Author Archive for: meiling

Hi GAMErs,

Today’s passage is John 5:10-18 (but for context we’ll start at verse 9).  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 5:9-10 (NIV)
9  At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked. The day on which this took place was a Sabbath,
10  and so the Jews said to the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath; the law forbids you to carry your mat.”

On verses 9-10:  In the Ten Commandments, God commanded His people to honour the Sabbath day by resting and not doing work on that day (Exodus 20:8-9).  The religious elite among the Jews would interpret this command in an extreme and overly strict way, such that they considered carrying one’s mat from one place to another on a Sabbath day to be a violation of the command to honour the Sabbath day.  By focusing on these technicalities, the religious elite missed the purpose and heart of God’s commands.  All of a sudden, a command that was meant to bring joy, refreshing and rest became a legalistic burden.

Hi GAMErs,

Today’s passage is John 5:1-9.  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 5:1-3 (NIV)
1  Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for a feast of the Jews.
2  Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades.
3  Here a great number of disabled people used to lie–the blind, the lame, the paralyzed.

On verses 1-3:  John’s Gospel now shifts to Jesus in Jerusalem.   There Jesus visits the pool of Bethesda where disabled people were known to congregate.  Apparently some people believed that an angel stirred the waters of the pool of Bethesda and that the first person to enter the pool after the waters were stirred would be healed.  
 
By the way, why is verse 4 missing?  If you read the King James version of John’s Gospel, you will see verses 3b and 4 which mention this idea of an angel coming to stir the pool waters.  However, this was apparently a later addition into Scripture and has been omitted from more current versions of the Gospel of John.

Hi GAMErs,

Today’s passage is John 4:43-54.  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 4:43-45 (NIV)
43  After the two days he left for Galilee.
44  (Now Jesus himself had pointed out that a prophet has no honor in his own country.)
45  When he arrived in Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him. They had seen all that he had done in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, for they also had been there.
 
On verses 43-45:  After spending two days in Samaria, Jesus heads for Galilee (v43).  Why does John mention here that Jesus said “a prophet has no honor in his own country” (v44), especially if Jesus just left Samaria where many put their faith in Him (v41) and was going to Galilee where the Galileans welcomed him (v45)?  Scholars have different theories on why.  Perhaps the best explanation is that verse 44 represents a transition point in John’s gospel.  Right before verse 44, we see Jesus experiencing great success reaching Samaritans.  Right after verse 44 John describes Jesus’ ministry to his own Jewish people, and though Jesus is at first welcomed and performs great miracles, the people would eventually respond by persecuting Jesus (John 5:16) and attempting to kill him (John 5:18). 

Hi GAMErs,

Today’s passage is John 4:31-42.  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 4:31-34 (NIV)
31  Meanwhile his disciples urged him, “Rabbi, eat something.”
32  But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you know nothing about.”
33  Then his disciples said to each other, “Could someone have brought him food?”
34  “My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.
 
On verses 31-34:  I could see the disciples coming to Jesus with food already in their mouths and casually inviting Jesus to eat something (v31).  Yet Jesus’ response confuses them (v32-33).  When Jesus says, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work” (v34), what does he mean?  Jesus means that what drives him, satisfies him and empowers his life is doing his Father’s will and completing the assignment he has been given.  Jesus would say something related in Matthew 4 in the desert: “Man shall not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.” (Matthew 4:4)  Take John 4:34 and Matthew 4:4 together and we get a powerful truth: Jesus fed on two things – meditating on God’s Word and doing God’s work.  

Hi GAMErs,

Today’s passage is John 4:15-30.  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 4:15-18 (NIV)
15  The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.”
16  He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.”
17  “I have no husband,” she replied. Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband.
18  The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.”

Verses 15-18: The Samaritan woman’s curiosity for the living water Jesus offers turns into a real desire for it. She asks Jesus for this living water, but Jesus responds by saying “Go, call your husband and come back.” Why does Jesus do that? It’s because Jesus knew that this woman had been in a handful of failed marriages, and now she was living with someone she was not married to. Subtly Jesus was telling the woman that in order to experience the living water that Jesus makes available, she needed to repent of sin.