Musings on The Book of John 1-3

My friend Carol Shlack posted a challenge on Facebook a while ago...read through the book of John and post verses and passages that stand out or speak to us. I decided to take on the challenge. While I was good at posting at first, life got busy and my postings fell to the wayside. So I decided to pick up my journal and write my thoughts and musings as I read through John.

I am about halfway through the book and decided to blog about all God has shown me...we will see how far I get in this post, with more to come!

John 1

John 1:14 "The Word became flesh and dwelt among us and we saw His glory"...I had never noticed the phrase "and we saw His glory" before. My church has a big focus on the glory of God...how cool it is that we can see His glory!

John 1:23 "He said, 'I am a voice of one crying in the wilderness, 'Make straight the way of the Lord,'...this was just a cool verse that stood out to me!

John 1:27 "It is He who comes after me, the thong of whose sandal I am not worthy to untie."...wow!

John 1:31, 33 John the Baptist is speaking, "I did not recognize Him"...I wonder what he means by this. Had he not seen Jesus in a long time or what was it that caused John not to recognize Him?

John 1:36-37 "and he looked upon Jesus as He walked, and said, "Behold, the Lamb of God!" The two disciples heard him speak and they followed Jesus." WOW! how powerful John's words were...they heard John speak and they followed Jesus...would I have done the same?

John 2

John 2:4 "And Jesus said to her, "woman, what does that have to do with us? My hour has not yet come." Jesus is speaking to His mother when she told him the wedding had run out of wine. I find it interesting that Jesus says His hour has not yet come and then proceeds to do the miracle anyway. what made Him perform the miracle?

John 2:19-20 "Jesus answered and said to them, 'destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.' The Jews then said, 'it took forty six years to build this temple, and you will raise it up in three days?'" this must have totally puzzled the Jews!

John 3

John 3:14-21 "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up; so that whoever believes will in Him have eternal life. For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But he who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God." this passage is awesome! most of us are familiar with John 3:16, but the verses surrounding are powerful!

^{John 3:27-36 "}John answered and said, 'A man can receive nothing unless it has been given him from heaven. You yourselves are my witnesses that I said, 'I am not the Christ,' but, 'I have been sent ahead of Him.'He who has the bride is the bridegroom; but the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom's voice So this joy of mine has been made full. He must increase, but I must decrease. He who comes from above is above all, he who is of the earth is from the earth and speaks of the earth He who comes from heaven is above all. What He has seen and heard, of that He testifies; and no one receives His testimony. He who has received His testimony has set his seal to this, that God is true. For He whom God has sent speaks the words of God; for He gives the Spirit without measure. The Father loves the Son and has given all things into His hand. He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him."

My prayer is similar to John's, that I would decrease and God would increase...He is above all!