Day 299, or October the 26th. Spreading the Good
News. Our thoughts today are rooted in John chapter
4, verse 39. Many of the Samaritans from that
town believed in him, because of the woman's
testimony, he told me everything I ever did.
And now the big picture surrounding this verse.
having reminded us that even religious good living
people like Nicodemus need to be saved john goes
on to make the case for low life like the hated
Samaritans and remarkably shows that they can
be saved too what's more it even works with their
women animosity between the Samaritans and the
Jews goes back seven hundred years right back
to the Assyrian invasion which scattered the
northern tribes and mixed the jews with other
conquered people who were gentiles this produced
a mixed -race nation which the jews hated because
they had once been jewish but now had intermarried
with pagans and were no longer part of the chosen
people of God This hatred continued on until
the fall of Jerusalem in A .D. 70. Now that's
a long time for any feud to last. Almost a thousand
years. And now today's action step. A major part
of the ministry to the Samaritans was the witness
of an unknown woman of bad reputation. Some years
ago, I was teaching in a women's prison when,
without warning, my accompanying warder told
me that he would have to leave for a while to
attend to an incident. He showed me where the
panic button was and told me to push it if necessary.
I ignored the sudden change of atmosphere and
continued teaching the life of Jesus to about
twenty women. When I got to the account of the
woman at the well, the tense atmosphere dissolved
and they were all smiling in astonishment that
this must mean God loved them too. I confirmed
that they were right and the Bible proved it.
You don't need to go into a prison to find people
who are convinced that God rejects them because
of past sins. Keep an eye open and enjoy disillusioning
them from the pages of Scripture.