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Gospel of John (Introduction)

March 9, 2011 by memullin

As we begin our study in the gospel of John, it is important to consider the context of this gospel and how it fits with the other eye-witness accounts of the life and ministry of Jesus.

First, let us consider where we find the Book of John in the Bible.

The Bible is divided into to sections:  the Old Testament and the New Testament.

Each Testament is divided into further sections.  The Old Testament has five sections:  the books of the law, the books of history, the books of poetry and wisdom, the major prophets and the minor prophets.

Similarly, the New Testament can be divided into five sections:  gospels, history, Pauline epistles, general epistles and the book of Prophecy.

The book of John is found in the first of the five sections of the New Testament.  It is one of four gospels, namely Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.  The author of the book is, not surprisingly, John.  What may be surprising or confusing, as I have found from teaching the ladies in the jail, is who this “John” is.  He is NOT John the Baptist.  John the Baptist was  not a major play in the ministry of Jesus.  His own words describe what happened to his ministry when Jesus showed up on the scene, “He must increase and I must decrease.”  That is exactly what happened.

John, the author of the Gospel of John, was an apostle and a disciple of Jesus.  He was very young at the time Jesus was alive, and he lived to a very old age.  He is also the author of four other books found in the New Testament:  1 John, 2 John, 3 John and the book of Revelation.

In our next post, we’ll consider how the gospel of John fits into the four-gospel picture of the life of Christ.

Posted in Bible, Bible Basics, Bible Study, Books of the Bible, Gospels, John, New Testament | Tagged , |

Knowing God (His love is amazing but what’s the application?)

March 8, 2011 by memullin

It is wonderful to study and meditate on the love of God.  It is a subject that never grows old and is found on every page of the Bible and in every encounter with the living God.  As we walk with God, we find evidences of His love in our own lives, like those in the Bible.

But one might ask, “What is the take away?”

Here are some of the many things that we learn and “take away” from meditating on and living in the knowledge of God’s love:

  • We gain personal relationship with God.  When we understand the offer (John 3:16) and accept it (Romans 10:13), we become sons of God.
  • We gain eternal life.  God promises eternal life to those who believe. (Romans 6:23)
  • We gain factual knowledge to draw us toward God as we consider what He has done.
  • We gain experiential knowledge by our time spent with God, by watching how He changes us and moves in our lives.
  • We receive love, so we are able to be better givers of love.
  • We receive strength to accept difficult things from God’s hand when we know and understand and receive as truth the love of God for us.

Beloved, take time to consider, to meditate, to live in the knowledge of the love of God for you.  He loved, loves and will love you for eternity.  That should transform your life.

Posted in Attributes, Bible, God, Knowing God, Love, Lover of my soul, Relationship with God | Tagged , , , , , , |

Knowing God (His Love is Amazing – Hosea and Gomer)

February 17, 2011 by memullin

Hosea, a prophet of the Lord, was told by God to marry a prostitute.  The exact words are (in the New King James version), “Go, take yourself a wife of harlotry and children of harlotry.”  It is the weirdest thing.  Here is a man who is in God’s service, held to follow God’s law and speaking with God’s voice, but God wants him to marry a woman who would have been seen as “unclean” and certainly not what his mother and father were hoping for.  It must have caused quite a stir, a nice Jewish boy raised in the temple, marrying a whore.

Nevertheless, desiring to please God more than men, Hosea marries a harlot and his wife has children that the Bible says are not Hosea’s.  She even leaves him at one point and returns to prostitution.  It seemingly turns from bad to worse when God sends Hosea after his unfaithful wife, after she betrays him and returns to a life of prostitution.  Hosea, at God’s command, goes to find his wife who is “loved by a lover and is committing adultery”.  Hosea buys her back for fifteen shekels of silver.  He purchases the woman who betrayed him at a slave auction.

What is God saying in this story?   God said that He so loved the world that He gave His son that whoever believed in Him would not perish but have everlasting life.  Hosea tells the story of what God means by “whoever”.  “Whoever” is not limited to those who read their Bible or who make it to church on Sunday.  “Whoever” is not limited to those who have managed to stay out of trouble or  . . . insert what you like.  “Whoever” is Gomer, Hosea’s wife, the harlot who marries a Godly man, leaves him and commits adultery and ends up a slave, sold on the block for fifteen shekels.  This is a picture of God’s heart:  He comes after us to where we are lost in sin and bondage, even sin and bondage of our own choosing.  He seeks us out as we are being sold on the block as slaves.  He will pay the price for us and take us home with Him and make us His children, His heirs.

In fact, He has paid the price.  That is His amazing love!

No matter where you are, no matter what you have done, no matter how low you feel, Your heavenly Father is nearby.  He is looking for you.  His arms are open.

Posted in Attributes, Bible, God, Love, Old Testament, Prophets, the Father | Tagged , , , , , , |

Knowing God (His Love is Amazing – Esther)

February 15, 2011 by memullin

A wonderful picture of God’s amazing love is seen in the life of Queen Esther.  She, a Jewish girl orphaned at a young age, is raised by her uncle in Shushan, the capital city of the Medo-Persian empire.  She ends up in a nationwide beauty contest for which the first prize is to become queen.  She becomes the queen of the country.

But the evidence of God’s love in the story of Esther is not about her becoming Queen.  This is no Cinderella story.  Rather, this is the story of a God who sees everything, the beginning from the end.  He knows what lies ahead for His people, and He makes provision for them, even provision in the form of a young, scared Jewish girl.  He keeps all the promises to them no matter how long ago He made them.

When the wicked Haman, an important man in the King’s court, came on the scene and convinced the King of Medo-Persia to pass a law whereby the Jews would be slaughtered and their possessions taken by their neighbors, God had a plan already in place.  That plan was carried forward by Queen Esther.  God had hidden Esther in the pavilions of the palace of the King of Medo-Persia.  She would, in due time, be the vehicle by which God saved His people, the people from which the Messiah would come forth in the fulfillment of time.

You know the story . . . Esther convinces the King through a series of meals and events to pass another law which allows the Jews to survive, thereby preserving the Messianic line for the time hundreds of years later when a baby would be born to a descendant of David, of the tribe of Judah, in the town of Bethlehem as it was promised.

This is God’s love for us.  He makes a promise and never allows it to be broken, so that in the fullness of time, He can keep His promise.   God cannot lie.   Study to know what God has promised for you.

Posted in Attributes, Bible, God, Love, Old Testament | Tagged , , , |

Knowing God (His Amazing Love – The Mercy Seat)

January 23, 2011 by memullin

One of the most beautiful pictures of the love of God and the foreshadowing of Jesus is found in the Tabernacle at the Mercy Seat.  When you visit the Tabernacle in your mind’s eye, you must first enter the gate, then cross the court yard, pass the bronze altar, make your way past the laver and then enter the first partition separating the outer courts from the holy place.

Once inside the holy place, you will find only the light of the golden candlesticks.  By its light, you will see the table of show bread and the altar of incense which is right outside of the Most Holy Place.  As you push aside the last veil separating you from the presence of God which occupies the Most Holy Place, you will look in and see there is only one piece of furniture – the Ark.

The Ark was a box covered with gold and on top of which were two cherubim with their wings touching.  Inside of the Ark was found the law (the tablets from Moses with the 10 Commandments).  The top, the covering over the law was known as the mercy seat.  It was here that God promised to meet with His people.  It was here that the High Priest was to sprinkle blood.

The picture is one of mercy.  God would bring mercy and cover the law.  God made Him (Jesus) who knew no sin to be sin for us that we might become the righteousness of Christ in Him.  It is the blood sprinkled on the mercy seat (covering the law), that speaks of Jesus, of Calvary where Jesus’ blood would be shed once and for all to pay for the sins of all men so that whosoever would believe in Him would not perish but have eternal life.

That is amazing love.  O, what a savior!

Posted in Attributes, Bible, God, Knowing God, Love, Tabernacle, worship | Tagged , , , , |

Why must I forgive? (continued)

January 21, 2011 by memullin

In man’s (or woman’s) natural state, he has no desire to forgive another for wrongs suffered at the other’s hand or direction.  Forgiveness is one of the things that originates from God.  Forgiveness is God’s idea.

God commands us to forgive because it doesn’t come naturally.  We wouldn’t do it without some encouragement. Forgiveness contravenes my natural way of dealing with those who hurt me or my loved ones.

Nevertheless, for me it begs the question “Why would a God of justice forsake justice and ask me to forgive the wrong?”  Surely, when a wrong is done, justice is required to right or correct the wrong.  Why would God ask me to put aside justice and forgive?  Perhaps you already know the answer which may seem less than satisfying at first glance; “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord.

God asks me to put aside immediate justice and forgive.  He does not say justice will never come.  In fact, He promises His justice for my enemies:

  • Psalm 9:3 When my enemies turn back, They shall fall and perish at Your presence.
  • Psalm 18:40 You have also given me the necks of my enemies, So that I destroyed those who hated me.
  • Psalm 27:2 When the wicked came against me To eat up my flesh, My enemies and foes, They stumbled and fell.
  • Psalm 54:5 He will repay my enemies for their evil.
  • Psalm 59:10 My God of mercy shall come to meet me; God shall let me see my desire on my enemies.
  • Psalm 138:7 Though I walk in the midst of trouble, You will revive me; You will stretch out Your hand Against the wrath of my enemies, And Your right hand will save me.

The lesson for me here is not that God would have me give up, but rather God would have me give over – give over my enemies to Him! By forgiving those who wrong me, I deal with the heart issue (which we will discuss in a later post) which threatens harm to me and my relationship, and I get out of God’s way.  I allow Him to bring His justice to the situation.  All I need to do is sit back, under the shadow of my Father’s everlasting arms, and wait as my God brings justice.  He is a God of justice, so I can trust Him. Forgive and get out of God’s way!

Posted in Forgiveness, Relationship with God, Uncategorized, Vengeance, Walking with God | Tagged , , , |

Why must I forgive?

December 29, 2010 by memullin

Loving your neighbor is not difficult when your neighbor is your friend and thinks like you and does nice things for you.  Loving that neighbor is easy.  As a matter of fact, loving the neighbor who is a friend is a joy, it is a “get to” not a “got to.”

That being said, loving the other neighbor, the one who has wronged you, the one who has lied about you, the one who has stolen from you, hurt your family, wounded your child or otherwise done you wrong, loving that neighbor is nearly impossible.  Without Christ, it would be wholly impossible and totally understandable.  The world understands when you hate those who persecute you and retaliate against those who hurt your family and wound your child.

BUT GOD . . . has another way, a more excellent way.  Instead of continuing on the path of anger, bitterness and unforgiveness, my Savior, the one I call Lord, asks me to respond differently.  He asks me to do the impossible and forgive.  He commands me to forgive. I want to resist.  I want to shout about the injustices that I have suffered, that my loved ones have suffered.

As I lift my head to shout, my eyes fall upon a cross.  Blood is pooled at the foot of that cross.  No longer does my Savior hang there, for He has risen, but I see the evidence of His suffering and I am reminded of the injustices that He suffered for me, and I know that all the wrongs against me have been paid for by that spilled blood.  The payment has been rendered for the hurts, the slights, the attacks, the lies, the abuse . . . and I bow my head.  “Forgive me, Father.”

“I will forgive you as you forgive those who wrong you.”

In that moment, knowing I need God’s forgiveness more than my own vindication, I release what I have been holding against those who have wronged me.  I cannot survive without the forgiveness and love of my God.  It is His great love that drew me, that healed me, that delivered me.  I must do this thing He commands.  There is no other way.  “Help me Father to forgive.”

“And so I shall, my child.”


In the upcoming posts, we will consider this issue of forgiveness, bitterness and anger, and the biblical response to it in the life of the believer.

Posted in Bible, Forgiveness, God, Jesus | Tagged , , , , , , |

Knowing God (His amazing love – Pillar of Cloud/Pillar of Fire)

November 30, 2010 by memullin

Continuing in this series of posts on Knowing God and specifically knowing of His great love for us, we look today at another picture from the Old Testament that give us further insight into the great love of God.

In Exodus 13:21-22, we’re told, ” the LORD went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, so as to go by day and night and  He did not take away the pillar of cloud by day or the pillar of fire by night from before the people.”

In Numbers 9:17-22   we read the following more specific discussion of the pillar of cloud and the pillar of fire:   “Whenever the cloud was taken up from above the tabernacle, after that the children of Israel would journey; and in the place where the cloud settled, there the children of Israel would pitch their tents.  At the command of the LORD the children of Israel would journey, and at the command of the LORD they would camp; as long as the cloud stayed above the tabernacle they remained encamped.  Even when the cloud continued long, many days above the tabernacle, the children of Israel kept the charge of the LORD and did not journey.  So it was, when the cloud was above the tabernacle a few days: according to the command of the LORD they would remain encamped, and according to the command of the LORD they would journey.  So it was, when the cloud remained only from evening until morning: when the cloud was taken up in the morning, then they would journey; whether by day or by night, whenever the cloud was taken up, they would journey. 22 Whether it was two days, a month, or a year that the cloud remained above the tabernacle, the children of Israel would remain encamped and not journey; but when it was taken up, they would journey. “

The following can be see about the amazing love of God from these passages of scripture:

  • God is a light to dispel the darkness around us. The Israelites were in the middle of the wilderness.  No street lights cut through the darkness of night.  No lights from far off buildings or roads could be seen.  BUT GOD provided a light for His children, so they would not be left in the dark.  This light could be seen from all over the camp.  It was God’s presence with them, pushing back the darkness.
  • God is a cloud to protect us from the heat. The pillar of cloud provided relief from the scorching desert sun.  The Israelites were in the wilderness in Israel with desert terrain, rocks, few trees and limited relief from the relentless sun for 12-15 hours a day.  Under the cloud, close to God’s presence, the people would have been able to find some relief.  God was the protection from burning, a cool respite, a comfort.  He is that for us as well.
  • God is a guide for us on the path that He has chosen for us. The fool in his rebellion and self-reliance resists the guidance of an almighty and all-knowing God.  God by the picture of the pillar of fire/pillar of cloud shows that He is our guide.  If we will but look up and keep our eyes on Him, He will lead us in the way we should go.
  • God desires to teach us dependence on Him alone. The great love of God is that He desires close and living relationship with us.  The desire for relationship is what caused Jesus to go to the cross, “for the joy set before Him.”  That joy was us, the idea of relationship with us, something never possible without the perfect blood sacrifice to satisfy the law’s requirement for sin.  The pillar of cloud and fire is a picture of the dependence and relationship God is looking for with us, a daily relationship of dependence.  The Israelites didn’t know what they were doing or where they were going each day until they looked up to the presence of God in the camp.  Did the cloud move?  Were they traveling today?  So too with us.  We must have a daily dependence, daily relationship with God.  We must check with Him each day to know how to proceed.

Amazing love . . . that causes a God, who is totally sufficient in Himself, to seek to do for us  what we cannot do for ourselves.  Look to Him!  Rely on Him!  He is faithful.

Posted in Attributes, Bible, Dependence on God, Faithful Companion, God, Old Testament, Relationship with God, Walking with God | Tagged , , , , , |

Knowing God (His love is amazing Part 3)

November 26, 2010 by memullin

In Part 1 and Part 2 of this series on knowing God through looking at the attribute of His great love for us, we discussed how the scriptures of the Old and New Testament describe the love of God.  In this post and those following, we will consider some of the pictures that God has used to illustrate His love.

Abraham and Isaac

One of the pictures of God’s love, actually a foreshadowing of the coming of Messiah, was the story of Abraham and Isaac.  You may recall the story recounted in Genesis 22 where God tests Abraham asking him to sacrifice his son Isaac on Mount Moriah.  Abraham takes his son, goes up with him to the mountain, binds his son to the altar that he built and proceeds to prepare to sacrifice his only son as God asked.  As he is lowering the knife to slay his son, God stops him.  God provides a substitute sacrifice (a ram caught in the thicket) instead of Isaac.  This picture of God’s love is the picture of the substitutionary sacrifice.  God had every right to require the first born child of his marriage to Sarah from Abraham.  Nevertheless, because of His great mercy and His promises to Abraham, God provided a sacrifice to satisfy the blood requirement.  This substitutionary sacrifice is seen again on Calvary, years later when Jesus died, once for all.  He who knew no sin, died for those who were under sin’s curse.

Deliverance of Isarael

Another great picture of the love of God and His heart for Israel (and us for whom the wall of separation was removed by the blood of Jesus) is the deliverance of Israel from Egypt.  You may recall this story from Exodus.  The people of God are in captivity in Egypt.  They have been reduced to slavery.  Their oppressors fear them and make their life difficult.  They are even forced to kill their children.  God hears their cries from their bondage, and from within the their own ranks, God raises up a deliverer, Moses.  By the hand of God on Moses, the people of God are delivered from their oppressors and allowed to follow their God and worship Him.  This picture of God the deliverer is emphasized again and again by God in the Old Testament.

By these pictures, we begin to see God’s love.  You may want to go back and read the stories in their entirety and ask God to speak to you of His great love.

In our next post, we will look at some more pictures that God provides to illustrate His gr eat and amazing love.

Posted in Attributes, Bible, Bible Study, Deliverer, Genesis, God, Love, Relationship with God, Walking with God, worship | Tagged , , , , , |

Knowing God (His loving is amazing Part 2)

November 23, 2010 by memullin

In part 1 of this series, we looked at the amazing love of God as we see it in the New Testament.  In this post, we will consider how God speaks of His love for us in the Old Testament.

  • God’s love for us is individual and designed to help me – – I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will guide you with My eye. Psalm 32:8  Fear not, for I am with you; Be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, Yes, I will help you, I will uphold you with My righteous right hand. Isaiah 41:10
  • God’s love for us is protective –  For in the time of trouble He shall hide me in His pavilion; In the secret place of His tabernacle He shall hide me; He shall set me high upon a rock. Psalm 27:5   The LORD is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer; My God, my strength, in whom I will trust; My shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. Psalm 18:2
  • God’s love for us is comforting – Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; For You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me. Psalm 23:4
  • God’s love for us is sympathetic and compassionate – You number my wanderings; Put my tears into Your bottle; Are they not in Your book? Psalm 56:8
  • God’s love for us is one of abundant provision – They are abundantly satisfied with the fullness of Your house, And You give them drink from the river of Your pleasures.  For with You is the fountain of life; In Your light we see light. Psalm 36:8-9
  • God’s love for us gives us hope – For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. Jeremiah 29:11
  • God’s love for us is everlasting (eternal) – The LORD has appeared of old to me, saying: “Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love; Therefore with lovingkindness I have drawn you.  Jeremiah 31:3

So much remains to be said about God’s love.  It is truly amazing.  It is His love for us that draws us to Him.  Read of Him in the pages of your Bible, the One who loved you, loves you and will love you!

In our next post, we will consider some of the word pictures and stories that the Bible provides of God’s love.

Posted in Bible, God, Knowing God, Love, Old Testament, Relationship with God, worship | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments »

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