, unrelated thoughts.

1. John is very time conscious in the first couple of chapters of the gospel. Three paragraphs in a row start with, "The next day...", and then the second chapter starts with, "On the third day...". I don't know that there's anything significant to that, except that it helped me to see how closely some things happened to the very beginning of Jesus' ministry--the cleansing of the Temple, the "born again" passage with Nicodemus, etc.
   
2. There is a huge statement of the depravity of man in 2:23-25. "But Jesus on his part did not entrust himself to them, because he knew all people and needed no one to bear witness about man, for he himself knew what was in man." Somehow, I've never seen that before.
   
3. In addition to the great and most familiar statement, "For God so loved..." in chapter 3, there is also a remarkable statement of God's wrath in 3:36, "Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him." This is noteworthy.
   
4. I didn't realize the "woman at the well" passage came that early in Jesus' ministry. This is significant because it seems like Jesus was immediately showing God's plan of salvation for the Gentile nations.
   
5. Food and water are major imagery in this Gospel. From the miracle at the wedding at Cana, to the woman at the well ("...you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water."), to his reply to his disciples, "My food is to do the will of him who sent me", to the feeding of the five thousand, to the "bread of life" passage where Jesus says, "You are seeking me not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. Do not labor for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you." Also there is the "rivers of living water passage in 7:37-39. It really is impossible to miss the point. Faith in God is not a part-time thing. It is a life sustaining thing. We need it like we need food and water.
   
6. There is a small story line that carries out across a couple of chapters that I have often missed because I didn't read in an overview fashion like this. In chapter 5, Jesus heals the lame man on the Sabbath. The Pharisees get ticked off at Him, and this carries all the way over to His address in the temple on the Feast of Booths in 7:14-24.
   
7. There is a very challenging passage in 6:64-71, "64'But there are some of you who do not believe.' (For Jesus knew from the beginning who those were who did not believe, and who it was who would betray him.) 65And he said, 'This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.' 66 After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. 67So Jesus said to the Twelve, 'Do you want to go away as well?' 68Simon Peter answered him, 'Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, 69and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.' 70Jesus answered them, 'Did I not choose you, the Twelve? And yet one of you is a devil.' 71He spoke of Judas the son of Simon Iscariot, for he, one of the Twelve, was going to betray him."More on that later.
   

That's all for now.

Soli Deo Gloria