It is a great Friday morning here in Minnesota.  A cool breeze causes the bright lily flowers in my garden to sway gently.  Bright red tomatoes are ripening in my neighbor's garden.  Through the window I can hear the sweet song of a house finch announcing to the world that all is well, at least as far as he is concerned.  This is one of those mornings that you just wish you could make several copies of...you know, to have to replace one of those cold wintry mornings that are on the horizon.  As I sit and write, the senses proclaim that God has created a wonderful world for us to enjoy.  Can we ever begin to comprehend what the new heavens and earth will be like?  Wow!

I will fore-go any long statement about what is happening in the world.  Suffice it to say, not much has changed in the past seven days.  A Presidential showdown with Congress over the war in Iraq is imminent.  I am in the process of reading a book written by Mike Evans titled, "The Final Showdown: Beyond Iraq," and it is frightening the scenario he depicts should we abandon Iraq.  I would recommend it to you.  Keep watching and praying.  That is what the Scriptures admonish us to do.

I have pondered where to begin with another Bible book study for my Musings class...and yes, I do consider you my students.  You have a passion for the Word of God and to know truth.  And I feel privileged to be able to lead you into the deeper things of the Word of God.  I looked back through my past Musings...now nearly ten years worth...and discovered that I had never taken the opportunity to work through the life of Jesus Christ.  So, let's begin with the Gospel of John.  It is my favorite of the gospels.  I had the privilege of taking two years and preaching through this wonderful Gospel.  I count over 100 sermons from these 21 choice chapters.  Now, I am not going to share 100 sermons with you.  But I do want to share some exciting truths couched in each of the 21 chapters. 

But first, we need to have an understanding of who the author is.  The Gospel is attributed to the Apostle John, although there is no signature bearing his name within the Book.  But, then again, there are no signatures from Matthew, Mark, or Luke either.  However, John does use a rather unique nomenclature when describing himself - "the one whom Jesus loved."  Now, I don't think this was a term of pride, but probably one of humility.  As the Apostle looked at himself, he marveled that Jesus could love someone such as him.  In that sense, friends, should we not all marvel that God has chosen to love us?  What a miracle of God's amazing grace!  But I think that phrase - "the one whom Jesus loved" - also denotes an intimacy of relationship between John and Jesus, a relationship that we should seek to have in our lives as well.  John was saying that he wanted to be close to Jesus.  He did not want to know Jesus from afar.  He wanted to experience all there was to experience of Jesus.  It is interesting to note that, in the light of that desire, the Apostle John is the only one of the disciples who stood with Jesus all the way through His death on the cross.  And, it also appears that John was the first to really figure out the significance of the empty tomb.  So, my friends, I believe that phrase John uses to describe himself to his readers - "the one whom Jesus loved" - is a very significant one for us.  It really describes for us the very heart of the Apostle.

We also know that John and his brother James were fishermen, the sons of Zebedee and Salome.  Some traditions state that Salome could possibly have been either a sister or a cousin to Mary, the mother of Jesus.  If that is true, and again it is only tradition, that would make John a cousin to Jesus.  We also know that John, or at least the family of Zebedee, was well-known to the high priestly family living in Jerusalem, for, on the night of Jesus' arrest, the Bible tells us that John was granted access into the house of Caiaphas.  That could only have happened with a recognition by someone within Caiaphas' household.  Just what that connection was, we are not told.  But, John did not want to be far from Jesus. 

The Gospel of John is entirely different from the other gospels.  It is the only gospel that contains no parables.  It contains the fewest number of miracles - eight in number - and the significance of each miracle is important to John's stated purpose which we shall look at in just a moment.  (In our studies we shall spend some quality time examining each of these miracles).  Another important feature of this Gospel is the record of the conversations that Jesus had with people.  Some 27 different interviews and conversations are recorded for us.  And, finally, the Gospel of John is best known for the seven "I AM" statements of Jesus.  (Again, we shall look at these in detail during our study). 

I close with just a few thoughts on why John wrote this gospel.  He gives us his stated purpose in John 20:31 - 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.  The focus of John is upon establishing the fact that Jesus Christ was God.  The book opens with that thought, as we shall see in our next study, and it closes with that thought. And every single piece of storyline John includes, fortifies that purpose. 

Friends, I am looking forward to the next weeks together as we share in this wonderful Gospel.  It is not intended to be a verse-by-verse discussion (probably would not get it finished before the Lord returned), but we shall examine many of the key passages.  Your homework assignment before our next study is to read John 1:1-14, quite possibly the most important passage recorded anywhere in the Bible.  Begin to ponder the significance and depths of what John writes there. 

THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK: The real problem is not why some pious, humble, believing people suffer, but why some do not.  (C. S. Lewis)