Archive for month: May, 2024

Hi GAMErs,

Today’s passage is John 13:21-30.  I encourage you to read the passage yourself first and see what you can glean with the Holy Spirit’s help, then read the GAME sharing below.  Let’s go!
 
John 13:21-22 (NIV)
21  After he had said this, Jesus was troubled in spirit and testified, “I tell you the truth, one of you is going to betray me.”
22  His disciples stared at one another, at a loss to know which of them he meant.
 
On verses 21-22:  Here we once again see Jesus’ humanity.  Jesus is emotionally impacted – “troubled in spirit” (v21) – by the fact that someone he has loved and invested in for 3 years is going to betray him.  From this I learn that God is not stoic and emotionless.  God is full of emotion and has an emotional response to the things we do and say.

Hi GAMErs,

Today’s passage is John 13:12-20.  I encourage you to read the passage yourself first and see what you can glean with the Holy Spirit’s help, then read the GAME sharing below.  Let’s go!
 
John 13:12-15 (NIV)
12  When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place. “Do you understand what I have done for you?” he asked them.
13  “You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am.
14  Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet.
15  I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you.
 
On verses 12-15:  Usually washing the feet of guests was what the lowest servant or slave in the house was expected to do.  Thus it was inconceivable and shocking for the disciples that Jesus, their Lord and Teacher, would bend down and wash their feet.  What was Jesus teaching his disciples in doing this?  Jesus says it himself: “Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet.  I have set an example that you should do as I have done for you.” (v14-15) 

Hi GAMErs,

Today’s passage is John 12:37-50.  I encourage you to read the passage yourself first and see what you can glean with the Holy Spirit’s help, then read the GAME sharing below.  Let’s go!
 
John 12:37-41 (NIV)
37  Even after Jesus had done all these miraculous signs in their presence, they still would not believe in him.
38  This was to fulfill the word of Isaiah the prophet: “Lord, who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?”
39  For this reason they could not believe, because, as Isaiah says elsewhere:
40  “He has blinded their eyes and deadened their hearts, so they can neither see with their eyes, nor understand with their hearts, nor turn–and I would heal them.”
41  Isaiah said this because he saw Jesus’ glory and spoke about him.
 
On verses 37-41:  John sees the cold-hearted, unbelieving response of many Jews toward Jesus as fulfilling prophecies written by Isaiah about 700 years before.  Quoting Isaiah 53:1 in verse 38 and then Isaiah 6:10 in verse 40, John says that Isaiah spoke wrote these prophecies because he also saw Jesus’ glory.

Hi GAMErs,

Today’s passage is John 12:27-36.  I encourage you to read the passage yourself first and see what you can glean with the Holy Spirit’s help, then read the GAME sharing below.  Let’s go!
 
John 12:27 (NIV)
27  “Now my heart is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour.

On verse 27:  Jesus was troubled by the prospect of dying, showing his real humanity (v27a).  Yet rather than asking the Father to rescue him from having to die, Jesus reminds himself that that is why he came (v27b). 
 
Taking a hint from Jesus, when I go through trouble or hardship, sometimes it helps to remind myself, “JB, it’s part of the calling.  This is just part of living out the life God called you to live on this earth, so don’t cry and complain as if something strange were happening to you.  This is what you were made for.”  Let’s learn to boldly take on trouble Jesus’ way.