John 1-4

The Gospel of John was written so that all who read it will believe that Jesus is the Christ and the Son of God and to have life in his name. After studying only 4 chapters out of the 21 chapters of the gospel, I fully understand what he meant in John 20:30-31.

I remember being excited and glad that I know Christ. I wanted to be like Philip and the Samaritan woman who felt the urgency to call people to 'come and see' Christ for themselves. The things I noticed about Jesus are indescribable and I want to so badly for the people I know who do not know him to 'come and see' for themselves who he is. Nothing I say will compare to how much greater he is if they saw for themselves.

On a more personal note, I was really struck by John 3:19-21. God brought to light my own sins and how I am still in darkness. My fear of letting myself be fully exposed has kept me from truly following Christ. Those unconfessed sins have hurt me and my relationship with Christ in ways that I did not know existed. For the first time, it brought tears to my eyes last Wednesday afternoon as I sat in Prayer Ministry desperately praying to God for courage and his grace.

I can say that I can surely testify to John 1-4. I encourage all of us (even those not at Urbana) to study these chapters with a friend who doesn't know Christ the way we do because we never know when the most unlikely person will be transformed by the message presented in the scripture.