Scripture: Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”
The woman said to him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water?…”
Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will be thirsty of have to come here to draw water.” Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.” The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband; for you have had five husbands and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.”” John 4:10-18
Observation: Now, this is evangelizing!
Analysis: What is a nice story like this doing on a Journal page? And in the hands of this guy?
Just this: “All scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness.” (2 Tim 3:16)
So, what can I glean, sift, unpack, etc. from this section of scripture?
There are times where “just the facts, ma’am” are totally pertinent in conversations.
- If you only knew the gift of God;
- Jesus is the living water;
- Go, call your husband…oops, don’t currently have one, but are living with a guy…
What? Go, call your husband? That cannot be a part of the Good News presentation, right?
Sometimes there are situations where sin must be pointed out, if for nothing else to identify the condition of the fruit. Here’s where I get messed up: I can point out fruit condition (usually what I identify as bad fruit) looking down my nose. That is the wrong attitude to have.
Imagine the scene above with Jesus talking. He may be looking directly into her eyes; He may be sitting down on a rock trying to catch a piece of shade. What He isn’t doing though is condemning her—He is presenting His knowledge of the situation factually, perhaps blandly, no attacking or gearing up for an argument involved.
That is evangelism practiced. My attitude to have? When the Gospel is preached, talked about, discussed, engaged in conversation about (this last is the best to start), my long nose better get short in a hurry because I MUST remember I deserve God’s total wrath except for I have faith in Jesus’ redeeming Atonement at the Cross.
That is why I boast in the Cross and not in myself or my obedience.
Hammer point: The Cross is my redemption daily. Whatever sin I speak about or attribute to others, I have just as much that needs forgiveness. Let that be my story and my song.
Prayer: Lord God, how I forget the Gospel to the face in the mirror all the time. All the time!! “The Gospel isn’t applicable to me anymore, I have been saved.” Rubbish! The older I grow, the more I need the fact and facts of the Gospel to walk worthy of the calling in which I have been called. AMEN.