The Gospel of John

Greatness
The Bible teaches us that God thwarts those who try to raise themselves up to greatness in people's eyes. It also teaches that those who humble themselves before God will be raised up by God to true greatness. You might think of God's path toward greatness as similar to the law of gravity, except in reverse: "Whoever goes up must first come down".

Belong
These days we can buy memberships to everything from health clubs to the British aristocracy––proof of our intrinsic desire to either fit in with those like us or be associated with those we wish to emulate. Belonging is a key Biblical concept as well. In the Bible, God spelled out which land belonged to which people, who belonged to which family, and what belonged to God himself. This usually prevented conflict and, at the same time, clarified owners' rights and members' benefits.

God dictates what belongs to him in the spiritual realm. All of humanity is born belonging to the world––enslaved to our flawed human nature, destined for physical and spiritual death. But through Jesus Christ, we're saved from the world's grasp and owned by a master who holds the keys to eternal freedom from death and misery. By belonging to God, we belong to someone who sees us as his valued children, adopted into his royal family (see Adoption).

Heaven
Do you ever wonder what heaven is like? Heaven is separate from the earth, and some speculate that it's in another dimension. Because of sin, "heaven-on-earth" just isn't possible. But the true heaven is something much better then we can ever guess. God is in heaven, and although, to us, the distance sometimes seems too great a gulf to cross, we're told that the Lord actively watches over us, listens to our prayers and takes action in our lives.
For those of us who have trusted Jesus Christ as Savior, heaven will be our home when we die. In fact, Jesus Christ said he was returning to heaven to prepare a home for us. (John 14:2-3)

Teach
"Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day," the old saying goes, but "teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime." Teaching and learning are also crucial to our Christian faith. Learning is the first step, in fact, to telling others about Jesus Christ. Jesus taught the people about God. He explained what the Scriptures meant, and he taught with an incredible authority that the people had never seen before. In fact, the people called him Rabbi, which means "teacher." Jesus told us to carry on his work. We are to instruct people not only in the facts about salvation, but also in how to obey God and apply what they hear.

God
When you look at your watch, you know that an intelligent person designed it. It didn't just come into existence by itself. What about your wrist - isn't it more complicated than your watch? Didn't an intelligent person design your wrist too? We call the One who designed these things God, our Creator, the One who spoke the word and created the universe.

God has spoken to us in terms we can understand. The Bible is the record of his revelation - what he wants us to know about himself. God also became flesh and blood in the person of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who is 100 percent human and 100 percent God. Want to know what God is like? Study the life of Jesus Christ in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

Holy Spirit
Before Jesus came to the earth, the Holy Spirit guided and directed select people at specific times for specific purposes. To prophets, he revealed future events and warnings of judgment. To kings, he gave wisdom to rule. But when Jesus was near the end of his life on earth, preparing his disciples for his impending death and resurrection, he promised that the Holy Spirit would, form that time on, be with his followers all the time.

Father
God the Father perfectly cares fur us, giving us all we need -- though we may not agree with him regarding what those needs are. He promises us that we don't have to worry about having enough food or clothes because he knows what we need before we ask. God has also given us every spiritual blessing - something of much more value to our lives than any kind of physical possession.

As children of God, we can expect to be disciplined if we err. And we shouldn't be discouraged when this happens because discipline shows that God loves us. Just as good parents teach their children not to do things that will hurt them, so our Father in heaven teaches us what is best for us.

Son
"If you really want to understand someone," said President George W. Bush, " you look at his family and where he was raised." Using this reasoning, what can we learn about Jesus Christ, the Son of God? The Bible says that Jesus is "the image of the invisible God" (Colossians 1:15). This means that the Son is fully God; all of God the Father's qualities are manifested in him: love, justice, righteousness, holiness. God the Son was also fully human; while he was on the earth, he shared our experiences: temptation, hunger, fatigues, pain and death.

Eternal
The life you now share with the Lord is eternal; it will continue when your physical life ends. Your decision to follow Jesus Christ guarantees it. Again, the fact that God is eternal plays a key role in this. When God determined that eternal life would only be given through believe in his Son, Jesus, he meant it. there's nothing else, including doing good things, that we can do or need to do to establish a relationship with God (see Ephesians 2:8-9). And that's final!

Life
Do you want to live forever? Jesus Christ says he's the only true way. He says he's the door to a life of abundant blessing. God is the giver of life, and his role as such started with the creation of our ancestors, Adam and Eve. When sin entered the world, we were blocked, not only from having eternal life with God, but also from a meaningful life on this planet. Both can be obtained through God himself.

Reject
Whether we're bruised or crushed, rejection always hurts. Jesus Christ experienced rejection, and he told us that we, too, would be rejected if we identified with him. Some people experience taunting or humiliation. Others, like Jesus, experience the ultimate rejection: death.

No matter how rejection devastates our lives, there is one person who will never reject us. That person is God. Those who despise God and reject his call will find themselves rejected from his presence forever. Those who have responded to his call and cling to his promises will be accepted by him even if the entire world rejects them.

Remain
When Andrew (see Andrew) and a friend first met Jesus Christ, they stayed with him for a day. Later Jesus chose Andrew and eleven others as his disciples, and they spent three years together. Before Jesus went to the cross, he commanded his disciples to remain in him always. Just as they were constantly with him as he traveled throughout Judea, they were to live their lives centered in Christ. Jesus explained this using the picture of a vine and its branches. Like branches, we must be completely connected to the vine, Jesus, for our source of life. When we don't remain in him, we wither, and our lives cannot produce any fruit.

Samaria
Samaria applies both to a region and a city. This hilly area belonged to the tribe of Ephraim (see Ephraim) and half the tribe Manasseh (see Manasseh). the city of Samaria was the capital of the northern kingdom of Israel for about 75 years until the northern kingdom collapsed in 721 B.C. under Assyrian attack.

In New Testament times, the larger Jewish population scorned samaritans because they were descendants of mixed marriages and had strayed from mainstream Jewish teachings. Jesus Christ's stop in Samaria and his conversation with a Samaritan woman were, therefore, particularly significant. Jesus also told a story about a Samaritan who stopped on the road to help a robbery victim after two Jewish religious leaders had passed by without offering aid.

Women
Glass ceilings, exploitation, date rape, battles over reproductive rights-these things are evidence that women in North America still face gender struggles. But millions of women in other parts of the world endure much worse, as did women in ancient times. REading the Bible can sometimes be very painful because it dos not gloss over the reality of the status of most women. God created Eve to be the perfect counterpart, companion and co-ruler with Adam. The entrance of sin into the world set men and women against each other and warped God's purposes for them both.

Water
In the Middle East a gallon of gasoline is cheaper than a gallon of water. Imagine a Middle Easterner's surprise when he or she goes abroad and finds water in such abundance. Water was valued in the Middle East during ancient times too. God did a lot of amazing things with water: He flooded the earth, turned water into blood, made water pour out of a rock and stacked water up on either side of a dry path through the sea.

Disciples
Does disciple sound uncomfortably like "discipline"? It is. A disciple is a person who adheres to the teaching of another - not just believing a certain philosophy, but also applying it to his or her life.

In the Bible, the word "disciple" can apply to followers of John the Baptist, students of the Pharisees or the broader circle of people who believed Jesus' teachings. But it most often refers to the twelve disciples whom Jesus asked to follow him. They lived with him night and day and learned from his teaching and lifestyle. The Bible makes it clear that Jesus' followers were not perfect, but they knew enough to recognize that leaving everything they had in order to follow Jesus was worth the price.

Jews
A yellow star stitched on a jacket declares a person's Jewish identity in Germany during World War II. It was not the fist time that being a Jew carried a death sentence, nor was it the first time that the Jews emerged victorious from a plot for their worldwide extermination.

Jews are the physical descendants of Abraham through his grandson Jacob, the father of the Israelites. The label "Jew" came into use after the Babylonian captivity. The stories of Ezra, Nehemiah and Esther highlight God's protection of the people in the midst of great danger and opposition.

God
When you look at your watch, you know that an intelligent person designed it. It didn't just come into existence by itself. What about your wrist - isn't it more complicated than your watch? Didn't an intelligent person design your wrist too? We call the One who designed these things God, our Creator, the One who spoke the word and created the universe.

God has spoken to us in terms we can understand. The Bible is the record of his revelation - what he wants us to know about himself. God also became flesh and blood in the person of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who is 100 percent human and 100 percent God. Want to know what God is like? Study the life of Jesus Christ in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

Gift
"Order today and we'll send you a free gift." Tired of hearing advertisers offer a "free gift"? If a gift isn't free, it isn't a gift. If you have to work for it or pay for it, it isn't a gift.

Eternal life is a gift from God that is received by faith. People who receive the gift of salvation are born again - it's like a spiritual birth. In addition to the gift of eternal life. God gives "spiritual gifts" to those who believe in Jesus Christ. These spiritual gifts are abilities God gives us to enable us to serve him and the church. One of the gifts he gives is the gift of teaching - an ability to understand and explain the Bible and train others in God's ways. Another gift God gives is the gift of fait, which allows us to trust in God even in the most trying circumstances. God gives many other gifts as well.

Ask
To ask means to "call on" or to "request." God definitely wants us to come to him and make our requests. Psalm 62:8 tells us to "pour out [our] hearts to him." Read through the Psalms, and you'll see King David asking for things unashamedly.

Jacob
Schemer, con artist, opportunist, coward - all these labels can legitimately be applied to Jacob. But, "chosen of God?" Hero of the faith? Father of the Israelites? It seems unlikely, at least in his early days.

Jacob, born to Isac and Rebekah, was the second twin to come out of the womb. But before he and his brother were born, God told Rebekah that two nations would come from her and that the older would serve the younger. This was in direct opposition to the traditions of that day, which held that the oldest son should receive the primary inheritance.

Sheep
The Bible compares people to sheep and God to a shepherd. Sheep are not know for their intelligence or power. They need a shepherd to protect them. Jesus Christ called himself the Good Shepherd. He promised to care for us, his sheep, and keep us secure from harm. Likewise, in the church, we are to care tenderly for others as an extension of Christ's love.

Right
International laws stand to protect the dignity, basic freedoms and governmental immunities due each person because of his or her humanity. Sadly, despite the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, people still face persecution. Christians, though we live in this flawed world, are ultimately under God's rule and protection. Our rights as God's children guarantee freedom from sin's bondage and immunity to spiritual death.

Truth
What is truth? God is truth. Everything he says we can believe. There is no deception, no hypocrisy, no half-truth in God, Our finite minds can't fully comprehend God or understand all his mysteries, but he is everything he says he is: the all-powerful, just, loving Creator of everything that exists. How do we know right from wrong? God alone, because he is truth, provides an accurate standard for ethics and morality. Whatever he does and commands us to do is right. Anything God hates and forbids us to do is wrong.

Mountain
In the Bible mountains were often considered holy places where God was worshiped. After the Lord freed the Israelites from slavery in Egypt, he brought them to Mount Sinai, where they first encountered God's full magnificence. It was also on this mountain that God gave Moses the Ten Commandments. On another high mountain, selected disciples saw Jesus Christ in his heavenly form: his face shining as brightly as the sun, his clothes tuning as bright as light itself.

Jerusalem
Jerusalem, Israel's capital, is first mentioned in Abraham's time; it was then called Salem. From that time forward, it has played a large role in Biblical history. David conquered the city and established royal rule there. His son Solomon built the temple in Jerusalem, making the city the nation's civic and religious capital. After a long siege, Babylon's King, Nebuchadnezzar destroyed the city in 588 B.C. In 536 B.C. the Jews started to rebuild the city. During Jesus Christ's time on earth, Jerusalem was under Roman control. Jesus was crucified there. The Holy Spirit later came to believers in Jerusalem.

Worship
Human beings are designed to worship. The soul craves someone or something to adore: the sports hero, the film celebrity, the musical entertainer, a philosophy or political party. Worship celebrates the worth of that which is worshiped. People are intrinsically motivated to worship what they value, honor and love.

True worship involves the whole being of the worshiper. The worshiper places the worshiped being or thing ahead of every other concern, including concern for self: That's why worship is a sacrifice (see Sacrifice). God calls us to worship him because he is the most worthy recipient of our adoration. Worship overflows from our loving relationship with our heavenly Father.

Believe
Beliefs dictate who we are and how we live our lives. To believe in something is to have faith in it. Though it may seem feeble to accept something on faith rather than fact, we all believe many things on different levels without being experts through experience or knowledge. A Christian's life is a demonstration of grounded belief in action.

Merely "believing" in God does not make someone a Christian any more than believing in exercise keeps one in shape; a person must actually exercise to stay in shape. Demons "believe" in God (James 2:19). They know he exists, but they don't choose to follow him. Believing that Jesus Christ is your Savior means believing that Jesus' death pays the penalty for your sin. As a result of this belief you repent-you turn away from your sin-and obey Jesus Christ.

Time
Time governs our lives. Our day planners help us manage it. We eat by it. We sleep by it. We're upset if people don't respect it. God, however is not constrained by time. He created time, and - though it's hard for us to grasp - he exists outside of time. Because he contains time, he knows the future and is able to reveal it in prophecy.

God has a clear understanding of time. In the Bible, he warned that all people should live for him because the time is coming when he will return to the earth. While some believe they can delay serving God, we are commanded to serve God now. We are to take advantage of the moments God gives us to share the gospel.

Salvation
Some poeple call for God to save them only when they are desperate and in immediate danger. In the Old Testament, when God's people called out to him for salvation, they were looking for deliverace from their enemies. We may not have and army on our doorstep, but we're all in immediate danger from the effects and consequences of sin (see Sin). We can't save ourselves from this-weneed a rescue operation. Thankfully, God executed the resource operation for salvation. He sent his Son to save the world by paying the penalty for sin and bringing us back to God. Salvation is all God's work, but we must grab hold of his lifeline, Jesus Christ.

Work
God created us with a need to engage in meaningful, productive labor - it's part of being made in his image. God worked for seven days to create the earth (see Creation), and then he rested (see Rest).

It is tempting sometimes to think that we deserve the credit for the material rewards received for our labor, but God says fruitful labor is a blessing from him. The Bible condemns those who do not work but expects to benefit from the labor of others. But work that is done simply for the sake of work or material gain is meaningless. We should do everything as though we are working for God; then we will be good witnesses of God before other people. The only work that will last is that which furthers the kingdom of God. At the end of our lives, God will evaluate the work we have done in his kingdom (see Kingdom).

Jesus
Jesus was born approximately 5 B.C. in the town of Bethlehem, Israel, to a virgin named Mary, who was descended from King David. Raised in Nazareth by Mary and her husband, Joseph, Jesus lived the ordinary life of a carpenter's son. Those who knew him didn't yet know that he was also God's Son. At age 30, Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist and tempted by the devil into the desert. He then began healing, teaching and performing miracles throughout Judea. He called people to believe in him as the only way to God.

7. When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” 8. (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)

9. The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jews and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.)

10. Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”

11. “Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? 12. Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his flocks and herds?”

13. Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14. But whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

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.”

19. “Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. 20. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”

21. Jesus declared, “Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22. You Samaritan worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23. Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24. God is spirit, and his worshippers must worship in spirit and in truth.”

25. The woman said, “I know that Messiah (called Christ) is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”

26. Then Jesus declared, “I who speak to you am he.”

The disciples rejoin Jesus

27. Just then his disciples returned and were surprised to find him talking with a woman. But no one asked, “What do you want? Or “Why are you talking with her?

28. Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, 29. “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Christ”? 30. They came out of the town and made their way toward him.

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. 35. Do you not say, ‘Four months more and then the harvest? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest.

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