John and Mamma Hen
We had the best soup for our small-group pot luck tonight. PFT's mother made it--taco soup. It sounds really easy to make and even the kids liked it. It consisted of ground beef, tomato juice, corn, and kidney beans with taco seasoning. We had it over corn chips, with various taco-type toppings.
I'm really loving our small group. The people in it are great, and we're really bonding and becoming good friends. We have a pot luck and fellowship time, then a devotional/worship time. That leads into our Bible study, and then we have sharing and prayer time after that. I especially enjoy the prayer time--hearing what's going on in each other's lifes and caring & praying for each other.
The Bible study was enjoyable and thought-provoking tonight.
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Right now we're going through the book of John, and today we discussed the Samaritan woman at the well in chapter 4. One thing that someone mentioned that I hadn't really noticed before was that the Samaritan woman was really quite forward and almost brazen in her interactions with Jesus--unusual for a woman of that culture and era.
Jesus, time and time again, stepped outside cultural norms to reach out with love and acceptance to women, outcasts, and those most people considered sinners and avoided interacting with. He touched the unclean, ate with sinners and tax collectors, and welcomed a prostitute's washing his feet with her tears and scandalously unloosed hair. It's especially obvious how much he turned common practice upside down by treating women with value and respect, and choosing them to talk to and to reveal Himself to in amazing ways.
In this chapter He chose a woman who was rejected by all around her because of her gender, lifestyle, religion and ethnicity to be the key person in this city that he spoke to. He treated her with respect, offered her hope, changed her life and entrusted her with His message.
Another interesting point the discussion brought out was that this interaction was the first time Jesus openly claimed to be The Messiah, and clearly identified himself as God.
25The woman said, "I know that Messiah" (called Christ) "is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us."
26Then Jesus declared, "I who speak to you am he."
There was no word for "he" or "him" in the original language and text. So what he really said was, in rough translation, "I who speak to you, I AM." Those familiar with the God of the Old Testament and the story of Moses and the burning bush will understand the significance of that. YHWH, or I AM, was the name God gave to Himself and what His followers called Him.
A lot of people think that Jesus was a prophet and a good person, but was not God. But since he accepted worship and acknowledged himself as God and the Messiah on multiple occasions, that really leaves a problem for those who ascribe to that view. A good man and a prophet would not commit blasphemy and lie. So if He's not God, he can't really be a good man or a true teacher or prophet either. Either He is who He says He is, or He's a cheat and a liar. You can't really have it both ways.
It's late, and Baby E just went to sleep after her first waking of the night. She wasn't hungry; just gassy, and she went back to sleep on my shoulder pretty quickly. I hope tonight goes as well as last night did.
In the morning I have a Moms' group meeting, and then PFT's 15-year-old sister is coming home with me for a few hours to help with housework like the 13-year-old PFT did 2 weeks ago.
The 15-year-old babysat the girls during group this week. It was her first time caring for them at our house, although she helps in their Sunday School class and in the moms' group childcare.
The girls had a blast. We could hear them running around squealing and laughing from all the way downstairs. When they came down for dessert, the kids were calling her "Mamma Hen" because they had been pretending she was the mother hen and they were her chicks. When I heard that, my first thought was, "Ah-ha! There's my blog nickname for her. MH for Mamma Hen."
Now, I just have to decide which household tasks I'm going to have MH help me with tomorrow. Should I have her do floors and bathrooms like her sister did two weeks ago, or shall I do the floors myself and have MH wash windows? Or is there something else I've been neglecting that needs to be done worse? Decisions, decisions . . . but pleasant ones to be making. :)
I'm really loving our small group. The people in it are great, and we're really bonding and becoming good friends. We have a pot luck and fellowship time, then a devotional/worship time. That leads into our Bible study, and then we have sharing and prayer time after that. I especially enjoy the prayer time--hearing what's going on in each other's lifes and caring & praying for each other.
The Bible study was enjoyable and thought-provoking tonight.
######################################
Right now we're going through the book of John, and today we discussed the Samaritan woman at the well in chapter 4. One thing that someone mentioned that I hadn't really noticed before was that the Samaritan woman was really quite forward and almost brazen in her interactions with Jesus--unusual for a woman of that culture and era.
Jesus, time and time again, stepped outside cultural norms to reach out with love and acceptance to women, outcasts, and those most people considered sinners and avoided interacting with. He touched the unclean, ate with sinners and tax collectors, and welcomed a prostitute's washing his feet with her tears and scandalously unloosed hair. It's especially obvious how much he turned common practice upside down by treating women with value and respect, and choosing them to talk to and to reveal Himself to in amazing ways.
In this chapter He chose a woman who was rejected by all around her because of her gender, lifestyle, religion and ethnicity to be the key person in this city that he spoke to. He treated her with respect, offered her hope, changed her life and entrusted her with His message.
Another interesting point the discussion brought out was that this interaction was the first time Jesus openly claimed to be The Messiah, and clearly identified himself as God.
25The woman said, "I know that Messiah" (called Christ) "is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us."
26Then Jesus declared, "I who speak to you am he."
There was no word for "he" or "him" in the original language and text. So what he really said was, in rough translation, "I who speak to you, I AM." Those familiar with the God of the Old Testament and the story of Moses and the burning bush will understand the significance of that. YHWH, or I AM, was the name God gave to Himself and what His followers called Him.
A lot of people think that Jesus was a prophet and a good person, but was not God. But since he accepted worship and acknowledged himself as God and the Messiah on multiple occasions, that really leaves a problem for those who ascribe to that view. A good man and a prophet would not commit blasphemy and lie. So if He's not God, he can't really be a good man or a true teacher or prophet either. Either He is who He says He is, or He's a cheat and a liar. You can't really have it both ways.
It's late, and Baby E just went to sleep after her first waking of the night. She wasn't hungry; just gassy, and she went back to sleep on my shoulder pretty quickly. I hope tonight goes as well as last night did.
In the morning I have a Moms' group meeting, and then PFT's 15-year-old sister is coming home with me for a few hours to help with housework like the 13-year-old PFT did 2 weeks ago.
The 15-year-old babysat the girls during group this week. It was her first time caring for them at our house, although she helps in their Sunday School class and in the moms' group childcare.
The girls had a blast. We could hear them running around squealing and laughing from all the way downstairs. When they came down for dessert, the kids were calling her "Mamma Hen" because they had been pretending she was the mother hen and they were her chicks. When I heard that, my first thought was, "Ah-ha! There's my blog nickname for her. MH for Mamma Hen."
Now, I just have to decide which household tasks I'm going to have MH help me with tomorrow. Should I have her do floors and bathrooms like her sister did two weeks ago, or shall I do the floors myself and have MH wash windows? Or is there something else I've been neglecting that needs to be done worse? Decisions, decisions . . . but pleasant ones to be making. :)
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Posted by purple_kangaroo at 1:05 AM[Permanent link]
7 Comments:
Well no matter what, it is so nice to have help!
Sounds like good soup!
The soup sounds good, but full of nightshade!
Hope you get good sleep.
To me, it is not quite clear that Jesus is identifying himself as God, granted my overall perspective predisposes me to this conclusion.
The encoding of the OT Hebrew translation of the proper name YHWH ("I am" / "I will be" / "He is") into the corresponding NT Greek in order to create a double meaning is interesting, but I wonder if it isn't too generic to be "clear".
I believe Jesus is who he says he is.
Thanks, all.
Kevin, you're right . . . I was thinking of that after I posted this. That particular passage doesn't necessarily speak to Jesus being anything but the Messiah. Do you know if people in that time, place and culture would connect the Messiah with God and see them as the same person, or not?
It's the book of John, I think, that speaks of Jesus as the Creator of all things, which is one of the more particularly convincing passages to me about the deity of Christ.
That's a good question. My guess is that it depends upon the culture you are referring to. IIRC, the Jews did not expect the Messiah to be God, and even today, I don't think Jews expect their future Messiah to be God. I believe they generally view God as Spirit, rather than a person.
There's a book called "Paul on Trial" which argues that Acts is a legal brief in defense of Paul, intended to illustrate that "Christianity" was an outgrowth of Judaism, since Rome required the belief that Caesar was God, but an exception was made for Judaism. So, perhaps the Romans might be more inclined to believe a person is God.
What an interesting tidbit of information! Thanks for sharing that, Kevin.
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