Praying with Jesus 4: Seeing the Goodness of God

Once again (John 9), the pharisees are the "bad guys", the people who cannot see the goodness of God because they are fixated on the sinfulness in the world.

Before we look down on them though, Pastor Rob explores how easy it is for all of us to succumb to the same type of spiritual blindness, where we cannot see God's goodness because we are focused on human sin and the problems of the world.

Just as Jesus healed the blind man though, Jesus too will heal our spiritual blindness, opening our eyes to God's glory and grace.

Praying with Jesus 3: At the well

 

What well is Jesus calling you to visit?

Jesus lived in a world that was filled with division, including division that was often violent. His response to this is very curious; he meets a woman at a well.  Here he begins to build a bridge with somebody who is totally other than himself (John 4). 

Jesus is content to play the long, slow game of stitching back the frame fabric of humanity, one person, one family, one village at a time. We learn from the interaction of Jesus and the woman how we too can be bridge builders.  The start of this process is meeting someone at the well and finding a common ground with them.

The artwork comes from a Via Latina Catacomb Fresco, 340 – 350 AD (Italy)

Praying with Jesus 2: Prayers with the one who knows us

 

Who has been a great teacher in your life?

On this Sunday when we’re celebrating the ministry of St Paul's Christian Early Learning Center (CELC), Jesus shows us what a great teacher looks like.  As he interacts with Nicodemus, Jesus reveals himself as the one who

- Knows us better than we know ourselves

- Tells us what we need to hear and not what we want to hear 

- Has patience with us as we work through it.  

What this means is that when we pray, we pray to the one who knows us better than we know ourselves.  He also knows that figuring it out takes time, especially to process what we didn't want to hear.  This plays itself out powerfully in Nicodemus' life, just as in our own.

The art work is by painter Lester Yocum.  A quite rare painting showing the lesser known but just as important interaction of Nicodemus later in the Gospel of John, when he helps bury Jesus.