five3challenge: John 6

Jesus was a big disappointment.

According to John 6 Jesus did some really incredible things... He can feed 5000 men, plus women and children; he can walk on water (cool); he is a sought after communicator... BUT... HE is also a major disappointment.

After he had fed the 5000 and walked on the water to get to his next speaking engagement, Jesus ran into a little snag. Rather than respond to the miracles by listening to his teaching, the crowd just wanted more miracles and signs... more food.

"What sign then will you give that we may see it and believe you?"

They must be joking... he has already given them amazing signs! They are just stubborn and hungry. What they really want is more food.

Jesus correctly sees this and responds in the oddest way:

Jesus said to them, "Very truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.

Now, had Jesus wanted to he could have explained all of this away..."look I am talking in a metaphor... you do not have to drink my real blood" but he doesn't and as a result many desert him. He had disappointed them.

The didn't want Jesus for who he was... they just wanted him to give them what they wanted.

I think I do this to Jesus too.

five3challenge: John 5

Jesus was a copycat.

Seriously I am not joking... look at what he says in John 5:19

"Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does."

Jesus copied his Father God in the way he lived... and now we can copy Jesus copying the Father.

This is why our mission statement for Mosaic is

"learning to live and love like Jesus"

If Jesus, being himself very God, thought that imitating the father was the right way to live... then we also should learn to be Jesus copycats. We should do whatever he does.

WHY?
Because Jesus also said this:

24 "Very truly I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life. 25 Very truly I tell you, a time is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live. 26 For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself. 27 And he has given him authority to judge because he is the Son of Man.

When we follow the son, following the father... We experience life as it was meant to be...

five3challenge: John 4

God is looking for people who will worship him.

John 4:23 Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks.

I remember being thrown to think that God would look for anything, after all doesn't he have everything he wants? But in John 4, Jesus seems to indicate that God is looking for people who truly worship him with all their hearts and minds. People who do not just say the right words, but also live the right lives and love Jesus for real.

How about you... Will God find what he is looking for in you? Will he find it in me?

I think it would be so cool if God looked at me one day and was like, "Uh HA!, you are what I have been looking for... you really love me and worship me."

I hope that it does happen.

Roots #2: THE WORD

1. What is a "root?" A "root" is a practice in my life the renews passion for God and my strength to follow him.

God's desire is that we not be like the plant that withers...

Matt 13:20 The seed falling on rocky ground refers to people who hear the word and at once receive it with joy. 21 But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away.

Ephesians 3... we are rooted in God's immeasurable love.

And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18 may have power, together with all the Lord's people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge

2. Our life comes from the WORD of God...

The word brings us life... John 1:1-4... the word keeps us on the right path. Hebrews 4


3 Growing roots in the WORD. (Hebrews 4, Psalm 119)

1189 Chapters... If you read 1 a day you would read the whole bible in just over 3 years... 3 a day... it was take just a year.


* the Hebrew is from Psalm 119 and asks the question... how can a young person keep on the right path? The answer... by keeping their life in line with God's word...

1. How serious are you about becoming like Jesus?

2. What are your current habits regarding God's word? What keeps you from reading it and "hiding it in your heart?"

3. Re-read Psalm 119:9-16 as a group. What is David's attitude toward the Word of God? Why is it so important to him? What does he say to do with it?

4. How do you think you could begin to grow roots into God's Word in your life?

God's Word vs. Toilet Paper

Ravi Zacharias tells this story about Hien Pham on his web site here

I was ministering in Vietnam in 1971, and one of my interpreters was Hien Pham, an energetic young Christian. He had worked as a translator with the American forces, and was of immense help both to them and to missionaries such as myself. Hien and I traveled the length of the country and became very close friends before I returned home. We did not know if our paths would ever cross again. Seventeen years later, I received a telephone call. "Brother Ravi?" the man asked. Immediately, I recognized Hien's voice, and he soon told me his story.

Shortly after Vietnam fell, Hien was imprisoned on accusations of helping the Americans. His jailers tried to indoctrinate him against democratic ideals and the Christian faith. He was forced to read only communist propaganda in French or Vietnamese, and the daily deluge of Marx and Engels began to take its toll. "Maybe," he thought, "I have been lied to. Maybe God does not exist. Maybe the West has deceived me." So Hien determined that when he awakened the next day, he would not pray anymore or think of his faith.

The next morning, he was assigned the dreaded chore of cleaning the prison latrines. As he cleaned out a tin can overflowing with toilet paper, his eye caught what seemed to be English printed on one piece of paper. He hurriedly grabbed it, washed it, and after his roommates had retired that night, he retrieved the paper and read the words, "Romans, Chapter 8." Trembling, he began to read, "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. … For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans 8:28,38,39).

Hien wept. He knew his Bible, and he had not seen one for so long Not only that, he knew there was not a more relevant passage of conviction and strength for one on the verge of surrendering to the threat of evil. He cried out to God, asking for forgiveness, for this was to have been the first day in years that he had determined not to pray. Evidently the Lord had other plans.

The next day, Hien asked the camp commander if he could clean the latrine again. He continued with this chore on a regular basis, because he had discovered that some official in the camp was using a Bible as toilet paper. Each day Hien picked up a portion of Scripture and cleaned it off, and added it to his nightly devotional reading. In this way he retrieved a significant portion of the Bible.

The day came when, through an equally providential set of circumstances, Hien was released. He promptly began to make plans to escape from the country. After several unsuccessful attempts he began again to build a boat in secret. About fifty-three other people planned to escape with him, and Hien was taking the lead.

All was going according to plan until a short while before the date of their departure when four Vietcong knocked on Hien's door. When he opened it, they accosted him and said they had heard he was trying to escape. "Is it true?" they demanded.

Hien immediately denied it and went on to distract them with some concocted story to explain his activities. Apparently convinced, they reluctantly left.

Hien was relieved but very disappointed with himself. "Here I go again, Lord, trying to manipulate my own destiny, too unteachable in my spirit to really believe that You can lead me past any obstacle." He made a promise to God, fervently hoping that the Lord would not take him up on it. He prayed that if the Vietcong were to come back again, he would tell them the truth.

Resting in the comfort of that impossibility, he was thoroughly shaken when only a few hours before they were to set sail the four men stood at his door once more. "We have our sources, and we know you are trying to escape. Is it true?"

Hien resignedly gave the answer, "Yes, I am with fifty-three others. Are you going to imprison me again?" There was a pronounced pause. And then they leaned forward and whispered, "No. We want to escape with you!"

In an utterly incredible escape plan, all fifty-eight of them found themselves on the high seas, suddenly engulfed by a violent storm. Hien fell with his face in his hands, crying out to God, "Did You bring us here to die?"

As he concluded his story, he said, "Brother Ravi, if it were not for the sailing ability of those four Vietcong, we would have not made it."

They arrived safely in Thailand, and years later Hien arrived on American soil where today he is a businessman- forever grateful for America and praying that she would open her heart as a nation to Christ.

five3challenge: John 3

John 3 is one of the most famous passages in the Bible. John 3:16 in particular is often seen as the clearest Gospel presentation in the Bible.

For God so love the World that he gave his one and only son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life.

I think this verse definitely does show God's love for people. He loved us so much that he gave his most precious Son so that we could be restored into a relationship with him.

What I think is important here is our response. In Verse 19, John writes that

"...Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of the light because their deeds were evil."

When you put these two together you do realize that God has reached out to humans in such a costly and meaninful way, but that humans continue to reject God's love.

Consider that it is how we live that demonstrates what we truly believe about God... not just what we say...

If I really believe something won't it change the way I interact with the world?

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five3challenge: John 2 (Part 2)

Jesus was a crazy guy sometimes:

John 2:14 In the temple courts he found people selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money. 15 So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple courts, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables.

I think that we miss this in the church very often. I mean think about it... He made a whip and drove the hypocritical religious leaders out of the building...

Sometimes we try to tame Jesus down so that we feel more safe and secure... sometimes we do it to try to control others... But I think we serve a wild God who is passionate in his love for people and sinners... so passionate that sometimes he appropriately grabs the whip to make his point.


When was the last time you were so outraged about some injustice that you actually did something about it?

five3challenge: John 2 (part 1)

In John 2 we immediately find the famous story of Jesus turning water into wine. Following a really interesting exchange between Jesus and his Mother he turns six jars of water into 180 gallons of wine... give or take a few...

Worth noting is that this wine was the best that had been served at the wedding... meaning Jesus knows a thing of two about making good wine... and that He is able to do truly miraculous things beyond our abilities.

Also worth noting is that John presents this as Jesus first miracle... It seems like for John, that this was the beginning of Jesus revealing his true nature to the disciples through miraculous signs such as this one.


It also begs a few questions:

1. When did Jesus know he was God?

2. When did Mary figure it out and what was she hoping Jesus would do?

3. Why does Jesus seem to tell her he is not going to do anything, but then do it anyway?

thoughts?