A Conversation with Jesus

Yesterday, we finished our "Magnify...because God is bigger" series at Vinings Lake. I walked through John 4 where Jesus has a conversation with a woman at the well (or in today's world could have been a woman at Starbucks or Waffle House or something like that....

In this conversation He reveals some things to this woman - some spoken and probably some just by being there as a Jew having a conversation with a Samaritan!

It is very interesting to me what sometimes we want to create Jesus to look like, act like, be like - as if He just sat in a holy corner all day long (kind of like a monk) and didn't interact with people. I can sometimes view Him this way - yet the Scriptures tell us that He lived among people, walked, talked, ate, hung out with people - for gravy sake, He was a man! I love this about Jesus - He was real and while He not only told the truth - He was the truth - and yet He cared for people - ALL people!

And yet, at the end of His conversation with the woman, He finally revealed that....He was God! (WOW! It never gets old hearing the miraculous truth - that God became a man - for the purpose of bringing us back to Himself).

What is interesting and humorous in this occasion is the next conversation that Jesus has with his followers/disciples.

After they return from the town/community - Jesus basically tells them to OPEN YOUR EYES! The woman just left to go tell her community everything that just happened and yet His own followers seemed to not "get it". Who knows, they might have been thinking about why Jesus was talking to a Samaritan and they definitely were a little confused about the food Jesus talked about. I am sure guilty of "missing it" - and being side-tracked with other things in this going on in my life, when all along Jesus is saying "OPEN YOUR EYES!"

I have been told that in our community around Vinings Lake, there are 158,955 people in a 5 mile radius and about 600,000 in a 10 mile radius - I need to, we need to - OPEN OUR EYES!

Jesus is not here in physical appearance any longer, but we are - His followers - and He gave us "all authority" to do what He did - walk, talk, eat, and have conversations - and simply INFLUENCE people around us - to follow Jesus.