He never grows weak or weary.

https://soundcloud.com/wkbode/consider-the-following

Isaiah 40:28-31 NLT

Have you never heard? Have you never understood? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of all the earth. He never grows weak or weary. No one can measure the depths of his understanding. He gives power to the weak and strength to the powerless. Even youths will become weak and tired, and young men will fall in exhaustion. But those who trust in the Lord will find new strength. They will soar high on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint.
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Isn't a good nap a wonderful luxury? Isn't it wonderful to sleep peacefully and to rest your weary body and wake refreshed? I often find myself at the end of my energy. Even this morning in reading the Bible and writing this blog I've felt exhausted, and that was after a restful weekend. But I know where to turn to be refreshed!

God in heaven is never weary. God in heaven never grows tired or needs a rest because he is weak. He never wears out.

Don't you just love to learn a new morsel of truth? Aren't you thrilled to gain a bit of understanding? Have you ever had one of those eureka moments when you've discovered something you didn't know before and it all fits together so much better now that you understand?

God already knows everything. Nothing can be added to his knowledge. No new truth will enlighten God. God cannot be taught something he does not already know.

God is the creator of all that is, all that has ever been, and all there will ever be! Goodness, love, wisdom, understanding, light and life all find their source in God. He lacks nothing and nothing is without him.

God does not need you to inform him of anything. God knows the deepest secrets of your heart.

God's immense vastness is infinite and unfathomable.

You are no match for God. God is eternal. God is outside of the confines of time and space. God is not hampered by a lack of time. 

Oh small person in a vast universe, you need God's strength. And rejoice, for God has promised his limitless strength will lift you up. When you grow weary, God will give you help. 

Don't trust in your own strength. Teach yourself to humble yourself before God who knows all. He can enlighten you. You will not find the ability to carry on in yourself. You will fail in your own strength. You will run out of resources. But those who rest in God will never run out of resources.

Give up what little you have to gain what cannot be measured!

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Isaiah 40:12-31 NLT

Who else has held the oceans in his hand? Who has measured off the heavens with his fingers? Who else knows the weight of the earth or has weighed the mountains and hills on a scale? Who is able to advise the Spirit of the Lord? Who knows enough to give him advice or teach him? Has the Lord ever needed anyone’s advice? Does he need instruction about what is good? Did someone teach him what is right or show him the path of justice? No, for all the nations of the world are but a drop in the bucket. They are nothing more than dust on the scales. He picks up the whole earth as though it were a grain of sand. All the wood in Lebanon’s forests and all Lebanon’s animals would not be enough to make a burnt offering worthy of our God. The nations of the world are worth nothing to him. In his eyes they count for less than nothing— mere emptiness and froth. To whom can you compare God? What image can you find to resemble him? Can he be compared to an idol formed in a mold, overlaid with gold, and decorated with silver chains? Or if people are too poor for that, they might at least choose wood that won’t decay and a skilled craftsman to carve an image that won’t fall down! 

Haven’t you heard? Don’t you understand? Are you deaf to the words of God— the words he gave before the world began? Are you so ignorant? God sits above the circle of the earth. The people below seem like grasshoppers to him! He spreads out the heavens like a curtain and makes his tent from them. He judges the great people of the world and brings them all to nothing. They hardly get started, barely taking root, when he blows on them and they wither. The wind carries them off like chaff. “To whom will you compare me? Who is my equal?” asks the Holy One. Look up into the heavens. Who created all the stars? He brings them out like an army, one after another, calling each by its name. Because of his great power and incomparable strength, not a single one is missing. O Jacob, how can you say the Lord does not see your troubles? O Israel, how can you say God ignores your rights? Have you never heard? Have you never understood? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of all the earth. He never grows weak or weary. No one can measure the depths of his understanding. He gives power to the weak and strength to the powerless. Even youths will become weak and tired, and young men will fall in exhaustion. But those who trust in the Lord will find new strength. They will soar high on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint.

https://soundcloud.com/wkbode/consider-the-following

Everyone is following someone; Who is your Shepherd?

John 10:14-15, 27-30 NLT

“I am the good shepherd; I know my own sheep, and they know me,  just as my Father knows me and I know the Father. So I sacrifice my life for the sheep. 

My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.  I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one can snatch them away from me,  for my Father has given them to me, and he is more powerful than anyone else. No one can snatch them from the Father’s hand.  The Father and I are one.”

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Do you listen to Jesus? Do you hear his voice? Do you follow Jesus?

Many people say they are following Jesus but they don't listen to his voice. They don't read the Bible. They don't agree with what Jesus says. Many people say they follow Jesus but they are not willing to do what Jesus did.
Jesus obeyed God the Father. So a person following Jesus would be trying to obey the Father. Jesus sacrificed his life by putting the interests of others ahead of his comfort. A person who was a sheep of Jesus would also live sacrificialy. Jesus went the way of the cross. If you are following Jesus then you too will take up your cross.
If you follow Jesus you are not afraid of death because God promises life. You don't have to cling to this life because God promises eternal life to his followers. Do you believe that God is promising to give you eternal life?

Are you really following Jesus? Is he really your Shepherd?

Do you know the gift God has for you?

John 4:10 NLT

Jesus replied, “If you only knew the gift God has for you and who you are speaking to, you would ask me, and I would give you living water.”
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If you only knew the gift God has for you!

God has a gift for you. Do you want it?

Life had not been secure for the woman Jesus is speaking to here in John 4. This woman that Jesus meets at the well was born on the wrong side of the tracks. She was a Samaritan,  not a Jew nor a Gentile. She was seen as an outcast by both the cultures surrounding her. But this woman's problems run a bit deeper. In this time and place a woman's security came from either her place in a family or marriage. But this lady had been married five times and currently wasn't married to the man she was living with. So her financial security and her social standing was quite low. No family would associate with her since she was without honor. So presumably she would be living day to day making do with the 'gifts' various men might give her. Most likely no man would commit to 'taking care of her' so her future would be very uncertain.

Finding a Samaritan man to talk with her would have been unlikely but to have Jesus a Jew and obviously a rabbi asking her for something was shocking. But Jesus asks her for a drink. And then tells her of God's gift.

Jesus says God has a gift for her.

And this gift isn't short lived. This is a gift that will give her security. It's not too sappy to say this is the gift that keeps on giving. An internal well of living water springing up to eternal life.
Now that's some gift. Water represented work. You had to lift it from deep in the ground and water is heavy. You had to carry it to drink, to wash, to prepare food. This woman may have had more than her fair share of uncleanness so washing with this water may have taken up a lot of her precious drinking water. What a blessing to have fresh water that didn't require all that work. And since her standing in the village wasn't very high she would have to draw her water from the well after everyone else had gotten their daily supply.
This gift being offered by God according to Jesus is incredible.

But what Jesus reveals to this woman is even more incredible. If you had been reading the Gospels carefully you'd notice that demons know that Jesus is the Messiah but Jesus doesn't want the demons to be the ones to publicise his true identity and not yet. So when Jesus reveals who he is to this woman it is extraordinary. He knows who she is and he has told her who he is. He is the Messiah.

What looks like a gift of water becomes eternal life and what looks like a gift of notice and acknowledgement turns out to be perhaps the greatest revelation from God these people will ever know. And God gives this gift of revelation to this woman. So far John the Baptist his cousin has suggested he is the Messiah and the disciples have wondered if he was the Messiah. At the wedding Jesus tells his mother, his time has not yet come. But to this woman, Jesus is clear and unequivocal,  he says, 'I am the Messiah!'

And today Jesus is reminding you that your security isn't in this world. It isn't in your social standing. It isn't in your financial arrangements or your persistence or hard work. Your security isn't in your identity or your reputation. Your security can only be in Jesus. He is the living water, he is the One sent from God. He is the one who knows all you've ever done and he is the one who reveals his identity to you. When you know who he is it doesn't matter who you are. And knowing him and who he is changes everyone's perception of you.

God has got a gift for you. God's gift for you is himself.

Will you leave what you are doing and tell others about him?
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John 4:10-30 NLT

Jesus replied, “If you only knew the gift God has for you and who you are speaking to, you would ask me, and I would give you living water.” “But sir, you don’t have a rope or a bucket,” she said, “and this well is very deep. Where would you get this living water? And besides, do you think you’re greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us this well? How can you offer better water than he and his sons and his animals enjoyed?” Jesus replied, “Anyone who drinks this water will soon become thirsty again.  But those who drink the water I give will never be thirsty again. It becomes a fresh, bubbling spring within them, giving them eternal life.” “Please, sir,” the woman said, “give me this water! Then I’ll never be thirsty again, and I won’t have to come here to get water.” “Go and get your husband,” Jesus told her. “I don’t have a husband,” the woman replied. Jesus said, “You’re right! You don’t have a husband— for you have had five husbands, and you aren’t even married to the man you’re living with now. You certainly spoke the truth!” “Sir,” the woman said, “you must be a prophet. So tell me, why is it that you Jews insist that Jerusalem is the only place of worship, while we Samaritans claim it is here at Mount Gerizim, where our ancestors worshiped?” Jesus replied, “Believe me, dear woman, the time is coming when it will no longer matter whether you worship the Father on this mountain or in Jerusalem.  You Samaritans know very little about the one you worship, while we Jews know all about him, for salvation comes through the Jews.  But the time is coming—indeed it’s here now—when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. The Father is looking for those who will worship him that way.  For God is Spirit, so those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth.” The woman said, “I know the Messiah is coming—the one who is called Christ. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.” Then Jesus told her, “I Am the Messiah!” Just then his disciples came back. They were shocked to find him talking to a woman, but none of them had the nerve to ask, “What do you want with her?” or “Why are you talking to her?” The woman left her water jar beside the well and ran back to the village, telling everyone, “Come and see a man who told me everything I ever did! Could he possibly be the Messiah?” So the people came streaming from the village to see him.

God wants you to live.

For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. Jn 3:16
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Do you believe?
Do you believe that there is a God?
Do you believe that God loved the world?
Do you believe God sent his Son? 
Do you believe in the Son of God?

Jesus is the son of God.

Do you believe that God gives eternal life to those who believe in Jesus?

Jesus didn't come to be a judge, he came to save it.

This story starts with God's love. But quickly the question is raised, "Do you love God?" People loved darkness rather than light. Can you see the sad story of rejection and unrequited love?

God loved the world but the world loved darkness because their deeds were evil. The world did not love God.

"But those who do what is right come to the light so others can see that they are doing what God wants."

Look at the promise of life.  God wants you to have life. Belief in Jesus results in life.

Do you have life?
Do you have confidence in God's gift of life?
Do you believe?
If you believe you have life, you have the love of God, and you have the promise of eternal life.

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John 3:16-21, 30-36 NLT

“For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.  God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him. “There is no judgment against anyone who believes in him. But anyone who does not believe in him has already been judged for not believing in God’s one and only Son.  And the judgment is based on this fact: God’s light came into the world, but people loved the darkness more than the light, for their actions were evil.  All who do evil hate the light and refuse to go near it for fear their sins will be exposed. But those who do what is right come to the light so others can see that they are doing what God wants.”

He must become greater and greater, and I must become less and less. “He has come from above and is greater than anyone else. We are of the earth, and we speak of earthly things, but he has come from heaven and is greater than anyone else.  He testifies about what he has seen and heard, but how few believe what he tells them! Anyone who accepts his testimony can affirm that God is true. For he is sent by God. He speaks God’s words, for God gives him the Spirit without limit. The Father loves his Son and has put everything into his hands. And anyone who believes in God’s Son has eternal life. Anyone who doesn’t obey the Son will never experience eternal life but remains under God’s angry judgment.”