Agape Devotions

Read: John 9:1-10:21 No devotional (Sunday)

Read: John 8 Verses chosen for reflection: John 8:31-38  "So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, 32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” 33 They answered him, “We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say, ‘You will become free’?” 34 Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin. 35 The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. 36 So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. 37 I know that you are offspring of Abraham; yet you seek to kill me because my word finds no place in you. 38 I speak of what I have seen with my Father, and you do what you have heard from your father.” Reflect In John 8:31-38, Jesus spoke with the Jews who believed in Him. He said to them that if they truly want to follow Jesus, they would have to abide in "my word". At first glanc...

READ : John 7 REFLECT : John is writing this gospel after the day of Pentecost when the Spirit was given in great power and came into the hearts of believers. When Jesus was still on earth the Spirit had not yet been given in that way. The Spirit of God is always present everywhere in the world. He was present before the day of Pentecost as well as afterward. But not in this sense. He was not performing this ministry of making Jesus real. So for the first time we have our Lord's hint of how this is all going to be accomplished.  I must leave, I am going back to him who sent me, but when I do so I will send the Spirit.  He goes on and teaches what that means by using a beautiful symbol. Each day during the seven days of the Feast of Tabernacles, one of the chief priests would lead a procession down through the Kidron Valley to the pool of Siloam. Out of the waters of the pool he would fill a golden pitcher and carry it back to the temple and pour it over the altar to remind the...

READ : John 6 Verses chosen for meditation: John 6:66-71 66  After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him.  67  So Jesus said to the twelve, “Do you want to go away as well?”  68  Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life,  69  and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.”  70  Jesus answered them, “Did I not choose you, the twelve? And yet one of you is a devil.”  71  He spoke of Judas the son of Simon Iscariot, for he, one of the twelve, was going to betray him. REFLECT In the final paragraphs of this chapter, we see the reaction to Jesus’ teaching in Capernaum, and it was overwhelmingly negative. In v66, “many of his disciples” turned away. Disciples here are not referring to the Twelve, but anyone prepared to associate with Jesus. They found his teachi...

READ : John 5   Verses chosen for meditation: John 5:6-9. 6  When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there a long time, he said to him,  “Do you want to be healed?”   7  The sick man answered him, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, and while I am going another steps down before me.”   8  Jesus said to him,  “Get up, take up your bed, and walk.” 9  And at once the man was healed, and he took up his bed and walked.   REFLECT John 5:1-17 gives an account of Jesus healing an invalid man at Bethesda Pool on Sabbath Day. The invalid was in his condition for 38 years. Notice that he was not called a “lame” man but had a disease that disabled him to walk. Given his conditions, he would need someone to help him be the first to get into the pool each time the water stirred. So, isn’t Jesus’ question a rhetorical one when He asked the disabled man (v.6), “Do you want to...

Read John 4 Verses chosen for meditation: John 4: 7, 23, 28, 29, 34 - 38, 39, 47, 48 - 49, 53 7 A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink." 23 But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. 28 So the woman left her water jar and went away into town and said to the people, 29 “Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?” 34 Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work. 35 Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, then comes the harvest’? Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see that the fields are white for harvest. 36 Already the one who reaps is receiving wages and gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. 37 For here the saying holds true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’ 38 I sent you to reap that for which you...

  TEXT FOR REFLECTION Now when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, many believed in his name when they saw the signs that he was doing. But Jesus on his part did not entrust himself to them, because he knew all people  and needed no one to bear witness about man, for he himself knew what was in man. JOHN 2:23-25 REFLECT So here is the ultimate irony! And many of us knew about it, yet most of us stake our lives on the irony: humanity is not trust-worthy; Jesus would not entrust Himself to any of us! Yet we are bitterly shocked and disappointed when we discover this reality about each other. The apostle John, the writer of this gospel made an astute observation: Jesus did not entrust himself to anyone because he knew what people were like. Many had come to believe Jesus after seeing the miracles that he performed. I am sure they sincerely did believe. I am sure some might even have sworn they would give their lives up for Him. I am sure many found that their lives were no...