Why John?

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This week is the letter J.

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While working at a fair, one of the carnival workers would stop and visit with us a couple times a day. He became a friend and one day, my son commented on the medallion he wore, not knowing what it symbolized. Our new friend’s response surprised me. “Well then, you must be Christians.”

As a matter of fact, yes, we are Christians.

That little bit of conversation triggered a lot in our family. My son-in-law thought to give him a Bible and we had an extra one at our house. When we gave it to our friend the last night of the fair, he told us that we were the first Christians to talk with him, and he had tried to intentionally talk with one because he had questions, but he was blown off. It just amazed me that in his 35 years, we were the first Christians to talk with him.

Inside the Bible I had placed a card in the book of John. The card simply said “John is a good place to start.” But that bothered me. That really bothered me. Why John? I’ve been a Christian for 31 years and I’ve heard countless times that John is the best book of the Bible to point nonbelievers to. I’ve read John a gazillion times, and I love it, but I found myself reading John again, wondering how an unsaved person would understand it.

Would our friend understand what he was reading?

I knew he wouldn’t. The account of the Ethiopian man in Acts assured me of that. And yet I know that God’s Word is alive and active. I know people have read the Bible and were saved as a result, like my good friend Joanne. I began praying that he would meet Jesus through the pages of the Bible and that God would send a Philip to him—someone who could explain the Scriptures, someone to water the seed planted in our friend, and someone to harvest when it was time. I still pray.

And I’m still in the book of John, studying. I’m learning and understanding things I didn’t before. I’m digging into it and loving it, praying the whole time that our friend will meet Jesus.

So tell me, why start in John?

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Bible Memory Verse: John 1:12-13

This week's memory verses have me thinking and rejoicing.

While traveling, we visited a church and attended a really cool Sunday School class. They had just started studying the Book of John and one of the class members said something about privileges vs. rights--something that really stuck with me. While memorizing this passage this week, I dug into that thought. Here's what I found...

A privilege is a special entitlement to immunity granted by the state or another authority to a restricted group, either by birth or on a conditional basis. It can be revoked in certain circumstances. In modern democratic states, a privilege is conditional and granted only after birth. By contrast, a right is an inherent, irrevocable entitlement held by all citizens or all human beings from the moment of birth. (Wikipedia)

The fact that God has given us the RIGHT to become children of God blows my mind. Being a child of God is an irrevocable entitlement.

How do we get that right? By believing in His Name--the Name of Jesus and what He did for  us by dying on the cross, paying the penalty for our (MY!!) sin, and then conquering death by His resurrection from the dead. Jesus certainly didn't have to pay the price for my sin, but He did. Voluntarily. Because He loves me. He loves us.

So tell me, do you have the right to become a child of God? And if you are a child of God, are you using that right correctly?

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