Owning It

Hearing about Jesus showing up in someone else's life.

Experiencing Jesus in your own.

Two very different thing aren't they?

The snapshot of Jesus with the woman at the well is the perfect example of this.

The woman comes to draw water out of the well and encounters Jesus.

They talk.

John 4:13-18 (ESV) 13 Jesus said to her, "Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty forever. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life."

15 The woman said to him, "Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water." 16 Jesus said to her, "Go, call your husband, and come here."

17 The woman answered him, "I have no husband." Jesus said to her, "You are right in saying, 'I have no husband'; 18 for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true."

Wow!
And it gets even more interesting....

John 4:25-26 (ESV) 25 The woman said to him, "I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes, he will tell us all things." 26 Jesus said to her, "I who speak to you am he."


This woman is so pumped up she takes off.

Without her water jar.

She's on a mission to tell everyone in town what has happened to her.

John 4:29 (ESV) 29 "Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?"


Her story had a huge impact:

John 4:39 (ESV) Many Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman's testimony, "He told me all that I ever did."

Her testimony led many to Christ.

But it led to something much deeper too.

John 4:40 So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them, and he stayed there two days. 41 And many more believed because of his word.

42 They said to the woman, "It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is indeed the Savior of the world."

First they heard about her experience.

And they believed... to a point.

But when the people experienced the presence of Christ for themselves they owned it.

It was now their story.

The same and yet unique.

Still settling for a faith that is lived through someone else's experience?

Or are you ready to experience the living Christ for yourself?

I wonder.