Will Vaus

My father died in 1997 after years of battling with various physical diseases. Shortly after his death I went through a time of wrestling with God. I was not asking God, “Why did my father have to die?”  My questions to God at that time were more along the lines of: “Why did my father have to suffer for so long?” God never gave me "the" answer at that time. He may give me an answer when I get to heaven or he may not. I imagine by that time my focus will be on other things. But what God did give me way back in 1997 and 1998 was some truth and wisdom and his love to see me through my time of wrestling. And I think that the Scripture that the Lord used most to speak to me during that time of wrestling was this passage, John 11:1-44, about the death and resurrection of Lazarus, about the power of Jesus to set us free. What I would like to do with you today is to open the Scriptures together and as we read, allow me to share with you my questions, and some answers tha...

The story is told of a captain of old coming to the slaves in the galley of his ship one morning. The captain asked his men to put down their oars and then he said, “Men, I have some good news and some bad news.” The men said, “Give us the good news first.” So, the captain proceeded, “The good news is that tomorrow we are going to dock at Caesarea, and you will be getting shore leave. There will be plenty of parties, and you can do anything you want.” The men cheered, but some of them asked, “So what’s the bad news?” “The bad news is that today the admiral of our fleet wants us to take him water skiing.” There are many parts of the Gospel of John that are like a good news/bad news story. That is true of John 9. Listen for God’s word to you… As he [Jesus] walked along, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned; he was born...

Our Gospel reading for today is from John 4:5-42. Listen for God’s word to you… Now when Jesus   learned that the Pharisees had heard, “Jesus is making and baptizing more disciples than John”   —although it was not Jesus himself but his disciples who baptized— he left Judea and started back to Galilee.  But he had to go through Samaria.  So he came to a Samaritan city called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob had given to his son Joseph.   Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired out by his journey, was sitting by the well. It was about noon. A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.”   (His disciples had gone to the city to buy food.)   The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?” (Jews do not share things in common with Samaritans.)   Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drin...

I do not remember exactly how old I was, but it was when I was seven years old or younger. I can remember my mother sitting next to me on the couch in our home in Tarrytown, New York, helping me to memorize the words of Jesus in John 3:16. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Those words have shaped my whole idea of God. Those words have shaped and changed my life. I do not know what my life would have been like if I never heard those words and took them to heart. I don’t know what my life would be like if I never heard of Jesus. John 3:16 contains 25 words (in the original Greek and in the King James Version) that have not only changed my world, they have changed the world. I would like to take a few moments with you this morning to meditate on some of the key words in this marvelous verse. I begin with God . What is your concept of God? When I was a teenager, my mother gave ...