Author: Merlin Erb

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READ, WEEP, PRINT AND KEEP!

Every once in a blue moon I am sent something that literally demands an immediate audience. You know I avoid politics like the mRNA plague now consuming our rear view mirrors. You also know I quit posting Sunday mornings to avoid distracting your worship preparation. But this Charley Reese’s Final column (and sadly who I never heard of prior) is just First Class, and I’m betting it’s certainly worthy of being the first ever Memorable Serious Saturday Night Reflection(mSSNR)!

The following should be on the front page of every newspaper and on all social media platforms.

Charley Reese’s Final column!

A very interesting column. COMPLETELY NEUTRAL.
Be sure to Read the Poem at the end..

Charley Reese’s final column for the Orlando Sentinel… He has been a journalist for 49 years. He is retiring and this is HIS LAST COLUMN.

Be sure to read the Tax List at the end.

This is about as clear and easy to understand as it can be. The article below is completely neutral, neither anti-republican or democrat. Charlie Reese, a retired reporter for the Orlando Sentinel, has hit the nail directly on the head, defining clearly who it is that in the final analysis must assume responsibility for the judgments made that impact each one of us every day. It’s a short but good read. Worth the time. Worth remembering!

545 vs. 300,000,000 People
-By Charlie Reese

Politicians are the only people in the world who create problems and then campaign against them.

Have you ever wondered, if both the Democrats and the Republicans are against deficits, WHY do we have deficits?

Have you ever wondered, if all the politicians are against inflation and high taxes, WHY do we have inflation and high taxes?

You and I don’t propose a federal budget. The President does.

You and I don’t have the Constitutional authority to vote on appropriations. The House of Representatives does.

You and I don’t write the tax code, Congress does.

You and I don’t set fiscal policy, Congress does.

You and I don’t control monetary policy, the Federal Reserve Bank does.

One hundred senators, 435 congressmen, one President, and nine Supreme Court justices equates to 545 human beings out of the 300 million are directly, legally, morally, and individually responsible for the domestic problems that plague this country.

I excluded the members of the Federal Reserve Board because that problem was created by the Congress. In 1913, Congress delegated its Constitutional duty to provide a sound currency to a federally chartered, but private, central bank.

I excluded all the special interests and lobbyists for a sound reason. They have no legal authority. They have no ability to coerce a senator, a congressman, or a President to do one cotton-picking thing. I don’t care if they offer a politician $1 million dollars in cash. The politician has the power to accept or reject it. No matter what the lobbyist promises, it is the legislator’s responsibility to determine how he votes.

Those 545 human beings spend much of their energy convincing you that what they did is not their fault. They cooperate in this common con regardless of party.

What separates a politician from a normal human being is an excessive amount of gall. No normal human being would have the gall of a Speaker, who stood up and criticized the President for creating deficits.. ( The President can only propose a budget. He cannot force the Congress to accept it.)

The Constitution, which is the supreme law of the land, gives sole responsibility to the House of Representatives for originating and approving appropriations and taxes. Who is the speaker of the House?( John Boehner. He is the leader of the majority party. He and fellow House members, not the President, can approve any budget they want. ) If the President vetoes it, they can pass it over his veto if they agree to. [The House has passed a budget but the Senate has not approved a budget in over three years. The President’s proposed budgets have gotten almost unanimous rejections in the Senate in that time. ]

It seems inconceivable to me that a nation of 300 million cannot replace 545 people who stand convicted — by present facts — of incompetence and irresponsibility. I can’t think of a single domestic problem that is not traceable directly to those 545 people. When you fully grasp the plain truth that 545 people exercise the power of the federal government, then it must follow that what exists is what they want to exist.

If the tax code is unfair, it’s because they want it unfair.

If the budget is in the red, it’s because they want it in the red.

If the Army & Marines are in Iraq and Afghanistan it’s because they want them in Iraq and Afghanistan ..

If they do not receive social security but are on an elite retirement plan not available to the people, it’s because they want it that way.

There are no insoluble government problems.

Do not let these 545 people shift the blame to bureaucrats, whom they hire and whose jobs they can abolish; to lobbyists, whose gifts and advice they can reject; to regulators, to whom they give the power to regulate and from whom they can take this power.
Above all, do not let them con you into the belief that there exists disembodied mystical forces like “the economy,” “inflation,” or “politics” that prevent them from doing what they take an oath to do.

Those 545 people, and they alone, are responsible. They, and they alone, have the power.

They, and they alone, should be held accountable by the people who are their bosses. Provided the voters have the gumption to manage their own employees… We should vote all of them out of office and clean up their mess!

Charlie Reese is a former columnist of the Orlando Sentinel Newspaper.

What you do with this article now that you have read it… is up to you.
This might be funny if it weren’t so true.
Be sure to read all the way to the end:

Tax his land,
Tax his bed,
Tax the table,
At which he’s fed.

Tax his tractor,
Tax his mule,
Teach him taxes
Are the rule.

Tax his work,
Tax his pay,
He works for
peanuts anyway!

Tax his cow,
Tax his goat,
Tax his pants,
Tax his coat.

Tax his ties,
Tax his shirt,
Tax his work,
Tax his dirt.

Tax his tobacco,
Tax his drink,
Tax him if he
Tries to think.

Tax his cigars,
Tax his beers,
If he cries
Tax his tears.

Tax his car,
Tax his gas,
Find other ways
To tax his ass.

Tax all he has
Then let him know
That you won’t be done
Till he has no dough.

When he screams and hollers;
Then tax him some more,
Tax him till
He’s good and sore.

Then tax his coffin,
Tax his grave,
Tax the sod in
Which he’s laid…

Put these words
Upon his tomb,
‘Taxes drove me
to my doom…’

When he’s gone,
Do not relax,
Its time to apply
The inheritance tax.
Accounts Receivable Tax
Building Permit Tax
CDL license Tax
Cigarette Tax
Corporate Income Tax
Dog License Tax
Excise Taxes
Federal Income Tax
Federal Unemployment Tax (FUTA)
Fishing License Tax
Food License Tax
Fuel Permit Tax
Gasoline Tax (currently 44.75 cents per gallon)
Gross Receipts Tax
Hunting License Tax
Inheritance Tax
Inventory Tax
IRS Interest Charges IRS Penalties (tax on top of tax)
Liquor Tax
Luxury Taxes
Marriage License Tax
Medicare Tax
Personal Property Tax
Property Tax
Real Estate Tax
Service Charge Tax
Social Security Tax
Road Usage Tax
Recreational Vehicle Tax
Sales Tax
School Tax
State Income Tax
State Unemployment Tax (SUTA)
Telephone Federal Excise Tax
Telephone Federal Universal Service Fee Tax
Telephone Federal, State and Local Surcharge Taxes
Telephone Minimum Usage Surcharge Tax
Telephone Recurring and Nonrecurring Charges Tax
Telephone State and Local Tax
Telephone Usage Charge Tax
Utility Taxes
Vehicle License Registration Tax
Vehicle Sales Tax
Watercraft Registration Tax
Well Permit Tax
Workers Compensation Tax

STILL THINK THIS IS FUNNY?
Not one of these taxes existed 100 years ago, & our nation was the most prosperous in the world. We had absolutely no national debt, had the largest middle class in the world, and Mom stayed home to raise the kids.

What in the heck happened? Can you spell ‘politicians?’
I hope this goes around THE USA at least 545 times!!! YOU can help it get there!!!

GO AHEAD. . . BE AN AMERICAN!!!

SEND THIS TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW

REALIZE WE ARE BEING PLAYED BIG TIME AS NEVER BEFORE IN HISTORY!!

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Birth of Hypocrisy: Our Unhinged Tongues

I grew up as a child knowing that even before our births, God had already spoken blessings over our lives. It really makes me wonder now how I as a child could grow up in such a loving Christian home with literally a spiritual silver spoon in my mouth, be known as a “favorite son” of sorts, and yet, spend so many years as a blasphemer in the church?

Strange introduction perhaps, but it’s the truth, and the title “Birth of Hypocrisy” does set the stage, whether for me, or the church. Perhaps hypocrisy is learned in stages, like language. We have both experienced and observed the ease of learning becoming a negative person, likely from the Father of Lies.

The idea of the quantity or scale of negativity we’ve spewed forth verbally, whether private or public, since we learned to talk or cobb an attitude, is really immaterial. Sometimes negativity is directed at or of very specific intention, but when the chips are down, negativity will abound!

Given that common denominator, we as Christ Follower’s know well that our Lord and Savior has, and is, speaking a Fullness over our lives, but too often, we’re the ones, intentionally or not, literally being goaded into rejecting either His blessings or our Fullness, such that, when we look in the mirror, we’ll tell ourselves, “I knew I was no good at this. No good ever comes to me, no matter how hard I try. I’m always just missing everything up.”

When you go into that Charlie Brown mode, you are renouncing what God spoke over you. First, you must understand, you’re the only one that ever has a right to reject the intimacies the Father has spoken over you. Nobody else has that authority. Absolutely nobody!

Next, be aware there are things happening around you attempting to trick or confuse you into speaking against what God has spoken over you. Satan’s minions are continually attempting to get you to renounce the goodness your Father has spoken over your life. If and when that is accomplished, and darkness gets the better of you, you’re going revert into the Charlie Brown mode, and you’ll begin saying, “What’s the use? No good is coming to me. My life is always going to be like this.”

Saying phrases like that, confirms you’re speaking words opposite of your Father, literally destroying His intimate words of destiny for you! That’s what evil has been doing in your life. Can you see that? Because every time evil gains another stronghold area of influence in your life, what do you end up doing? You end up “getting hung by your tongue” rendering the blessings of the Living God in your life in-effective.

Consider KJV Proverbs 18:21 “Death and life are in the power of the tongue…” or the MSG, “Words kill, words give life; they’re either poison or fruit – you choose,” bringing forth encouragement, love, & healing, OR causing hurt, division, & destruction.

NEXT UP: Hung by the Tongue

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BBF March 30 Romans 7:1-4 – Married To Christ

Taken from the boquetebiblefellowship.com website, audio sermon archives. Tuesday’s post was the prior Sunday’s sermon that was a review of the first six chapters of Romans. that began earlier in 2023 and concluded in December ’24. The study questions were actually sent me today for the 9 AM Friday Men’s Ministry in the morning and I included them to guide and facilitate your understandings during and after listening. I am suggesting this sound track is a rare find for your study at the opportune time. In the meantime however, you can better visualize this sermon’s important landscape’s benchmarks while listening in a tractor cab or driving to your appointments, etc.

May God anoint your time of listening and study.

Romans 7:1-4 – Married to Christ Questions

1.) Can anyone tell me what Jewish legalism means?

2.) What does the term “hyper grace” mean?

3.) Did Jesus come to abolish the Law of the Prophets? Or did He come to maintain it?

4.) How difficult was this for the Jews to accept?

5.) What about the gentiles? How confusing was this for them?

6.) Would it be valid to ask these same questions today? Why?

7.) What is the Moral Law of God?

8.) Does the Mosaic Law have any power to save us?

9.) What was the purpose, or the goal of the Mosaic Law?

10.) So why do you suppose God set things up this way?

11.) What does it mean to bear good fruit? And how does this come about?

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Ever Had A Randomly Encountered Scripture Flood Your Day With His Foundational Joy?

A few minutes ago dailylightdevotional.org last verse of the AM verses sent me scrambling to I John 3 for context to better comprehend what v. 21 meant when it said “Beloved, if our heart condemns us not, then have we confidence toward God.” Really now? Is that even possible? For our hearts not to condemn us?

Succinctly, I’ve spent decades being condemned by the flip-flopping of either my conscience or Satan, etc., declaring me “unworthy” in all dimensions, terrorizing and holding me captive in my addictive sins. I am so reminded of the landmark verses in II Cor 7:10-11 “Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow (merely being sorry) brings death. See what this godly sorrow has produced in you: what earnestness, what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what alarm, what longing, what concern, what readiness to see justice done.”

So imagine now, after years of being blessed walking empowered by the Spirit, the burst of joy the II Cor 6 chapter provided me Monday morning that I posted Tuesday morning,

And then this morning, while yet basking in these prior occurrences, I encounter v. 21 which opened the gate for the verses below. Amazing truths revealed afresh for me, hopefully for you as well. Give God the Glory!

1 John 3:13-24 (MSG)

  1. So don’t be surprised, friends, when the world hates you. This has been going on a long time.
  2. The way we know we’ve been transferred from death to life is that we love our brothers and sisters. Anyone who doesn’t love is as good as dead.
  3. Anyone who hates a brother or sister is a murderer, and you know very well that eternal life and murder don’t go together.
  4. This is how we’ve come to understand and experience love: Christ sacrificed his life for us. This is why we ought to live sacrificially for our fellow believers, and not just be out for ourselves.
  5. If you see some brother or sister in need and have the means to do something about it but turn a cold shoulder and do nothing, what happens to God’s love? It disappears. And you made it disappear.
  6. My dear children, let’s not just talk about love; let’s practice real love.
  7. This is the only way we’ll know we’re living truly, living in God’s reality.
  8. It’s also the way to shut down debilitating self-criticism, even when there is something to it. For God is greater than our worried hearts and knows more about us than we do ourselves.
  9. And friends, once that’s taken care of and we’re no longer accusing or condemning ourselves, we’re bold and free before God!
  10. We’re able to stretch our hands out and receive what we asked for because we’re doing what he said, doing what pleases him.
  11. Again, this is God’s command: to believe in his personally named Son, Jesus Christ. He told us to love each other, in line with the original command.
  12. As we keep his commands, we live deeply and surely in him, and he lives in us. And this is how we experience his deep and abiding presence in us: by the Spirit he gave us.

GO FORTH TODAY WITH JOY FOR AS LONG AS YOU’RE GIVEN BREATH TO LIVE RENEWED & EMPOWERED BY HIS SPIRIT.

True joy comes from our connection with God, not from life’s circumstances. We are called to rejoice even in adversity, trusting His presence. Contemplate Phil 4:4-9.

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Have I Been Lulled Into The State Of “Squandering?”

Earlier we’ve been encouraged at BBF here in Boquete, Panama, to read the 121 chapters or so from Romans thru Jude several times this year. Why? Because in my words, they are the portion of our owner’s manual that is not predominately historical or prophetical. Rather, these books in your Bible are those pages for example, you’d find in the owners manual for your new 70 foot sailboat, or possibly, even your Lear jet, (I chose those two examples specifically rather than your car) to set the stage for most of us to realize that just as we are clueless to a practical working knowledge of all the physical dynamics involved in either sailing or flying, I maintain that similarly, we largely as newly recruited Gentile believers, have not yet a clue for the actual mind of God for the specifics as how to practically build His kingdom.

Oh, we know the stories, and much of the history, but for us to troubleshoot the electrical diagrams of the sensors for the autopilots whether sailing or flying depending on weather conditions, I compare that lack of practical experience similar to what today’s believers may face, be they new or long term, in that they have not yet applied due diligence to understanding and applying either His Scriptural or Spirit infused wisdom and guidance practically in the “nuts & bolts of LOVE engineering ” for building His kingdom. And that is exactly what these Romans to Jude books excel at, so drink deeply!

For example, v. 11 “how much I long for you to enter this wide-open, spacious life. We didn’t fence you in. The smallness you feel comes from within you. Your lives aren’t small, but you’re living them in a small way.” Ouch! Or, V. 14 “Don’t become partners with those who reject God” & v. 17 “So leave the corruption and compromise…”

This has been the most fulfilling & rewarding Bible reading suggestion yet for me, and this is my second time thru already. Frequently, I just keep reading, get inspired, and send clips to friends, etc. I’m using my NIV/Message Parallel Bible for this; principally from NIV, but frequently the inspirational clips are from the Message because it is not familiar to many.. Enjoy.

2 Corinthians 6:1-18 (MSG) 

  1. Companions as we are in this work with you, we beg you, please don’t squander one bit of this marvelous life God has given us.
  2. God reminds us, I heard your call in the nick of time; The day you needed me, I was there to help. Well, now is the right time to listen, the day to be helped.
  3. Don’t put it off; don’t frustrate God’s work by showing up late, throwing a question mark over everything we’re doing.
  4. Our work as God’s servants gets validated—or not—in the details. People are watching us as we stay at our post, alertly, unswervingly . . . in hard times, tough times, bad times;
  5. when we’re beaten up, jailed, and mobbed; working hard, working late, working without eating;
  6. with pure heart, clear head, steady hand; in gentleness, holiness, and honest love;
  7. when we’re telling the truth, and when God’s showing his power; when we’re doing our best setting things right;
  8. when we’re praised, and when we’re blamed; slandered, and honored; true to our word, though distrusted;
  9. ignored by the world, but recognized by God; terrifically alive, though rumored to be dead; beaten within an inch of our lives, but refusing to die;
  10. immersed in tears, yet always filled with deep joy; living on handouts, yet enriching many; having nothing, having it all.
  11. Dear, dear Corinthians, I can’t tell you how much I long for you to enter this wide-open, spacious life.
  12. We didn’t fence you in. The smallness you feel comes from within you. Your lives aren’t small, but you’re living them in a small way.
  13. I’m speaking as plainly as I can and with great affection. Open up your lives. Live openly and expansively!
  14. Don’t become partners with those who reject God. How can you make a partnership out of right and wrong? That’s not partnership; that’s war. Is light best friends with dark?
  15. Does Christ go strolling with the Devil? Do trust and mistrust hold hands?
  16. Who would think of setting up pagan idols in God’s holy Temple? But that is exactly what we are, each of us a temple in whom God lives. God himself put it this way: “I’ll live in them, move into them; I’ll be their God and they’ll be my people.
  17. So leave the corruption and compromise; leave it for good,” says God. “Don’t link up with those who will pollute you. I want you all for myself.
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Remember, Yesterday We Ended With Jesus Poised To Speak Truth To This Dear Woman:

“ I who you speak to am he.” (v. 26)

Jesus did exactly what she expected the Messiah to do… he told her all things. Sometimes even without saying everything, our God addresses all things. Be still my heart. Our Christ, the anointed one, often answers our questions about worship by telling us the truth about ourselves. In one fell swoop, he exposed foolish traditions and cuts away human reasoning with his sword of truth. Who wouldn’t drop their water jar and run after hearing this? That is our Jesus. He doesn’t shame the shamed. He takes them into his confidence and shares with them the noble things the Pharisees (and even his disciples at times) refused to hear.

The moment is over. The disciples return and are troubled by the discovery that Jesus had been talking to a woman who is only worthy of their disdain. But their reception no longer matters to her. Once you have been received by God … what is the rejection of man to you? It is interesting to note that not one of the disciples had invited the Samaritans out to see Jesus. That was okay because Jesus had already sent his messenger. She was the one he had in mind all along.

So, the woman left her water jar and went away into town and said to the people, “Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?” They went out of the town and were coming to him. (vv. 28-30)

On close examination we will find she is intentional with her words. She doesn’t call him a prophet or mention that he is a Jew, knowing that both of these might cause the townspeople to reject him. She uses her own testimony to open the way for them. I love that our friend invites them to come and see rather than suggest they come and hear. Seeing can mean believing, and when your eyes are opened, you want everyone else to see as well.3

I love that Jesus chose to reveal something so preemptive, precious, and holy to a woman who others saw as tainted, common, and soiled. By speaking the mysteries of God to someone others considered the lowest of the low, he threw the door open for all of us. For this very reason, I have visited her story in more than one of my books. I always see their interaction from a different angle, but never with an indifferent heart.

For years I have loved this intimate encounter that made the shamed outsider an ultimate insider. For a time, I even liked the fact that she was nameless; that way I could easily insert my name into her story. That was until I learned to know her by Photina, the enlightened. She started evangelizing that very day in Samaria, but as you now know, her reach extended far beyond the that region’s borders.

Her story shall encourage each of us who are deep wells living shallow lives. What else could possibly explain a wayward woman conversing with a prophet about worship? Her well was not only deep … it was also dry. She’d had five husbands and two sons and yet the longing remained. This woman with huge capacity had poured herself out completely until the very marrow of her bones ached.

Suddenly, it was different. She knew the gift. Jesus had invited her, and she boldly asked for living water. This magnificent Messiah knew her completely and loved her unreservedly. So, at his invitation this daughter without rival drank deeply of his living water and went on to become Photina, evangelist and apostle, who walked into danger with unshakable resolve.

BOTTOM LINE:  Woman with a past, will you follow her lead?

NEXT UP:

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Really Now, Can You Imagine Being Five Times A Failure?

This woman is so broken now that she is willing to live with a man whom she shares a bed but not a name. Her life is consumed by appetites that refused to be satisfied. Her spirit is broken but yet she hopes, as evidenced by her statement to Jesus in John 4:19 continues: “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet.”   

Prophets were also referred to as seers. Everywhere Jesus went he opened up eyes of understanding. When she chose to view Jesus as a prophet, she looked to her future and asked Jesus where she should worship. I can only imagine she was weary of her old life with its old ways. She had no way of knowing that a new hour was upon her that would redefine worship as a person rather than a place.

Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is now coming when neither on this mountain or in Jerusalem will you worship the Father.” (v. 21)

In The Passion Translation, the Aramaic opens this verse up a bit further for us with:

Believe me, dear woman, the time has come when you won’t worship the Father on a mountain nor in Jerusalem, but in your heart.

 She honors Jesus as the prophet he truly is, and in return Jesus calls forth what she truly is, dear. This term means “beloved and cherished, prized, precious, and priceless, valued and treasured.” I have to wonder how long it had been since she had been called by any term of endearment. He was rebuilding her broken heart and wounded spirit with words of destiny.

Even now I hear Jesus inviting each and every one of his daughters, “believe me, my valued, treasured, and loved woman, your time has come …” Your time to believe is now. Pause a moment. What has he whispered to your soul?

Our God is not closest to you on a mountain, in a city, or even a church. No individual can keep you from his presence. Thankfully, no mistake can separate you from what abides within you. Jesus awaits your worship at the well of your heart. The Scriptures remind us that our God is as close as a whisper:  

But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart.” (Rom 10:8)

Jesus shared this revolutionary concept with a woman at her lowest. Who had ever heard of a God without the limits of location? A God who was willing to meet with her wherever she was? Imagine how wonderful this news would have been to her. She is an outcast from her people and an outsider to the Jews, but God had made a place for himself within the sanctuary of her heart. Just as she had been forthright and revealed who she is, the Son of God is about to be just as open and revealing with her. Her choices had pushed her to the outer limits of life. Jesus invites her in. Jesus goes on to explain:

You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth. (John 4:22-24)

Jesus shatters her traditions with truth. If what this rabbi was saying is true, then she is just the type of worshiper his Father is looking for: those who long to worship both in spirit and truth.

We miss the irony of it because we know and accept all of what Jesus was unpacking as understood truth, but at that moment, these concepts were radical. More than likely she had never hear of God the Father. The Passion Translation of John 4:22-23 reads:

From here on, to worship the Father, is not a matter of the right place, but with the right heart. For God is a Spirit, and he longs to have sincere worshipers who worship and adore him in the realm of the Spirit and in truth.

She could connect with a God who longed. I believe at this very moment she was conflicted with glorious hope in the face of what she had known as an oppressive religion. She is not sure what to believe; her heart is trembling with hope, confusion, and wonder, but the one thing she knows she shares.

The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called the Christ). When he comes, he will tell us all things.” (v. 25)

I wonder if Jesus found her childlike faith irresistible. He couldn’t hold the good news of the truth back from her any longer. I picture him holding her gaze as he whispers:

NEXT UP:  I who you speak to am he. (v. 26)

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Jesus Does Not Marginalize Her Longing, Nor Will He Scoff At Yours.

          It is not wrong to want to be loved.

          It is not wrong to want to build your life with an intimate other.

          It is not wrong to want a life of dignity.

          It is not wrong to want a life of purpose.

          It is not wrong to want friends.

It is not wrong to want a life of worship.

And Jesus does not marginalize her longing, nor will he scoff at yours. He validates her thirst when he promises to satisfy it. He offers her life without end rather than a life of dead ends. Out of the very depth and desperation of her soul she moves closer and pleads:

Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water. (John 4:15)

 In her anguished plea, I hear hope. I recognize her longing as my own. Jesus, please don’t make me go back to this place that continually reminds me of my failures. Like her, I had failed to keep the laws of my youth. She knew she couldn’t earn it, didn’t deserve it; this could only come to her as if it was a gift. Like an addict, she had nothing more to spend. Her thirst had enslaved her.

Before Jesus could give her this living water, he needed to see if she was ready to empty herself. Was she truly ready to leave it behind? He addresses the faulty, stagnant well she had drawn from for so long… men.

Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.” (v. 16)

Don’t imagine that with this directive Jesus was looking for an authority structure through which he could speak to her, nor was he necessarily pointing out her sin. Rather, he asked for her husband to locate her pain. Our brave sister spoke the truth even knowing full well that the truth might very well disqualify her from the rabbi’s living water.

I have no husband. (v. 17)

This admission must have weighed heavy on her. Five failed marriages. There is no hint of blame, no suggestion of excuses in her admittance; it is just the raw and ugly truth. I have no husband…

Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’, for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.” (vv. 17-18)

BOTTOM LINE:

Jesus can work with truth tellers and brave confessions. She told her present reality, and he filled in the details of her past. Five men had taken her as their wife only to cast her aside. Sometimes I wonder why there has been so much focus on her as a sinner. I am granddaughter of a woman who was married four times to three husbands. She was not a victim; it was her choice and vice. But it may not have so with this woman. We don’t know for certain that she was in the wrong. She lived under the law, which meant a man could decide that marrying his wife had been a mistake, and he could easily put her away with a certificate that affirmed his disappointment. Under the law it would have been impossible for her to be the one changing husbands of her own initiative. A remarriage would have required this certificate of divorce.   

NEXT UP:

Can you imagine being rejected by five different husbands? I’m reading between the lines and judging by the conversational integrity displayed with Jesus she likely wasn’t the primary cause of her rejections, especially in that culture… Stay tune.

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Committed Disciples are Birthed in Seasons of Hardships Amongst Old Dry Wells….

Scripture lends us a window into this woman’s background. When we first meet her, she is unnamed, divorced, and displaced. Her life was so conflicted on so many fronts that no one imagined she could ever minister. Understanding this, she first shared the gospel as questions and suggestions.

Maybe like our friend, you too have felt the judgement of others to such an extreme, that your statements too have remained hints and questions. Forgive them. People who would tie you to your past … have yet to experience a revelation of God’s mercy and the power of rebirth.

          Before she took on the name “enlightened one,” Photina was known to us only by an ethnic designation. We met her when we listened in on her private interchange with Jesus. She is our friend the Samaritan woman. How amazing that the woman who formerly had five husbands would one day labor alongside her five sisters. I love this, because in the Bible, the number five symbolizes grace. And in her case, she experienced grace upon grace.

          I’ve always loved this woman. For years I’ve seen her as a woman of great capacity. She was a deep well living a shallow life. The hardships she experienced and the realities of her choices had dug a deep, dark, dry hollow within her. The enemy of her soul meant for this to be a perpetually broken place that isolated her and buried her dreams.

          Old wells will leave you thirsty time and time again. Ultimately, only God can quench our thirst. These ancient wells were subject to failure because their source was intimately attached to earthbound conditions. At any given moment an enemy could slip in and lace a well with poison or fill it with dirt, or a long-lasting drought could dry it up.

          Like an old well, the law could be easily poisoned by human statutes or buried in the earth of man-made rituals and rules. The Samaritans adhered to only the first five books of the Torah and worshipped at their own mountain. They lived in but a shadow of the law, and yet the Jews proved that even in the law in its entirety cannot give us the life we long for.

          These ancient wells of laws and patriarchs were given to us for the purpose of punctuating our desperate need for the living water of the Holy Spirit. The law requires a location and a place of worship. The law places God just beyond our reach. Therefore, the worship of God remains an observance, rather than a life source. Under the law there is visitation rather than habitation. The law is where he can be seen from a distance but not touched. The law maintains a Mount Sinai dynamic where we can behold God but not be held by him.

          When our sanctuary of worship is around us rather than within us, we run the risk of remaining outsiders. This encounter between the Samaritan woman and Jesus broke so many legal parameters. This woman had broken the law and was living with a man. Even in our more liberal church today, she would be considered to be “living in sin.” And yet Jesus saw beyond her shameful outside and spoke straight into her broken heart.

          The law always requires more of you than it can give. Living water cannot be contained or even weighed, for it is liquid LIGHT. The same is not true for dead water. If you want more than a drink at Jacob’s well, you will need a container. What you take home with you is limited to what you can carry. Dead water is not light; it is heavy.

          And you would have to make this journey again and again and again! Jesus speaks of a thirst that is perpetual and insatiable. As a daughter of the Middle East growing up in a dry arid land, this woman has known thirst all her life. There is no well, deep enough or water cool enough to satiate her desperate need for love, affirmation, and companionship. Her soul is desperately dehydrated. Time and time again she had been deceived by what she hoped would quench her craving and refresh her soul. Her longings are valid, but like so many of us, she kept looking for the right thing in all the wrong places.

NEXT UP:  Jesus does not marginalize her longings, nor will he scoff at yours.

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