Open Your Eyes

IIT UBF - University Bible Fellowship at IIT

Open Your Eyes

Date: Jan. 14, 2024

Passage

John 4:31-42 (ESV)

31 Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, saying, “Rabbi, eat.” 32 But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.” 33 So the disciples said to one another, “Has anyone brought him something to eat?” 34 Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work. 35 Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, then comes the harvest’? Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see that the fields are white for harvest. 36 Already the one who reaps is receiving wages and gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. 37 For here the saying holds true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’ 38 I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor.”

39 Many Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me all that I ever did.” 40 So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them, and he stayed there two days. 41 And many more believed because of his word. 42 They said to the woman, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is indeed the Savior of the world.”

The Holy Bible, English Standard Version (ESV) is adapted from the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A. All rights reserved.

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Daily Bread

Key Verse: 4: 4

And he had to pass through Samaria.

The disciples urged Jesus to eat, but Jesus declined. He was full of joy and revealed that his food was to do the will God and to finish his work. What gives you joy? We can be filled with joy when we live for our heavenly Father and seek to do his will. What is the will of God? Jesus turned his disciples from physical needs to the world around them. He told them to open their eyes to see that the fields were ripe for the harvest. Like the lonely, thirsty woman, many people around us are in need of the Messiah. Several laborers have gone before us to plant the seed of faith, and now we are sent to reap their labor. We can be co-laborers with Christ to bring the lost back home.

The Samaritan woman went from being needy and thirsty to a bold witness of the Messiah. Through her testimony, many came to believe in Jesus. One changed life can lead many to Christ. Let us not grow weary in sharing the gospel but continue to go into the fields to bring lost souls back to Jesus. May we sincerely pray to reap the harvest and see many souls come to faith in Jesus this new year.

Prayer: Prayer: Lord Jesus, may you open our eyes to see that the fields are ripe for the harvest. Send us out to do the will of our Father.

One Word: One Word: Open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest.

Countless Saved from God’s Wrath by the Blood of the Lamb

Revelation 7:1-17

Key Verse: 7:9-10

A Great Multitude from Every Nation

After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”

Today's Question

Are all sins equally evil?

See answer and references