The son of one of Herod’s royal officials was close to death. The official traveled 18 miles up to Cana in the hope of successfully pleading with Jesus to return with him to Capernaum to heal his son….
Category: Spiritual Growth
People die without water. When someone is far beyond thirsty, a glass of water is worth more to them than all the world’s gold. At age 16, I got heat stroke in Florida…after fishing all day in the hot sun because I forgot to bring drinking water. That was just a single day.
John the Baptist was a humble guy, but some of John’s followers became jealous when some others began to follow Jesus. They didn’t like the competition.
God the Father sent us His One and Only Son, so that through our faith in Jesus Christ, we could be born again by the Holy Spirit. We who believe in Him, have turned from the darkness of this world’s lies to the light and glory of Christ’s truth. We have moved from death to life. Therefore, we are no longer condemned by God, and we will not perish—unlike those who refuse to believe. Continue reading “From Death to Life – John 3:1-21”
The miracle of water into wine was, according the Apostle John, a ‘sign’. Was it a sign that Jesus cared about weddings? He does, but there’s a lot more going on here than catering a wedding. When John designates a miracle as a sign, he’s stating that that act, in particular, displays the glory of God in Christ.
The backdrop of this miracle is the Old Testament passages depicting Israel as the unfaithful vine that produced bad fruit (Jer 2:21; 12:10). Jesus, however, is the true vine of God (Jn 15:1–3), and we are the branches. His fruit will be the finest God’s vineyard ever produced. In other words, God saved His best wine for last. This sign declares that Jesus is the faithful Messiah. His ministry will end by dying on the cross—when His hour has come (John 7:30; 8:20; 12:23,27; 13:1; 17:1)—but this first sign, signaled its inauguration.
Let’s allow the Father to prune us, so we may produce more fruit (Jn 15:2). “Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting,” (Ps 139:23–24, NIV).
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Dr. Rob Oberto is the award-winning author of “Intimacy With God: Extraordinary miracles that opened a skeptic’s heart to God” available from Amazon.
©2017 Rob Oberto, All Rights Reserved.
The Lord has placed people in our lives who, like John, Andrew, and Philip, introduced us to Jesus. Sometimes He sought us out, as He did Philip. In Christ, God called us saying, “Follow Me!” He already knew us before we followed Him. He still knows our thoughts, our character, the meditations of our heart, and where we are at all times.
We continue to follow Jesus because He is the Lamb of God, the Messiah, the One Moses wrote about in the Law, the Son of God, the King of Israel, the Word incarnate. Knowing that He is always with us is a great comfort. He knows our anxious thoughts and the challenges we face. Lord, let us see You in all we do today. Help us to overcome our challenges, and to give You thanks when You do!
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Dr. Rob Oberto is the award-winning author of “Intimacy With God: Extraordinary miracles that opened a skeptic’s heart to God” available from Amazon.
©2017 Rob Oberto, All Rights Reserved.
God’s glorious presence filled the tabernacle that Moses built in the wilderness, and the temple that Solomon built in Jerusalem. However, Jesus Christ is the supreme revelation of God’s glory. He is God in the flesh. In Him God dwelt, or, more accurately in the Greek, “tabernacled” among us. The love of God the Father, sent His Son, the eternal Word, into the world to give us true life and true light, and to baptize us with the Holy Spirit.
Today, afresh, we can receive Him into our lives and so proclaim Jesus Christ as the glory of the One and Only Son. Today, afresh, we can proclaim that through our faith in Him, and by the Father’s will, we have been granted the right to be His adopted children.
May the glorious light and life of Christ be evident in all we do this day.
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Dr. Rob Oberto is the award-winning author of “Intimacy With God: Extraordinary miracles that opened a skeptic’s heart to God” available from Amazon.
©2017 Rob Oberto, All Rights Reserved.
“Discipleship is a tricky business sometimes,” began the man introduced one Sunday morning as the head of the prison ministry. “You don’t always know how new believers are internalizing Scriptural truths, or some aspect of Christianity that you are explaining. They can parrot the right words back, but they might misunderstand those words – significantly sometimes.”
Such was the case with one prisoner — Jim let’s say. Jim was convicted of bank robbery and sent to the Monroe Correctional Complex in Monroe, WA (USA).
A few years ago, I attended a Christian men’s retreat at a beautiful, rugged lodge nestled in the thin air of the Colorado Rockies. It was a well-organized and spiritually meaty retreat. A few years prior, I attended one at the same location. Both retreats aimed right for the heart: no hype, no fluff. I like that.
Healing prayer was the topic of the Saturday morning session. I was familiar with it. I had been practicing and teaching healing prayer for twelve years. The leader and his team did an excellent job demonstrating it to all 430 men in attendance. The follow-up assignment was for the group of men in each cabin to duplicate the leaders’ example. I was curious how this would go since most attendees had not done this before, but I also knew that healing prayer was a work of God, not of men. I looked forward to what He would do. Usually, if we cooperate with God a little, He’ll do a lot.
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