4/14/09 John 7

Throughout the John 7, many people are trying to deny Jesus Christ as Savior by asking Jesus difficult questions.  However, Jesus answers every very fluently,  just looking at the question, it is kind of hard to come up with the answer.  However, by reading about Jesus' ansewrs, we can clearly tell that he knew these questions and answers well beforehand because his answers everything fluently and everything corresponse with future upcoming.  One of interesting answers I found was that people argued that when Christ comes, no one will know where he is from.  However, they were saying that they knew where Jesus came from because they knew he was raised as carpenter's son.  When Jesus was asked this question, Jesus answers that Jesus was from God and because you people didn't know about God, they don't know where he is from.  After reading this passage, I kind of understood that why virgin Mary beared Jesus.  It was because Jesus was from God.  

4/13/09 John 6

It was very interesting for me to read this passage because it was right after the Easter sunday service where we thought about Jesus' flesh and blood by eating bread and drinking grape.  Within the scripture, Jesus says that he is the bread from the heaven.  Also Jesus said that if you eat this bread, meaning himself, then they will receive eteral life.  When people heard Jesus, they were deeply confused because they were wondering how could they eat Jesus' flesh and how would that give them eternal life.  

Looking at the reaction from people, I could clearly tell that these people did not understood the big picture Jesus was showing them.  Also, there is another example that these people did not understand Jesus.  Beginning of the chapter, Jesus performs miracle by feeding 5,000 people with very few amount of food.  When people realized he was able to such miracles, they thought Jesus was going to be their King who will save them from Romans.  This portion of scripture also portrays that people did not understand Jesus at all.  Jesus came down to defeat the sin and save them from the eternal death, however, these people couldn't understand what Jesus was doing.

When I read the bible, I could tell that these people had such a narrow mind and did not understand what Jesus was doing.  However, I thought about how much we understand Jesus in our Christian walk.  I feel like we are just as same as the people long time ago.  We might understand little more than them, but still I feel like there are many things that we do not understand.  

4/11/09 John 5

In John chapter 5, Jesus performs the miracle of healing the man to be able to walk.  The important thing is that Jesus performed this specific miracle on Sabbath day.  When I was taking History of Roman empire, Jesus was shown up as one of topic in our class.  For our essay, we were asked to define the reasons that Jews hated Jesus and they tried to kill Jesus.  As I was researching in that class, first reason they brought up to kill Jesus was the fact that Jesus performed miracles on Sabbath day.  Traditionally, Jews weren't suppose to work on Sabbath day because God has told us to rest on Sabbath day.  Therefore, these people persecuted Jesus because he performed miracles on Sabbath day.  Later on Jesus asks Pharasees that is it better to not heal the people and let them die or is it better to save their lives on Sabbath day.   Which clearly explains that which was more important.  As I was reading this passage, I was just amazed at the fact that actually persecuted Jesus with this specific concept.  It is perfectly clear that they wanted to get anything out of Jesus inorder for them to kill Jesus.  

4/9/09 John 4

John Chapter 4 is the chapter where Samaritan woman comes out.  Around the noon time, Jesus comes by the well and sees Samaritan woman and he asks water from her.  This is extremely crucial because back then, Jews did not treat non-Jew as a human being.  The amazing thing is that Jesus tells this Samaritan woman that she is capable of receiving the water, spring water that will give us the ethernal life.  As I was reading this passage, I felt deeply thankful.  Personally, I am not Jew, and in the beginning, God chose Jews as chosen people.  However, because God has given us mercy, we (non-Jews) were able to receive salvation also.  

4/8/09 John 3

John chapter 3 is very popular chapter within the bible.  The most famous verse John 3:16 is within this chapter.  When we look at John chapter 3, we only think of John 3:16 "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, that whoever believes in him will not perish but have ethernal life"  Which is very powerful verse that we should spend alot of time studying.  However, as I was reading through the passages, I found another verse that grabbed my attention.  Passage is John 3:19-20

"19. This is verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. 20. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed."

Couple months ago, someone asked me don't you think it's problem that Christians tend to hang out with Christians and have hard time hanging out with non-Christians?  After reading this verses, I remembered that specific question.  I believe Christians tend to have trouble hanging out with non-Christians because Christian strive to walk in the light.  However, when Christians are with non-Christians, it is very difficult to walk in the light.  Also, non-Christians tend to not like what Christians do as Christians.  Therefore, it is problem that Christians tend to have difficulty hanging out non-Christians, however, it is perfect obvious cause and effect.  So it'll be our best interest to try to pull people who love darkness to the light.

4/7/09 John 2

In John 2, scripture talks about how Jesus performed his first miracle.  This miracle was to turn the water into wine.  When you look at the verses 7 - 8 says "7. Jesus said to the servants, 'fill the jars with water', so they filled them to the brim 8. Then he told them, 'now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet' they did so,"  Scripture says that servants simply did what Jesus told them to do.  However, if you think about it, this isn't something that can be easily done.  First of all, the water was very rare at this time, therefore, first Jesus is telling them to waste significant amount of water.  Secondly, Jesus asked servants to draw the water and give it to the master of the banquet.  These servants know that they are in need of wine and they could not possibly understand the reasoning and it should have sounded non-sense to the servants.  However, these servants did not refuse Jesus' word and followed even it did not make any sense.  I'm not sure if these servants had faith in Jesus word but they did what Jesus told them to do.  I think this is something we lack in our lives.  Jesus is someone who we cannot understand in our terms, therefore, when Jesus tells us to do something, we should believe and do as what he tells us to do.  However, we tend to try to understand and comprehend in our own minds, and simple tend to refuse to believe in Jesus if we can't understand him in our own comprehention.  

4/5/09 John 1

In John 1, scripture talks about the light from the God.  Mentioning that God was there from the beginning and there was life in God.  Then the life was the light of the men.  Also, scripture says that light shines through the darkness and darkness does not understand the light.  When scripture talks about the light of the men, scripture is talking about the son of God who gives the true light.  One of interesting I read about is that darkness does not understand the light.  I am assuming that the darkness is the satan.  When I hear about what satan does, it seems like satan tends to know everything that is going around us.  Also, satan knows everything about us and satan uses those knowledges to hinder us.  However, scripture says that even the satan that we think who has significant power, couldn't even understand the light (Jesus).  When it says does not understand, satan did not understand what Jesus was doing at all.  Meaning satan's power is not even comparable to our God and Jesus Christ because satan can't even see what Jesus was doing.  Therefore, when we decide to follow the light, we should have faith that the light we are following has far greater power than the darkness.  Also, when we are walking in the light, satan can't do anything because light shines through darkness which keeps us away from the satan.