Well, here at last is Part 5 of this series, concerning how the Lord Jesus interacted with the women who followed Him and those that He encountered as He traveled. We stopped in Part 4 at John 4:25-26 at which point, the Lord Jesus boldly declared to this despised woman that HE was the long-awaited-for Messiah. As a recap, this was a time, at least culturally, that Jewish men did not speak to women; barely did they speak to their wives or daughters, and most certainly they did not speak to Samaritans, let alone a Samaritan woman. So let us continue:

John 4:27

And upon this came His disciples, and marveled that He talked with the woman: yet no man said, What seekest thou? or Why talkest thou with her?

As we come upon this scene written, their culture is demonstrated in that they were clearly shocked that the Jewish Rabbi that they were following was clearly not behaving like any other Rabbi that they had ever seen or heard about. Yet they were too intimidated by the Lord Jesus' status as a Rabbi to question His behavior. It is at this point that in:

John 4:28-29

The woman then left her waterpot, and went her way into the city, and saith to the men, Come see a man, which told me all things that ever I did: is not this the Christ?

In that culture, because one had to walk to a community well, and women were the primary water carriers, women did not just haphazardly leave their water jars lying around the precincts of the town in which they lived. The water pot was a functional tool that they used each and every day, and even if they were relatively inexpensive to buy or to make, yet women did not just leave them anywhere they felt like leaving them. So what does this tell us about the Samaritan woman's state? She was obviously wildly excited that she had just heard from the Lord Jesus' lips that HE was the Messiah. However, because obviously she lived within the confines of her own culture as well, and she knew that the word of a woman was doubted, unless of course there were at least two other women who could vouch for the first woman; she knew that she would have to get the men interested in coming out to see for themselves this prophet at the well.

In the meanwhile, Jesus' disciples were trying to get their Master to eat some food, since it was now noon time, but the Lord Jesus said:

John 4:34

...My meat is to do the will of Him that sent me, and to finish His work.

Totally uninterested in physical food at this point, the Lord Jesus launches off into a teaching moment for His disciples and questions them with:

John 4:35

Say not ye, There are yet four months, and comes harvest? Behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest.

At this time of the year, this was most likely the barley harvest that would have been ready in the next four months, and it would have looked like the field was white. However, it is thought that the Lord Jesus was viewing all of the towns people that were by now crossing the fields to come towards Him and primarily they would have been wearing white clothing.

John 4:39, 42

And many of the Samaritans of that city believed on Him for the saying of the woman, which testified, He told me all that ever I did.

And said unto the woman, Now we believe, not because of thy saying: for we have heard Him ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world.

This despised woman with whom even the other women in the town would not openly socialize with, was chosen by the Messiah, the Lord Jesus, to be the first one ever to hear openly that He was proclaiming to be the Messiah to the World. Even the men then grudgingly acknowledged that she was right, even though they hedged their comments with, "Now we believe, not because of thy saying..." Okay, right...it was because of her own word of testimony that He was THAT prophet....the one that everyone had heard about and up to that point were still waiting for, had just now identified Himself to a woman who in the view of her contemporary society, didn't amount to much in their eyes.

It is interesting to see how throughout the Gospels, the Lord Jesus interacts with the women of His day in an openly accepting manner, thereby letting these women know that He valued them as people in their own right, even as the Creator, the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ had originally created both man and woman, creating them as equal beings in His sight, and said, "It is good!"

If you would like to read more about the passages that I covered here in Part Five concerning Biblical women and especially about the Gospel of John 3-4, I have written a book titled, "The Holy, the Common and the Despised." It is available for purchase for $10.00 and you can follow this link to New Covenant Christian Ministries' website to obtain a copy for yourself at http://www.newcovenantchristianministries.org/bookstore/id21.html

God Bless.

Posted by Rev. J. at New Covenant Christian at 1:06 PM CST

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So, why September 11^th? As far the spiritual aspect of this day…it is this writer’s belief that nothing done under the sun is without its spiritual component. I covered some of this in another article When was Christ born? (read the entire article).

With the advent of super computers, the calendars have been ran backwards, and along with the known movements of the stars in the galaxy, it was prophesied that the Star of Bethlehem was excessively bright, perhaps a super nova and in conjunction with Regulus, a King star and Jupiter, the King planet. An approximate date found would be that of 3 B.C. and most likely on September 11th for that year which would I have the stars and planets at their brightest, which is what the Magi would have been viewing. Also, most likely they would have first viewed this phenomenon at the time of his birth and began to travel towards the apex.

So herein is posited that this was a spiritual attack upon our nation by those who oppose Christianity, whether or not they deliberately chose it or were moved spiritually by unseen forces. Even if those that chose to attack did not themselves comprehend the unseen demonic forces that were propelling them, nevertheless the spiritual impact was manifested in the worldly realm. Another component that should be examined are the numbers themselves: the number 9 in the biblical sense stands for the “end of things” and if you break down the number into its factor of 3, you have 3+3+3=9, which when taking the number 3, it individually stands for “completely, completely, complete,” because there are three sets of 3. This is exactly what the scene looked like on that horrific day, “complete destruction.” Further, if we look at the number of 11, its biblical meaning stands for “confusion,” which again, is exactly what was happening at ground zero. The number 11 only has a factor of itself and the number 1, but since there are two 1’s (as they are written out only), their biblical significance is correlated to the concept of GOD. However, there are two 1’s and the number 2 stands for “established.” Now we have the concept of “established by God,” which according to Muslim extremists would be their god, Allah. There is also the surface meaning of the numbers of 9-1-1, which of course is our emergency telephone number to summon First Responders, who, of course were called to the scene by thousands of witnesses that day.

Next, I would like to examine some Scriptures and to look at their viewpoints. Children raised within the Muslim religion are told from childhood that Islam has two enemies, and that these are Christians and Jews. America has a large population of both religious adherents. Further, their prophet expressed hatred for both religions during his lifetime. Another aspect of the Islamic peoples, are that they believe and refer to the West as “the great whore.” This leads this writer to the Scripture in:

Revelation 17:1 and 19:2

¹Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and spoke with me, saying, “Come here, I will show you the judgment of the great harlot who sits on many waters, ²with whom the kings of the earth committed acts of immorality, and those who dwell on the earth were made drunk with the wine of her immorality.” ³And he carried me away in the Spirit into a wilderness; and I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast, full of blasphemous names, having seven heads and ten horns. ⁴The woman was clothed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls, having in her hand a gold cup full of abominations and of the unclean things of her immorality, ⁵and on her forehead a name was written, a mystery, “BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.

BECAUSE HIS JUDGMENTS ARE TRUE AND RIGHTEOUS; for He has judged the great harlot who was corrupting the earth with her immorality, and HE HAS AVENGED THE BLOOD OF HIS BOND-SERVANTS ON HER.” ³And a second time they said, “Hallelujah! HER SMOKE RISES UP FOREVER AND EVER.”

This Scripture reference is being used because of the reference that Muslims have made regarding the West. Herein, we see that there are references to the "kings of the earth" and clearly New York City is a focal destination for those who are heads of State of the world powers and other ambassadors of foreign countries. Also, NYC certainly has its huge variety of "worldly delights," my euphemism for "acts of immorality." Next, there is a Scripture reference to "gold and precious stones and pearls," which connotes a huge trading mechanism that attracts those who trade in the goods of the world. Finally, in 19:2 reference is made to the "whore's destruction" with the phrase, "her smoke rises up."

So for the radical religious extremists, this perhaps is the verse that they have selected in obtaining their name for the West. Perhaps also, the reason for their selection of the World Trade Center, both for the physical fact that “world trading” was going on inside these buildings and for the Scriptural reference that God has “judged the great harlot…and the smoke rising up…”

Upon looking at some of the possible spiritual applications to the events of that tragic day and the days following it, these applications are not meant to detract from the solemn memorials that will be in evidence tomorrow, which will be the 10^thanniversary of that never-to-be-forgotten-day in our history. It is also not to ameliorate the actions of the perpetrators by trying to explain away the "whys" of their actions.

On that day, America lost thousands of her brave citizens, not only in New York City, but at the Pentagon as well. Plus, tomorrow will bring a fresh resurgence of grief for the families of those that lost their loved ones on that day. Let us honor and remember those that lost their lives on that day.

Posted by Rev. J. at New Covenant Christian at 7:23 PM CDT

Updated: Saturday, 10 September 2011 7:38 PM CDT

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© September 2011 by Rev. J. Robinson

Jeremiah 19:14-18

Will a man leave the snow of Lebanon which comes from the rock of the field? or shall the cold flowing waters that come from another place be forsaken? Because my people have forgotten me, they have burned incense to vanity, and they have caused them to stumble in their ways from the ancient paths, to walk in paths, in a way not cast up; to make their land desolate, and a perpetual hissing; every one that passes thereby shall be astonished, and wag his head. I will scatter them as with an east wind before the enemy; I will shew them the back, and not the face, in the day of their calamity.  Then said they, Come, and let us devise devices against Jeremiah; for the law shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the Word from the prophet.  Come, let us smite him with the tongue, and let us not give heed to any of his words.

Israel had tired of hearing the admonitions of the Lord from the prophet Jeremiah, who obviously was intonating dire warnings from the Lord God Himself.  When people (whether or not they consider themselves to be the people of God) rebel against the Lord God, and upon continually hearing prophetic utterances declaring that they need to repent, a heart that becomes hardened is often the result.  This is what can be observed in this passage; so let us look at:

Jeremiah 19:18c

Come, let us smite him with the tongue, and let us not give heed to any of his words.

The heart being hardened is what produces this sort of response, even from people that consider themselves to be born again Christians.  This is not something that most people like to think about, let alone talk about, so when the Holy Spirit begins to convict people, this will be the ultimate response.    Lets look at a passage in Acts which confirms this:

Acts 7:54-58

When they heard these things they were cut to the heart (conviction), and they gnashed on him with their teeth.  But he, being full of the Holy Spirit, looked up stedfastly into heaven, and saw the Glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God, and said, Behold, I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing on the right hand of God.  Then they cried with a loud voice, and stopped their ears, and ran upon him with one accord, and cast him out of the city, and stoned him, and the witnesses laid down their clothes at a young man's feet, whose name was Saul.

Imagine...grown men putting their hands upon their hears to shut out the words of Stephen.  But they weren't just words that Stephen was speaking, it was the Holy Spirit that was speaking through Stephen.  This is why these people felt convicted and were cut to the heart.  They knew that what they just heard was an accurate description of their spiritual state and so they hated the one who was bearing the message.  If I speak words, they are just my words and they might contain some power or they may not.  But if I am led under the unction of the Holy Spirit, then my words cease to be "my words" and they become the "words of the Holy Spirit", with POWER AND AUTHORITY.

But as this passage depicts, when they were convicted, the first thing that they wanted to do was to cause the irritation to go away, even if it was to murder the irritation.  Now let us return to Jeremiah, which upon further consideration, this is what was happening to these people.  They were being convicted and they wanted Jeremiah to be quiet and speak no more.  However, they were not to the point of murdering Jeremiah, but they were going to set up a campaign of lies and innuendoes against the prophet.

Jeremiah 19:18c

Come, let us smite him with the tongue, and let us not give heed to any of his words.

Often, when a person stands up and makes an apology for the Word of God, the devil determines to try and destroy the believer by discrediting his/her testimony by belittling, spewing forth lies and innuendoes in an attempt to get them to be quiet and speak the Word of God no longer.  We as the people of God are to make an "apology," which in the Greek, is the word is Απολογια, or apologia, which means to make a cogent defense, or a strong defense.

Revelation 12:10-13

And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, now is come salvation, strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night.  And they overcame him by the BLOOD of the LAMB, and by the WORD of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto death.  Therefore rejoice ye heavens, and you that dwell in them.  Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knows that he has but a short time.  And when the dragon saw that he was cast unto the earth, he persecuted the woman which brought forth the man child.

So as Jeremiah was so doing, so are we to be busy occupying ourselves by carrying out the business of our Lord Jesus Christ.  We are to be making an Απολογια, or a strong and cogent defense of the Word of God.  Let the _evil rant and rage as he hears us make bold proclamations of the Glory of the Risen Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, our King!

Posted by Rev. J. at New Covenant Christian at 9:30 AM CDT

Updated: Saturday, 3 September 2011 3:52 PM CDT

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© July 2011 by Rev. J. Robinson 

This prophecy was given to me by the Lord Jesus Christ on June 22, 2011 at 9:00 am. but I am now posting this on the celebration of our Independence Day, July 4, 2011 

"THUS SAYS THE LORD!  Return unto ME O land, even to THE GOD of thy beginnings.  Return and I will once again lift thee and cause thy lands to produce and thy hands to prosper.  I shall lift thee to the heights of the world powers.  Weep and repent even of your sins before me.  Repentance of a truly true nature and not one of only your lips.  For cannot THE LORD see the difference?  Cannot HE tell if your repentance is sure?  return and I shall bless thee abundantly!"

Posted by Rev. J. at New Covenant Christian at 12:01 AM CDT

Updated: Saturday, 3 September 2011 3:59 PM CDT

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Mood:  cool

© July 2011 by Rev. J. Robinson 

Last night on June 30, 2011 I was able to attend the Poet's and Painters reading at the Prairie Alliance, H.D. Smith Gallery located in the Hoogland Center for the Arts, in Springfield, Illinois and presented my poem based on the inspiration obtained from the artwork of Tracey Maras, with her painting titled, "Wildflowers."

It went well with 14 out of 18 poets that were scheduled to read being able to attend.  Some of the artists were also present to hear the poems that were inspired by their artwork. 

In November 2011, there will be another reading, but this time the poets have been required to submit their poetry and various artists will create an artistic piece in whatever medium they prefer based on the poem's inspiration for them.  This should be interesting.  I do not know at this time if any artist will select the poem that I submitted, nor who might in the near future.  But it was good.

Following is the poem that I read last night.  The artist, Tracey Maras could not attend the reading at the gallery, but she requested that all poets that had selected her artwork be videotaped so that she could hear the poem being read while her artwork was especially displayed for all to see and hear.

A Hidden Place in my Heart

© 2011 Janice J. Robinson

June 14, 2011

The little, hidden cove by the way

Covered in cool greens…  Sprinkled with purple surprises

And stars of yellow gaze upwards with soft sweet sighs

The blue pond over yonder where I dreamed up dreams

Balancing on rocks submerged, there I stood

asking questions of all the “Whys” of childhood

The way things worked….Or I thought they should

Hey… is that “Mopsey, Flopsey…or Cottontail?”

I can still see my toy boats sporting their sails

Snuggled down in the satin grasses

Watching the ants traipse back and forth in endless passes

At least they know where they’re going

Little songbirds flutter against the leaves above my head

Singing songs that only they know

But it’s still pretty…though I wish I could sing along

Then I whistle…and they cock their heads to listen

Trying to interpret…I wonder… Do they understand my song?

I look intently at the gnarled wood next to my face

Posted by Rev. J. at New Covenant Christian at 5:39 PM CDT

Updated: Friday, 18 November 2011 1:18 PM CST

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© November 2010 by Rev. J. Robinson 

Since the creation of this Blog has come after the release of my second book, this is in a way an introduction to "The Holy, The Common and The Despised.  It is a selective commentary on the Gospel of John 3:1-4:42 covering three distinctive pericopes, starting with Nicodemus, the ruler of the people who meets the True Ruler of the People.  The second pericope deals with the unnamed people being baptized by John the Baptist.  The third pericope deals with the Messiah's interaction with the woman at the well and how the Lord honored her one hot day at noon.

If you would like to purchase a copy, please go to:

http://www.newcovenantchristianministries.org/bookstore

the cost is $10.00 plus s/h.

God Bless you,

Rev. J.

Posted by Rev. J. at New Covenant Christian at 1:03 PM CST

Updated: Saturday, 3 September 2011 4:04 PM CDT

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© November 2010 by Rev. J. Robinson 

I noted in the site that I would now be writing for Examiner.com and I am.  I just published the latest article and it's title is: "And...They're OFF!!"  It is about the Black Friday 2010 along with its spiritual implications.

I thank you in advance as well, for if you read it out on the Examiner.com site, their site tallies the traffic on my page and I receive a small stipend for writing.

As of now, there are three other articles out there.  I will try to post them here in this blog, but I do hope you help me earn a little money for my writing.

God Bless you,

Rev. J.

Posted by Rev. J. at New Covenant Christian at 10:53 PM CST

Updated: Saturday, 3 September 2011 4:06 PM CDT

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