Questions
7a. What rule seemed pointless to you as a child?
7b. Are you loved or hated by the world (v 7)? Why?
* * * * *
What's happening in John 7?
vv 1-13 Jesus at the Feast of Booths
vv 14-24 Jesus teaches at the Feast
vv 25-31 Can this be the Christ?
vv 32-36 Officers sent to arrest Jesus
vv 37-39 Rivers of living water
vv 40-53 Division among the people
3 comments:
7a. I was pretty naive as a child, so several rules seemed pointless. ;-) For example, I didn't always agree with the modesty guidelines that my parents enforced, but as an adult and as a mother of girls, NOW I get it.
7b. I imagine the world to be more indifferent about me, versus loving or hating me. As part of the family of believers, the world often hates us because of who Christ claimed to be, added together with the inconsistencies they see in us as we try to live out that claim.
Verse 13 grabs my attention:
"Yet for fear of the Jews no one spoke openly of him."
What's my excuse? I don't have enemies (that I know of) who would kill me for openly speaking more about Christ. Am I just afraid of other Christians who might think I'm fanatical? Flimsy reasoning on my part.
7a, When I was growing up rules were never to be questioned! It would never have occurred to me to even think of discussing a rule. I was raised in the Catholic faith so no one ever questioned the priests or nuns. My father was a military man and no one questioned him. I am so grateful God helped me grown into a person who can question and dialogue and seek understanding.
7B. I know that I am loved by some people in the world. That seems enough. I've been betrayed and abused by some who are in the world who I came to know I could not trust but that was a "hateful" thing in them, perhaps not something that necessarily hated me.
I agree with Lisa that there are those "in the world" who hate Christians and others who do not hate Christians but simply are not open to understanding our Lord and the influence He is to our way of loving and accepting so much that is not lovely because we believe in time He will make all things work towards good.
Lynn,
I hear you. My dad was an ex-Marine, so even when I questioned the rules in my head, I rarely ever questioned them aloud to him.
Ironically though, my dad was also the very one who taught me that it was okay to question the status quo.
So bit by bit I learned to join in appropriate discussions with him over things that I questioned. But I admit that even as an adult, I'm still a bit scared of him because he can out-logic me in a heartbeat. But unless I'm too tired or indifferent, I'm liable to dive in anyway--even this afternoon, as a matter of fact, we had a nice little "discussion" about how to know God.
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