Sarah Nyhan

Be quiet and be with people. I can’t change them. I don’t have to “fix” them. I can just give the gift of presence to people.

It hurts right now, but I am going to be ok.

We are in the apocalypse now – the unveiling of God.

I don’t understand how it is said the world didn’t receive Him, but then it also says that some did receive Him? The definition for the Greek word “paralambano” is “to take by showing strong personal initiative”.

Who and what is a child of God?

How is believing and receiving not the will of the flesh? What is the difference between the will of the flesh and the will of man?

Were we born the first time in Adam and then born again through Christ’s birth/incarnation?

It must have sounded weird to people for John to say that Jesus came first.

Jesus wasn’t what they wanted.

Are we born again when we receive/believe? Or were we born again when Jesus died/resurrected?

See God through Jesus.

Be quiet.

The guests did not work in order to be invited to the wedding feast. The choice before us is to accept God’s grace or live by works. Why was the wedding guest without the right clothes kicked out?

How can I trust my heart? I cannot. It’s not trusting my heart. Or my mind. It is trusting God. Like looking at the snake on the pole?

Is it ok to say I believe primarily because of how I’ve experienced Him? Experienced You, Father? Here I go trying to figure everything out again. While I am being led to encounter God, not necessarily understand God. Which is scary for me. I find more comfort in my understanding than in relationship with Him and His character.

I switched from an excavator to a photographer this week. I just couldn’t think about all of this anymore. I’ve been trying to reconcile this new-to-me stuff with my old stuff and I can’t. This new stuff is too big to stuff into the old way. I understand now what it means that we can’t put new wine in old wine skins. I feel like everything I knew blew up. I lost my former church family and I feel marooned on a beautiful island. I want everyone I know to come join me and see how beautiful this is but no one from my old group is interested. The more I go in this new direction, the weirder the old way seems to me. For a few months I’ve been trying to live in both groups at the same time and it’s impossible.

I feel like I’m treading water in a big ocean of questions right now and I don’t know what to do or how to think. It’s like even though the old way was painful, I felt more control. This new way for me feels like flying but then I panic and wonder if I’m just falling.

I feel like before I lived this Christian experience in my mind. And like Aiden says, now I’m being led to encounter God personally. From the heart. And just live. Not try to understand or explain. For now. I feel like before I had more of a relationship with my Bible, the church, and worship than with God Himself. This is a whole different thing. I’m scared because parts of me are still stuck in the old way.

I know nothing anymore except God keeps telling me He sees me, He’s bigger than I know, and He loves me. That’s all I know right now. It’s so difficult for me to let go completely. Can I really trust that He’s this good?

Ask what He would reveal to me.

The assumption of separation is the great darkness. Read Colossians in the Mirror Bible. Faith of Christ in me. Revelation of righteousness. It’s about what God did right, not what Adam did wrong. Romans 8 – we are not separated.

Christ is not hiding in Scripture, only mirrored there.

Heart knowledge is different than head knowledge. Just live our lives according to His truth. We become the god we worship. Live and love!

John 1:35-36. I’m not going to answer all your questions. I’m just going to tell you what I know and lead you to Jesus. That seems to be the whole theme. The whole example is not for us to be Jesus to people but rather lead them to have their own personal encounter with Jesus. Relief! I don’t have pressure; I can just share my experiences.

Watch and see whether people are trying to get you to follow them or if they are just excited to introduce you to Jesus. I heard a preacher say he wanted the people in his church to represent him. I thought that didn’t sound right. I don’t want anyone to be like me.

I don’t care about getting a bunch of people in my study group. My passion is to share my experiences and learn from others sharing. So that we have a deeper friendship with the real Jesus. And then we go out and do the same with others in our lives.

John 1:38. What are you looking for from Jesus? These guys were disciples of John so it is kinda assumed that it would be obvious they were looking for The Messiah, the Lamb of God. So why the question? It’s kind of an interesting continuation from the previous verses. John starts out by saying how Jesus was in the world and the world basically didn’t understand who and where He was. It’s emphasized that they call him teacher versus Messiah.

And then they ask him where he is abiding. That is so perfect in that it’s the first words we hear in this book and then also some of the last words before His death. Where He prays to the Father that we will know that He is in us. And He abides in the Father. And the Father in Him.

The focus is always on Jesus more than us.

It’s kind of like the disciples are saying, “Ok, Jesus, John said we don’t get it. Can you teach us?” And instead of answering them directly, Jesus basically says, “Come and see for yourself. Come and see IN yourself.”

Jesus is more interested in relationship. In us being with Him for real than having all the right answers.

A preacher said, “I don’t do one-on-one discipleship; who has time for that?” Basically, “I have time to give people knowledge, but not relationship.” Thank God, Jesus isn’t like that! God has all the time for us. 

“All the knowledge in the world but have not love…”

Our questions lead to Jesus revealing Himself to us, in relationship.

I find it interesting that Jesus found Philip. But then Philip said, “We’ve found messiah.” Obviously, Jesus found them first. Maybe John is telling us that Jesus found us from the beginning of all time, but we still revert back to thinking we found Him instead. He saved us, we didn’t save ourselves.

We don’t have to know all the answers. People need their own personal experience with Jesus.

We come to Jesus thinking we are doing something first. But Jesus said to Nathaniel and us, “I am in the beginning. I found you, I saw you. Before your friends led you to me, I already loved you.”

It’s in Nathaniel’s questions that Jesus reveals himself to him. Nathaniel gets it. He basically says, “Whoa – You taught me Yourself that You are the Messiah. I didn’t figure it out. You showed me.”

I used to see the next verses as a rebuke. But now I see them as Jesus and John setting up not only the next scene (you aint’ seen nothing yet), but the rest of John’s story. In the sense of this is just the beginning of us knowing God. It’s like John 1 is the trailer and thesis statement for the rest of the book.

Jesus knows how to reveal himself to people.

Psalm 32:2