March 8, 2018

Behold God’s Redeeming Love

Willie James Jennings | Read Numbers 21:7-9 , Read John 3:14-21

(Image by: Pixabay)

Lectionary Week

March 5–11, 2018

Scripture Overview

Sometimes we get ourselves into trouble by our words and actions. It’s okay to admit it. It happens to all of us. The Israelites experienced this when their constant grumbling provoked God’s wrath in Numbers 21. Yet even in this story, God provides the means of salvation. The psalmist echoes the refrain that when we put ourselves in bad positions, we may cry out to the Lord for deliverance. We read in Ephesians that all of us were living in disobedience to God, but God has done all the work of reconciliation by grace given through Christ Jesus. John ties all this together, gesturing to the story in Numbers 21 to teach us that Christ is the means of restoration and salvation for all who believe in him.

Questions and Suggestions for Reflection

• Read Numbers 21:4-9. When has your complaining distorted your sense of reality? How do you maintain a sense of God’s presence?
• Read Psalm 107:1-3, 17-22. Consider implementing a practice of rising from sleep to give God thanks and to call to mind the many ways God works in your life.
• Read Ephesians 2:1-10. Does your sense of God’s salvation engender a sense of grace within you and a desire to do good? Why or why not?
• Read John 3:14-21. Do you consider yourself a creature of light or darkness? Why?

Respond by posting a prayer.

God gives life and light to us through the Son. Receiving this gift is more challenging than we often realize or admit to ourselves. These verses from John remind us that choosing life with the Son of God means not choosing a life of hiding from the truth. Hiding from...

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Loving and saving God, show me all the ways I hide from you and from myself. Guide me into the truth for the sake of Jesus. Amen.

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