Category: John

Are You Seeking the Gifts or the Giver? – 2025 Day 5 (John 6:1-40)

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Read Through the Bible in 2 years: Proverbs 5; John 6:1-40

“When the people saw the sign that he had done, they said, “This is indeed the Prophet who is to come into the world!” … Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves.”
John 6:14, 26 ESV

Earlier in the book of John, we read that Philip told Nathanael, “We have found him of whom Moses in the Law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph,” (John 1:45) and Jesus himself said, “For if you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote of me.” (John 5:46) Jesus had done so many miraculous signs – turning water into wine, healing the sick and lame, feeding thousands with a few fish and loaves of bread – proving again and again that He was the Messiah and Emmanuel, God with us.

Yet, the people were following Him
not because He was the way, the truth, and the life,
but because of the wonderful gifts that He gave.

Which makes me think of Solomon’s warnings in Proverbs 5, “Why should you be intoxicated, my son, with a forbidden woman and embrace the bosom of an adulteress? For a man’s ways are before the eyes of the LORD, and he ponders all his paths. The iniquities of the wicked ensnare him, and he is held fast in the cords of his sin. He dies for lack of discipline, and because of his great folly he is led astray.” (verses 20-23 ESV)

How often are we like foolish children, chasing after the fleeting desires of the flesh, rather than pursuing the giver of every good and perfect gift! It reminds me of something C.S. Lewis once said, “We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.” (“the Weight of Glory”)

Lord Jesus, I come to You because You are the one true Messiah, the only Savior, the only way to the true and living God.

Heavenly Father, You are the Creator and Sustainer of life. You have caused all things to exist by Your will. It is Your breath of life that fills my lungs. You are on Your throne, whether I believe You or follow You … or not.

Help me to turn away from sin and turn towards You. Forgive me for all those times that I’ve let sinners entice me. Forgive me for all those times I’ve gone my own way, chasing after Your good gifts while turning my back on their Giver, worshipping created things rather than the Creator.

Help me to share the good news of the gospel with the lost. Help me to WANT everyone to know the joy and peace and freedom that I’ve found in You.

In the Perfect Name of Jesus Christ, my Savior and Lord. Amen.

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The Witness of the Word – 2025 Day 4 (John 4:46-5:47)

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Read through the Bible in 2 years: Proverbs 4; John 4:46-5:47

"You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life." 

John 5:39-40 ESV

When the official’s son was healed, the official himself believed and so did his whole household. Oh how I pray that my whole household will be saved!

Before healing the lame man, Jesus asked him,
“Do you want to be healed?”

We might think it a silly question, and yet how often would we rather return to our vomit and our pigpen. We say we want to be healed, we say we want to forsake our sin, but do we? Father, help us to want to want to follow You!

These Jews searched the scriptures because they wanted to find eternal life in them, yet it was those very scriptures who testified to Jesus Christ, the long-awaited Savior. How many people are warming pews, listening to the Word preached, week after week and year after year, yet they refuse to bow the knee to the Messiah?

So many people and events testify to the deity of Christ. John the Baptizer who came to make the way straight for Jesus, the Father’s own voice from heaven (Mark 1:11), the prophecies He fulfilled, the miracles Christ did during His life and especially the miracle of His resurrection, and yet people refused to believe and be saved.

Sounds like people today. The Jews were seeking glory from one another, rather than seeking glory from God, and I’m afraid we are, too.

Heavenly Father,

What an honor to call You Father. You have created each of us by Your will. You are worthy to receive all glory and honor and power (Revelation 4:11). I am not Your equal. No one is. I am not God and I never will be God. Rather, I have been created in Your likeness and for Your purposes, that You might be glorified in me and through me. Help me to be humble. Help me to search the scriptures faithfully and rightly, with a pure heart and a pure mind.

I want to know You more, that I would love You more and be more like You.

Make me a faithful witness like the Samaritan woman at the well that we read about yesterday, bearing testimony to others of the saving power of Jesus Christ. Help me to be Your faithful servant, doing Your will and Your work.

I pray that my whole household would believe. I pray for each of my children and their spouses and children. I pray for my parents and my sister and her family. I pray that they would see You in me and that they would search the scriptures faithfully for themselves.

Like some people believed after hearing the Samaritan woman’s testimony, but many more believed after hearing Jesus for themselves, I pray that many would listen to Jesus with their own ears and be saved.

In the powerful name of Messiah Jesus, my Lord and Savior, Amen.

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Believing from a Testimony … Believing from the Word – 2025 Day 3 (John 3:1-4:45)

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Read through the Bible in 2 years: Proverbs 3; John 3:1-4:45

“Many Samaritans from that town believed in him (Jesus) because of the woman’s testimony, ‘He told me all that I ever did.’ So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them, and he stayed there two days. And many more believed because of his word. They said to the woman, ‘It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is indeed the Savior of the world.'”
John 4:39-42 ESV

Heavenly Father,

Please make me truly wise. I don’t want to merely read Your Word to grow in knowledge about You like someone researching the life and times of C.S. Lewis or Albert Einstein. I want to know You – personally, deeply, mightily. I want to sit at Your feet and drink deeply of Your lifegiving Word. I want to worship what I know, who I know.

I need insight and understanding and instruction. I need my mind renewed. Here I am. I want to see and taste that You are indeed good.

I want Your springs of living water to flow in me and through me. Help me to decrease, and You to increase, in my life. I want to be about my Father’s business. Make me a true worshiper, worshiping you in spirit and truth and helping other to know You, too.

Help me to be one who welcomes in the outcast, who notices the forgotten and neglected, who has to go through Samaria because there’s someone there that You want me to meet. I pray that my eyes will be open to the people in front of me, and that my ears will be open to Your voice prompting me, “This is the way, walk in it. This is the one, talk to her. These are the words, say them.”

Lord, I’m asking You to encourage my Chinese brothers and sisters. Help them to know that you see them and hear them and know them. Help them to dig into Your Word and find pearls of great worth, gold of great price, and diamonds of great value. We want You to be our greatest joy.

Father, help me to help others to sit at Your feet day after day and be transformed by the reading of Your Word. May my food be to do Your will. Send me to accomplish Your Work to the glory of Your Name.

In the Name of Jesus Christ who is my only Lord and Savior. Amen.

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My Father’s House – 2025 Day 2 (John 2)

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Reading the Bible in 2 years: Proverbs 2; John 2

And he told those who sold the pigeons, ‘Take these things away; do not make my Father’s house a house of trade.’

John 2:16 ESV

In reading through the book of John, I want to pay attention to how many times Jesus talks about God as His Father. In today’s reading, Jesus was angry when He saw His Father’s house being treated as a house of trade. Do I have this same kind of zeal for my earthly father’s honor and name?

Jesus is uniquely the only begotten Son of God, conceived by the Holy Spirit in a virgin’s womb. Fully God and fully man. He was in the beginning with His Father God without beginning or end. What an honor it is to be able to call Almighty God our Father, as Jesus taught his disciples to pray, “Our Father in heaven”! (Matthew 6:9) Like we read yesterday, in John 1:12-13, “To all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.” (ESV)

Maybe I’m thinking about this extra as last year ended with my dad falling and breaking a vertebra in his back, and this year marks his 80th year of life. I want to honor this man in spite of all his shortcomings and imperfections. How much MORE ought I honor my perfect, almighty Heavenly Father who knit me together in my mother’s womb.

Let’s pray together with reverence, humility, and affection for our Holy Heavenly Father.

Heavenly Father,

What a joy and honor it is to call you Father. I haven’t earned it. I don’t deserve it. It is not by my will nor is it by my blood or the blood of my earthly parents. But it is by Your will and through the cleansing blood of Jesus, that I have been adopted into Your family. You have brought me into Your house. Truly, Your banner over me is love.

You brought me into your house, though I was Your enemy. I was broken, unworthy, and lame like Mephibosheth (2 Samuel). You brought me into your kingdom, the kingdom of God, the kingdom of Heaven, delivering me out of the kingdom of the evil one.

By Your Holy Spirit, You have caused me to be born again as Your child. I once was lost, running away from You, turning my back to You. I was an enemy of God, loving darkness and hating light. But You have changed me and made me a child of light. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you!

I pray that I would have zeal for Your name and Your kingdom like Jesus did. Help me to love what You love and hate what You hate. Make me pure and holy, that Your light may shine brightly out of me.

Please, Father, bless my earthly father. Cause him to be born again to the living hope that is available to all Your children. Give him strength and hope and peace as he surrenders to Your perfect will.

In the matchless name of Jesus my Lord and Savior. Amen

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In the Beginning – 2025 Day 1 (John 1)

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Bible in 2 years – Proverbs 1; John 1

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God…. The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world…. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.”

John 1:1, 9, 11-13

This year I have chosen to focus my mind on the word “Faithful.” I want to be a faithful servant of my Heavenly Father as well as a a faithful wife and helper to my earthly husband. I want to model myself after my perfect, faithful God who has made me His child and will never cast me out. On this first day of a new year, I want to remember that Jesus is and was and always will be. He was there from the beginning, and His mercies are new every morning.

Dear Heavenly Father,

Jesus is the living, eternal word, the bread of life – plentiful, abundant, good life. In Your design, light shines on the good and the evil. Jesus gives light to the world, to everyone, yet only those who receive and believe in Him, only those whom You have chosen by Your perfect will, become Your children.

Father, make me like Andrew and Philip who were eager to tell others about Jesus. Give me faith like Nathaniel who was quick to believe, “You are the son of God! You are the king of Israel.” Make me like those wedding servants who did whatever Jesus told them to do. Thank you for your life-giving word and for filling my life with Your mercies that are new every morning.

In the Name of Jesus Christ, my Lord and my Savior I pray. Amen.

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