{"id":30862,"date":"2024-05-02T22:00:44","date_gmt":"2024-05-03T05:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/john-7_25-36-copy\/"},"modified":"2024-04-09T22:35:11","modified_gmt":"2024-04-10T05:35:11","slug":"john-7_37-52","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/john-7_37-52\/","title":{"rendered":"What Pressure Can Do"},"content":{"rendered":"

John 7:37-52 \u00a0(CLICK HERE FOR\u00a0BIBLE VERSES)<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Hi GAMErs,<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is John 7:37-52.\u00a0 I encourage you to read the passage yourself first and see what you can glean with the Holy Spirit\u2019s help, then read the GAME sharing below.\u00a0 Let’s go!<\/p>\n

John 7:37-39 (NIV)<\/strong>
\n37\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0On the last and greatest day of the Feast, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink.
\n38\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.”
\n39\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified.<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 37-39:\u00a0 Jesus, who often sat when he taught, stands for emphasis and makes the invitation for all who are thirsty to come to him and drink.\u00a0 The promise Jesus publicly gives here is the same promise Jesus privately gave to the Samaritan woman at the well in John 4:13-14: that those who believe in him will have streams of living water flowing from within them.\u00a0 Streams of living water are a reference to the Holy Spirit.<\/p>\n

Today, that same promise is available to us too:\u00a0when we believe in Jesus, miraculously God allows His Holy Spirit to dwell within us, to be like streams of living water that flow from within us.\u00a0 May you access that stream every day, bending down and refreshing yourself in the living water that is the Holy Spirit, so that God\u2019s life would flow in you and through you.<\/strong><\/p>\n

John 7:40-42 (NIV)\u00a0<\/strong>
\n40\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0On hearing his words, some of the people said, “Surely this man is the Prophet.”
\n41\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Others said, “He is the Christ.” Still others asked, “How can the Christ come from Galilee?
\n42\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Does not the Scripture say that the Christ will come from David’s family and from Bethlehem, the town where David lived?”<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 40-42:\u00a0 Here is possibly another classic case of people not doing their homework \u2013 or doing it only partially \u2013 and thus reaching wrong conclusions.\u00a0 They knew that the Scriptures talk about the Messiah coming from Bethlehem.\u00a0 Then they thought, \u201cJesus is not from Bethlehem, but from Galilee (Nazareth in particular), so Jesus can\u2019t be the Messiah\u201d (see v41b-42).\u00a0 Little did they know that Jesus was born in Bethlehem and moved to Galilee later in life.<\/p>\n

John 7:43-44 (NIV)<\/strong>
\n43\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Thus the people were divided because of Jesus.
\n44\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Some wanted to seize him, but no one laid a hand on him.<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 43-44: Jesus, the only blameless, perfect human being who ever lived, was the subject of much criticism, with people having very different opinions about him.\u00a0 Some wanted to follow him, some wanted to kill him.\u00a0 What can we learn from this?\u00a0\u00a0When you set out to change the world, or just a small part of it, be prepared that people will have very differing opinions about you, no matter how blamelessly or righteously you try to live.\u00a0 If it happened to Jesus, it will happen to you too.\u00a0 But don\u2019t let the fact that people have differing opinions about you stop you from doing what God has called you to do.\u00a0 Live for the approval of God, not the approval of people.<\/strong><\/p>\n

John 7:45-52 (NIV)<\/strong>
\n45\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Finally the temple guards went back to the chief priests and Pharisees, who asked them, “Why didn’t you bring him in?”
\n46\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0“No one ever spoke the way this man does,” the guards declared.
\n47\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0“You mean he has deceived you also?” the Pharisees retorted.
\n48\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0“Has any of the rulers or of the Pharisees believed in him?
\n49\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0No! But this mob that knows nothing of the law–there is a curse on them.”
\n50\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Nicodemus, who had gone to Jesus earlier and who was one of their own number, asked,
\n51\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0“Does our law condemn anyone without first hearing him to find out what he is doing?”
\n52\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0They replied, “Are you from Galilee, too? Look into it, and you will find that a prophet does not come out of Galilee.”<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 45-52:\u00a0 As Jesus continued to grow in popularity, the Pharisees were feeling increasingly insecure.\u00a0 In their insecurity, they criticized not only Jesus but those who followed him (v45-49) or who tried to defend him (v50-52).\u00a0 They also showed a prejudicial bias against people who came from the region of Galilee (v52).\u00a0 What can we learn from this?\u00a0\u00a0Pressure has this way of revealing what is inside of us. If under pressure we begin to lose our cool, get defensive, attack and malign others, that pressure-filled situation didn\u2019t make us that way; it simply reveals the issues of our heart that pleasant circumstances often hide.\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Watch the way you operate under pressure and if you see things in you that you don\u2019t like, the next question to ask is, \u201cHow do I want to be when under pressure and how can I become more that way?\u201d<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0Invite Jesus into that area of your life to help you deal with the pressure in a way that glorifies Him.<\/p>\n

Lord Jesus, I come to You today and I ask You for more of Your Holy Spirit to fill my life, that streams of living water would flow in and through me.\u00a0 Come and take over every part of my life, both the parts I like and the parts I don\u2019t like.\u00a0 Have Your way with me.\u00a0 In Jesus\u2019 name, AMEN!<\/em><\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2021 Justin Lim. All rights reserved.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hi GAMErs,<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is John 7:37-52.\u00a0 I encourage you to read the passage yourself first and see what you can glean with the Holy Spirit\u2019s help, then read the GAME sharing below.\u00a0 Let’s go!<\/p>\n

John 7:37-39 (NIV)
\n37\u00a0\u00a0On the last and greatest day of the Feast, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink.
\n38\u00a0\u00a0Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.”
\n39\u00a0\u00a0By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified.
\n\u00a0
\nOn verses 37-39:\u00a0 Jesus, who often sat when he taught, stands for emphasis and makes the invitation for all who are thirsty to come to him and drink.\u00a0 The promise Jesus publicly gives here is the same promise Jesus privately gave to the Samaritan woman at the well in John 4:13-14: that those who believe in him will have streams of living water flowing from within them.\u00a0 Streams of living water are a reference to the Holy Spirit.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":30864,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30862","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gametime-sharing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30862","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30862"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30862\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30865,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30862\/revisions\/30865"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30864"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30862"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30862"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30862"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}