Pastor Bob DuPar
May 7, 2008

Journal Entry


Scripture

1 Samuel 1:1-2:21; John 5:1-23; Psalm 105:37-45; Proverbs 14:28-29.

Observation

1 Samuel 1:6 reminded me how terrible it is when we allow an area in which God has blessed us to be used as a means of hurting others who perhaps have not been blessed in the same way or to the same degree.

1 Samuel 1:27-28 is such a sweet story of surrender as Hannah presents Samuel to the Lord to be a servant of God his whole life. Hannah gave the object of her prayers, her dreams, her very life, back to God – not knowing that God would reward her for fulfilling her promise by blessing her later with 5 more children. So often I make empty promises to God; and, this was not an easy promise to keep. But, Hannah was a woman of her word and she did not take her vow lightly.

Jesus’ words in John 5:14 have been abused by many a preacher and teacher. Jesus was not saying that all physical infirmities are the result of sin (see John 9:2-3). But, apparently this man’s condition was the result of sin because Jesus specifically says in John 5:14, “See, you are well again. Stop sinning…”

John 5:18 is interesting because it shows us that the Jews understood the claim to be God’s Son to be a claim to equality with God. Perfection & deity can only beget perfection and deity. Sometimes when we look for proof texts on the deity of Christ we overlook this, not realizing what this meant in that culture.

John 5:19 speaks not to the impotence of Jesus apart from God’s power working through Him, but rather to the fact that Jesus did not act or heal or do anything that was contrary to or out of step with the character and actions of God the Father.

Finally, John 5:22 is timely after this last week’s sermon (5-4-08) about how God the Father is not some angry, unfair judge – since Jesus Himself is the one who will do all the judging (Matthew 25:31-46). God’s “entrusting all judgment to the Son” merely reflects another specific aspect of the roles of the Godhead.

Application

I need to take my promises to God more seriously. Today’s reading has inspired me to look closer at the book of Revelation to see if it speaks of “God” judging since we know Jesus will do this. This would be one more neat angle of arguing/providing evidence for the deity of Jesus.

Prayer

“God, thank You for Your Word. It never gets old! Thank You that I have the privilege of feeding upon it each day. Thank You for what You teach me.”