There was a man named John who was sent by God to perform a specific task for him. John1:6 EFP
The apostle John
has just finished making a powerful statement regarding the Word of God. He has not yet divulged the identity of the
Word, but that will come later. For now,
the apostle suddenly changes gears and introduces another character in this
developing narrative.
We know the new
personality in this story is named John.
We don’t yet know to which John he is referring—himself (Matthew 4:21),
the Baptist (Matthew 3:1), the relative of the high Priest (Acts 4:6); Peter’s
father (John 21:35); or Mark, whose other name was John (Acts 12:12). He does clarify that this particular John was
sent from God, although he will not tell us for what he was sent until the next
verse.
Although this
statement is a description of a special person with what seems to be a unique
task to complete assigned to him by God, I can’t help but think it ought to be
the way people ought to describe us. I
remember my son Ruben asking me one day if certain people are born for no other
reason than to fulfill a specific mission.
I had trouble with that thought, since I considered that tantamount to
being used. But in retrospect, are we
not all created, called, or sent by God for a special purpose? What we do with our lives is the means
through which God can accomplish the unique purpose for which we were all called. What is said of John, or Peter, or Moses, can
be said of any of us at some level. Why
not? “There was a man named Ruben. He was sent by God.” If God sends us, there must be something
special He has called us to do. Are we
ready?
1 comment:
Again I am reading the passages in the hope that they explain themselves.
Guess I will find out in a bit when I read your blog entry, but are you using the Bible margin text references to draw the conclusions in your blog? Excluding references to the Book of John, my margin references point me to Isaiah, Matthew, Luke, Galatians, Hebrew, and 1st Peter.
There are three Book of John references. It doesn’t feel like cheating to read those:
John 3:16>
This verse is a margin reference to John 1:7. I guess the connecting thread is the word “believe”. Seems to me to fit better as a margin reference to John 1:12 because there are the connecting threads of “children” / “God” / and "believe".
The God that sent the man John to be a witness has a Son. (At this point, I am so NOT going to read anymore into this than some entity far superior to my scope of existing is trying to communicate to me in terms I can comprehend. Most all groups of humanoids for all time on this Planet have some grasp of family.
The God that sent the man John to be a witness wants it to be know that he/she is capable of love – his/her definition/description of love is sharing something/someone unique and precious to him/her … a Son. My act of believing in this Son has life giving properties. In fact, I can acquire the unique essence of godness – everlasting life.
This was a satisfying experience, but it feels like jumping ahead to read the last chapter of a good mystery novel. I’m not going to read these other two margin references, even though they are in the Book of John.
John 3:25-36
John 5:33-35
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