John 13:1-17 (Jesus Washing His Disciples' Feet)

      I only went to the service this morning, and the sermon I heard was from John 13:1-17.  This is a familiar story from the night of the Last Supper (Thursday night).  I heard a different perspective from this story.  After Jesus got done eating, he got up to wash the feet of his disciples. Jesus was the Master, he was above his disciples.  This is something that he should not be doing.  Washing one's feet belonged to a servant.  Jesus came to serve not to be served.  In the next 12 hours, Judas would betray Jesus, and Peter would deny Jesus three times.  Jesus knew all of this, but he still chose to wash these two guys' feet.  That is what we are to do.  We are to serve others, basically by asking them, "How can I help you?".  Those who have hurt us.  Those who we are not getting along with.   Those who we do not like.  We are to serve everybody! That is how we can be like Jesus.

God Intervenes

Genesis 9:1b "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth." God said this after the flood. Fast forward about 1000 years, and guess what? Do you think they obeyed God's command? No way! Genesis 11:1-9 "Now the whole earth used the same language and the same words. And it came about as they journeyed east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. And they said to one another, 'Come, let us make bricks and burn them thoroughly.' And they used brick for stone, and they sued tar for mortar. And they said, 'Come, let us build for ourselves a city, and a tower whose top will reach into heaven, and let us make for ourselves a name; lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.' And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built. And the Lord said, 'Behold, they are one people, and they all have the same language. And this is what they began to do, and now nothing which they purpose to do will be impossible for them. Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another's speech.' So the lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of the whole earth; and they stopped building the city. Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of the whole earth; and from there the Lord scattered them abroad over the f ace of the whole earth." Because the people chose not to obey, God came down and created a lot of new and different languages, and cause them to speak them and to scatter to different parts of the world. If we choose not to obey, there might come a time, that God will intervene in our lives so that His will be done. I know thee are times, where I have not obeyed God. Has God had to intervene in my life so that His will be done?

I wonder what was that universal language that they all spoke before God confused their language and caused them to scatter? How many different languages did God create at that time? All of the ones that are spoken here on Earth, were they created at that time, or did they come around later?

God came down to Earth at other times. It was mentioned this morning, another time where God intervened, so that his will would be completed. Mark 16:15, "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation." We, humans, sure do not like to obey! Acts 8:1b, "And on that day a great persecution arose against the church in Jerusalem; and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles." God allowed the early church to be persecuted, so they would obey and preach the Gospel to other parts of the world.

There are a couple of others things that I wrote down in my Bible, but that one is in the car. The scripture I typed here comes from the New American Standard, my mom's Bible. I am really enjoying this current sermon series. For next Sunday, we are to read Genesis 12, 15.

Genesis Thoughts

At church, we are in the midst of a new sermon series on the book of Genesis. There has been two sermons so far, and they have been good. The first one was on the first two chapters, and this past Sunday was on chapters three and four.

The first chapter was more broad and the second chapter gave details about creation. The first three days was about God forming the earth, and days 4-6 on how he filled the earth. The first poem in the Bible is in chapter 1. The second poem is in chapter 2. God created rest, which is day 7. Rest is good for us.

Chapter 2, God tells Adam that he is free to eat from any tree in the garden. Choice is a good gift from God. God allows us to choose. We make all kinds of choices every day, they can bring honor to God or not to him. Verse 18 tells us that God said it was not good for man to be alone. God already knew that, but that Adam had to discover that for himself, that animals do not make a suitable helper for man, only another human does.

Eve was the first legalistic in the Bible. She added to what God said about the tree in the middle of the garden. I wrote in my Bible, that I always thought it was Satan who said to Eve what God said-in adding/changing what God said about the tree in the middle. It was Eve. Genesis 3:2-5. Compare that with chapter 2, verse 16 to see what God had actually said.

The second half of chapter 3, verse 15 is the first prophecy of Jesus. God says to the serpent (Satan), "And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel." That is saying that Jesus will defeat Satan. The Israelites kept looking for the fulfillment of that prophecy and were disappointed that it wasn't fulfilled, that when Jesus did come, they didn't believe.

Every time I sin, something dies. Death in the Bible means separation. When Adam and Eve sinned, their death was separation from God.

The first sacrifice is mentioned in verse 21 in chapter 3, when God clothed Adam and Eve. God had to kill animals so that their hides could be used as clothing.

Chapter 4 wasn't mentioned in Sunday's sermon. This coming Sunday, we will study chapters 6 and 7. I've been reading the chapters for the next week's sermon as part of my devotions during the week. Just thought I'd share these with you.