Key Thought

Today's Prayer

Holy God, my Righteous and Eternal Father, the gift of your Son who died for my sins is such a gracious and wonderful blessing. To add the gift of your Holy Spirit, given to me by your Son Jesus, is such a daily treasure and sustaining grace. For these gifts, the two greatest of my life, I give you thanks and praise as I dedicate my life to your service in Jesus' name. Amen.

Today's Verses in Context

The last day of the festival came. It was the most important day. On that day Jesus stood and said with a loud voice, "If a person is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. If a person believes in me, rivers of living water will flow out from his heart. That is what the Scriptures say." Jesus was talking about the {Holy} Spirit. The Spirit had not yet been given to people, because Jesus had not yet {died and} been raised to glory. But later, those people that believed in Jesus would receive the Spirit. The people heard these things that Jesus said. Some of the people said, "This man really is the Prophet. " Other people said, "He is the Christ. " Other people said, "The Christ will not come from Galilee. The Scriptures say that the Christ will come from the family of David. And the Scriptures say that the Christ will come from Bethlehem, the town where David lived." So the people did not agree with each other about Jesus. Some of the people wanted to arrest Jesus. But no person tried to do this. The temple police went back to the leading priests and the Pharisees. The priests and the Pharisees asked, "Why did you not bring Jesus?" The temple police answered, "The things he says are greater than the words of any person we've ever heard!" The Pharisees answered, "So Jesus has fooled you too! Have any of the leaders believed in Jesus? No! Have any of us Pharisees believed in him? No! But those people {out there} know nothing about the law. They are under God's curse!" But Nicodemus was there in that group. Nicodemus was the one that had gone to see Jesus before. Nicodemus said, "Our law will not let us judge a person without hearing him. We cannot judge him until we know what he has done." The Jewish leaders answered, "Are you from Galilee too? Study the Scriptures. You will learn that no prophet comes from Galilee." [The oldest and best Greek copies of John do not have verses 7:53-8:11]

Related Scripture Readings

The Pharisees heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more followers than John. (But really Jesus himself did not baptize people. His followers baptized people for him.) Jesus knew that the Pharisees had heard about him. So Jesus left Judea and went back to Galilee. On the way to Galilee Jesus had to go through the country of Samaria. In Samaria Jesus came to the town called Sychar. This town is near the field that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Jacob's well was there. Jesus was tired from his long trip. So Jesus sat down beside the well. It was about noon. A Samaritan woman came to that well to get some water. Jesus said to her, "Please give me a drink of water." (This happened while Jesus' followers went to town to buy some food.) The Samaritan woman answered, "I am surprised that you ask me for a drink! You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman!" (Jews are not friends with Samaritans. ) Jesus answered, "You don't know about the thing God gives. And you don't know who I am that asked you for a drink. If you knew these things, you would have asked me and I would have given you living water." The woman said, "Sir, where will you get that living water? The well is very deep, and you have nothing to get water with. Are you greater than Jacob our father ? Jacob is the one that gave us this well. He drank from it himself. Also, his sons and all his animals drank water from this well." Jesus answered, "Every person that drinks this water will be thirsty again. But the person that drinks the water I give will never be thirsty again. That water I give will become like a spring of water flowing inside that person. That water will bring that person life forever."

Has any nation ever stopped worshiping their old gods so they could worship new gods? No! And their gods are not really gods at all! But my people stopped worshiping their glorious God and started worshiping idols that are worth nothing. "Skies, be shocked at the things that have happened! Shake with great fear!" This message was from the Lord. "My people have done two evil things. They turned away from me (I am the spring of living water), and they dug their own water cisterns. (They turned to other gods.) But their cisterns are broken. Those cisterns can't hold water.

But you are not ruled by your sinful selves. You are ruled by the Spirit, if that Spirit of God really lives in you. But if any person does not have the Spirit of Christ, then that person does not belong to Christ. Your body will always be dead because of sin. But if Christ is in you, then the Spirit gives you life, because Christ made you right with God. God raised Jesus from death. And if God's Spirit is living in you, then he will also give life to your bodies that die. God is the One who raised Christ from death. And he will give life to your bodies through his Spirit that lives in you.