Conversations with the Rabbi (A 21- day Devotional on the Gospel of John)

Written by On Thursday, 19 December 2019 20:50
Conversations with the Rabbi (A 21- day Devotional on the Gospel of John)

At the begining of the year I talked about going up a certain mountain. As I walked down the mountain I was sure about one thing that God wanted me to do. To write a devotional on the Gospel of John based on what God had been teaching me and showing over several years. There is a common string of thoughts that I saw as I read and listened to the Gospel of John but I was not sure how to communicate it. This is what has become of it, I can only pray that there is some justice done to it.

I don't believe that I have read any Bible Book as much as the Gospel of John. I also didn't think that I had a favorite book of the Bible until I started working on this. It is as I listened to the audio Bible that I realized how conversational the book was and I started to pay attention. If you listen to the Bible, I highly recommend doing this for the Gospel of John; you will be able to pick out the urgency and desperation that Jesus had for the Jews to believe Him and in Him. Throughout the book, Jesus reaches out to the unbelieving Jews to explain to them why they need to believe what He is saying and teaching.

Of all the Gospels, this is the one where I have seen Jesus demonstrated as a teacher the most. In John 13:13 Jesus says that it is right that the disciples call Him teacher because that's essentially who He is. A little fun fact: the name/word Rabbi or its equivalent Rabboni is mentioned eight times in the Gospel of John compared to the other Gospels in the NIV translation (Mathew 4, Mark 4, Luke 0). A great Bible studying tip I have been using is to look out for repeated words in the passage of scripture I am going through to pick up the theme and in studying John, this becomes especially valuable to do. Strong's concordance defines the word Rabbi as an official title of honor whereas Thayer defines it as a title used by Jews to address their teachers. In teaching, there is an exchange of words as knowledge and information is transfered from one person to another. We see a lot of this in the Gospel of John.

A mental stronghold is a habitual pattern of thought, built into one's belief system.

Strongholds can be subtle and many times require God’s intervention to bring them to our attention. They can cause us to receive new information in a certain false way or even keep us from receiving it at all.

In John’s Gospel, we see Jesus' desire to change paradigms, perceptions and beliefs about the messiah and about God and He does this through teaching conversations. He also uses signs (miracles) but John records the least number of miracles compared to the other three Gospels. John records only 7 miracles compared to the 19 in Mathew and Mark and the 20 in Luke. That is a significant difference. What we have instead, is a lot of exchange of words between Jesus and the people He meets.

This devotional is not a stand-alone; use it with your Bible. Take time to read the whole chapter and zero in on the specific verses and conversations highlighted in each chapter. As you go through these conversations, pray that God would open your spiritual eyes to see. Where you hold similar strongholds, pray that the strongholds would come down and that you would believe the truth that Jesus Christ the Rabbi is offering you.

Download the complete devotional on this link (http://bit.ly/34Axvyc)

PS: When you get a copy of the Alone with God Journal you will also get an expanded edition of this Devotional that comes with additional pages filled with worksheets to help you exercise a Bible Study Methods for your personal time with God.

 

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