What I am thinking about as I stare off into nothingness

But anyone who examines this evidence will come to stake his life on this: that God Himself is the truth.  John 3:33

The man who refuses to believe in the Son will not see life; he lives under the wrath of God.  John 3:36

Now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John (although Jesus himself did not baptize, but only his disciples), He left Judea and departed again for Galilee. John 4:1

So I have spent the past few days walking through a Bible study that Heather is putting together for the Vineyard on listening prayer.  And the need to slow down.  Heart and soul and spirit open to receive from the Spirit Who reveals God’s truth.  

And how John, after this pause, examining and reflecting on all that he had seen and heard and lived, was willing to stake his life on this: that Jesus was from God, spoke the truth, had unlimited access to the Spirit, and In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, the Word was God.  

And those who believe Him are in the light.  And those who refuse, are in the dark, the outer darkness with the wrath of God poured out on injustice and evil.  The choice is ours.  Meditating on the wrath of God.  The wrath of God against us, both present and to come, has been quenched.  Romans 5:10 The fierce wrath of God, as detailed in Revelation.

And just the incidental thought of how Jesus lived his day-to-day decisions, what motivated him.  Reading about a jillion versions of John 4:1, one of those little verses that I never really noticed as I raced back and forth through Scripture, I suddenly got it.  Jesus wasn’t about silly little arguments- who was greater, who had the most followers, who was “winning.”  Things were digressing into what was not important, so he left.  He was about His Father’s business and simply chose to stay focused.  Which led him to the unexpected yet foreordained: the woman at the well.  

And as I consider Who He was and how He lived, I betcha that when He went by Himself to lonely places at night to pray, that He was not doing the talking, not babbling on and one as the pagans do, but He was doing the listening.  Our Father Who art in heaven, holy be Your name.  

And James, reading and rereading James yesterday all the way through in one fell swoop.  Out loud.  Trying to be a hearer.  

Don’t I beg you, only hear the message, but put it into practice; otherwise you are merely deluding yourselves. The man who simply hears and does nothing about it is like a man catching the reflection of his own face in a mirror. He sees himself, it is true, but he goes on with whatever he was doing without the slightest recollection of what sort of person he saw in the mirror. But the man who looks into the perfect mirror of God’s law, the law of freedom, and makes a habit of so doing, is not the man who sees and forgets. He puts that law into practice and he wins true happiness.

And doer.