John 4:19-24
“Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.” Jesus declared, “Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth.”
This incident occurred in Samaria and Jesus was talking with a Samaritan woman with whom Jews do not normally converse or have anything to do with. Sounds strange but such stereotypes exist even today. For Jews, talking and having any form of relationship with a non-Jew was sacrilegious and Jesus was going beyond that and actually sharing the gospel! The hope of the Jews was now being offered to all of mankind and the path was simple and straight but would always be against the grain of this world. The part of this passage that stood out to me was when Jesus said that true believers would worship the Father in spirit and truth. What did he mean by that? What is untruthful about how we worship?
Before I accepted Christ as my personal Lord and Savior, going to Church was a requirement and I never missed a week without going and doing all that needed to be done. I was an active and participative Christian and never said I was anything but a Christian. However, my heart and mind was not in what I did because it was ritualistic. When the wool of rituals were removed from my eyes and I saw the Lord calling me into a real relationship and that was when rituals were replaced by a relationship where I now live to serve him. Christ now is alive in me through his spirit and I can worship him in spirit and truth with my entire being. Do you know what I am talking about? Have you drunk the living water? Is your life now filled with meaning and purpose? If no, ask the Lord to remove the wool on your eyes and show you who and what he is and he will. If yes, I hope you are enjoying worshipping God in Spirit and Truth with all your heart and mind?
In Your Loving Service,
Vineet
PS: Sign up for daily devotionals by clicking the email subscription icon at the top right of this page or by visiting http://groups.google.com/group/in-his-loving-service. Also, share this with your friends and family who need some encouragement and direction in their lives.
Beauty in the Bush
Daily Christian Journal 