Coming to the Still Waters

Today's devotional verses are John chapter 5 and verses 10 through 18, which read, v.10 - Now it was the Sabbath on that day.  So the Jews were saying to the man who was cured, "It is the Sabbath, and it is not permissible for you to carry your pallet." Our last study had Jesus at the sheep gate of Jerusalem entering for a festival of the Jews.  There is a pool of water there that attracts those with ailments and waiting for the water to be stirred for a superstition had arisen that the stirring was by an angel and if you were the first one in the pool, you would be cured.  Jesus comes up to a lame man who had been that way for 38 years.  Jesus asks this man to obey Him in the face of the world's superstition and he does.  He gets up, picks up his mat, and walks.   All is good until we add this element.  It is the Sabbath.  There was to be no work done on the Sabbath and curing someone must have been work and carrying a mat...

Good last Sunday of 2018 to you all.  Here is the audio reading of the radio broadcast this morning and it is titled "Mr. Eternity."   It is a story about a man in Australia and his impact on a whole country and world, New Years Eve 1999.   I have also added a new page to the top of the blog.  Here is the link to it:  https://pastorwolfgang.blogspot.com/p/prayer-support-letter.html   We were accepted by the mission organization Interlink Ministries to be under their umbrella so we can start preparing for the next step in our journey serving God through Interim Pastor Ministries.   I pray this a great Sunday to end out your year.  --Adam--

Good Saturday all!   I came across this great post on www.gotquestions.org about New Year resolutions.  The website Got Questions is a great resource that I think I have mentioned in the past.  It gives great answers from the Bible with the references embedded into the text.  I like the ease of just typing in your question into the search bar and then diving deeper into your understand from a conservative Bible perspective.   This article and video bring out some great points to ponder so that we do what we do to honor and glorify God.  Here is the link to the written page and I will post the video below also.  https://www.gotquestions.org/new-years-resolution.html I am praying for your 2019 that it will be lived in a way that brings more honor and glory to God and I will seek to do the same.  --Adam--

Our devotional verses of the day are John chapter 5 and verses 1 through 9 which read, v.1 - After these things there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Jesus observed the feasts and festivals of the Jewish people.  In the book of John we find 3 references to Him at three different Passover celebrations, one reference of the festival of Tabernacles, and one reference of the Hanukkah or Feast of Dedication.  We don't know which feast this is but we find Jesus back in Jerusalem to celebrate with His disciples.  He has traveled south again for this occasion and He travels up to Jerusalem because physically you walked up to Jerusalem in elevation.   v.2 - Now there is in Jerusalem by the sheep gate a pool, which is called in Hebrew Bethesda, having five porticoes. The Apostle John gives us quite a bit of detail here.  We have Jesus' location in the city.  He is at the sheep gate probably named because that is wh...

Many blog writers look back over the year and give some statistics so I thought I would give it a try.  Here is my 2018 review. I started the blog in December of 2010 with the title  "Pole Barn Thoughts."   It changed to  "A to A flat"  when I accepted the call to Oglesby Union Church.  Now it is titled  "Living light and in the Light"  in regards to our next stage of ministry with Interim Pastor Ministries in the summer of 2019. The number of posts have fluctuated over the years. 2010 - 7 2011 - 173 2012 - 127 2013 - 81 2014 - 154 2015 - 315 2016 - 236 2017 - 185 2018 - 319 (Lord willing) That will make a total of 1597 posts over its lifetime. This past year involved books of the Bible devotionals of Ecclesiastes chapter 3 through end of the book, Lamentations, Haggai, Zechariah, and John chapters 1 and into chapter 5. I create and record a radio broadcast each Sunday and so we have 52 blog post...

We will finish chapter 4 of the Gospel According To John this morning.  John chapter 4 and verses 46 through 54 which read, v.46 - Therefore He came again to Cana of Galilee where He had made the water wine.  And there was a royal official whose son was sick at Capernaum. Jesus is back in Cana where the water was turned into wine at the wedding.  This was the Apostle John's first sign recorded that Jesus was the Messiah.  Jesus is approached by a royal official, most likely in service to King Herod Antipas, tetrarch of Galilee from 4 B.C. to A.D. 39.  The distance between Cana and Capernaum is about 16 miles.  So this royal official has traveled a distance to put himself in front of the miracle worker Jesus. v.47 - When he heard that Jesus had come out of Judea into Galilee, he went to Him and was imploring Him to come down and heal his son; for he was at the point of death. The royal official is begging Jesus to heal his son.  H...

Another beautiful Christmas Eve service in the books and a traveling day for us as we go the direction of Michigan this year.  Maybe next year I will decorate our palm tree in Florida if we are there at this time. Each Christmas is special to us but one back in 2011 was very special to Stephanie and I.  Christmas landed on a Sunday and all the children were home that year.  They picked up their instruments along with Stephanie and lead worship.  It was the year of cancer for me and I was still recovering from surgery in July and apparently a cold during this recording.  The first part of the recording are some of the greatest gifts that God has every given.  Anna is leading and on the acoustic guitar.  Ben is playing bass but you hear his male voice.  Stephanie is on the keys and singing.  Abe is playing electric guitar and Jason is on the drums and singing away.  I am truly a blessed man. Merry Christmas to you all. ...

Today's devotional verses are John chapter 4 and verses 39 through 45, which read, v.39 - From that city many of the Samaritans believed in Him because of the word of the woman who testified, "He told me all the things that I have done." Our account of Jesus with the Samaritan woman at Jacob's well continues on.  She has left her water pot and run back to town with a message.  It is not a message that glorifies her but rather exposes her.  She says to the town,  "I am a sinner.  Jesus told me so."   Jesus didn't tell her how great she was.  Jesus told her that she had told the truth and that she was in a relationship that was not God honoring.  This is her message to the people of the town.  Come see and hear the One who knows everything about you.  Because of this message, the town comes to Jesus to see and hear more of Him.  We usually don't think of this method when we talk about introducing people to Jesus....

The radio broadcast this morning is an adaption, for time restraints,  of "Burlap, Boys, and Christmas" by Dr. Ralph F. Wilson.  I hope you enjoy it and also realize again how much God loves each and everyone of us.  --Adam--

Today's devotional verses are John chapter 4 and verses 31 through 38, which read, v.31 - Meanwhile the disciples were urging Him, saying, "Rabbi, eat." The disciples have come back from town with some food for Jesus.  They find Him talking to a woman, a Samaritan woman.  They question this in their minds.  The Samaritan woman flees from their presence leaving the water-pot that she came with.  Maybe there are more questions going through their minds of why that happened but it is pushed aside as they get back to the main concern, their Rabbi's hunger.  Nicodemus focused on the physical, the Samaritan woman focused on the physical, and here are the disciples focused on the physical. v.32, 33 - But He said to them,  "I have food to eat that you do not know about."   So the disciples were saying to one another, "No one brought Him anything to eat, did he?" The disciples have followed suit to get stuck on the physical while Jes...

I love music.  I remember Christmases and receiving as a gift a little hand held AM/FM radio with its pull up antennae.  I would try to attach it to the handlebars of my bike so I could take that 9 volt powered box everywhere I went.   Later I would get a cassette player and then a boom box for my room.  Music was always playing in my life and it helped that I have an older brother who could play the guitar and the sounds of it and his voice would waft from his room into mine in the basement of our house on Lehman Road.   I took a year of piano lesson from Mrs. Hosbeck (wish I would have taken more) and then moved onto the trumpet to follow my brother in the bands that our small class "D" school offered.  I would inherit the singing voices of my mother and father and later in life pick up the guitar to play as well I as play the piano.  Being a pastor of small churches, I was up front many times leading the songs of old and the new so...

Today's devotional verses are John chapter 4 and verses 27 through 30, which read, v.27 - At this point His disciples came, and they were amazed that He had been speaking with a woman, yet no one said, "What do You seek?" or "Why do You speak with her?" Jesus has been having a conversation with a Samaritan woman at Jacob's well.  We have found out that this Samaritan woman is living in a relationship that is not God honoring.  This could be the reason she is coming to the well when the other women are not.  Jesus exposes her life but He also exposes His life to her.  Jesus has just proclaimed that He is the Messiah.  He is the One who they were waiting to come.  He is the One to declare all things.  At this point the disciples who went to town to get food are arriving back and they have not been privy to all that has been said. They reinforce what the woman questioned earlier about a Jewish man speaking to a Samaritan woman.  Wh...