[This reflection by Dennis Ginter was published in the weekly news bulletin of Horley Baptist Church, 01/Mar/2026]
It’s amazing how often when reading Scripture we come across things we’ve never seen before – even if we’ve read a passage many times. Just the other day, the Holy Spirit took me to John’s gospel, chapter 4.
After Jesus ‘reads the woman’s mail’, they begin taking about worshipping God. Both Jesus and the woman are very much aware of the cultural differences between Jews, like Jesus, and Samaritans, like the woman he’s talking to.
The phrase that struck me is in verse 23. Jesus says that “the time is coming AND IS ALREADY HERE when true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth”.
Over and over scripture challenges us with the concept of ‘now and not yet’. To me, it seems that Jesus is saying to the woman something like “I’ve just told you who I am. I’m the one who turns upside down so many things you Samaritans and we Jews have always believed. I’m introducing a whole new understanding of worship! It’s not about who’s doing it right – it’s about being prompted by the Spirit to worship the Father from the heart – any time and and anywhere!!”
To me, that’s very liberating! He looks into my heart, longing to find worshippers like that!! How about you?
Resources:
[1]
Bible quotations: Unless otherwise specified, quotations are taken from the resources of Bible Gateway or Bible Hub, in accordance with the licencing conditions outlined on our Site Policies page.
Bible dates:
Where appropriate, the dates given for Biblical events are based on the Bible Timeline resource
and are subject to the constraints defined on the corresponding webpage.
Horley Baptist Church onlineHBC main site
Confidential prayer link
Link to Recent Reflections
.
Link to Index of Bible Passages
Last Sunday’s reflection: Beacons of Faith by Dazz Jones
Contributed by Dennis Ginter; © Dennis Ginter