The John Squad
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My Progress:
I am about halfway through Chapter 3 and am making steady progress each day. There are certainly days when I accomplish less, but I am definitely pleased with my overall progress thus far. Chapter 2 was totally awesome because it was action-packed and half the length of Chapter 1. With the exception of one or two wacky phrases, I picked it up pretty quickly. I think my brain is becoming accustomed to what I'm asking it to do and has made some improvements in its ability to memorize. However, I fully understand that there will most certainly be rough days ahead and I'm prepared (with the Lord's help) to fight through them when the time comes.
Here we are reciting Chapter 2:
Some Thoughts:
First of all, I love the scene where Jesus is outraged at the people in the temple courts. It got me wondering if "zeal for your house will consume me." Is His house so incredibly important to me that I have feelings of anger if it is being misused? I need to start having more respect for His building, which includes having the right heart and attitude when I am inside it.
"Jesus would not entrust himself to them". He knew that his "followers" didn't have a true, saving faith. As I was thinking about that verse, I started thinking that He must've felt awfully lonely. For me, one of the most important things in my life is being understood by others. I don't even care if they agree with me. I just want them to understand me. Nobody understood Him. As I reflected on how lonely that must've felt, I got to the next couple of verses: "He did not need man's testimony about man" and realized that He really doesn't need anything from us! His perfect fellowship with the Father met all of his spiritual needs regardless of our response.
Midway through Chapter 3, I hit some struggles. Jesus is talking with Nicodemus and there is some deep theology in there that I just plain don't get. I'm looking through 2 different commentaries as I go along and I also ask my Pastor's opinions from time to time. It's amazing how many different ways there are to interpret the same verse. I got stuck on where the water comes from in verse 5, and why He is using "we" in verse 11. After hearing all the possibilities, I've come to the conclusion... that I'm still not sure.
While Jesus is talking with Nicodemus, he asks him, "you are Israel's teacher, and do you not understand these things?" I felt as though Jesus was respecting the authority and position of Nicodemus in the church and because of that position, was expecting more from him. As a result, I had feelings of conviction because my husband and I have been teaching Sunday School for about 7 years now. It's a position I suppose I've begun to take for granted and not really grasped the true value and importance it might have on a young person's life. I'm hoping that I understand more than Nicodemus did and am worthy to hold a position of guiding and instructing others.
As I was cooking along memorizing verse by verse, I came to 3:14 and was taken completely off guard when I was overwhelmed with emotion as I read its words. "Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life." Hence, as I mentioned earlier, my fear of memorizing the crucifixion. This was just a mere reference to it and I hard time thinking about it. The story of the snakes among the Israelites is one of my favorites. I love how God provided a way out that required faith to look in a certain direction. But imagining the Son of Man being lifted up... and then reading on "so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life" is just overwhelming. I can't understand it. I'm just unable to grasp that kind of love.
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