Blog Article Tags
We love building relationships. Subscribe to our blog to receive weekly encouragement in your email inbox.
Search Blog Posts
- Details
Written by Deanna Brooks, volunteer with Iron Rose Sister Ministries in Arkansas
Samaria: the region between Judea in the south and Galilee in the north of the Promised Land. It was the area given to Ephraim and Manasseh, sons of Joseph, when Israel entered the land. Second Kings 17:24-33 gives us background about the Samaritans. After the Assyrians conquered the Northern Kingdom and took most of the Israelite people into captivity, they resettled that land with foreigners. Those people intermarried with the Israelites who were left in the region, creating a mixed race that became known as Samaritans. They were hated by the Jews because even though they worshipped the Lord, pagan gods had been brought in, and they also worshipped those foreign gods. The Samaritans only accepted the first five books of the Old Testament. They chose to worship on Mt Gerizim rather than in Jerusalem. In AD 6, Samaritans desecrated the Jewish temple by putting human bones in the temple porches and sanctuary during Passover.
Despite the hostility Jews felt towards Samaritans, Jesus chose to walk through their land in a time when “Righteous Jews” traveling between Galilee and Judea would avoid going through Samaria by crossing to the eastern side of the Jordan River, adding about three days to the journey.
John 4:4-6 tells us Jesus had to go through Samaria. He stopped in the town of Sychar (Old Testament Shecham) to rest at Jacob’s well. It was about noon, and He was weary. Jesus made at least seven round trips between Jerusalem and Galilee during His ministry, and this is the only time we are told the route He took. Focus on the word “had” in verse 4. The literal Greek translation is “it was necessary.”
Why did Jesus “have to” go through Samaria when other Jews either chose not to go through there at all, or to pass through as quickly as possible? I believe Jesus went because He intended to meet the woman at the well. He knew she would be coming for water. She, however, had no idea what that daily trip to the well would bring.
Throughout the Scriptures, we see how God has pursued mankind. Even though she was not looking for Jesus, He was looking for her. Jesus stopped at the well to rest and His disciples went into town to buy food. While they were gone, the woman came to the well to draw water where she met Jesus. When the disciples returned, they marveled that He was talking to a woman… a Samaritan woman at that, but surprisingly, none of them asked why. Perhaps it was because it was early in Jesus’ ministry, and they were already learning that their Teacher did the unexpected.
In John 4:26 Jesus reveals to the woman that He is the Messiah she is expecting. In verse 28 she leaves her water jug and rushes back into town to share the news that she has found the Messiah, and the whole village comes out to hear Him. As the village people talk to Jesus, they ask Him to stay, and He spends two days with them (verses 40-43).
We learn: Even though we may not be looking for God, He is looking for us.
The time would come when Jesus would tell His disciples to “make disciples of all nations” (Matt. 28:19). His last words before ascending back to the Father were, “You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:8). Jesus was preparing them to hear those words by setting an example. He “had to” go through Samaria because He wanted to reach this one woman, and through her, He would reach her whole village… Samaritans… the people who were half Jew and half Gentile… hated and despised.
From this encounter we learn that cultural or racial prejudices must not affect our decision to teach others, and this command often leads down a path we did not plan.
Today, we have our own “Samaritans,” those who, for any number of reasons, are outside our circle of friends or our comfort zone. Are we pursuing them to share the story of Jesus as intently as God has pursued us?
- Details
Written by Johanna Zabala, volunteer with Iron Rose Sister Ministries in Ecuador 
Based on my life experience, I often think about the fact that each child is a product of the relationships, education, and environment that were influenced by the adults with whom they grew up.
Beloved sisters, each of us has gone through the childhood phase when we were able to grow and move forward. I consider those first years of life to be of great importance in developing the various interpersonal relationships we find and develop later in each subsequent cycle of life. These relationships become the foundation for the young person or adult that we are today.
When I look back on the age of childhood, many memories come to mind. However, there are other events that I cannot remember, likely because those moments were not significant in my early life. No doubt, my learning process as a child was different from yours; but for each of us, learning will continue as we acquire additional information and attitudes that we can put into practice as time goes by.
I learned everything from my environment: walking, talking, and responding to my surroundings, fundamentally influenced by my maternal grandmother who demonstrated a wide variety of teaching patterns.
As a result of growing up in a dysfunctional family, I experienced significant consequences for not knowing how to control my natural fears. Fear was one of the first emotions that caused me a lot of insecurity, emotional blockage, and mistrust in communications within my environment. This is what I continue to struggle with: letting the Holy Spirit heal my fears so they don't become obstacles to doing what I need to do or passing them on to the ones I love.
But despite my challenging childhood, the negative impact of absentee parents, an inflexible upbringing, and a lack of attention to my need for communication, I grew up. Today, through understanding, forgiving, and breaking away from past situations of great uncertainty which have threatened to wreak havoc on my present relationship with Christ, I can strengthen my conviction, having been rescued from the destructive influence of my earthly parents. This aligns with what I have read and reflected on in 1 Peter 1:18. To become a person approved by the Heavenly Father, I have decided to live my new life in Christ, as described in 2 Corinthians 5:17 (NIV), “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!”
Every day, comforted by the quotation above and in my relationship with the Lord Jesus, I feel the need to continue to learn to be free from what damages the soul, mind, heart, and faith in God. We must not forget that we are free and that there will always be freedom in Jesus Christ, as stated in the letter to the Galatians, chapter 5 verse 1, which reminds us again that "It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.”
When we are aware that in the old life before knowing Christ, there were moments of destruction of what was good and pure, which came from God, we can strengthen ourselves and experience the freedom to be and act according to God's heart, which is a great blessing.
To be free is to not repeat the sin that separates us from the presence of God. It is knowing how to choose between good and evil and being called to freedom to serve one another out of love. Being free, we are separated from evil, not allowing the slavery of sin or guilt to lead us to do the opposite of the will of our sovereign God.
To be free is to be filled with the Holy Spirit, whom we receive in our new birth in the waters of baptism (Acts 2:38). He frees us from fear and assures us that God is with us until the end of the world and that He redeems us for eternal salvation.
There are many blessings from God's freedom in the Christian life; it is a privilege of the immense love of our Creator, who knows us and always covers us with eternal love (see Jeremiah 31:3).
To conclude, I encourage you to remember what was admirable from your childhood and to always cultivate innocence, humility, forgiveness, and a smile, so you can become like children in order to enter the kingdom of heaven, fulfilling what is mentioned in Matthew 19:14.