Toady Our Daily Bread John 4

Scripture selections are taken from the Rock Church Daily Bread Reading schedule for each month. “Lena’s Journalin’” are Lena’s comments on the specific passages from her Daily Journal.

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John 4:1-54
A Woman Of Samaria At The Well
1Jesus knew the proud religious law-keepers had heard He was making and baptizing more followers than John. 2Jesus did not baptize anyone Himself but His followers did. 3Then Jesus went from the country of Judea to the country of Galilee. 4He had to go through the country of Samaria. 5So He came to a town in Samaria called Sycar. It was near the piece of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. 6Jacob's well was there. Jesus was tired from traveling so He sat down just as He was by the well. It was about noon.
7A woman of Samaria came to get water. Jesus said to her, "Give Me a drink." 8His followers had gone to the town to buy food. 9The woman of Samaria said to Him, "You are a Jew. I am of Samaria. Why do You ask me for a drink when the Jews have nothing to do with the people of Samaria?"
10Jesus said to her, "You do not know what God has to give. You do not know Who said to you, 'Give Me a drink.' If you knew, you would have asked Him. He would have given you living water." 11The woman said to Him, "Sir, the well is deep. You have nothing to get water with. Where will You get the living water? 12Are You greater than our early father Jacob? He gave us the well. He and his children and his cattle drank from it."

Jesus Tells Of The Living Water
13Jesus said to her, "Whoever drinks this water will be thirsty again. 14Whoever drinks the water that I will give him will never be thirsty. The water that I will give him will become in him a well of life that lasts forever."
15The woman said, "Sir, give me this water so I will never be thirsty. Then I will not have to come all this way for water."

The True Kind Of Worship
16Jesus said to her, "Go call your husband and come back." 17The woman said, "I have no husband." Jesus said, "You told the truth when you said, 'I have no husband.' 18You have had five husbands. The one you have now is not your husband. You told the truth."
19The woman said to Him, "Sir, I think You are a person Who speaks for God. 20Our early fathers worshiped on this mountain. You Jews say Jerusalem is the place where men should worship."
21Jesus said to her, "Woman, believe Me. The time is coming when you will not worship the Father on this mountain or in Jerusalem. 22You people do not know what you worship. We Jews know what we worship. It is through the Jews that men are saved from the punishment of their sins. 23The time is coming, yes, it is here now, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. The Father wants that kind of worshipers. 24God is Spirit. Those who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth."

Jesus Is The One The Jews Are Looking For
25The woman said to Him, "I know the Jews are looking for One Who is coming. He is called the Christ. When He comes, He will tell us everything." 26Jesus said to her, "I am the Christ, the One talking with you!"
27Right then the followers came back and were surprised and wondered about finding Him talking with a woman. But no one said, "What do You want?" or, "Why are You talking with her?"
28The woman left her water jar and went into the town. She said to the men, 29"Come and see a Man Who told me everything I ever did! Can this be the Christ?" 30They went out of town and came to Him.

Jesus Tells Them Of A New Kind Of Food
31During this time His followers were saying to Him, "Teacher, eat something." 32He said, "I have food to eat that you do not know of." 33The followers said to each other, "Has someone taken food to Him?" 34Jesus said, "My food is to do what God wants Me to do and to finish His work. 35Do you not say, 'It is four months yet until the time to gather grain'? Listen! I say to you, open your eyes and look at the fields. They are white now and waiting for the grain to be gathered in. 36The one who gathers gets his pay. He gathers fruit that lasts forever. The one who plants and the one who gathers will have joy together. 37These words are true, 'One man plants and another man gathers.' 38I sent you to gather where you have not planted. Others have planted and you have come along to gather in their fruit."

The People of Samaria Believe In Jesus
39Many people in that town of Samaria believed in Jesus because of what the woman said about Him. She said, "He told me everything I ever did." 40So the people of Samaria came to Him. They asked Him to stay with them. Jesus stayed there two days. 41Many more people believed because of what He said. 42They said to the woman, "Now we believe! It is no longer because of what you said about Jesus but we have heard Him ourselves. We know, for sure, that He is the Christ, the One Who saves men of this world from the punishment of their sins."

Jesus Goes To Galilee
43Two days later He went from there and came to the country of Galilee. 44Jesus Himself said that no one who speaks for God is respected in his own country. 45When He came to Galilee, the people there were glad. They had seen all the things He did in Jerusalem. It was at the time of the special religious gathering to remember how the Jews left Egypt. They had been there also.

Jesus Heals The Dying Boy In Capernaum
46Jesus came again to the town of Cana of Galilee where He had made water into wine. A man who worked with the king had a son who was sick in the city of Capernaum. 47This man went to Jesus. He had heard that Jesus had come from the country of Judea to Galilee. The man asked Jesus if He would go to Capernaum and heal his son who was dying. 48Then Jesus said to him, "Unless you see special things and powerful works done, you will not believe." 49The man said to Him, "Sir, come with me before my son dies." 50Jesus said to him, "Go your way. Your son will live." The man put his trust in what Jesus said and left.
51As he was on his way home, his servants met him. They said to him, "Your son is living!" 52He asked them what time his boy began to get well. They said to him, "Yesterday at one o'clock the sickness left." 53The father knew it was the time Jesus had said to him, "Your son will live." He and everyone in his house put their trust in Jesus. 54This was the second powerful work that Jesus did after He came from the country of Judea to the country of Galilee.
Copyright Statement: New Life BibleScripture quotations are from the New Life Bible, copyright © 1969 by Christian Literature International. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

~ Lena’s Journalin’ Today ~
This baptism thing really stands out to me these days, as I’ve been learning about the tabernacle of old and how it relates to Jesus and how it relates to our personal relationship with our Father God. Everything Jesus did and was and all of the actions He made were very significant to the Jewish people and quite bold, because they had done thing just so for 1,000’s of years now and as they watched Jesus do these things differently their faith was quite challenged. He was bringing change to their customs and in a very visible blatant way. In the tabernacle the priests would wash themselves in the place of the people, after offering the sacrifices for people’s sins, as a symbolism of being washed clean from sins. He did it for the people in the outer court and he only washed his hands and feet off symbolically. The people did not go into the tabernacle and wash, they stayed outside believing that the priest was standing for them in the outer court. When John baptized, they asked , who are you? Now Jesus’ disciples clearly NOT priests, were also baptizing. They asked by who’s authority do you (not being a priest for the people) do these things? Now Jesus was not doing it, but had His followers, who clearly were nothing of the sort of priests, doing it, and to another extreme, they weren’t going in to the temple and acting as priests washing ceremonially for the people, they were out in the open, and washing people, FROM SIN! By who’s authority and lineage did THEY do these things? How can they forgive sins? How can they baptize, washing the whole person, rather than just part, don’t they know how “we” do it here? I mean they are JEWS, this was blasphemy to them. They weren’t even of the tribes of Levi specifically. Oh what has the world come to?
Now Jesus is again upsetting their customs with this sinner woman, but the upsetting of their customs have brought Him to the place of the salvation and the repair of the breaches between God and man. THAT was/is the will of God, food for God. In the tabernacle the sacrifices were “food” for God, and the priests were able to partake of God’s food. Jesus was eating God’s food today, How dare He, who was he anyway?
Jesus tells her worship is not about what all she’s been told it is. Worship is not all about sacrifices made because we have to make them. He was sharing with her that being God’s will in earth was worship and you can be that wherever you are! God got outside of the box- the ark of the covenant was in the holy of holies in the tabernacle, God’s presence was being represented in a box.
The woman was about to see who exactly He was. In the Bible the woman many times represents the Body of Christ, Jesus’ bride. This “woman” must see who He is, her Savior, her Messiah, her priest unto God. Her subject of worship.
Can He tell you all you’ve ever done and change your mind about a few traditional things? Enough that you would change and go tell others they also can be changed?
Miracles demonstrate His power, His power to change, a changed mind is a miracle at work, He did a miracle in His relationship with the woman as well as the one He did with the young boy.


Proverbs 27:17-19
17 You use steel to sharpen steel, and one friend sharpens another. 18 If you care for your orchard, you'll enjoy its fruit; if you honor your boss, you'll be honored.
19 Just as water mirrors your face, so your face mirrors your heart.
Psalm 122:1
1 When they said, "Let's go to the house of God," my heart leaped for joy.