Encountering Jesus ~ Returning to an Old Series... One I've been wanting AND meaning to finish for a long time now...

...encountering Jesus.

It has been quite a few years since Amina, our pastor's wife, asked me if I'd teach ladies' Bible study once a month at our Harobanda church. The first few times, she gave me a specific topic to teach... but before long, I was coming up with my own ideas.

The Lord impressed upon me a need to work through the Gospel of John - not just for those  ladies at church - to strengthen their confidence and belief in God and to give them assurance of their future with Him - but also for myself. Throughout my life, I've been told that John's Gospel is one of the best places to take new Jesus followers, and I wanted to understand why. I started by reading the 20 plus chapters, start to finish, in one setting several times. I discovered that while some of the simplest, most straightforward teachings of Jesus permeate the text of John, there is a profundity challenges me to my core afresh each time I sit down to dig in! 

The author of John clearly states his purpose for writing yet another account of the life of Christ. This takes place near the very end of the book, right after Thomas (the doubting dude) professes that he truly is standing before His Lord and Savior. Then John continues writing: 

"Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name." (John 20.30-31) 

We worked through a good chunk of the first half of the book, but then we went on home assignment for a year... the ladies finished up John without me... and after our return to Niger, we totally took off on another topic. 

Now I've decided to go back and finish what I started... incorporating this series into my regular Multitude Monday - 1000 Gifts post. I'm pretty sure that God's been prodding me, too - why else would I have this desire!

After all, of all the things for which I'm thankful ~ the fact that I encountered Jesus is, without question, right at the top of the list!

this week's gratitude list:

(#'s 3267 - 3287)

long ago encounters with Jesus written that I might believe

today's encounters with Jesus, happening so that I confidently continue believing

feverish night that will hopefully lead to little girl kicking this cold once and for all

cuddly kitties putting up with sick little girl

little girl who worked hard not to panic when I was steaming her in the shower, the power went off, all went pitch black... and I had to leave her for a few minutes to go find, light and bring a candle

peanut butter and honey on baguette with an apple for breakfast

culling through our collection of books

Star Wars Virtual Dictionary delighting my boys

homemade chicken fajitas for Sunday lunch

finding that my kids actually like cooked macaroni with melted cheddar cheese as much or more than traditional from scratch mac and cheese... it takes much less time not to mention easier

looking forward to looking back and revisiting some old lessons while finding what new "stuff" God has for me

pizza for dinner... somehow, we've forgotten about that menu item for over a month???

using the crockpot to make tomato sauce

plays created and acted by munchkins

challenge learning activities

reading Kisses from Katie

books, books and more books

celebrating a 17th birthday together, just us at the house with poutine and cheesecake... yummmmmmy!

knowing there won't be any more kitties

quickly figuring out part of the problem was malaria

quite, mostly at home and weekend allowing teenage bodies to rest and heal and recover