Bible Verse of The Day – 7-1-24

John 4:21 (NKJV) 21 Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, worship the Father.

The time Jesus spent speaking with the woman at the well is something we hear a lot about.

It is a well-known sequence of events that is significant in many ways.

As I was recently reading and pondering, something struck me about this event that had not been so obvious to me until now.

While we often speak of Jesus revealing things to the woman about her life that only God could have known, or we speak about the water that keeps us from thirsting again, look what else He said.

In the verse above, Jesus began alluding to things that were going to change and had, in fact, already begun to change.

There was a shift taking place that had gone undetected by most people.

John 4:23-24 (NKJV) 23 But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. 24 God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”

You see, Jesus was revealing that the traditional ways of doing things were fading away, and that God wanted the people to understand true worship could only happen in spirit and in truth.

Rituals and traditions were dead and meaningless. The hearts of the people had grown hard and mechanical in their interactions with God. They relied only on their human understanding and routines, leaving their spirit out of the equation.

Jesus had come to open the eyes and the hearts of the people. And as He walked the land sharing truth, the things He taught stirred up anger in the Jewish leadership because those things were contrary to their traditions.

And because of this, many of them hated the One who had come to save them.

God does not want traditions and rituals. He never did.

The guidelines He set for the Jews became idols that they prided themselves in following. The very things designed to point them to the one, true God became their god without them realizing it.

And as Jesus spoke in ways that exposed their true hearts, He was hated, persecuted, and crucified for it.

Let us not be like the Jews of old, falling into habits, routines, and rituals in our walk with God.

We must let Him touch our hearts, transforming them and keeping them soft and pliable, that we not let our practices become our god.

Pastor Curt & Pastor Ellie

Seven Seas Ministries
49 N Lamplighters Walk
Hampstead, NC 28443

401-439-3780

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