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… JUST ONE SPECIFIC PERSON!

Discussion in 'Other Christian Denominations' started by atpollard, Oct 1, 2020.

  1. atpollard

    atpollard Well-Known Member

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    … JUST ONE SPECIFIC PERSON!

    "For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to Him." - [2 Chronicles 16:9a NKJV]

    All of the recent talk about “dispensations” and “covenants” and “races” and “nations” had sort of gotten me a little down. Then I started thinking about “my Jesus” and was struck by a curious thread that I saw weaving its way through scripture connecting events from book to book and place to place. It started with the “Woman at the Well” [the popular story from John 4:1-26].

    So let’s read it:

    “Therefore, when the Lord knew that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John (though Jesus Himself did not baptize, but His disciples), He left Judea and departed again to Galilee. But He needed to go through Samaria.

    So He came to a city of Samaria which is called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Now Jacob’s well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied from His journey, sat thus by the well. It was about the sixth hour.

    A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give Me a drink.” For His disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.

    Then the woman of Samaria said to Him, “How is it that You, being a Jew, ask a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?” For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.

    Jesus answered and said to her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.”

    The woman said to Him, “Sir, You have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. Where then do You get that living water? Are You greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well, and drank from it himself, as well as his sons and his livestock?”

    Jesus answered and said to her, “Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.”

    The woman said to Him, “Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw.”

    Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.”

    The woman answered and said, “I have no husband.”

    Jesus said to her, “You have well said, ‘I have no husband,’ for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband; in that you spoke truly.”

    The woman said to Him, “Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship.”

    Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”

    The woman said to Him, “I know that Messiah is coming” (who is called Christ). “When He comes, He will tell us all things.”

    Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am He.”
    - [John 4:1-26 NKJV]​

    Jesus did not come to save the “nation of Samaria” or the “Samarian race” or the “tribe of the city of Sychar” or even the “household of the unnamed woman”. God did arrange a "foreordained" moment (a God ordained appointment) where Jesus the Christ would be alone at a well with a desperate woman that needed to meet with Him, and had no clue that she did. Had the “good people” of the city of Sychar been at the well, the woman would not have been there. Had the “righteous disciples” been with Jesus they would have disrupted any possible “moment” between their “teacher” and a Samaritan woman. So God sent Jesus to a well looking for JUST ONE SPECIFIC PERSON that desperately needed Him.

    As I started to look through scripture, I saw example after example of a God who does not seek for himself “people”, but goes looking for ONE SPECIFIC PERSON to shine his light of grace upon. We are the people of God, but God is the God of individual people welded into a family by His love.

    Does anyone else see examples of God looking for JUST ONE SPECIFIC PERSON in Scripture?
     
  2. AustinC

    AustinC Well-Known Member

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    Gideon, David, Moses, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, just to name some off the top of my head.
     
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  3. SGO

    SGO Well-Known Member

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    Elijah:

    "And I,
    even I only,
    am left;
    and they seek my life,
    to take it away."
    1 Kings 19:10

    I know it doesn't quite meet your criteria but he was alone at the time.

    And not in the scripture:

    He saved me while I was walking home on a street, coming from the laundromat, carrying a bag of laundry, alone.
     
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  4. RighteousnessTemperance&

    RighteousnessTemperance& Well-Known Member

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    Certainly Jesus did that. Certainly God does that. And he is weaving everything together throughout that one’s life.

    What strikes me most is that, as screwed up as she was, she wasn’t dreading but actually expecting the Messiah, and was overjoyed when he came.

    “Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners--of whom I am the worst.” 1 Tim 1:15
     
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  5. SGO

    SGO Well-Known Member

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    Yea.
    She was so overjoyed she forgot her water jug;
    she had living water!
     
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  6. Quantrill

    Quantrill Active Member

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    I don't understand why discussions about covenants, dispensations, races, or nations would bring anyone down. Of course salvation can be rendered down to just me and Jesus. But, is that not the first step? After that we grow in the knowledge of God and Scripture. At least, we are supposed to.

    It is certainly true that the individual is important to God and Christ. Christ was clear on this. He would leave the 99 for the one sheep that was lost. (Luke 15:3-7). Or as with the woman searching for the one lost coin. (15:8-10). Or as with Zacchaeus. (Luke 19:1-10) "This day is salvation come to this house" (19:9)

    It is true also that all of the lost as a total are important to God and Christ. (Luke 19:10) "For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost."

    So, who can number the people who will be saved? None. It is and will be a great number. And though we cannot comprehend it, Jesus will know each one, and have a relationship with each one.

    But, this is all made possible through God's work in the covenants, dispensations, races, and nations. It is God's work using these that implements the salvation down to the single individual.

    Quantrill
     
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