A little meat to chew on.

[MBTcustom]

Joh 4:9 Therefore the Samaritan woman *said to Him, "How is it that You, being a Jew, ask me for a drink since I am a Samaritan woman?" (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.)
Joh 4:10 Jesus answered and said to her, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, 'Give Me a drink,' you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water."
Joh 4:11 She *said to Him, "Sir, You have nothing to draw with and the well is deep; where then do You get that living water?
Joh 4:12 "You are not greater than our father Jacob, are You, who gave us the well, and drank of it himself and his sons and his cattle?"
Joh 4:13 Jesus answered and said to her, "Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again;
Joh 4:14 but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life."
Joh 4:15 The woman *said to Him, "Sir, give me this water, so I will not be thirsty nor come all the way here to draw."

[missionary5155]

Good morning Brother
The Gospel of John is right at the top for me. Where individuals come face to face with the only Person Who can wash us and make us acceptable in the precense of God. (Acts 4 : 12 )
Mike in Peru

[MBTcustom]

I used to read that scripture and think "man what an idiot!" I mean its obvious she didn't know she was talking to God made flesh, but you would think she could spot an allegory when she hears one! Sheesh!

Yes, well, that's what I used to think. The truth is, Jesus does not speak to us about things we know, He speaks to us about things we do not comprehend, otherwise He would not need to speak to us right? HMMMMM
The further I go along in my walk, the more often God starts teaching me about things that I do not understand. I feel that I should understand what the heck He is talking about, so I try to fake it, and I end up looking just like this woman!
God is not in the business of stroking egos and making sure everybody knows what we are good at (We actually do a much better job of that than He ever would) He is about finding the places in our being that is deaf, dumb, blind, stupid, hated, suppressed, and embarrassing. He exposes these things and draws attention to them by noticing them (BTW, an enormous Christian principle is to notice. Kind of like Sherlock Holmes catch phrase, it is our business to notice what others do not notice. Think about it....) Beware! If you notice the things in your soul and in the world around you that Jesus notices, you will almost always end up having to make a decision, a moral judgment, a change. Simply put, you will have to do what has not been done for far too long.
I'm not rambling off point. Why is it called "Living" water? What is alive about it? I think it is this very thing. This strange way that the presents of Jesus has in our souls, of making foliage spring from desert soil. Every part of us He touches becomes 25 years old and full of life.
It is not just water that must be fetched and hauled and distributed precisely to every receptacle that is smaller than the original. Every receptacle that is filled, overflows and becomes a source rather than a limited supply. Not just in individual people, but in the very fabric of our soul. The river that flows from us, is fed by a thousand streams from every part of our inner being that has been touched by the Master. A deserted area of our souls is noticed, then watered, then the well that forms there, nourishes everything around it.
So the woman in the scripture, in her ignorance, actually had the exact right of it.
Amazing.

[smoked turkey]

I also like old John's gospel. He tells it like it is. He also tells us exactly why he wrote the book in John 20:31.."But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in His name". Gotta like that!

[shooter2]

Great stuff here. I love the book of John as he told us what Jesus meant. The first three gospels tell us what jesus did. Keep this one going.

[newton]

I think your right here. Jesus really never spoke to someone about what they knew, but rather always spoke to them about what they needed. One thing I find interesting is Him speaking to a "non jew", contrasted to His talk with the woman who considered herself a dog looking for scraps.

Jesus Himself even spoke to the fact that His 'primary' goal was to speak to Jews, but then later He expanded it to others because of their hardness of heart.

It just so happens that I am in the water buisness myself. There is so much that can be learned from water and what it does to those things it comes in contact with. Your right about the way it interacts with everything it comes in contact with. Which is precisely why His 'words' are often equated with water.

Just like when a person come in contact with actual water there is no way they can be oblivious to it, the same is true with the words of Jesus. They are unlike the dry, meaningless, words of so many in that whatever they come in contact with changes. This is also why Jesus spoke about us who were to come after Him that out of us would also flow a spring of living water.

I think with the woman at the well the result of the living water touching her was a softening of her heart. I'm sure it's true in most cases, but her heart was hard. I think all too often we look at her interaction with Jesus in a negative way. We look at what Jesus said to her without thinking about the times they lived in.

Back then, a man divorced a woman. Women did not divorce men. Same is true with marriage. So in reality, she had quite literally been used and abused. Grown hard in heart. And so when Jesus spoke to the fact that yet again she was being used, it was like pouring water onto hard clay. She melted immediately. There are so many things she could have asked at that moment, when she had just been softened, but her mind went immediately to worship of God. Very interesting.

Good meat goodsteel, good meat.

[TXGunNut]

Nicely done, Tim.