Day Five: Time with Jesus

     It is easy to think that you can’t keep up with the Jones’ when the only time you enter their home it is by invitation. Mrs. Jones pays the kids double their regular allowance to help prepare for your arrival and even pays the neighbor boy to mow the lawn and trim around the edge of the sidewalk with a weed eater. She is so particular about how the house looks when guests arrive she even bought fresh plants to put in the window seal for the occasion. Too bad you didn’t show up twenty minutes earlier for the tail end of the argument she had with Mr. Jones to take out the garbage before the guests arrived. You could have watched her frantically putting the vacuum away so that you wouldn’t know that she just finished cleaning the carpets.

     You look at Mrs. Jones’ house and wish your house was so neat and orderly and finely decorated. You leave feeling horribly inadequate. The fact is you have no idea what the Jones’ house really looks like. It’s all dolled up to impress you and obviously you don’t have a close enough relationship to be invited over on the spur of the moment. If you did drop by unannounced, good chance Mrs. Jones would greet you on the porch to talk in order to keep up her appearances.

     Fact number two, the Joneses quarrel about as much as you and your spouse but you don’t know it because they are good at keeping up the appearances when guests are around. I know this because I have lived with the Jones’. You really do not know a person until you spend time with them. Yes, you can learn a little about the Jones family during these formal invitations but not as much as you will learn if you drop in on occasion unannounced and get invited into the family living area; the places where life happens in the Jones family. Yes, even in the Jones’ house the laundry and dirty dishes and junk mail piles up. And if you took up residence in the spare bedroom for a few months you would learn more about the way the real Jones family deals with each other in their daily lives. Of course if you don’t have that much time just help the Joneses move. You can learn a lot about a family in one weekend by helping them box up and move their personal belongings especially the last day when everyone is tired and sweaty.

1.What kinds of benefits begin to flow into your life after spending long periods of time with Christ? How do your attitudes and perspectives begin to change?     

 This long in depth study into the life of the disciple John gives us an intimate look at Jesus from a perspective that I have never had before. Each day digging deeper and deeper into what it must have been like for John to follow the Messiah. We are trying to grasp the challenges and unique perspectives of a man who did not grow up singing, “Jesus loves me this I know for the bible tells me so.” He heard about the Messiah to come, heard John the Baptist point out who Jesus was, and then one day when Jesus said, “Come,” he left his job and life as he knew it behind and followed. Spending every day with Jesus he was bound to get to know Jesus for who he really was, he knew how he walked out his daily life.

      Spending time in the word, the word who became flesh, lets me learn more and more about the life of Christ each day. It is that wisdom that gives me the true standard to hold myself up to. I don’t care if the Jones family really is picture perfect because they are not my target. Although I can never be perfect like Christ, spending time with him in his word I know that I am covered by his perfection. It is this time with the Word, which makes my path firm and gives me a solid foundation upon which to walk out my faith each day.

Study Outline:

• Follow along in JOHN: 90 Days with the Beloved Disciple by Beth Moore pages 22-26
• Read John 2:1-2, 12
• Answer the following questions in your study guide:

 1. What kinds of benefits begin to flow into your life after spending long periods of time with Christ? How do your attitudes and perspectives begin to change?

 2. What would it take to accept by faith the things He can do if you follow Him?

3. What do you suppose were some of the things that these early followers immediately saw in Jesus? What do you think caught their eye and fastened them to His leadership? 

•   Share a brief highlight or two from your thoughts and answers in a comment posted to the group. (Read guidelines and cautions posted August 1, 2010 before you post).
• Read the comments of others and share your thoughts and encouragement with them by replying to their comments. Identify which post you are responding to by addressing them and their subject or pasteing a brief portion of their reply at the start of your post.

 PRAY WITH ME:

Lord, I pray that you put into the hearts of each individual reading this blog a desire to know you more. I pray that you fill them with the excitement of meeting for this study each day and that through this study they would come to know you on a very personal level. This study is not about Beth Moore but what she can teach us about you through her daily studies and it is about that which is confirmed by your Holy and Inspired word. This study is about sitting down and learning about you, Lord, every morning or every evening. It is about spending time with you because it is through spending time together that authentic relationships are made. Lord let that be each one of us, let us come to live with you and know you day by day. In Jesus name, Amen.